CN111555012A - Satellite inflatable antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a satellite inflatable antenna, which at least comprises a flexible antenna folding surface and an unfolding component, the unfolding component at least comprises a first-stage unfolding component and a second-stage unfolding component, the first-stage unfolding component can be outwards expanded under the driving action of applying inflation pressure as driving force to the first-stage unfolding component so as to drive at least part of the folding surface of the flexible antenna to be unfolded, when the first-stage unfolding component is expanded to a first-stage fully-unfolded position, the second stage unfolding component expands in a grading way by means of the driving force applied to the second stage unfolding component in a manner of releasing the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate positioned on the folding surface of the flexible antenna, so that the folding surface of the flexible antenna can be gradually and controllably unfolded from bottom to top in a manner of increasing the effective unfolding area and reducing the unfolding impact overload.

Description

Satellite inflatable antenna

The invention relates to a divisional application of a space expandable inflatable antenna, which has the application number of 201910065416.4, the application date of 2019, 1 month and 23 days and the application type of the invention.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of aerospace technology and antennas, in particular to an inflatable antenna capable of being expanded in space.

Background

The antenna deployability issue is particularly important as satellite sizes become smaller. While the sensors and operating electronics of a miniaturized satellite can be scaled to an extremely small volume, the wavelengths of signals used for communication by such miniaturized satellites do not scale accordingly. Whereas the wavelength of a signal determines the size of the antenna used to transmit the signal, antennas for miniaturized satellites still have dimensions similar to larger satellites. The geostationary orbit satellite and the deep space exploration activities need long-distance communication measurement and control, so that it is very important to ensure that a receiving end has larger signal power, and the antenna area is increased only if the receiving end has larger signal power. Therefore, large and ultra-large antenna systems are necessary conditions and important guarantees for high-orbit electronic reconnaissance satellites, high-orbit mobile communication satellites, deep space exploration satellites and the like, and the size of the antenna is often more than one hundred meters and even larger. The large-scale antenna system built by adopting the traditional space structure member technology has great difficulty, is built in time, and is difficult to apply due to the limitations of excessively large transmission quality and transmission volume and the like. The satellite-borne large deployable antenna is widely applied to various satellites such as geostationary orbit communication satellites, tracking and data, relay satellites, electronic reconnaissance satellites and the like, and can be used as a microwave weapon even in space defense and attack. Due to its wide application prospect, developed countries compete for developing the technology, and invest a lot of time and energy in this respect, and after decades of research, especially in recent 20 years, developed countries have made great progress in space-deployable antenna technology. The research on the field is quite active in China, and various controllable unfolding structures are designed for aerospace and other fields.

Currently, major aerospace countries in the world do a lot of work on inflatable deployable antennas. The inflatable deployable antenna has the advantages of low cost, small storage volume, light weight, high reliability and the like, can realize the performance which is difficult to achieve by the traditional structure, and is an antenna form with wide application prospect. The unfolding aperture D of the solid reflector antenna is between 1.5 and 8m, the ratio of the folded diameter D to the unfolding aperture D is between 0.36 and 0.44, and the ratio of the folded height h to the D is between 0.37 and 0.54; the inflatable expansion caliber is 14m, and the storage rates are 0.06 and 0.14 respectively; the expanded diameter of the metal mesh antenna is 5-15 m, and the receiving rates are 0.07-0.22 and 0.05-0.93 respectively. It can be seen that the two indexes of the inflatable antenna are better than those of the other two antennas, the metal mesh surface antenna is inferior, and the solid reflecting surface antenna is worst. The antenna is accomodate into very little volume before the transmission, and after entering the track, make the structure inflation to the state of expanding through gas, when external temperature reaches a higher value gradually, the flexible material through chemical resin processing takes place the sclerosis effect, also can make the material sclerosis under the irradiation of sun ultraviolet light. Once the technology of the inflatable antenna is mature and successfully applied, the inflatable antenna has the outstanding advantages of small folded volume, light weight and high unfolding reliability, and can possibly replace the structural forms of various conventional ultra-large-caliber mechanical unfolding type space antennas. Although the inflatable deployable antenna has the outstanding characteristics of large storage rate, small mass, high deployment reliability and wide aperture application range, and has very important application prospect in future space exploration, a great number of technical problems need to be overcome and solved in the design and preparation of the inflatable deployable antenna. The space debris and the strong high-energy particle radiation in the deep space environment bring a serious challenge to the selection and design of materials of the inflatable deployable antenna, high form precision is difficult to obtain, the working frequency is low, and the technology is not mature.

The research of the structure packing and unfolding technology is one of the key links for the development of the inflatable unfolding structure. The rocket has limited load bins and high launching cost, the antenna is required to have the characteristics of large storage rate, small occupied space, light weight, high unfolding reliability, low energy consumption and the like, and the complexity of space tasks determines the diversity of the form of the deployable antenna. The structure packing and unfolding technology aims to reduce the occupied volume of the inflatable unfolding structure in the launching process on one hand and stably and reliably unfold the inflatable unfolding structure in the space on the other hand. The technology comprises a structural packaging mode, an inflation mode selection, an inflation unfolding mode selection and the like. Common aeration means may use nitrogen, helium or sublimation gases. The air-inflated structure may be stored and deployed in various manners such as an ejection type and a reel folding type. In the spraying expansion mode, the antenna is packed in the box body when being folded, the packing box cover is firstly opened when being expanded, the reflector airbag immediately pops out of the box body under the action of the spring, then the inflation system starts to work, the reflector airbag and the support rod start to inflate simultaneously until being completely expanded, and finally the expansion process is finished.

