Deployable support truss for parabolic cylindrical antennas with shape reconfiguration

Abstract

The increasing scarcity of orbit resources has directed the focus onto the versatility of space antennas. Through shape reconfiguration, large antennas can achieve enhanced task compliance. In this paper, a two-degree-of-freedom (DOF) deployable support truss with shape reconfiguration is designed for parabolic cylindrical antennas. A design strategy is presented for the support truss, in which the synchronous deployment is realized first through the expansion of basic deployable units. The branch chains are then supplemented to realize the controllable reconfiguration of the entire support truss. Moreover, the mobility and kinematic analyses of the basic modules on the support truss are conducted to parametrically analyze the DOF space and realize the expected reconfiguration. The unit number and structure parameters of the support truss can influence the mimicking preciseness. To fulfill the mimicking error requirement with a more concise mechanism, a parameter optimization method based on the genetic algorithm is proposed to achieve the minimum number of the required deployable units. Simulation of the deployment and reconfiguration of the support truss as well as the verification test conducted on the principle prototype demonstrate the feasibility of the mechanism design. This paper may provide candidates for support trusses of large reconfigurable antennas with enhanced task flexibility and efficiency, and serve as references for the design of deployable mechanisms with the reconfiguration function.