Foldable antenna based on single-degree-of-freedom connecting rod mechanism
By designing a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism, the problems of compactness and lightweighting in existing technologies have been solved, achieving high compactness and reliable deployment, meeting the high-performance and compact design requirements of satellites and spacecraft, and improving space utilization.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202511691152.5
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-11-18
- Publication Date
- 2026-02-10
AI Technical Summary
Existing foldable antennas, while ensuring structural and functional reliability, struggle to achieve high packing ratios and lightweight design, impacting the performance and mission adaptability of satellites and spacecraft.
The foldable antenna design adopts a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism. Through the periodic repetitive connection and locking hinge of the linkage mechanism unit, a high storage ratio and reliable deployment are achieved. The antenna panel uses aluminum honeycomb sandwich carbon fiber plate to reduce weight, and the linkage drive mechanism ensures synchronous folding or unfolding.
It achieves a foldable solution with a high storage ratio, meeting the high performance, lightweight and compact design requirements of satellites and spacecraft, improving space utilization, and ensuring high-precision positioning and reliable deployment through locking hinges.
Smart Images
Figure CN121507364A_ABST
Abstract
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of antennas, and mainly relates to a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism, which can be applied to the field of spaceborne antennas. BACKGROUND
[0002] An artificial satellite generally comprises a satellite body and a satellite payload, the satellite body is also called a satellite platform, which serves as a carrier for maintaining the operation of the satellite payload, and the satellite payload generally refers to an antenna installed on the satellite body.
[0003] In the field of aerospace, folding technology is considered as a key technology for solving the demand for high performance, lightweight and compactness of platforms such as satellites and spacecraft, and the core goal is to realize the optimization of multiple performances of satellites and spacecraft under the constraints of limited space and weight, while meeting the requirements of folding storage during launching and reliable deployment in the working state. By adopting folding design, the spacecraft can greatly reduce the volume and weight during the launching stage, thereby reducing the launching cost; and in the working state, the folding mechanism can be stably deployed to ensure the efficient operation of the key equipment of the antenna, which not only improves the integration and multifunctionality of the spacecraft, but also provides important support for realizing high performance, lightweight and compact design.
[0004] Foldable antennas are commonly used foldable structures in the field of aerospace at present, and the design needs to comprehensively consider structural reliability, functional stability and lightweight requirements. The design of foldable antennas faces two core challenges: how to improve the storage ratio of the foldable antenna as much as possible while ensuring the reliability of the structure and function, and how to reduce the weight and volume of the folding structure. These factors are directly related to the performance and mission adaptability of satellites and spacecraft.
[0005] Therefore, it is urgent to design a foldable antenna, which realizes the goals of lightweight and high storage ratio by optimizing the structural design, and improves the space utilization rate of satellites and spacecraft. SUMMARY
[0006] To solve the above problems in the prior art, the application provides a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism, which forms a single-degree-of-freedom deployable mechanism, and the unit is periodically and repeatedly connected to adapt to different length requirements, thereby realizing high storage ratio and reliable deployment.
[0007] To achieve the above purpose, the application is implemented by the following technical scheme:
[0008] The application discloses a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom connecting rod mechanism, which is arranged on a satellite body fixing end and comprises a connecting rod mechanism, an antenna panel and a connecting rod driving mechanism, the connecting rod mechanism is formed by periodically connecting connecting rod mechanism units, the connecting rod mechanism unit comprises two parallelogram frames with a common short side, namely a left unit and a right unit, the left unit is internally provided with a driving slide rod, a first folding slide rod and a second folding slide rod, the driving slide rod is parallel to the long side of the frame and can reciprocatingly slide along the short side, one end of the first folding slide rod and the second folding slide rod is connected through a sliding hinge and can reciprocatingly slide along the driving slide rod, the other end of the second folding slide rod is connected with the lower left corner of the left unit frame, and the other end of the first folding slide rod is connected with the long side of the upper side of the left unit frame, the right unit is the same as the left unit but is obtained by turning over the left unit by 180 degrees along the long side as the axis, the driving slide rods are connected in head-tail mode through the sliding hinges arranged on the short side and slide in the same direction, the antenna panel comprises a plurality of sub-panels which are correspondingly arranged on the left unit and the right unit, when the connecting rod driving mechanism drives the driving slide rod to slide up and down along the short side, the sliding hinge on the driving slide rod drives the included angle between the first folding slide rod and the second folding slide rod to change, so that the left unit and the right unit of each connecting rod mechanism unit drive the synchronous folding or unfolding of the antenna panel.
