Hybrid isolation of micro vibrations induced by reaction wheels

Abstract As the technology for precision satellite payloads continues to advance, the requirements for the pointing stability of the satellites are becoming extremely high. In many situations, even small amplitude disturbances generated by the onboard components may cause serious degradation in the performance of high precision payloads. In such situations, vibration isolators can be installed to reduce the vibration transmission. In this work, a hybrid vibration isolator comprising passive and active components is proposed to provide an effective solution to the vibration problems caused by the reaction wheel disturbances. Firstly, mathematical modeling and experimental study of a single axis vibration isolator having high damping and high roll-off rate for the high frequency region and active components that enhance isolation performance for narrow frequency bands are presented. This concept is then extended to multi-axis by forming Stewart platform and the performance is experimentally verified. The tests on a flexible testbed show effective vibration isolation by the proposed vibration isolator.