Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

August 9 - 12, Changchun, China

RESEARCH ON UNBALANCE TORQUE OF THE

THREE AXIS AIR BEARING BAESD PLATFORM
XiangDong and YangQing -Jun
Department ofMechatronics Engineering
Harbin institute oftechnology
Harbin 150080,China
Xiangdong 1981@gmail.com
Abstract - A dynamics model of the three axis air bearing
based platform including the unbalance torque of the gravity and
the other disturbing torque was built up. After the simulation of
the platform motion with some representative moment model, a
method based on the dynamics inversion was proposed to
compute the unbalance torque. With continuous wavelet
transformation (CWT), the disturbing torque could be
decomposed and reconstructed, and then the torque could be
separated according to the different frequency. The result of the
simulation and experiment showed that this method was valid.

the dynamics inversion, and then divided the torque according

to the different frequency with CWT decomposition and
reconstruction.
II. DYNAMICS MODEL
The Three-axis air-bearing based platform could rotate
around CR, so construct the inertial frame at CR and the knotcoordinate frame on the body, and then the Euler Angle speed
formula can be achieved.
The Angular momentum of the platform at the inertial
frame is

Index Terms - Three axis air bearing platform, disturbing

torque, continuous wavelet transformation

"0 =m(rxv)

I. INTRODUCTION

m represents the weight of body (kg), r is the vector

The three-axis air-bearing based platform is the important

equipment for satellite ground full physical
simulation,
which is used to simulate the microgravity of space, damping
dimensional environment, with a air ball bearing supporting
the platform. Unbalance torque is one of the most important
qualification, which could be different for the differences of
the actual loaded testing targets (stars)-diversity of the
running track, star's quality and vehicle control torque.. So the
three-axis air platform balancing technique is one of the most
important elements to affect the capacity of the platform. The
unbalance torque comes from many different aspects,
according to the causes it can be divided into the gravitational
field, electromagnetic field, temperature, airflow, as well as
factors such as the elastic deformation!'! In the present
research, there was only the gravity torque contained in the
dynamics model set up for the platform, while other factors
passed[2][3][4][5]. And the auto-balance system designed for the
platform was used to adjust the distance between the center of
the rotation (CR) and the center of the mass (CM), which
could cause the gravity unbalance torque, while other torque
were usually adjusted with the engineering methods, such as
limitation of the air flowing around the platform and
application of the platform materials with low temperature
drift, diamagnetic and high rigidity. But there was still some
residual torque which could influence the stability of the
platform in experiment, although the engineering methods
were applied. So it is necessary to study the unbalance torque.
This essay constructed the dynamics model of three-axis
air-bearing based platform included the gravity and other
factors, and studies the method how to compute the torque on

978-1-4244-2693-5/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

(1)

2245

from CR to CM (m), v is the moving speed of the centroid

(m/s ). According to the momentum torque principle:

dHo=M
dt

(2)

is the whole outside force torque on the floating part

of the body( N . ill), the reasons for its appearance include the
gravity torque M

g,

outside air-flowing torque M

bearing swirl torque ME and some other elements

If the platform is regarded as the rigid body,

AIR '

ball

Mf

M g can be

decomposed like this:

o
M go =mg cosBcos
-cos Bsin

-cos Bcoscos Bsin

sinB

-sinB

r (3)

If/ is yaw angle ; () is pitching angle.

Although the platform has been made very rigid, CM will

shift when the platform is rotated. The torque due to
anisoelasticity is written as

M g 1 =mgb.r
(4)

where ~r stands for the vector of the CM variation due to

anisoelasticity.
The other torque is difficult to set up a accurate model
which can be noted as

M t (t)

So M o is written as

Ma =Mgo+Mg1 +~(t)

(5)

Then equation 2 can be further written as

co = A(M go + M(t))

(6)

wher e, co is the angular rate of the platform , define

different conditions. The 10Hz noi se torque influ ence s little to

the motion, and the con stant torque only influ ences the tilt
ang le, but not the amplitude of oscillation and periodic time,
while the influence of the attacking-torque is not obvious,
how ever sinusoida l torque influences the motion mor e for the
same frequency of the platform.
10, -- - - - - - , -- - -,-- - - , -- - ---,

M(t) as
M(t)

= M g 1 + M t (t)

The time-varying vector

M(t) stands for the other

unbalance torque except the torque due to the constant vector

form CR to CM, which can be regarded as the disturbingtorque.
Defin e A as

I~~

A= 0

200

600

800

1000

800

1000

Time(s)

Figure 1. a) angle simulation results

0.2

0.1 -

(8)

I""
0

400

1
2
3
4
5

1((

-0.1

Equation 6 describes the mo vement rule of the platfo rm.