[0009] Further, the frame is deformed into a parallelogram structure when being folded, and is deformed into a rectangular structure when being completely unfolded, and the second folding slide rod and the first folding slide rod are connected into a straight line and form a 45-degree included angle with the short side of the frame when being completely unfolded.
[0010] Further, the output shaft of the connecting rod driving mechanism is connected with the sliding hinge on the short side of the first end of the connecting rod mechanism, so as to drive the driving slide rod to slide up and down.
[0011] Further, the connecting rod mechanism is at least one group, one group is two, and the two are symmetrically arranged on the satellite body fixing end, and the sub-panels of each antenna panel are symmetrically arranged on the connecting rod mechanism.
[0012] Further, the sub-panels of the antenna panel are connected through plane rotary hinges, and the sub-panels are connected with the connecting rod mechanism through the plane rotary hinges.
[0013] Further, the sub-panels of the antenna panel are made of aluminum honeycomb sandwich carbon fiber plates.
[0014] Further, the rotary hinges and the sliding hinges are all locking hinges.
[0015] Compared with the prior art, the application has the following beneficial effects:
[0016] The application provides a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom connecting rod mechanism, and realizes a high-storing-ratio foldable scheme through a novel connecting rod structure, which effectively meets the design requirements of high performance, light weight and compactness of satellites and spacecraft, and significantly improves the space utilization; the antenna panel adopts an aluminum honeycomb sandwich carbon fiber plate, which further reduces the weight of the antenna while ensuring the structural rigidity; the rotary hinge and the sliding hinge both adopt locking hinges, realizing reliable deployment and high-precision positioning of the single degree of freedom; the periodically repeated connecting rod mechanism unit can flexibly adjust the deployment length of the antenna according to the requirements of the satellite, while ensuring that the volume in the folded state does not change significantly; the antenna structure is particularly suitable for application scenarios such as small satellites and deep space exploration missions, and provides an effective solution for the high-performance and lightweight design of new-generation spacecraft. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0017] Figure 1 Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the application (fully deployed state).
[0018] Figure 2 Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the application (folded state).
[0019] Figure 3 Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the folding process of the application.
[0020] Figure 4 Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the fully deployed state of the connecting rod mechanism unit of the application.
[0021] Figure 5 Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the rotary hinge structure of the application.
[0022] Figure 6 Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the sliding hinge structure of the application.
[0023] 1, connecting rod mechanism; 11, connecting rod mechanism unit; 111, frame; 112, active sliding rod; 113, first folding sliding rod; 114, second folding sliding rod; 115, rotary hinge; 116, sliding hinge;
[0024] 2, antenna panel;
[0025] 3, satellite fixed end;
[0026] 4, connecting rod driving mechanism. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] The application will be further described below in conjunction with specific embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are only used to illustrate the application, and are not used to limit the protection scope of the application. Improvements and adjustments made by those skilled in the art according to the application still belong to the protection scope of the application.
[0028] In order to better illustrate the present application, the present application is described in detail below in combination with the drawings.
[0029] As shown in Figures 1-6 , it is a kind of foldable antenna based on single degree of freedom linkage mechanism, as a satellite payload, is arranged in the satellite body star body fixed end 3, including linkage mechanism 1, antenna panel 2 and linkage driving mechanism 4, the linkage mechanism 1 single degree of freedom foldably fixed in star body fixed end 3, the antenna panel 2 is arranged on the linkage mechanism 1, linkage driving mechanism 4 drives linkage mechanism 1 to fold or unfold.
[0030] The star body fixed end 3, as the mounting surface of the antenna on the satellite body, is rotatably connected with the linkage mechanism 1, and plays a role in fixing the entire antenna structure.
[0031] The linkage mechanism 1 is at least a group, a group is 2, symmetrically arranged on the star body fixed end 3, for installing the antenna panel 2, is a single degree of freedom linkage mechanism, the structure of each linkage mechanism 1 is same, is connected by linkage mechanism unit 11 periodically repeatedly, to adapt to the demand of different length antenna.