The space hardening technology is one of the key links for developing the inflatable expansion type structure. For long-term space application, once the inflation tube serving as the antenna support structure is inflated and expanded in space, the inflation tube needs to be hardened, so that the problems of inflation gas leakage and tension loss caused by the fact that the inflation tube impacts meteor or space fragments, and the surface precision of the antenna is reduced are effectively solved. If the inflation tube is hardened after deployment is complete, it is not necessary to carry a large amount of make-up gas. There are various space hardening techniques, one is hydrogel hardening, which is a method of impregnating a fiber fabric with a water-soluble resin, i.e., hydrogel, and when water molecules are evaporated in a space vacuum environment, the dehydrated gel fabric is hardened. One is the use of thermosetting thermoplastics, with heatable wires or resistance wires embedded in a soft plastic which hardens when heated to a certain temperature, but the process requires a lot of electrical energy, the amount of which depends on the size of the inflated structure. Although the inflatable deployment is a novel deployment technology which is researched in recent years, the inflatable deployment is faced with the technical problems that the deployment process is uncontrollable, irreversible, unstable, easy to leak gas, and the deployment process can cause great impact on the spacecraft.

At present, the space expandable structure is expanded and locked into a stable configuration after being inserted into a track, and space folding is not carried out any more. The development of space-expandable folding structures is promoted by the technical development of on-orbit maintenance, operation, service and the like. The conventional resin-based composite material mainly considers the static or quasi-static mechanical bearing properties of the material such as strength, rigidity and the like, and is mainly used for structural materials. Shape memory resin is a new type of smart material, and when heated above its glass transition temperature, it becomes more flexible, and therefore can be folded or furled by applying an external load thereto. The shape memory resin can keep the folding or folding state unchanged by keeping the external load unchanged and cooling the shape memory resin to be below the glass transition temperature. When the structural member is required to be unfolded, it can be returned to the original prepared shape by simply reheating it above the glass transition temperature. The shape memory composite material mainly considers the dynamic mechanical driving properties of the material such as driving, large deformation (limited deformation) and the like, and has much higher recoverable strain (up to 100 percent of magnitude order) than the conventional resin-based composite material. Shape memory composites are a revolutionary innovation over conventional resin-based composites. The shape memory composite material has the advantages of large elastic modulus, high strength, high deformation restoring force, high motion stability and reliability and good shape retention capacity. The development of intelligent materials and structural technologies, particularly the emergence and rapid development of shape memory polymers and active deformation materials such as composite materials thereof, provides a brand-new application means for the aerospace deployable technology, and greatly promotes the development of the aerospace aircraft deployable structure. The research of the space hardening technology is mainly focused on the selection and analysis of the hardening material, and the development method of the hardening material is different due to the complexity and diversity of the space task. Specifically, the commonly used hardening materials mainly include thermosetting composite materials, ultraviolet light curing composite materials, air inflation reaction composite materials, second order transition and memory polymer composite materials, plasticizers or solvent volatilization curing composite materials, foaming hardening materials, laminated structures of aluminum foils and plastic films, and the like. However, as reported in many documents, although the shape memory resin has a high shape recovery rate, which can generally reach 99.9%, the main disadvantages are poor thermodynamic properties, such as low elastic modulus and strength, low deformation recovery output force, poor motion stability and reliability, severe creep and stress relaxation phenomena, and the like, which affect its application in high precision space payload. Therefore, in order to overcome the defects of the shape memory polymer, the shape memory composite material can be prepared by using high-performance carbon fibers with high modulus and negative thermal expansion coefficient as a reinforcing phase of the shape memory resin. The mechanical properties of shape memory and shape recovery are widely applied in the field of space expandable structures. In designing an inflatable deployment structure, the stiffness, stress distribution, stress magnitude, and deformation due to gravity of the inflatable structure are predicted by calculation. In addition, it is also necessary to address "what initial shape of the inflatable membrane is to achieve the desired design shape after undergoing structural deformation. In terms of manufacturing technology, it is necessary to solve the problem of "being able to accurately cut material from a film and seamlessly join pieces of film", how to obtain a final accurate support structure, and the like.

Chinese patent publication No. CN101369686B discloses a spatially deployable reflector system. The method comprises the following steps: the folding type rib rod is connected with the central cylinder through the connecting joint. Wherein: the folding ring rod and the folding rib rod are respectively connected with the ring rod connecting joint and the rib rod connecting joint to form a ring and rib structure, and the ring and rib structure is connected with the central cylinder through the ring rib connecting joint and the rib cylinder connecting joint to form a rigid framework; the inflatable rings and the hauling ropes are arranged on the rigid framework in a criss-cross mode to form a reflecting surface forming structure. The inflatable ring structure can be solidified after molding, so that the configuration precision of the reflecting surface is improved; the configuration precision of the reflecting surface can be improved through the traction rope; the desired large deployable reflective surface is ultimately formed by a wire mesh or aluminized film structure that is bound to the tow rope. The invention is used for constructing and constructing the large-scale deployable device of the deployable antenna, the reflector or the concentrator with low surface density, high configuration precision and high storage rate.

However, the space provided by the patent can be used for unfolding the reflecting surface system, too many hauling ropes are easy to tangle, and the control is not facilitated; the unfolding and supporting structure of the space-expandable reflecting surface system is mainly formed by combining an inflatable ring and a folding rib rod, and in the unfolding process, the inflatable ring is driven by inflation pressure to unfold and drive the folding rib rod and the whole structure to unfold and form. The inflatable ring and the folding rib rods are made of flexible composite materials, the unfolding process of the inflatable ring and the folding rib rods cannot be effectively controlled, the pressure of the inflatable ring is low in the unfolding process, particularly in the initial stage of inflation and unfolding, the folding rib rods are not completely unfolded, the rigidity of the inflatable ring, the folding rib rods and even the rigidity of the whole reflecting surface system are very low, the whole reflecting surface can be hardly unfolded according to an ideal unfolding sequence, path and speed, the folding rib rods and the inflatable ring are easily wound and collided, even large impact and disturbance can be generated on a spacecraft, and the safety and reliability of the on-orbit operation of the spacecraft are reduced.

