Patent ID: 8020809

Claim:
A control moment gyroscope system for delivering a target torque to a spacecraft comprising: a) a rotor assembly having a rotor and a motor to spin the rotor about a rotor axis; b) a gimbal assembly having a gimbal for supporting the rotor assembly and a gimbal torque motor to rotate the gimbal about a gimbal axis, which is normal to the rotor axis, to generate an output torque, which is normal to the rotor axis and the gimbal axis; and c) a control system having: i) a sensor for determining the output torque; ii) a processor operatively connected to the rotor assembly, the gimbal assembly and the sensor, wherein the processor requests the target torque and establishes a feedback control loop to generate a torque error signal based on the output torque for bringing the output torque within a predetermined range of the target torque; and iii) a memory storing calibration data, wherein the calibration data is used by the control system to correct for angle-dependent torque error when determining the measured torque.