This paper describes the Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation (DARTS) real-time hardware-in-the-loop dynamics simulator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cassini spacecraft. The spacecraft model consists of a central flexible body with a number of articulated rigid-body appendages. The demanding performance requirements from the spacecraft control system require the use of a high fidelity simulator for control system design and testing. The DARTS algorithm provides a new algorithmic and hardware approach to the solution of this hardware-in-the-loop simulation problem. It is based upon the efficient spatial algebra dynamics for flexible multibody systems. A parallel and vectorized version of this algorithm is implemented on a low-cost, multiprocessor computer to meet the simulation timing requirements.
Real-time dynamics simulation of the Cassini spacecraft using DARTS. Part 1: Functional capabilities and the spatial algebra algorithm
1993-02-15
Conference paper
No indication
English
Darts Lab spacecraft modeling and simulation
NTRS | 2001
|'CASSINI SPACECRAFT' COMPETITION
Online Contents | 1995
NTRS | 1996
|SPIE | 1996
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