I successfully studied for a PhD from the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey from 2006 to 2010, and finished writing up and had my viva in March 2012. My project title was: "3Dwheel - Attitude Control of Small Satellites Using Magnetically Levitated Momentum Wheels".
The video of the 3Dwheel engineering model is also available for download.
The slides from my viva presentation are available for download here.
My thesis is available for download.
Publications
Jon Seddon, Alexandre Pechev, 3-D Wheel: A Single Actuator Providing Three-Axis Control of Satellites. AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 49(3):553-556, 2012.
Jon Seddon, Alexandre Pechev, A low-noise, high-bandwidth magnetically-levitated momentum-wheel for 3-axis attitude control from a single wheel. In Proceedings of 13th European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium (ESMATS), Vienna, Austria, 23-25 September, 2009.
Jon Seddon, Alexandre Pechev, 3Dwheel: 3-axis low-noise, high-bandwidth attitude actuation from a single momentum wheel using magnetic bearings. In Proceedings of 23rd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Utah, USA, 10-13 August, 2009
I also helped to build an air bearing table that was used as a test bed for the evaluation and design of attitude control loops and estimators. The setup consists of four Control Moment Gyros that can deliver up to 0.72 Nm torque per CMG. The CMGs can also work as momentum wheels. Gimbal motor allows rates to up to 8 rad/s over an envelope of ±360 degrees. The setup contains a temperature compensated 3-axis rate gyro, 2-axis inclinometer and an IMU unit for the design of attitude filters and estimators. A Pentium-class of embedded hardware is installed to run a real-time operating system, perform control and communicate with Matlab/Simulink and XPC Target development environment.
A PDF version of the slides from a presentation about the airbearing test-bed is available here.