Low-Order Model based Divergence Compensation for Hardware-In-The-Loop Simulation of Space Discrete Contact

The divergence problem of the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation for flying objects contact in space is investigated. The HIL simulation divergence is due to time delays of the motion simulator and the force measurement system. In this study, a low-order model based divergence compensation method is proposed. The force measurement delay is modeled as a pure delay and compensated by a first-order phase lead force compensator after truncating high-order terms of the Taylor expansion. For the motion simulator, its dynamic response delay is modeled as a three-order model and compensated by a second-order phase lead position compensator. The low-order compensators are used because high-order derivatives of the signal are inaccurate and sensitive to noises. Simulations and experiments are performed to verify that the proposed approach can compensate the simulation divergence effectively and satisfactorily.