[0032] The linkage mechanism unit 11 includes a deformable frame 111 and an internal slide rod, the frame 111 is composed of two common short side parallelogram, the purpose of common short side is to make the unfolded area of the antenna panel 2 arranged on the long side larger, the frame 111 is connected by rotary hinge 115 between each linkage, easy to deform.For the convenience of description, the frame 111 is divided into left unit and right unit, the internal slide rod is arranged in the structure of two units, which are same, and include active slide rod 112, first folding slide rod 113 and second folding slide rod 114, the difference mainly lies in the installation direction, that is, the right unit can be obtained by turning the left unit by 180 degrees with its long side as the axis.
[0033] Taking the left unit as an example, as shown in Figure 3 , 4As shown, the frame 111 of the left unit can be deformed into a parallelogram structure in the folded state and into a rectangle structure in the fully unfolded state. The active slide rod 112 is arranged parallel to the long side of the frame 111, and its two ends are slidably connected to the short side of the frame 111 through sliding hinges 116. One end of the first folding slide rod 113 and one end of the second folding slide rod 114 are slidably mounted on the active slide rod 112 through sliding hinges 116. The other end of the second folding slide rod 114 is connected to the lower left corner of the frame 111 of the left unit, and the other end of the first folding slide rod 113 is fixed to the long side of the frame 111 of the left unit. For example, the first folding slide 113 can be connected to the frame 111 via a sliding hinge 116, but the position of the sliding hinge is fixed by bolts. In the fully unfolded state, the second folding slide 114 and the first folding slide 113 can be connected in a straight line, forming a 45° angle with the short side of the frame 111. At this time, pushing the active slide 112 downward will cause the second folding slide 114 and the first folding slide 113 to change from a straight line state to an upward folding state under the action of the sliding hinge 116, causing the left short side of the left unit to fold upward, and the linkage mechanism will then be in a folded state. Figure 2 As shown, conversely, if the active slide bar 112 is pushed upwards, it causes the second folding slide bar 114 to gradually open downwards until the second folding slide bar 114 and the first folding slide bar 113 return to a straight state under the action of the sliding hinge 116, and the linkage mechanism is in an unfolded state, as shown. Figure 1 , 4 As shown.
[0034] The right unit has the same structure as the left unit, but the installation direction is to rotate the left unit 180° vertically before splicing it horizontally with the left unit, such as... Figure 3 , 4 As shown, in the fully unfolded state, the second folding slide 114 of the right unit starts from the upper left corner and can also form a straight line with the first folding slide 113, forming a 45° angle with the short side of the frame 111. At this time, pushing the active slide 112 downwards causes the second folding slide 114 and the first folding slide 113 to change from a straight line state to a state where the first folding slide 113 folds upwards, thus causing the right short side of the right unit to fold upwards. Figure 2 As shown, conversely, if the active slide bar 112 is pushed upwards, it causes the first folding slide bar 113 to gradually open downwards until the second folding slide bar 114 and the first folding slide bar 113 return to a straight state under the action of the sliding hinge 116, and the linkage mechanism is in an unfolded state, as shown. Figure 1 , 4 As shown.
[0035] In order to enable the left and right units of the linkage mechanism to fold or unfold synchronously, the active slide rods 112 of the left and right units are connected by a sliding hinge 116 on the short side, so that the active slide rods 112 on both sides move up or down synchronously, ensuring that the linkage mechanism unit can fold in both directions.
[0036] Similarly, in order to achieve synchronous folding or unfolding of the linkage mechanism 1, the active slide rods 112 of each linkage mechanism unit 11 are connected by sliding hinges 116 on their short sides, ensuring that the active slide rods 112 move synchronously upward or downward.
[0037] Both the rotating hinge 115 and the sliding hinge 116 are locking hinges to ensure the stability of the angles between each link and each slide, thereby ensuring the reliable deployment and high-precision positioning of the single degree of freedom of the linkage mechanism.
[0038] The linkage drive mechanism 4 is located at the fixed end 3 of the satellite body and includes a drive motor. Its output shaft is connected to the sliding hinge 116 at the beginning of the linkage mechanism 1. By driving the sliding hinge 116 at the beginning to move up and down, it drives the active slide bar 112 connected to it to move up and down synchronously, thereby driving the active slide bar 112 of the entire connected linkage mechanism to move up and down. That is, through the folding and unfolding of the single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism, the antenna panel can be further unfolded and retracted.
