HUGIN: a small satellite trying to be intelligent

Paper in proceeding, 1999

Micro and nano-satellites are important tools to explore and test new ideas and various new devices for space missions without spending extreme amounts of money. The actual launch cost per kilogram payload on a micro or nano-satellite can be as high or even higher than ordinary satellites but the turn around time and quick responses are extremely important. The HUGIN project is a nano-satellite (less than 10 kg) explicitly designed to test magnetic coils and adaptive artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms for attitude control purposes. A small PC video camera is also included and if the control function is successful then also tests of adaptive image processing using other ANN and biologically inspired methods will be performed.