Development of a hardware emulator of a nanosatellite gyroscope

Abstract

The gyroscope sensor has multiple applications in consumer electronics, aircraft navigation, and control systems. Significant errors that match the corresponding data are a typical disadvantage of this sensor. This needs to be done by making error models that can be used to get the right level of measurement accuracy. For high-precision space applications, the navigation design system should take into account the angle random walk (N), bias instability error (B), and rate random walk (K) of the BMG160 gyroscope. For this reason, this paper shows how to use Allan Variance (AVAR) and Power Spectral Density (PSD) for the experimental identification and modeling of the stochastic parameters of the Bosch BMG160 gyroscope embedded in a nanosatellite in order to get an accurate gyroscope model. This work also demonstrates the principle of operation of the equivalent electronic model intended to carry out advanced simulations without recourse to the real material in order to avoid the problem of bad manipulation and availability of the material in order to reduce the time and cost of development. The interpretation of the Allan curves and the PSD obtained from the measurements collected over a long period is presented, as well as a comparison between the real raw data of the BMG160 gyroscope and the designed hardware emulator in both the time and frequency domains. This is done to evaluate the accuracy of the gyroscope model emulating the real sensor in laboratory simulations. The experimental results show that the signals from the emulator and the BMG160 gyroscope are quite close. Therefore, the proposed prototype could be an optimal solution for laboratory calculations and simulations