Chinese patent publication No. CN107978837A discloses an inflatable flexible antenna and a method for unfolding the same, wherein an antenna assembly is folded inside a container before unfolding, after transmission, after an unfolding command is received by an antenna system, the container is opened to release the antenna assembly, and the antenna assembly is unfolded by a filling material to form a spherical antenna structure. The design structure of the inflatable flexible antenna provided by the patent can reduce the volume and mass of the whole antenna system.

In the inflatable flexible antenna and the unfolding method thereof, the unfolding reliability is low due to the fact that the unfolding process of the inflatable flexible antenna depends on the unfolding of a mechanical structure and the driving mechanism is complex, meanwhile, the filling amount and the filling rate of the inflatable flexible antenna are not controllable due to the fact that the filling of the gas is influenced by the sunlight irradiation angle, more uncontrollable factors exist in the unfolding process, meanwhile, the whole structure can have obvious impact and vibration due to the uncontrollable unfolding process and the influence of the emission impact force when a satellite emits, the anti-interference capacity is poor, and although the storage ratio is improved, the stability and controllability of the unfolding process are poor.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention provides an inflatable antenna capable of being expanded in space, which at least comprises a flexible antenna folding surface and an expanding component, wherein the expanding component is composed of at least two stages of expanding components which can be sequentially driven by taking inflation pressure as driving force and are respectively connected to different heights on the flexible antenna folding surface, the first stage expanding component can be expanded outwards under the driving action of the inflation pressure applied to the first stage expanding component as the driving force to drive at least part of the flexible antenna folding surface to be expanded, and when the first stage expanding component is expanded to a first stage full-expansion position, the second stage expanding component is expanded in a grading manner by the driving force applied to the second stage expanding component in a manner of releasing the shape memory effect of a shape memory material plate positioned on the flexible antenna folding surface, so that the flexible antenna folding surface is controllable in a grading manner from bottom to top to increase the effective expansion area and reduce the expansion area The impact overload mode performs incomplete or complete spatial deployment.

According to the inflatable antenna with the expandable space, the inflation and expansion process of the inflatable antenna is assisted by the combination of the mechanical structure and the shape memory effect of the shape memory polymer composite material, so that the whole grading expansion and controllable process of inflation and expansion can be controlled by the change of the inflation mode, and the structural shape of the antenna can be maintained without continuous inflation, so that the reliability of system expansion is improved while the influence factors of an expansion control link are reduced, and the problems of more control links and poor reliability of an expansion system for the traditional inflatable antenna are solved.

Meanwhile, the invention changes the one-time whole unfolding process of the inflatable antenna into the hierarchical and orderly unfolding controllable process, can effectively utilize the folding and unfolding process of the foldable antenna by combining the unfolding component controlled by gas drive, and can achieve the hierarchical and orderly increase of the effective area of the inflatable antenna by only carrying out temperature rise control on a single point according to the mode that the previous stage provides the unfolding condition of the next stage while unfolding. Meanwhile, the material damping of the shape memory material plate is greatly matched with that of the shape memory material plate, so that severe unfolding impact overload caused by large-area unfolding at the beginning and forced restraint at the ending moment is reduced, the driving of a motion system in the unfolding process is further stable, and the situation that other parts and a spacecraft body are greatly impacted and disturbed is avoided, and the safety and the reliability of the on-orbit operation of the spacecraft are improved.

According to a preferred embodiment, said flexible antenna fold has at least two antenna folds that are folded/unfolded differently from each other, wherein the first antenna folding surface can be gradually unfolded or folded along a preset path through the expansion and contraction of the first-stage unfolding component, the first stage deployment assembly is configured to unlock the first stage deployment assembly in an expansion/contraction direction and drive it to expand/contract outwardly by controllably regulating the flow of air entering the interior of the first stage deployment assembly through at least one first opening back and forth within the interior in a height direction and a longitudinal extension direction of the interior, thereby driving the first antenna folding surface to gradually unfold/fold along a preset path and to be automatically locked by the first-stage unfolding component to be kept at the current unfolding position after unfolding/folding in place.

According to a preferred embodiment, the second antenna folding surface can be gradually unfolded or folded along a predetermined path through the extension and contraction of the second-stage unfolding component, wherein the second stage deployment assembly is configured to incrementally elongate the second stage deployment assembly until abutting the second antenna fold plane by controllably regulating the flow of air entering the interior of the second stage deployment assembly through at least one second opening in a direction of longitudinal extension of the interior, so that the second-stage unfolding component can release the shape memory effect of at least one shape memory material plate positioned on the second antenna folding surface in a grading manner by means of energization and temperature rise, the second antenna folding surface is driven to gradually unfold along a preset path and to be automatically locked by the shape memory material plate after being unfolded in place, so that the second antenna folding surface is kept at the current unfolding position. Preferably, the predetermined path is an extension path in the telescopic direction of the first limit locking mechanism, and the path of the second antenna folding surface is predetermined, so that the unfolding progress of the second antenna folding surface can be effectively grasped.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the first stage deployment assembly includes at least one first inflatable support ring, at least one second inflatable support ring and at least one inflatable ring, wherein at least one of the first and second gas-filled support rings is connected to an edge of the first antenna folded face, respectively, in such a manner as to be arranged continuously at intervals from each other in a direction in which an edge of an open end face of the first antenna folded face extends, the inflatable ring is configured to nest in a collapsed compressed state within the first and second inflatable support rings, and the locking between the first pneumatic support ring and the second pneumatic support ring is released under the driving of taking the pneumatic pressure as the driving force, and the first pneumatic support ring and the second pneumatic support ring are driven to expand outwards/contract inwards relative to each other.

According to a preferred embodiment, the first stage deployment assembly further comprises at least one first limit lock mechanism configured to lock relative displacement between the first and second inflatable support rings by being simultaneously articulated with the first and second inflatable support rings, and to be de-articulated from the first or second inflatable support rings by exerting an external force on the first limit lock mechanism by the inflatable rings being in a gradually expanded state, thereby releasing the locking of the first stage deployment assembly in the expansion/contraction direction.

