LIMPPET - LIghtweight Miniature Precision Position Encoding Technology

This project will specify, design, build and test an innovative form of position & speed encoder for space applications. The aim is to take an emerging terrestrial technology and develop it for space. Position & speed encoders are common but critical elements in space equipment but the requirements for high reliability in harsh environments are extremely challenging for traditional technologies. Traditional solutions – such as potentiometers, resolvers & linear transformers – are either insufficiently reliable or too bulky and heavy for space applications. The LIMPPET concept offers a high precision, lightweight, miniaturized solution with the potential for ultra-reliable operation in space’s extreme environments. LIMPPET uses an innovative non-contact, resonant, radio-frequency sensing technique whose main components are arrays of printed conductors on thin, flexible, laminar substrates.