Novel Surface Design of Deployable Reflector Antenna Based on Polar Scissor Structures

Pengyuan Zhao,Yangmin Li,Keli Chen,Chenchen Wu,Jinguo Liu

doi:10.1186/s10033-020-00488-6

Abstract

Space-deployable mechanisms can be used as supporting structures for large-diameter antennas in space engineering. This study proposes a novel method for constructing the surface design of space reflector antennas based on polar scissor units. The concurrency and deployability equations of the space scissor unit with definite surface constraints are derived using the rod and vector methods. Constraint equations of the spatial transformation for space n-edge polar scissor units are summarized. A new closed-loop deployable structure, called the polar scissor deployable antenna (PSDA), is designed by combining planar polar scissor units with spatial polar scissor units. The over-constrained problem is solved by releasing the curve constraint that locates at the end-point of the planar scissor mechanism. Kinematics simulation and error analysis are performed. The results show that the PSDA can effectively fit the paraboloid of revolution. Finally, deployment experiments verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed design method, which provides a new idea for the construction of large space-reflector antennas.

Highlights

Large-sized reflector antennas with high gain and narrow beam are widely used in space detection, radio astronomy, satellite communications, and other areas
We propose a new method for the parabolic design using a combination of planar and spatial polar scissor units
When the trajectory fitting of the end of the scissor mechanism is performed, rod 5‒9 is selected to be fixed, and the position of S9 in the coordinate system is the same as that in which S9 is located when the polar scissor deployable antenna (PSDA) is deployed into a paraboloid

Summary

Introduction

Large-sized reflector antennas with high gain and narrow beam are widely used in space detection, radio astronomy, satellite communications, and other areas. Bettini et al [17] proposed a new lightweight structure based on the truss structure of a self-expanding scissor antenna with minimal mechanical connections. Polar scissor units is used in the space reflector antenna. A new method for the parametric design of the rotating surfaces is proposed by combining the space and the plane polar scissor units.

Mathematical Model and Constraint Equations

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Example and Prototype

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Conclusions