According to a preferred embodiment, the second antenna folding surface comprises at least one foldable rib provided on the second antenna folding surface corresponding to the second stage unfolding component, wherein the foldable rib is configured to enable the second stage unfolding component to be movably connected with the shape memory material plate provided on the foldable rib in such a way that the second stage unfolding component is driven to be elongated in stages, so that the shape memory material plate can be driven to release its shape memory effect by means of the temperature rise of the resettable heating component provided on the second stage unfolding component, and the second stage unfolding component can be disconnected with the shape memory material plate provided on the foldable rib in such a way that the second stage unfolding component is driven to be further elongated in stages, the shape memory material plate can be driven to release the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate by means of the temperature rise of the resettable heating component arranged on the second-stage unfolding component, and the second antenna folding surface can be kept at the current unfolding position in a mode that the shape memory material plate is cooled and solidified.

According to a preferred embodiment, the second-stage unfolding component at least includes a resettable heating component, the resettable heating component is configured to drive at least a portion of the second antenna folding surface to gradually unfold along the predetermined path in a first working posture by the shape memory material plate releasing its shape memory effect, the first working posture can be elastically transformed into a second working posture after the second antenna folding surface is unfolded along the predetermined path in a next stage, and the first working posture and the second working posture can be respectively and movably connected with the shape memory material plate on the second antenna folding surface at different unfolding levels to drive the shape memory material plate to release its shape memory effect. Preferably, the shape memory material plate is a polymer material with a shape memory effect. The first working posture of the resettable heating assembly is parallel to the telescopic direction of the first limit locking mechanism, the second working posture of the resettable heating assembly is perpendicular to the telescopic direction of the second limit locking mechanism, and heat sources can be provided for the shape memory material plate to release the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate under the two postures.

A method of deploying a space deployable inflatable antenna, the method of deploying comprising at least the steps of: and when the first-stage unfolding assembly is expanded to a first-stage fully-unfolded position, the first-stage fully-unfolded position is an expanded position corresponding to different first-stage expansion degrees controlled by an inflation mode. It may be the position where the first antenna folded surface is fully unfolded. The second-stage unfolding component is subjected to the driving force exerted on the second-stage unfolding component to expand in a grading mode in a mode of releasing the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate positioned on the folding surface of the flexible antenna, so that the folding surface of the flexible antenna is subjected to incomplete or complete space unfolding from bottom to top in a grading and controllable mode in a mode of increasing the effective unfolding area and reducing unfolding impact overload.

According to a preferred embodiment, the flexible antenna fold has at least two antenna folds that are folded/unfolded differently from each other, the unfolding method further comprising the steps of: the first antenna folding surface is gradually unfolded or folded along a preset path through the expansion and contraction of the first-stage unfolding component, the first-stage unfolding component is unlocked in the expansion/contraction direction and driven to expand outwards/contract inwards in a mode that the airflow entering the interior of the first-stage unfolding component through at least one first opening flows back and forth in the interior along the height direction and the longitudinal extension direction of the interior in a controllable mode, and therefore the first antenna folding surface is driven to be gradually unfolded/folded along the preset path and unfolded/folded in place and then is automatically locked by the first-stage unfolding component to be kept at the current unfolding position.

According to a preferred embodiment, the deployment method further comprises the steps of: the second-stage unfolding component is driven to extend in a grading manner until the second-stage unfolding component abuts against the second antenna folding surface by controllably adjusting the mode that the airflow entering the interior of the second-stage unfolding component through the at least one second opening flows along the longitudinal extension direction of the interior, so that the second-stage unfolding component can release the shape memory effect of the at least one shape memory material plate positioned on the second antenna folding surface in a grading manner of electrifying and heating, and the second antenna folding surface is driven to be automatically locked by the shape memory material plate after being gradually unfolded and unfolded in place along the predetermined path and kept at the current unfolding position.

The inflatable antenna provided by the invention at least has the following beneficial technical effects:

(1) according to the inflatable antenna with the expandable space, the inflation and expansion process of the inflatable antenna is assisted by the combination of the mechanical structure and the shape memory effect of the shape memory polymer composite material, so that the whole grading expansion controllable process of inflation and expansion can be controlled by the change of the inflation mode, and the structural shape of the antenna can be maintained without continuous inflation, therefore, the influence factors of the expansion control link are reduced, the reliability of system expansion is improved, and the problems of multiple control links and poor reliability of an inflation antenna expansion system in the prior art are solved.

(2) Meanwhile, the invention changes the one-time whole unfolding process of the inflatable antenna into the hierarchical and orderly unfolding controllable process, can effectively utilize the folding and unfolding process of the foldable antenna by combining the unfolding component controlled by gas drive, and can achieve the hierarchical and orderly increase of the effective area of the inflatable antenna by only carrying out temperature rise control on a single point according to the mode that the previous stage provides the unfolding condition of the next stage while unfolding. Meanwhile, the material damping of the shape memory material plate is greatly matched with that of the shape memory material plate, so that severe unfolding impact overload caused by large-area unfolding at the beginning and forced restraint at the ending moment is reduced, the driving of a motion system in the unfolding process is further stable, and the situation that other parts and a spacecraft body are greatly impacted and disturbed is avoided, and the safety and the reliability of the on-orbit operation of the spacecraft are improved.

(3) The inflatable antenna with the expandable space can be folded and fixed on the bottom plate, so that the envelope size of the antenna structure in a folded state in a satellite transmitting state is effectively reduced, the folded inflatable antenna is ensured to be relatively fixed, the inflatable antenna can bear the transmitting impact force of a transmitting section in the satellite transmitting state to avoid vibration collision, and the inflatable antenna can be safely and reliably transmitted and expanded subsequently.

