FCS Nodes

FCS Nodes

ROS is designed for modular components for easy plug and use capability. The code is thus separated into separate nodes designed for specific tasks. FCS software is designed with the expectation of swapping software pieces (particular control software and controller nodes, though feedback systems are also likely to be changed), so modularity is major aspect of the design. This is a list of the pieces of software and particular nodes within those pieces.

Control Interpreter Node

This node takes mid level commands (commands that command the direction of change in velocity) and converts it to low level commands (which thrusters to fire).

IMU Processing Node

This node's task is to take raw IMU data and process it to get telemetry data (velocity, acceleration, orientation, pose, etc). The specifics of what telemetry data it calculates is TBD.

Sensor Fusion Node

This node takes the pose (position and orientation) and pose related (velocities, accelerations, etc) (pose plus) data from all sources and fuses it to a single set of pose plus data. Current sensors for providing pose plus data are IMU and StarGazer. These do not necessarily provide the same pose plus data and may have different reliability values for the different specifics of the pose plus data. This means there needs to be calibration, hard set values, or multiple nodes.