Electronics and Control System Design and Development Seth Bourn with Ted Hench, Kevin McIntire, & Sonya Pursehouse

Long Term Objective Provide GPS Payload Tracking Stabilize Payload After Separation and During Turbulence Direct Payload to Pre-Determined Coordinate Maintain Sensor Operation and Scientific Data Handling

Current Status Provide GPS Payload Tracking Maintain Sensor Operation and Scientific Data Handling Stabilize Payload After Separation and During Turbulence

Control System Overview Option 1: Accelerometer –Use Accelerometer to measure the acceleration of gravity –Accelerometer is mounted parallel to the surface of the earth –As angle of payload changes, accelerometer reading will equal: A(t) = g sin(θ(t))

Accelerometer Issue The accelerometer works perfectly in the static case Due to how the sensor must be mounted, it can give a false positive Forward acceleration will read as a “nose up” pitch Since forward velocity and pitch are coupled, these readings can skewed results

Control System Overview Option 2: Gyroscope –Gyroscope measures the Rate of Rotation experienced by the payload –Reading is not biased by inertial translation –Challenges lie in programming and computational overhead

Recent Issues Ongoing problem of sensor accuracy Signal Noise Microcontroller latency during servo actuation

Solutions Zeroed Analog to Digital Converter –By providing a reference voltage, errors were reduced from 10% to 0.1% Research into Secondary Controller for Servo Actuation –Possibility of using a 4017 Decade Counter to handle pulsing output for Servos.

On the Horizon Development of AVR Microcontroller to replace current BASIC Stamp Addition of second BASIC Stamp to alleviate processing load and increase speed.

Thank You Questions?