Specialized Solar Panel Hinge Characterisation Test System

Abstract

The upcoming spacecrafts are to be built such that it requires lesser space, lower cost and highly reliable, for implementing solar panels on the wings of the shuttles; in order to achieve these qualities the spacecrafts are built in such a way that the wings of these shuttles can be folded and unfolded during the utilization process. For obtaining this requirement the Spacecrafts are built by making use of various components, which also includes hinges placed at solar panel wings on the rockets and many other space shuttles, wings are built with hinges which helps the process of folding and unfolding of the solar panel wings on the shuttles during its energy generation operation. These hinges placed are of different types, the main purpose is to test its torque rotational and characteristics and to generate and provide the test report for all the combinations of hinges, before it has been deployed into the actual setup. The existing method was to manually test the hinges for its accuracy and proper working conditions, whereas this testing method is automated and is done on automated test equipment (ATE), with the help of sensors and actuators which is done to reduce the failure rate during the process by placing the hinge on the specialized solar hinge test bench in prior before deployment.