spring 2021
STE-3604 Systems Engineering - 10 ECTS

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 December. Exchange students and Fulbright students: 1 October.

Type of course

The course can be taken as a single course.

Admission requirements

A relevant undergraduate bachelor Engineering programme with minimum 30 credits Mathematics/statistics topics

Relevant undergraduate (bachelor) Engineering degree, preferably within satellite engineering, telecommunications, electrical engineering or similar. 

Application code: 9371


Course content

The purpose of this course is to give the student an overview of the European space project standards including The European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) and The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) preparing them for participating in industrious European projects. While dealing with large, complex projects system engineering focus on how these projects should be design and managed, including identifying design drivers, trade-off studies, budgets and the system engineering process. Also, the design methodology will be discussed with a special focus on concurrent design. The following technical topics will be presented throughout this course:

  • State estimation (Kalman filter, extended Kalman filter, unscented Kalman filter, complementary filters)
  • Control structuring (successive loop closure, rate feedback, hierarchical control, fault-tolerant control)
  • Sensors (sensor hardware, sensor models, drift)
  • Actuators (rate and magnitude saturation, actuator faults, actuator hardware)
  • System architecture (processor architecture, design patterns)


Objectives of the course

After passing the course, students will have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:

-The student shall have the knowledge and understanding on how to initiate and run an industrial projects in all sizes with specific focus on the system engineering discipline.

-The topic is based on ECSS (European space standards) and gives an introduction on how standards are used throughout the project lifetime

-The subject will also give brief introduction into the following technical design topics related to spacecraft/aerospace control system design

- State estimation and navigation

- Control systems

- Instrumentation and measurement systems

- Actuators and control hardware

- Embedded systems

Skills:

-The student shall be able to define a mission, engineer mission requirements from the mission statement and evolve them into lower level requirements.

-He shall be able to lead or participate in any systems engineering group of a project and control applicable documentation required by the project legal contract.

-He shall also be able to lead or participate in any group related to a subsystem design.


Language of instruction and examination

The students will achieve the knowledge and understanding through blackboard lecturing and tasks. Further, they will develop the skills through an extensive project emulating a small autonomous vehicle phase A project where the whole class participate and collaborate.

Teaching methods

The purpose of this course is to give the student an overview of the European space project standards including The European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) and The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) preparing them for participating in industrious European projects. While dealing with large, complex projects system engineering focus on how these projects should be design and managed, including identifying design drivers, trade-off studies, budgets and the system engineering process. Also, the design methodology will be discussed with a special focus on concurrent design. The following technical topics will be presented throughout this course:

  • State estimation (Kalman filter, extended Kalman filter, unscented Kalman filter, complementary filters)
  • Control structuring (successive loop closure, rate feedback, hierarchical control, fault-tolerant control)
  • Sensors (sensor hardware, sensor models, drift)
  • Actuators (rate and magnitude saturation, actuator faults, actuator hardware)
  • System architecture (processor architecture, design patterns)


Assessment

Mandatory tasks: Project with oral presentation. Gradescale A-F, F is not passed.

Examinations and assessments: The students will be given a space mission statement which they collectively shall engineer mission requirements from. Then the students will be parted into groups, depending on the total number of students, and each group is responsible for designing a particular subsystem fulfilling the mission requirements. The results from the design process is to be filled in and submitted as a document package tailored by the project manager. At the end of the project, a phase A review will be conducted where each of the groups will present and defend their work. The final grade is chosen based on a total evaluation of the student efforts in team work/systems engineering, quality of design and delivered document and defense of the work through the review process.

Re-sit Exam: As grading is based on collaborative group work for the whole class, no continuation is available thus the student will have to follow the course the next year.


  • About the course
  • Campus: Narvik |
  • ECTS: 10
  • Course code: STE-3604
  • Tidligere år og semester for dette emnet