Abstract
A 2-axis gimbal system is one of main disturbance sources affecting image jitter response of a satellite. The gimbal system comprises azimuth stage and elevation stage, and these pointing mechanism can be rotated by stepping motors about its azimuth and elevation axes simultaneously. Because of the complex and coupled dynamic motion of the gimbal system, its moment of inertia and structural modes can be changed according to the system configuration, and thus the gimbal system generates complicated and non-linear disturbance characteristics. In order to improve the jitter response of a spacecraft, it is an indispensable process to reduce the micro-vibration disturbance level of the antenna system. In the present research, a 2-axis gimbal system was manufactured and then its micro-vibration test was performed in terms of two types of stepping motors(2-phase and 5-phase). The test results show that the disturbance level of the gimbal system can be reduced by replacing the 2-phase stepping motor with the 5-phase one, and the average disturbance attenuation ratio is 56 % in peak level and 48 % in standard deviation level. The experimental results confirm that it is an efficient jitter reduction method to adopt a high-phase stepping motor.
