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Abstract:
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CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are increasingly employed in scientific, educational, and commercial missions, creating a demand for reliable Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADCS). The design and verification of these systems rely on simulation tools capable of accurately representing orbital and attitude dynamics, environmental disturbances, and sensor and actuator behavior. In Brazil, there is a growing need for ADCS simulation environments tailored to the national academic and technological context, in order to strengthen local expertise and support the development of the aerospace sector. In this context, a modular ADCS simulation framework for CubeSats is being developed by a research group at the University of São Paulo (USP), integrating high-fidelity models with an intuitive user interface. This work aims to develop graphical user interface (GUI) modules for such a simulator, with emphasis on improving spacecraft configurability, geometric interpretation, and visualization during the early phases of mission design and analysis. The objective is to strengthen the connection between mathematical models and the physical and geometric characteristics of the spacecraft, while preserving modularity and compatibility with high-fidelity orbital and attitude dynamics models implemented in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. Interactive GUI modules were developed to support CubeSat configuration, spacecraft structural definition, sensor and actuator representation, and geometric transformation of component position and orientation. These modules enable direct manipulation and inspection of spacecraft subsystems through the interface, facilitating reasoning about coordinate frames, sensor and actuator alignment, and spacecraft geometry. A three-dimensional visualization module, based on the MATLAB satellite scenario environment, was integrated to allow the combined inspection of orbital motion, spacecraft attitude, and sensor and actuator orientation within a realistic mission context. In this framework, the orbital state, including spacecraft position and velocity, is propagated by the ADCS dynamic simulator and consistently rendered in the visualization environment. The applicability of the proposed approach is illustrated using a mission scenario consistent with the PicSat CubeSat profile, within the context of a long-term academic collaboration between the Laboratório de Automação e Controle (LAC) at the University of São Paulo and the Paris Observatory. The results indicate that the GUI architecture enables visualization to function as an integrated engineering support tool within the ADCS simulation workflow. The proposed modules improve simulator usability and configurability by supporting structured mission definition, geometric interpretation, and subsystem alignment inspection during early design stages. By enabling consistent interaction with spacecraft geometry, sensors, actuators, and orbital motion, the framework supports student training, academic research activities, and structured mission analysis. The developed approach therefore provides a modular and academically oriented ADCS simulation environment suitable for long-term use and collaborative development within the Brazilian aerospace research context. |
