The mission of the Guidance, Navigation, and Contro (GNC) Systems Department is to research and develop sensors, actuator, algorithms, simulations, and on-board data processing systems for attitude and orbit control systems (AOCS) and for guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems used in space applications.
FACE – Facility for Attitude Control Experiments
Air bearing table for simulating the positional movement of a satellite in space
Determining and actively controlling the flight state of a spacecraft (position and attitude) is essential for the successful execution and completion of space missions. Navigation and control systems fulfill this task, consisting of sensors to detect the flight state, actuators to influence it, and data processing elements that perform the necessary on-board navigation and control computations.
We are focused on analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, simulating, testing, and verifying AOCS and GNC systems.
This involves a wide range of disciplines, including requirements management, systems engineering, algorithm development, flight software implmentation, systems analysis, simulation, verification, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. Additionally, we conduct research and development of promising and strategic technologies for AOCS and GNC systems.
Closely tied to our projects, we develop and maintain custom tools for the design, development, and simulation of AOCS and GNC systems. We also operate hardware test laboratories, which include dynamics simulators, configerable real-time test benches, and sensor- and actuator-specific facilities.