[0039] The antenna panel 2 is symmetrically arranged on a set of linkage mechanisms 1 on both sides. Each linkage mechanism unit 11 corresponds to two sub-plates, which are respectively installed on the upper side of the left unit and the right unit. The sub-plates are connected to each other by planar rotary hinges and are also connected to the linkage mechanism 1 by planar rotary hinges. The sub-plates are made of aluminum honeycomb sandwich carbon fiber plates. The planar dimensions of a single sub-plate are no more than 900mm × 500mm in length and width, and the thickness is 25mm, in order to meet the quality and strength requirements of the folding antenna.
[0040] This example describes a foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism. In its non-operational state, corresponding to the satellite launch phase, the structure is completely folded, as shown below. Figure 2 As shown, the angle between the sub-plates of the antenna panel is close to zero degrees, minimizing the structural volume. At this time, the linkage mechanism is also in a retracted state. After the satellite reaches the designated position, the folding structure begins to unfold. Due to the single degree of freedom of the linkage mechanism, the entire linkage mechanism can be unfolded by changing the angle between the links through a single rotation drive device. The folding antenna panel connected to it unfolds synchronously under its drive. When the antenna panel forms a rigid reflective surface, the entire mechanism is unfolded into place. The entire mechanism is locked by a locking hinge, and the folding antenna enters the working state. Figure 1 As shown.
[0041] According to the foldable antenna described in this embodiment, the storage ratio is calculated based on the area of unfolded and folded antennas. Assuming the antenna panel size is 900mm × 500mm and the thickness is 25mm, the storage ratio of the foldable antenna described in this embodiment is = antenna (length × width) / (thickness × width) = (900 × 500) / (25 × 500) = 3600%. It can be seen that the configuration of this foldable antenna can achieve an extremely high storage ratio.
[0042] Finally, it should be noted that the above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiments, those skilled in the art can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments or make equivalent substitutions for some of the technical features. However, any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the protection scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism, mounted on the fixed end (3) of a satellite body, characterized in that, The device includes a linkage mechanism (1), an antenna panel (2), and a linkage drive mechanism (4). The linkage mechanism (1) is formed by the periodic repetition of linkage mechanism units (11). Each linkage mechanism unit (11) includes two parallelogram frames (111) sharing a common short side, which are a left unit and a right unit. The frame (111) of the left unit is provided with an active slide rod (112), a first folding slide rod (113), and a second folding slide rod (114). The active slide rod (112) is parallel to the long side of the frame (111) and can slide back and forth along the short side. One end of the first folding slide rod (113) and the second folding slide rod (114) are connected by a sliding hinge and can slide back and forth along the active slide rod (112). The other end of the second folding slide rod (114) is connected to the left unit. The lower left corner of the frame is connected, and the other end of the first folding slide rod (113) is connected to the long side of the upper side of the left unit frame (111). The right unit has the same structure as the left unit but is obtained by rotating the left unit 180° around the long side. Each active slide rod (112) is connected end to end by a sliding hinge set on the short side and slides in the same direction. The antenna panel (2) includes several sub-plates, which are correspondingly set on the left and right units. When the linkage drive mechanism (4) drives the active slide rod (112) to slide up and down along the short side, the sliding hinge on the active slide rod (112) causes the angle between the first folding slide rod (113) and the second folding slide rod (114) to change, so as to realize the synchronous folding or unfolding of the antenna panel (2) driven by the left and right units of each linkage mechanism unit (11).
2. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the frame (111) is folded, it transforms into a parallelogram structure and when fully unfolded, it transforms into a rectangular structure. When fully unfolded, the second folding slide (114) and the first folding slide (113) are connected in a straight line, forming a 45° angle with the short side of the frame (111).
3. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, The output shaft of the linkage drive mechanism (4) is connected to the sliding hinge on the short side of the first end of the linkage mechanism (1), thereby driving the active slide bar (112) to slide up and down.
4. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, The linkage mechanism (1) is at least one set, with two sets, symmetrically arranged on the fixed end (3) of the star, and the sub-plates of each antenna panel (2) are symmetrically arranged on the linkage mechanism (1).
5. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sub-plates of the antenna panel (2) are connected to each other by a planar rotary hinge, and the sub-plates are connected to the linkage mechanism (1) by the planar rotary hinge.
6. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sub-panel of the antenna panel (2) is made of aluminum honeycomb sandwich carbon fiber plate.
7. A foldable antenna based on a single-degree-of-freedom linkage mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, Both the rotating hinge (115) and the sliding hinge are locking hinges.