(4) After the inflatable antenna which can be unfolded in space is unfolded to a certain position, the inflatable antenna which can be unfolded can be relatively stably kept at a required working form position through the interaction of the limiting locking structure which can provide reliable locking and keeping torque for the inflatable antenna and the inflation process.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a simplified connection diagram of a preferred embodiment of the gas filled antenna provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a simplified front view schematic illustration of a preferred embodiment of a hinge assembly provided by the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a simplified side view schematic of one preferred embodiment of a second stage deployment assembly provided by the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified side view schematic of another preferred embodiment of a second stage deployment assembly provided by the present invention; and

fig. 5 is a simplified cross-sectional schematic view of a preferred embodiment of a hinge assembly provided by the present invention.

List of reference numerals

1: first pneumatic support ring 2: second pneumatic support ring 3: inflating ring

4: first limit lock mechanism 5: first antenna folded surface 6: second antenna folding surface

7: plate of shape memory material 8: resettable heating assembly 9: base plate

10: second limit locking mechanism 11: first stage deployment assembly 12: second stage deployment assembly

13: first folding rib plate section 14: second folded rib section 15: hinge assembly

16: support sub-rod 17: third folded rib section 18: fourth folding rib plate section

19: the resettable spring 20: heating plate

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The first stage deployment assembly 11 comprises at least a first inflatable support ring 1 and a second inflatable support ring 2 each defined by an arc and having a hollow interior. The first and second gas-filled support rings 1, 2 may be nestingly connected to each other such that the first antenna fold 5 can be compressed and folded in height and radial directions to reduce the footprint of the first antenna fold 5.

Preferably, the first and second pneumatic support rings 1 and 2 are arranged adjacent to each other at intervals in the circumferential direction in such a manner that the centers of the two circles are located at the same point. Preferably, the device comprises two first inflatable supporting rings 1 and two second inflatable supporting rings 2, wherein the two sides of the first inflatable supporting rings 1 are the second inflatable supporting rings 2 and are respectively connected with the two second inflatable supporting rings 2 in an embedded mode. The first inflatable support ring 1 is nested into the second inflatable support ring 2, or the first inflatable support ring 1 is nested outside the second inflatable support ring 2, or one end of the first inflatable support ring 1 is nested outside one of the second inflatable support rings 2 and the other end is nested inside one of the second inflatable support rings 2, and the unfolding process of the first antenna folded surface 5 is not influenced.

The inflatable antenna comprises at least a flexible and foldable inflation ring 3 with a shape defined by a circle, the inflation ring 3 being nested in a folded compressed state within a first inflation support ring 1 and a second inflation support ring 2. The state of folding and compressing can be that the inflating ring 3 has a plurality of folding marks along the circumferential direction, the longitudinal extension direction of the folding marks is parallel to the central axis direction of the inflating ring 3, the shape of the outer wall is similar to the common expandable water pipe structure, or other structures which can be folded and placed in the inner cavity of the first inflating and supporting ring 1 and/or the second inflating and supporting ring 2 are not further limited.

Preferably, the first inflatable supporting ring 1 and the second inflatable supporting ring 2 adjacent to the first inflatable supporting ring are fixed relative to each other through a first limit locking mechanism 4. The first limit lock mechanism 4 is arranged to be fixed relative to the outer wall of the inflatable ring 3 when the first limit lock mechanism 4 is disengaged from the first inflatable support ring 1 and the second inflatable support ring 2 and thereby limit the outwardly extending movement of the inflatable ring 3 at the first limit lock mechanism 4. Namely, after the first limit locking mechanism 4 is ejected out of the first pneumatic support ring 1 and the second pneumatic support ring 2 by the pneumatic ring 3, the first limit locking mechanism still remains on the first pneumatic support ring 1 or the second pneumatic support ring 2, and the pneumatic ring 3 is prevented from extending to the outside of the first pneumatic support ring 1 or the second pneumatic support ring 2 along the position of the first limit locking mechanism 4, namely, the outward extending movement of the pneumatic ring 3 extends towards the direction perpendicular to the outer wall of the pneumatic ring 3.

Preferably, the first limit lock mechanism 4 is configured to be capable of locking and thereby restricting relative sliding between the first and second pneumatic support rings 1 and 2 by way of the first and second pneumatic support rings 1 and 2 being nested in each other in the respective ring body extension directions, and to be capable of unlocking and thereby releasing relative sliding between the first and second pneumatic support rings 1 and 2 by way of the pneumatic ring 3 being converted from the collapsed compressed state to the expanded state. Preferably, the first limit locking mechanism 4 may be a limit locking rod whose rod body extends in a direction perpendicular to the outer wall of the first inflation support ring 1. Preferably, when the first inflatable support ring 1 is nested outside the second inflatable support ring 2, the limiting locking rod can be limited in a manner of sequentially penetrating through a first through hole of the first inflatable support ring 1 and a second through hole of the second inflatable support ring 2, and the limiting locking rod is kept in a limiting state in a manner that one end of a resettable elastic assembly arranged on a rod body of the limiting locking rod is fixedly connected to the inner wall of the first through hole.

Preferably, in the process of converting the inflating ring 3 from the folded and compressed state to the expanded state, since the inflating ring 3 in the expanded state abuts against the end of the limit locking rod and pushes the limit locking rod to exit from the first through hole and the second through hole, the first inflating and supporting ring 1 and the second inflating and supporting ring 2 can be pushed to move towards the direction of disengaging the nested connection while the inflating ring 3 is inflating, so that the first antenna folding face 5 in the compressed and folded state can be expanded preliminarily under the condition that the inflating ring 3 is gradually expanded and expanded.

The inside of the inflating ring 3 at least comprises a gas flow which can be controllably adjusted and enters the inside of the inflating ring 3 through at least one first opening, the at least one first opening is arranged on the outer wall of the inflating ring 3, the gas can flow back and forth in the inflating ring 3 in a mode of respectively extending the inflating ring 3 along the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction of the inflating ring 3, the first inflating support ring 1 and the second inflating support ring 2 can be released from locking with each other and can relatively move towards the direction far away from each other when the inflating ring 3 extends, and therefore the first antenna folding face 5 can be unfolded incompletely or completely in a space mode of increasing the effective unfolding area and reducing unfolding impact overload.

