CubeSat Toolbox Getting Started

Modified on Mon, 2 Oct, 2023 at 2:12 PM

The CubeSat toolbox is a set of MATLAB functions, including a subset of the Spacecraft Control Toolbox, designed to facilitate CubeSat design. The best place to start is to run the example scripts in CubeSat/Demos. When you type help CubeSat at the command line, you will get a list of folders included in your version:

>> help CubeSat

PSS Toolbox Folder CubeSat

Version 2023.1 21-Jul-2023

Directories:

Actuators

AttitudeControl

Communications

Data

Demos

Demos/AttitudeControl

Demos/Design

Demos/MissionPlanning

Demos/Power

Demos/RelativeOrbit

Demos/Simulation

Demos/Thermal

MissionPlanning

Modeling

Power

RelativeOrbit

Simulation

Thermal

Utilities

Visualization

The CubeSat toolbox includes mission planning; attitude and orbit dynamics, including the space environment and disturbances calculation on a simplified spacecraft model; actuation including magnetic dampers, magnetic torquers, and reaction wheels; a power system model, an isothermal model and a network thermal model. For full details, see the online API.

Here are some demos to try:

Script	Folder in CubeSat	Description
DisturbancesDemo	AttitudeControl	Show the use of CubeSatDisturbanceAnalysis over an orbit
MagneticControlDemo	AttitudeControl	Torquer demand analysis using MagneticControl
AttitudeProfileDemo	MissionPlanning	Demonstrate the AttitudeProfile function.
NanoSatNearISS	MissionPlanning	Show ISS and NanoSat models with AnimateSpacecraft
SunSynchPowerDemo	Power	Power generated from the solar panels in a sun synchronous orbit with CubeSatPowerAnalysis
CubeSatRWASimulation	Simulation	Demonstrate CubeSat attitude and power dynamics with reaction wheels using PID3Axis and RHSCubeSat
MomentumManagement	Simulation	Demonstrate simple dipole based momentum management with MomentumUnloading
IsothermalCubeSatDemo	Thermal	Simulate the CubeSat as a mass at a single temperature using RHSIsothermalCubeSat
CubeSatFaceTemperaturesDemo	Thermal	Demonstrate temperatures of faces of a CubeSat using AddThermalConductivity

Installation

You should have received or downloaded an archive containing the toolbox. Put the folder extracted from the archive anywhere on your computer. There is no “installer” application to do the copying for you. All you need to do now is to set the MATLAB path to include the folders in CubeSatToolbox. You can execute the included PSSSetPaths utility or use MATLAB's path-setting tools from within the command window.

What's Included

The CubeSat toolbox consists of the CubeSat module and subsets of other modules from the full Spacecraft Control Toolbox as needed to run all the CubeSat demos. The CubeSat module has a Demos folder with a function DemoPSS.m inside. Never move or remove this function! DemoPSS provides a GUI interface to browse and run the included demos.

The CubeSat demos are visible in the hierarchical menu to the left. The highest level of this menu shows the folders within the toolbox. If you add your own demo scripts to the demo folders they will also appear in the display.

The FileHelp function provides a graphical interface to the MATLAB function headers. You can browse the functions by folder to get a quick sense of the capabilities of this toolbox, or search the function names and headers for keywords to find functions for a particular task. Together, FileHelp and DemoPSS provide the best way to get an overview of a PSS Toolbox.

Visualization

The CubeSat Toolbox provides some useful tools to visualize orbits, field of view, lines of sight, and spacecraft orientations. Run the OrbitAndSensorConeAnimation.m demo to see how to generate simulated orbits, compute sensor cone geometry, and package the data for playback. The script loads two orbits into the AnimationGUI, which provides VCR like controls for playing the simulation forward and backward at different speeds. Set the background color to black and point the camera at a spacecraft, then use the camera controls to move in/out, zoom in/out, and rotate the camera around the spacecraft within a local coordinate frame. The screenshot below shows the 3D animation window, the AnimationGUI playback controls, and the camera controls. Press the Record button (with the red circle) to save the frames to the workspace so that they may be exported to an AVI movie.

The CAD model of the spacecraft may also be viewed in its orbit, along with a sensor cone and lines of sight to all of the visible GPS satellites. Use DrawSpacecraftInOrbit.m to generate this view. An example is shown below. The first image below shows the spacecraft orbit, its sensor cone projected on the Earth, the surrounding GPS satellites, and lines of sight to the visible GPS satellites. The second image is a zoomed-in view, where the spacecraft CAD model may be clearly seen.

Product: CubeSat Toolbox