Nowadays, the main objectives for reaction wheel (RW) manufacturers are focused on torque stability, zero-crossing and low speed operations. These requirements must be achieved with reduced overall costs and taking into account the state-of-the-art technologies. Most of the existing RW’s designs are based on relatively old concepts and it is the opportune time to readdress the concept in tune with present requirements. The market for field programmable gate array (FPGA) based RWs is considered to be large, especially for the increasing Earth observation market in Low Earth Orbit.

Keywords: Reaction wheel, Space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM), Field programmable gate array (FPGA), LabVIEW, Permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM)