Instead, thrust comes from an internal fan and steering is through three reaction wheels the latter classic satellite technology. <\/p>\n
Inside is one of two exquisitely-engineered (see this and this video) self-contained 3d inertial orientation control modules both aimed at general-purpose use in space-craft, drones and even as self-propelled rolling cube ground robots. <\/p>\n
The 100mm cube weighs 1.34 kg including a wireless communicator and a battery and includes six MEMS inertial sensors and three brushless DC motors driving three orthogonal rotating wheels as reaction masses (see image). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The sensors are mounted on the modules vertexes to improve attitude estimation accuracy, Hall sensors in the motors also feed-back rotational speed and each wheel has an electromagnetic brake. The brakes can generate 2.1Nm of torque, reducing wheel speed from 6000rpm to zero within 100ms, including demagnetization time. <\/p>\n
Also in the module is a wireless tranceiver for telemetry and commands, and the lithium polymer battery. <\/p>\n
A smaller inertial unit has 31mm reaction wheels and squeezes these, a guidance control computer and 6-axes of inertial sensing inside a 50g mass budget. Exploration of microgravity asteroids is a potential use for this one, said JAXA. <\/p>\n
A video describing both of the inertial steering modules can be viewed here <\/p>\n
Int-Ball, short for JEM Internal Ball Camera, was delivered to the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module by a Dragon spacecraft in early June. <\/p>\n
Many of its parts were 3d-printed. <\/p>\n
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See the article here: <\/p>\n
Inertia steers Int-Ball drone through International Space Station - Electronics Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instead, thrust comes from an internal fan and steering is through three reaction wheels the latter classic satellite technology. Inside is one of two exquisitely-engineered (see this and this video) self-contained 3d inertial orientation control modules both aimed at general-purpose use in space-craft, drones and even as self-propelled rolling cube ground robots. The 100mm cube weighs 1.34 kg including a wireless communicator and a battery and includes six MEMS inertial sensors and three brushless DC motors driving three orthogonal rotating wheels as reaction masses (see image). Continue reading