Technology Demonstration for System of Magnetically Aligning Reconfigurable Tiny Cube Satellites (SMARTCubeS)

The development of space-based deployable structures has traditionally been specific to unique mission objectives and constraints, resulting in high financial, temporal, and risk-based costs for single use structures. Recently, literature has considered methods for reducing these barriers by creating small, modular robotic units that can be dynamically reconfigured to adapt to changing mission parameters on-the-fly. Although many existing proposals for such swarms are effective at reshaping their arrangements in real time, they also suffer from drawbacks such as the inability to maintain a power-free holding force. With SMARTCubeS (System of Magnetically Aligned Reconfigurable Tiny Cube Satellites), previous reconfigurable cube satellite swarm designs are improved by introducing several additional functionalities required for realistic operation in an on-orbit environment. Primarily, these advances concern the implementation of a novel method for locking non-powered units together using diametric, cylindrical magnets. By providing these magnets with several degrees of rotational and translational freedom, a series of SMARTCubeS units was developed that passively attract one another in flexible orientations without drawing any additional power to remain locked. Furthermore, a method for actively reconfiguring each cube is implemented using a series of four symmetrically-located electromagnets on the face of each unit. Having properly balanced the forces between the repulsive electromagnets and attracting cylindrical magnets, a system was designed that allows for both transversal and pivoting motion of SMARTCubeS units about their swarm. To demonstrate the feasibility of stepping towards a flight-ready structure, SMARTCubeS were designed using flight-like materials wherever possible. With these advances over existing adaptive space structures, the SMARTCubeS project represents a significant step towards a flight-ready design of reconfigurable space structures such as deployable booms and reflector arrays.