Satellite Power System (ANUSAT)
SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM (ANUSAT)
Anna University has been assigned by ISRO to develop a "Microsatellite" named ANUSAT .
It is the first Indian University with Satellite which will carry Technology demonstration payloads. Weighing around 35 Kg and working with a power requirement of 40W, ANUSAT will serve as a store and forward communication station. Ground stations are installed at MIT,AU and IIT Kharagpur. Total cost of the project is Rs. 5 crores and a clean room Assembly facility is created at the Aerospace department of MIT. Major power and other electronic subsystems are fabricated at College of engineering, Guindy while the structure. Thermal, control orbital machines, ground station and payload software are developed by departments of MIT, Anna University.
Department of EEE has developed the Satellite power system. 40W of power is being generated from Ga-Ar Solar cells mounted on the walls of the spin stabilized satellite. During eclipse period, power stored in Li-tan batteries are fed to the subsystem. Necessary battery/solar array control electronics and DC/DC converter modules are developed to provide conditioned and reliable power to all subsystem packages.
Department of EEE has utilized the grant of Rs. 56.5 lakhs under the Infrastructure development for establishing test and development facilities for power electronics applied to electrical machines power quality.
An electrostatic Discharge a safe test and development facility is set up in the department of EEE. Complete satellite power subsystems packages are developed in – house and these packages have qualified through vibration and thermovac tests. The Engineering model satellite subsystem packages are being assembled in the structure to undergo environmental test as an assemble satellite. On qualification, the flight model will follow and will be launched through shriharikota space station as a piggy-back load for the launch vehicle.
Technology development projects like development of IGBT gate driver, Full spectrum simulator, Ultra capacitors, Solar power pumps, power converter solution for Railways and steel industries are being developed with the objective to commercialise and market them.
The Major Technical achievements of the ANUSAT development are listed in the table.
| Sl.No. | MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS | REMARKS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Power Control electronics | A compact design with minimum hardware is developed to ensure reliability. |
| 2 | Power system simulator – Hardware test facility | Complete test facility with solar energy simulator and battery simulator is developed. |
| 3 | DC/DC Converters | High reliable, MIL qualified converters has been developed to provide tight regulation and overload protection. |
| 4 | FPGA based bus electronics | Compact and Efficient bus control electronics is developed. |
| 5 | FPGA based TC receiver | Compact coding schemes implemented for TC receiver onboard. |
| 6 | Power orbit simulation | Visually indicative power orbit simulator is developed. Battery charge / discharge pattern. |
Many Student projects at UG,PG and Ph.D levels are being carried out in the following areas as technology demonstration experiments.
- Microcontroller based Maximum power tracking
- Modular single chip control of satellite power system
- High efficiency gain resonant converter
- Single cell-battery management system.
- Intelligent sensor network for Satellite power system
- Staff and students groups at all levels are actively involved in the ANUSAT development and testing activities.