The first stage unfolding component further comprises a second stage unfolding component 12 arranged on the support secondary rod 16, the second stage unfolding component 12 at least comprises a second limit locking mechanism 10 used for unfolding and/or holding the first antenna folding surface 5, the second limit locking mechanism 10 is arranged on the support secondary rod 16 in a manner of being capable of extending towards the direction far away from the support secondary rod 16 relative to the support secondary rod 16, wherein the manner of being capable of extending towards the direction far away from the support secondary rod 16 relative to the support secondary rod 16 can be a telescopic manner or a folding and unfolding manner, and is not limited to an extending manner. Preferably, the second positive locking mechanism 10 may be of a pneumatic rod-like construction, capable of being extended in stages and relatively fixed in the current length position under continued inflation of gas. Climbing can be achieved by inflating the closed inner cavity of the second limiting locking mechanism 10, the fluid-driven bionic robot has certain bearing capacity and active deformation capacity, the defect that a rigid material is large and heavy can be greatly reduced due to the fact that the fluid-driven bionic robot is made of soft materials, and the control flexibility of the fluid-driven bionic robot is far superior to that of a traditional rigid material. Preferably, the resettable heating assembly 8 is always held at the top of the second positive locking mechanism 10 to connect with the hinge assembly 15.

Preferably, the second antenna folding surface 6 is folded in a layer-by-layer folding manner. The second antenna folded surface 6 is similar to a circular ring with a certain width, and the second antenna folded surface 6 is folded layer by layer along the width direction thereof, so that the folded surface at the outer edge is folded above the inner layer folded surface. A folding rib is provided at a position on the second antenna folding surface 6 corresponding to the second-stage unfolding component 12, the folding rib is composed of a plurality of folding rib segments connected to each other, and the folding rib is configured to be foldable together with the second antenna folding surface 6 in the width direction of the second antenna folding surface 6. Every two folding rib plate sections are connected in a rotating mode through the hinge assembly 15, the two folding rib plate sections are not completely tightly attached, a gap used for connecting the resettable heating assembly 8 is kept, the gap allows the resettable heating assembly 8 to be placed between the two folding rib plate sections and abut or be attached to the hinge assembly 15, and the hinge assembly 15 between the two folding rib plate sections can stretch in a given direction under the condition that the resettable heating assembly 8 is electrified to be heated, so that the two folding rib plate sections are unfolded to be parallel to each other.

As shown in fig. 2, the hinge assembly 15 has at least one plate of shape memory material secured thereto, each of which is capable of driving and securing the hinge structure. When the shape memory material plate is heated by the resettable heating component 8, the shape memory material plate can be bent into a bending state with a certain included angle between 0 and 180 degrees after the temperature of the shape memory material plate is raised to be equal to or higher than the glass transition temperature of the shape memory material plate; cooling to below the glass transition temperature under the constraint condition, removing the constraint after the shape memory material plate is hardened, and keeping the shape memory material plate in a bent state without recovering; the temperature of the plate of shape memory material is again increased upon further heating until it rises above its glass transition temperature, whereupon the plate of shape memory material automatically deforms back to its unfolded state prior to bending, i.e. deployment of the hinge assembly 15 is effected.

As shown in fig. 5, the second limit lock mechanism 10 is pushed by the gas to extend along a predetermined direction, and the resettable heating element 8 is provided on the top end of the second limit lock mechanism 10. Wherein, the heating plate that heating assembly 8 can reset includes but reset spring and the outside is equipped with the zone of heating, but reset spring is configured to be tensile state and makes the heating plate have relative second limit locking mechanism 10 towards the motion trend of the direction pivoted of being close to second limit locking mechanism 10 to can be further stretched when the heating plate is rotated towards the direction of keeping away from second limit locking mechanism 10 relative second limit locking mechanism 10. The heating plate with the heating layer disposed outside may be other devices for heating by electricity, such as resistance heating, and is not limited to only one structure. The second limit lock mechanism 10 may be a gas-driven rod or the like that can be extended in stages and relatively fixed while maintaining a current length under the condition of gas injection. Preferably, the folding of the second antenna folding surface 6 can be controlled by providing a cord connecting the second limit lock mechanism 10 and the folding rib, respectively.

As shown in fig. 3, the folding ribs comprise at least a first folding rib section 13, a second folding rib section 14, a third folding rib section 17 and a fourth folding rib section 18, which are hinged to each other via a hinge assembly 15, respectively. When the extending directions of the second limit locking mechanism 10 and the support secondary rod 16 are in the same direction, under the holding of the resettable spring in a stretching state, the heating plate is positioned on the outer wall of the hinge assembly 15 between the first folding rib plate section 13 and the second folding rib plate section 14, and is tightly attached to or movably connected with the outer wall of the hinge assembly 15, so that when the heating plate is electrified for heating and temperature rising, the shape memory material plate movably connected with the heating plate in the hinge assembly 15 is softened and automatically deforms and returns to an unfolded state before being bent, and meanwhile, the shape memory material plate drives the second folding rib plate section 14 to turn outwards, thereby realizing the first-stage unfolding of the second antenna folding surface 6.

As shown in fig. 4, and as the temperature of the hinge assembly 15 between the first folding rib section 13 and the second folding rib section 14 decreases until below the glass transition temperature, the hinge assembly 15 hardens to remain in the unfolded state and does not return, and the first folding rib section 13 and the second folding rib section 14 are in the unfolded state at 180 ° or other predetermined angle. Meanwhile, as the second folding rib section 14 is turned outwards to apply a downward acting force to the heating plate positioned below the second folding rib section, the heating plate is converted from being perpendicular to the second limit locking mechanism 10 to being parallel to the body of the second limit locking mechanism 10, and at the moment, the second limit locking mechanism 10 is positioned between the first folding rib section 13 and the second folding rib section 14, the second limit locking mechanism 10 is extended by one stage through continuously filling gas, the second limit locking mechanism 10 drives the resettable heating component 8 positioned at the top end to move until the resettable heating component 8 is positioned at the hinge assembly 15 between the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section 17, and the shape memory material plate in the hinge assembly 15 is driven to soften and automatically deform to the unfolded state before being bent due to the thermal effect of the resettable heating component 8, the shape memory material plate drives the third folding rib section 17 to turn outwards, thereby realizing the secondary unfolding of the second antenna folding surface 6, and the resettable heating component 8 leaves the hinge component 15 because the second limit locking mechanism 10 is extended by one step by continuously inflating the gas, and the temperature of the hinge component 15 between the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section is reduced to be lower than the glass transition temperature and then is hardened, so that the unfolding state between the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section is kept and the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section are not restored.