-020

III. MOTION SIM ULATION

200

Figure 1. b) angular simulation results

IV. COMPUTATION OF TH E TORQUE

M=200 kg;g=9.8 m 2 /s ;

A. dynamics inversion

Jxx =18 kg -rn";'Y.Y

J =18 kg m 2 '.Jzz =30 kg -rn";,

rx =O'r
=2e-6m'M
= O' M z
' y=O-r
' z
' y

There is some difficulty in solving Equation 6 for that

M(t) includes some factor s not accurate. In fact , periodic

=O,

= 0; lU = 0; lU = 0;
If/o = 0;80= O; 0= O.lrads
yO

time of the motion is usually very long after the manual

balancing, so suppose M(t) as a constant value in

zo

(to ,to

Simulate the following cases:

1. 10Hz noise torqu e in one axis
2. constant torque

+ 2Lt) , integrates Equation 6 in (to ,to + Lt) :

~rotl =(Wt1

M] in one axis

3. attacking-torque M, in one axis

+ M 2 + M 3 in one axis

-1

2 -

0.0002 if 100 <t <110

N m
-0.0002 if 400 < t < 410

M 3 = -5 x10 - 4 sin(2)N m

CIO)

angular .
Integrates Equation 6 in (to

Define the disturbing-torque as

M 1 = -0.0004N m

B)[ M(to) J

(W B) is a matrix of coeffici ent s related to angl e and

4. sinusoidal-torque M 3 in one axis

5. superimpose d torque M ]

600
Time(s)

In order to research the disturbing torque, computer

simulation has been performed, Suppose parameters as

lUx o

400

~rot2=(<I>t2

0 )

( 8)

Then

+Lt,to + 2Lt) :

B)[ M(to)J
r

CII)

M(to) can be eliminated with simultaneous equation

10,11 :

( 9)

~rotO

The plot s in Figure 1 show the platform motion

simulation results. The periodic time of the motion varies in

= <l>tO r

CI2)

Th e vector r can be computed by solving equation 12, and

2246

least-squares procedure can make the value more accurate.

the overlapping frequency. Figure 3 shows the time domain

wave of Morlet.

And then M(to) can be computed from equation 10.

I'

There are some matters need attention in computation:

1. Choosing the right value of 6.t . If !1t is too big, then the

cp(t) = e

integral's error will be large, while if !1t is too small,

then the measuring system' error will be magnified.
<.l

2. Choosing the right value of to ' At some time, the

"0

.~

0.

computation error will be magnified, for example that the

platform locates at horizontal position.
Compute the disturbing torque with the fifth simulation data
in figure 1, the result of r becomes

a
<

xcos6t

(13 )

0.5
Ot--- ----./

-0.5
500

rx
=-3 l e-Zm.z
=-2
, y =-8 . l e-Sm.z
, z
Oe-om:,
Figure 2 shows the result of M(t) .
X

1000

Timc(s)
Figure 3 Morlet wavelet

According to Mallat theory, when a and b shift, the

10.4

frequency of If/a,b (t) will be close to the harmonics signal

0
'::'

'-"

........ -5

II

..".

-10
0

and ~WI (a, b) will become large, and vice versa. So the

200

400

600
Tirne(s)

800

wavelet transform coefficient will vary significantly with

different scales. Figure 4 shows the result of CWT to the result
shown in figure 2. There are one obvious signal component at
scale 248 of which the periodic time is 350s, some high
frequency signal component at scale 15 and two sudden
change at scale 100 and 400, which conforms the fact.

1000

400

Figure 2. M(t) computing result with simulation data

300

Wavelet transformation
Wavelet transformation is a famous time frequency
analysis technique since 1980s, which can work in variable
resolutions and can represent the local signal in both time
domain and frequency domain, in which the time resolution is
higher in the high frequency part while the frequency
resolution is higher in the low frequency part''", Compare to
the traditional Fourier transform, Wavelet transformation is
more adaptive to analyze the signal.
In continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) theory
B.

f t-b
WCWI(a,b) = Ia, j(t)lf/(-)dt
a

(13 )

t-b
,_.!. If/(----;-)
If/a,b (t) = Ia

( 14)

_.!.
2

100

200

If/(OJ)
= fI

If

Jet)

II

With the wavelet transform coefficient at scale 248, the

signal component can be rebuilt, however the result is not the
written as equation 10, the cause lies in the fact that M 3 (t) is
not a standard sinusoidal signal and if will shows the
characteristic feature of sinusoidal signal when the angle is
small, of which the value on both side of the axis due to the
tilt angle. After translation of the Reconstitution signal, the
right result is shown in figure 5.
Figure 6 shows the other disturbing torque except the
signal component shown in figure 5.
As shown in figure 5 and figure 6, The analytical result
and the fact are equal, which indicates that the disturbing
torque can be computed on dynamics inversion and effectively
separated to different component of different frequency with
continuous wavelet expansion and wavelet reconstruction.

