09-20, 14:35–15:15 (Europe/Berlin), Main Hall
KiTorquer is a KiCAD plugin to generate optimized magnetic coil layouts for attitude control of small satellites
The Chair of Space Technology at Technische Universität Berlin has launched 30 small satellites since the early 1990's. One of the current research goals is small nanosatellite formation flight which is carried out in the scope of the NanoFF mission. Here, two 2U CubeSats will demonstrate autonomous approach and formation keeping.
For the attitude control system the twin spacecraft are relying on a combination of reaction wheels and magnetic actuators. The magnetic actuators are electromagnetic coils embedded into the PCBs that make up the outside walls - the so-called sidepanels - of the spacecraft. Due to the high degree of miniaturization and the complexity of the mission the four larger sidepanels have complex shapes. To come up with a coil design that is optimized in terms of magnetic dipole generation and power consumption we have developed KiTorquer - a KiCAD Action Plugin that automatically detects the shape of the PCBs including mounting holes, vias, component footprints, and keep-out areas, calculates an optimal coil design, and layouts the tracks on a multi-layer PCB.
While the plugin is not fully mature yet, it has been used for the spacecraft of the NanoFF mission of TU Berlin and the HYPE PocketQube mission of AGH University of Science and Technology from Krakow, Poland.