Because the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section 17 are in a flat state of 180 degrees or other preset angles, and the heating plate is positioned below the hinge assembly 15 between the second folding rib section 14 and the third folding rib section 17 and is parallel to the second limit locking mechanism 10 body, the second limit locking mechanism 10 is further extended by continuously filling gas, the resettable heating assembly 8 is driven to move towards the hinge assembly 15 between the third folding rib section 17 and the fourth folding rib section 18, and the fourth folding rib section 18 is not unfolded and is folded above the third folding rib section 17 at the moment, so that the heating plate is removed from downward acting force applied to the heating plate, and moves towards the direction close to the second limit locking mechanism 10 body under the action of elastic potential energy released by the resettable spring, until it is on the outer wall of the hinge assembly 15 between the third and fourth folded rib sections 17, 18 and is in close abutment or otherwise movably connected with the outer wall of the hinge assembly 15 at that location, so that the sheet of shape memory material provided in the hinge assembly 15 at that location softens and deforms automatically, returning to its previously deployed condition.

Preferably, in the case where the air ring 3 is opened to a desired position, which is generally referred to as a position where the air ring 3 is located when the air ring 3 is fully opened so that the rotation angle between the support sub-bar 16 and the base plate 9 is not less than 90 °, the air is continuously charged so that the vent valve at which the air ring 3 communicates with the second limit lock mechanism 10 is opened to provide the auxiliary traction driving force to the second limit lock mechanism 10, and the second limit lock mechanism 10 is gradually extended with the charging of the air, and the second limit lock mechanism 10 can be gradually extended and/or locked at the current length by controlling the manner of charging/the manner of maintaining the current air pressure/the manner of stopping the continuous charging.

The second stage unfolding component 12 at least comprises a support auxiliary rod 16 for supporting the first inflatable support ring 1 and the second inflatable support ring 2, and two ends of the support auxiliary rod 16 are respectively and movably connected with at least one vertex on the bottom plate 9 and the outer wall of the first inflatable support ring 1 or the second inflatable support ring 2. Because the first inflating and supporting ring 1 and the second inflating and supporting ring 2 are respectively fixed on the rod body of the supporting secondary rod 16 in a manner of being capable of rotating relative to the supporting secondary rod, the first inflating and supporting ring 1 and the second inflating and supporting ring 2 move towards the direction of disconnection relative to each other in a manner of rotating towards the direction far away from the bottom plate 9 according to the corresponding supporting secondary rods 16, and because one end of the first antenna folding surface 5 in a compressed and folded state is connected with the end part of the supporting secondary rod 16, the supporting secondary rod 16 drives the first antenna folding surface 5 to fold inwards or unfold outwards while rotating. Preferably, the support sub-rod 16 is configured to be capable of unidirectional rotation about the apex of the base plate 9 when the first antenna folding surface 5 is incompletely spatially unfolded to provide a mechanical locking function to the first inflatable support ring 1 or the second inflatable support ring 2 after being unfolded in place, and to automatically reverse the return in a manner of folding at least part of the flexible antenna until the holding of the unidirectional rotation of the support sub-rod 16 is released by the second limit locking mechanism 10 by an external force applied thereto. Wherein the one-way rotation is that when the first folded antenna surface 5 is expanded outwards by inflation, the support auxiliary rod 16 can keep the rotation angle relative to the bottom plate 9, so as to keep the first folded antenna surface 5 at the corresponding expansion position, and the first folded antenna surface 5 can not be folded by reverse rotation under the condition that the inflation is stopped.

Wherein the second limit lock mechanism 10 is configured to be movably connected to the support sub-lever 16 and movable between a locked position for restricting movement of the support sub-lever 16 in at least one rotational direction by the second limit lock mechanism 10 being rotationally connected to the support sub-lever 16 and an unlocked position for releasing the restriction of movement applied to the support sub-lever 16 by the second limit lock mechanism 10 being out of connection with the support sub-lever 16 by the external force applied thereto. Preferably, the second limit locking mechanism 10 can be a pawl, a ratchet wheel matched with the pawl is arranged at the end part, close to the bottom plate 9, of the support auxiliary rod 16, and when the pawl is located at a locking position, the ratchet wheel can only rotate in one direction, and the reverse movement trend of the ratchet wheel is clamped on the pawl in meshed connection with the ratchet wheel; when the pawl is located the unlocked position, the reverse motion trend of ratchet is relieved, contains the automatic reverse reset under the effect of gravity or other external force from this at least, drives the partly flexible antenna folded surface that incompletely or complete space expandes simultaneously and folds and accomodate. Preferably, the bottom plate 9 has a controllable rotating rod and an elastic component arranged on the supporting auxiliary rod 16, the controllable rotating rod is configured to be movably connected with the second limit locking mechanism 10, and the controllable rotating rod can be controlled to move back and forth relative to the second limit locking mechanism 10 under the condition of being electrified. Preferably, the working principle of the controllable rotating rod is similar to that of the valve core in the two-position five-way valve, the valve core is restored by the action of a spring force when the power is off, and the valve core is attracted to the energized side when the power is on, so that the valve core is controlled to move back and forth. When the controllable rotary rod moves forward to be positioned at one side of the second limit lock mechanism 10, the second limit lock mechanism 10 is limited from further relative rotation of the corresponding side, thereby limiting the rotation of the support sub-rod 16 relative to the base plate, but the second limit lock mechanism 10 can be pushed to move towards the other side, thereby providing that the support sub-rod 16 moves in one direction in a manner of stretching the elastic component but the opposite movement trend is locked; when the controllable rotating rod moves backwards to be separated from the movable connection between the second limit locking mechanisms 10, the second limit locking mechanisms 10 are not limited to relative rotation on two sides any more, so that the reverse movement trend of the support auxiliary rod 16 is relieved, and the support auxiliary rod 16 can automatically reversely rotate and reset in a mode that the elastic potential energy is released by the elastic component.

