Case Study: OHB achieves 50% faster satellite GNC development for autonomous formation flying with MathWorks Model-Based Design

OHB Develops Satellite Guidance, Navigation, and Control Software for Autonomous Formation Flying

OHB developed guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) software for the Prisma mission’s Mango and Tango satellites to demonstrate autonomous formation flying, rendezvous, and close-proximity operations. Facing limited propellant, new sensor and propulsion capabilities, and the need to integrate Simulink models and C code across teams in France and Germany, OHB adopted MathWorks’ Model‑Based Design approach using MATLAB and Simulink to accelerate development and verification.

Using MathWorks tools—MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, Simulink Coder, Embedded Coder, Simulink Real‑Time, and MATLAB Compiler—OHB modeled and simulated GNC algorithms, generated flight code for the LEON2 target, and ran closed‑loop and hardware‑in‑the‑loop tests with increasing amounts of real hardware. With MathWorks’ toolchain they reused ~70% of SMART‑1 models, cut development time by 50%, enabled four levels of early verification and test reuse, simplified interagency collaboration, and produced automatically generated flight code that flew in space.

OHB

Ron Noteborn

Lead Engineer