New Deployable Structure and Its Rigid Body Motion

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new deployable structure for huge solar cell panels in space such as a Solar Power Satellite (SPS) and simulate its rigid body motion. The present study proposes a new deployment system to move some square panels in two directions simultaneously and stabilize the structure with a phenomenon such as snap-through, which is composed of a scissors mechanism, springs, and tilted rotational axes. The first half of this paper presents its composition and non-linear static analysis of its stable structure with the springs. The second half shows a 3D-CG of its rigid body motion as an unstable structure without springs, and explains how to simulate it in consideration of thickness of panels and size of joints.