(15 )

dOJ<+oo

is the input signal; a is the scale; b is the

translational parameter; If/a,b (t)

IS

800

Time(s)

12

I~

600

Figure 4. Result of the CWT to disturbing torque

II

400

the wavelet function;

equation 12 is the admissible condition of wavelet.

Morlet which is written in equation 13 is selected as
mother wavelet for its good time-frequency symmetry, lowpassband and linearity of phase. which can effectively prevent

2247

which the sinusoidal component was not equal to the value

computed with finite element method, the error is mainly
caused by the computing error while the result computed with
finite element method is not yet accurate for the model error.
The constant torque and attacking-torque are quite nearly the
fact although the computing error also exists. As shown in
figure 8 b), there is some high-frequency torque which may be
caused by the actual high frequency torque and may be
computing errors. The analysis of the high-frequency torque
would be researched in the future work.

- theoretical vahe
- computing value

0.

U
<.l

::l

2"

f-

_2Q------'----'-----'----~----..J
200

400
600
Time(s)

800

3x 10

Figure 5 Sinusoidal torque component

-3

-4

Ox10

150
200

400

600

Timc(s)

800

Figure 8. a) Sinusoidal torque component

Time(s)

5 x 10

Figure 6 other torque component

-4

V. EXPERIMENT OF ANALYZING THE DISTURBING

TORQUE
The methods of disturbing torque analysis was verified on
the three axis air bearing platform, on which there were the
following torque existed.
I. constant torque due to the tilt angles of theair bearing on
x-axis (-O.OOIN'm) 171 .
2. attacking-torque exerted by air flow at laOs
3. sinusoidal-torque due to anisoelasticity which could be
written as -0.01 sin(2) N m in theory'".

50

A CKNOWLEDGM ENT

In this paper, A dynamics model of the three axis air

bearing table including the unbalance torque of the gravity and
the other disturbing torque was set up. The adaptive method
based on the dynamics inversion and wavelet transformation
was proposed to analyse the unbalance torque. The result of
the simulation computation and experiment shown that this
method was valid and could provide the evidence for
disturbing torque compensation and adjustment.

-4

R EFERENCES

- 81'--------:::'-::-----~:------:-:'

100

150

[I) Lin Lai-xing, "Study on the function of the air bearing table simulation",
Control Engineering of China,1983(4):1-9
[2] Jana L S, Mason A P, .. Christopher D H. Historical review of airbearing spacecraft simulators" . Journal of Guid-ance , Control, and
Dynamics, 2003, 26(4) : 513-522 '
[3] Lu Xing-ju , " Research and Design of a Spacecraft Attitude Control
Simulator System, " Master thesis, National University of Defense
Technology , 2005.

Time(s)
Figure 7. angle ofthe motion

After the dynamics inversion computation, the result of r

becomes

rx =4 l e-Sm:r
=-1. l e-orn;r
=-2 2e-5m',
, y
, z
And figure 8 shows the result of the disturbing torque.

150

Figure 8. b) other torque component

The plot in Figure 7 shows the angle of the platform

motion.
8,--- - - - --r-- - - - - ,.--- - - - --,

50

100

Timc(s)

III

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[4] Prado J, Bisiacchi G. "Three-axis air-bearing based platform for small

satellite attitude determination and control simulation" , Journal of
Applied Research and Technology,2005,vo1.3, pp222-237 .
[5] Sam Wright, "Parameter Estimation of a Spacecraft Simula-tor Using
Parameter-Adaptive Control", Master thesis, Vir-ginia Polytechnic and
State University, 2006 .
[6] XueHui, Yang Ren-gang > "Morllet Wavelet Based Detection of
Noninteger Harmonise" . Power System Technology,2002,26(12) : 4144
[7] Xu Zai-feng "Research On Vortex Torque of The Three-axis Air
Bearing Tested Caused by Manufacture Errors And Fix-errors of Ball
Bearing" , Master thesis, Harbin Institute of Technology.2006.
[8] Wang Zu-wen, Li Yan-bin, BaoGang, "Study on the mechanics property
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torque acted on gravity", Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering
2006(4): 179-184

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