Design and analysis of a novel space deployable mechanism of ring and frustum type

Abstract

In this paper, a new deployable mechanism of ring and frustum type is developed for aviation and aerospace applications. Considering the ring and frustum type, the truss deduction method is utilized to determine the configuration to implement the centripetal (axial and radial) movement. A graphical method-based approach is presented to analyze the DOF of the designed mechanism which is verified to be one both by using a virtual prototype and a physical prototype. Scissors mechanism is utilized to achieve the required high folding and unfolding ratio and to guarantee the internal space of the mechanism is not occupied. Except the inherent characteristic of a deployable mechanism, the proposed mechanism has enough kinetic energy to overcome the gravity to jump off the ground when it stretches thoroughly. Considering the required kinetic energy, springs are used as the driver to store enough energy. The dynamic model of the mechanism is put forward to identify the stiffness of the driving spring and the mass of each connecting rod and the upper and lower platforms. The virtual prototype simulation and the physical prototype both validate the function of the new design and the feasibility of the proposed analytical approaches.