Collision-Free Deployments of Compact Stacks with Spring-Loaded Hinges

摘要

This paper proposes an optimization framework to determine spring stiffness at various hinge lines that allow compact stacks actuated by spring-loaded hinges to deploy bi-directionally into a flat surface without collision. Since the system-of-interest processes multiple degrees of freedom (DoFs), there are many potential deployment paths, some of which result in facet collisions. With various sets of initial conditions, our dynamic simulation enabled by a rigid multi-body dynamics analysis allows us to obtain the trajectory of each panel throughout the deployment process. The proximal distances between any pair of panels can thus be obtained. By maximizing the proximal distances, our optimization package searches for an optimal set of spring stiffness that deploys the compact stacks safely. Ensuring a collision-free deployment process is crucial in applications such as deploying solar panels of satellites as collisions may lead to a very large impulsive force and thus be detrimental to the system.