Computationally Fast Dynamical Model of a SATCOM Antenna Suitable for Extensive Optimization Tasks

Abstract

Development of new SATCOM (Satellite Communications) antennas and their control systems is a complex problem, in which strict requirements for mechanical design, drives, sensors and the overall speed and accuracy of the control algorithm must be met. Therefore, a simulation model is often used at different stages of development, which greatly accelerates the process of designing and optimizing the whole system. The computationally most demanding part of the simulation is the dynamical model of antenna. This article proposes an alternative approach for dynamical model creation, and the results are compared to a model created by using a universal multibody simulation environment. It is shown that the proposed new approach gives nearly the same-quality results and it is several times computationally faster.

Estimation of Maximum Signal Strength for Satellite Tracking Based on the Extended Kalman Filter

“…For satellite tracking, one of two basic techniques are often used to find the maximum gain of the signal and is briefly described below. They were initially implemented in control experiments, following previous work [6], but their insufficiency led to the development of the new algorithm, presented in this article. One common issue for both these basic techniques is that they are ad-hoc methods incompatible with feedback control.…”