Modeling and analysis of some planar deployable mechanisms. Part 2: curvilinear bar mechanisms

Abstract

Research in deployable structures increased in the last decade, due to the need of building structures that can change their shape or functionality in response to varying of different aspects: climatic conditions, environment, functional requirements or emergency situations. Depending on how the transformation is doing, transformable structures can be deployable or demountable, as a kit-parts system. These structures can be classified in four main groups: structures based on spatial articulated bar mechanisms; foldable plate structures; tensegrity structures; and membrane structures. In this paper, some geometric design aspects of curvilinear bar mechanisms are discussed and a curvilinear structure mechanism is proposed. More results on the geometric design, dimensional synthesis and simulation of this scissor structural mechanism will be presented in future work.