Is it possible to add a custom sensor with rectangular FOV with the aerospace toolbox?

Hi all,

I have a simple satellite scenario

startTime = datetime(2023,2,21,18,0,0);
stopTime = startTime + hours(1);
sampleTime = 60; % seconds
sc = satelliteScenario(startTime,stopTime,sampleTime);
numSat = 33;
sats = walkerStar(sc, 500e3+6378.14e3, 86.4, numSat, 3, 2);

% sensor
g = gimbal(sats);
camSensor = conicalSensor(g,MaxViewAngle=60);

I would like to use, instead of a conical sensor that's built in in the aerospace toolbox, a rectangular sensor with two FOV angles. Is there a way to modify the conical sensor object or to build a new one that can be parented to the satellites?

Answer 1

[Moksh]

Hi Enrico,

I understand that in your satellite scenario generated from the “Aerospace Toolbox” in MATLAB, you want to use a rectangular sensor instead of a “conicalSensor”.

There is no built-in function for a rectangular sensor in the Aerospace toolbox, instead you can try the following possible workarounds:

• Set the “MaxAngleView” property in the “conicalSensor” function to resemble a rectangular sensor as close as possible. This approach has limitations as this will always be an approximation and may not work in all the cases.
• Build a custom sensor: You can create a new sensor class with 2 defined FOV angles and your desired measurement logic. This approach will offer greater accuracy and control to implement the desired logic.

Here is an example template for the custom class "RectangularSensor":

classdef RectangularSensor
    properties
        ParentSatellite % Parent satellite object
        MaxViewAngleX % Maximum view angle in the X direction
        MaxViewAngleY % Maximum view angle in the Y direction
    end
    
    methods
        % Constructor for the custom Rectangular Sensor class
        function obj = RectangularSensor(parentSatellite, maxViewAngleX, maxViewAngleY)
            obj.ParentSatellite = parentSatellite;
            obj.MaxViewAngleX = maxViewAngleX;
            obj.MaxViewAngleY = maxViewAngleY;
        end
        
        function measurement = takeMeasurement(obj)
            % Implement measurement logic for the rectangular sensor as per
            % requirements
            measurement = None;
        end
    end
end

Usage code for the above defined custom class:

% Create a satellite scenario
startTime = datetime(2023, 2, 21, 18, 0, 0);
stopTime = startTime + hours(1);
sampleTime = 60; % seconds
sc = satelliteScenario(startTime, stopTime, sampleTime);

% Create satellites
numSat = 33;
sats = walkerStar(sc, 500e3+6378.14e3, 86.4, numSat, 3, 2);

g = gimbal(sats);

% Create the custom rectangular sensor and attach it to the satellites
rectSensor = RectangularSensor(sats, 30, 40); % Example FOV angle

Refer to the following document, for more information about user-defined classes in MATLAB:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_oop/user-defined-classes.html

Hope this information helps resolve the query.

Best Regards,

Moksh Aggarwal