Nonredundant Single-Gimbaled Control Moment Gyroscopes

Two objectives dominate consideration of control moment gyroscopes for spacecraft maneuvers: high torque (equivalentlymomentum) and singularity-free operations.This paper adds to the significant bodyof research toward these two goals using a minimal three-control-moment-gyroscope array to provide significant singularity-free momentum performance increase spherically (in all directions) by modification of control-moment-gyroscope skew angles, compared with the ubiquitous pyramid geometry skewed at 54.73 deg. Spherical 1H (one control moment gyroscope’s worth momentum) singularity-free momentum is established with bidirectional 1H and 2H in the third direction in a baseline configuration. Next, momentum space reshaping is shown via mixed skew angles permitting orientation of maximum singularity-free angular momentum into the desired direction of maneuver (yaw in this study). Finally, a decoupled gimbal angle calculation technique is shown to avoid loss of attitude control associated with singularmatrix inversion. This technique permits 3H (maximal) yawmaneuvers without loss of attitude control despite passing through singularity. These claims are demonstrated analytically, then heuristically, and finally validated experimentally.