Attitude monitoring and surveillance system for Lapan payload test rocket

This paper describes the design and implementation of a rocket payload system that functions as an attitude monitoring and surveillance systems. The system is designed to monitor rocket´s dynamics and take aerial photographs. The measured data is sent via radio frequency (RF) modem to a ground control system (GCS) in real-time. The rocket dynamics comprises of rocket´s linear acceleration and orientation data. The rocket´s orientation is represented in the roll, pitch, and yaw angles. The Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) integrate accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data to obtain accurate attitude angles. Unlike Inertial Navigation System (INS) which also provide position estimation, AHRS only provide attitude estimation. INS suffer accumulated error on position estimation so that the system need correction which is solved by global measurement such as GPS. AHRS also suffer accumulated error on orientation estimation due to gyroscope drift. This problem on this case is solved by drift correction block. Additionally, the payload system is capable for aerial surveillance in the form of a still image. In June 2012, the system is fitted to the Indonesian National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) RUM-70 payload test rocket and is successfully launched. The monitored data clearly shows the five stages of the launch. Moreover, the imagery system managed to take a clear picture of the Congot coastline in 52,63 second with 2.075 % data losses.