Design of Physical Simulation System for Satellite Flexible Rotating Panels Based on Flotation

The elastic vibration is the main reason that affects the pointing accuracy and control performance of the space vehicle. It is of great interest to verify the ability of the control system to suppress vibration. Because the natural vibration frequency of solar panel is very low and its scale is large, the difficulty and cost to construct a spatial microgravity environment in ground are great. A flexible simulator based on equivalent principal axis inertia and flexible frequency is presented. Based on flotation technique, the physical simulation system of low friction and micro gravity environment is designed, and the dynamic model of the simulator is established, which realizes the effective and high economic test of the control algorithm. The results verify that the vibration characteristics of the simulator is consistent with those of the real solar panel, and its performance meets the test requirements. The simulator can change the parameters smoothly through a simple operation to simulate various flexible satellite rotating panel with different parameter and structure.