Deployment Dynamics of Large Space Antenna and Supporting Arms

Abstract

As an important instrument for air-to-ground communication, the large space deployable antenna plays an important role in driving technological innovation and has become a topic of interest for research scholars worldwide. A large-scale deployable ring truss is introduced in this paper, which is equipped with a complete rope-driven driving method and supplements a cable net system in forming a complete space antenna. The antenna supporting arm is a slender structure that exhibits a certain flexible deformation during the deployment process of the antenna. A dynamic deployment model of supporting arms based on the absolute node coordinate formulation is established. In addition, based on the Lagrange equation, dynamic equations of multibody systems, including equations describing friction and flexible cable nets, are built. Furthermore, the optimal deployment process law of the antenna is developed. Finally, the performance of the deployment process of the antenna supporting arms and space deployable antenna is analyzed by the numerical simulation, which lays a solid foundation for subsequent prototype development and control theory research.