Mechanism Design and Kinematics Analysis for a Solid Surface Deployable Antenna

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.03.237

Abstract

Abstract: The solid surface deployable antenna has the characteristics of high reliability, high accuracy and good thermal stability. In view of the problems that the shape accuracy, linkage drive and locking stiffness of the solid surface deployable antenna structure are affected by the excessive number of rotating pairs and the presence of spherical joints, universal joints and other high pairs in the deployment mechanism of the solid surface deployable antenna, the two deployment methods of the solid surface deployable antenna rotating around the orthogonal double axis in two steps and rotating around the single axis in one time are compared. A deployable mechanism for deployable antenna on solid surface is proposed, which rotates around a single axis and deploys once. The parametric model for calculating the position of the rotation axis is constructed, and the kinematic model of the deployment mechanism is established. The numerical simulation software is used to simulate the established model, and the influence of the position of the rotation axis on the antenna storage rate and the gap between adjacent panels is analyzed. The finite element model of the antenna structure is established, and the antenna structure is optimized. The results show that the design of rotating around a single axis reduces the number of rotating pairs and does not use high pairs such as spherical joints and universal joints, which not only improves the deployment reliability of the mechanism, but also facilitates the linkage, driving, locking and stiffening of the mechanism. At the same time, the optimized structure has better mechanical performance, which is expected to provide reference for the theoretical research and engineering application of deployable antennas on solid surfaces.

Key words: deployable antennas, deployable mechanism, solid surface deployable antenna, configuration synthesis, kinematics analysis, mechanism design

CLC Number:

V443
TH112

FAN Xiaodong, SHI Chuang, WANG Zhiyi, LIU Tianming, GUO Hongwei, LIU Rongqiang. Mechanism Design and Kinematics Analysis for a Solid Surface Deployable Antenna[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(3): 237-250.

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