The inflatable antenna at least comprises a flexible antenna folding surface, and the flexible antenna folding surface is divided into a first antenna folding surface 5 and a second antenna folding surface 6 according to different unfolding modes and folding modes. The first antenna folded surface 5 and the second antenna folded surface 6 constitute a flexible antenna folded surface in an integrally molded manner. Wherein, at least part of the flexible antenna folding surface may be the first antenna folding surface 5. The unfolding shape of the first folded antenna surface 5 is defined by an open hemispherical shape, the annular ends of the first folded antenna surface 5 are fixedly connected with the outer wall parts of the first inflatable support ring 1 and the second inflatable support ring 2, and the vertex of the first folded antenna surface 5 is positioned on the bottom plate 9 for receiving the inflatable antenna, so that the first folded antenna surface 5 can be folded or unfolded in a relative sliding manner between the first inflatable support ring 1 and the second inflatable support ring 2. The first antenna folded surface 5 is configured to extend along a curved surface oriented obliquely with respect to an end surface collectively formed by the first and second gas-filled support rings 1, 2 and the gas-filled ring 3 when the gas-filled ring 3 is inflated.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments are exemplary, and that those skilled in the art, having benefit of the present disclosure, may devise various arrangements that are within the scope of the present disclosure and that fall within the scope of the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the present specification and figures are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the claims. The scope of the invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims (10)

1. Satellite inflation antenna, comprising at least a flexible antenna fold and an unfolding assembly, characterized in that the unfolding assembly comprises at least a first stage unfolding assembly (11) and a second stage unfolding assembly (12), wherein,

the first-stage unfolding component (11) can be outwards expanded under the driving action of inflation pressure applied to the first-stage unfolding component to drive at least part of the folding surface of the flexible antenna to unfold, and when the first-stage unfolding component (11) is expanded to a first-stage fully unfolded position, the second-stage unfolding component (12) is expanded in a grading mode in a mode of releasing the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate (7) located on the folding surface of the flexible antenna due to the application of the driving force applied to the second-stage unfolding component, so that the folding surface of the flexible antenna can be unfolded in a grading and controllable mode from bottom to top in a grading mode to increase the effective unfolding area and reduce unfolding impact overload to be incompletely or fully unfolded.

2. The satellite inflation antenna of claim 1, wherein the first stage deployment assembly (11) and the second stage deployment assembly (12) controlled by air driving are combined to effectively utilize the folding and unfolding processes of the folding antenna, and only a single point is required to be subjected to temperature rise control, so that the effective area of the inflation antenna can be sequentially increased in stages in a manner that the previous stage provides the unfolding condition of the next stage while the previous stage is unfolded.

3. The satellite inflation antenna of claim 2, wherein the space deployable inflation antenna is relatively stably retained in a desired operational configuration after deployment of the inflation antenna to a position by providing positive locking structure that provides positive locking retention torque for the inflation antenna to interact with the inflation process.

4. Satellite dish according to claim 3, characterised in that said flexible antenna fold has a first (5) and a second (6) antenna fold that are folded/unfolded differently from each other,

the first stage unfolding component (11) is configured to release the locking of the first stage unfolding component (11) in the expansion/contraction direction and drive the first stage unfolding component (11) to expand/contract outwards and inwards by controllably adjusting the manner that the airflow entering the interior of the first stage unfolding component (11) through at least one first opening flows back and forth in the interior along the longitudinal extension direction of the interior, so that the first antenna folding surface (5) is gradually unfolded/folded along a preset path and is automatically locked by the first stage unfolding component (11) to be kept in the current unfolding position after being unfolded/folded in place.

5. Satellite dish according to claim 4, characterised in that the second stage deployment assembly (12) is configured to drive the second stage deployment assembly (12) in stages to elongate until abutment against the second antenna fold (6) by controllably regulating the flow of the gas flow entering the interior of the second stage deployment assembly (12) via at least one second opening in the direction of longitudinal extension of the interior, so that the second-stage unfolding component (12) can release the shape memory effect of at least one shape memory material plate (7) on the second antenna folding surface (6) in a grading manner by means of electrifying and warming, thereby driving the second antenna folding surface (6) to gradually unfold along a preset path and automatically lock by means of the shape memory material plate (7) after the second antenna folding surface is unfolded to a position.

6. Satellite inflation antenna according to claim 5, characterized in that the first stage deployment assembly (11) comprises at least one first inflation support ring (1), at least one second inflation support ring (2) and at least one inflation ring (3), wherein,

at least one of the first and second gas-filled support rings (1, 2) is connected to the edge of the first folded antenna surface (5) in a manner of being continuously arranged at intervals along the extending direction of the open end surface edge of the first folded antenna surface (5), the gas-filled ring (3) is configured to be nested in the first and second gas-filled support rings (1, 2) in a folded and compressed state, and the locking between the first and second gas-filled support rings (1, 2) is released and the first and second gas-filled support rings (1, 2) are driven to expand outwards/contract inwards relative to each other under the driving action of the gas-filled pressure as the driving force.

7. Satellite deployment antenna according to claim 6, characterized in that said first stage deployment assembly (11) further comprises at least one first limit locking mechanism (4), said first limit locking mechanism (4) being configured to be able to lock the relative displacement between said first inflatable support ring (1) and said second inflatable support ring (2) by being simultaneously articulated with said first inflatable support ring (1) and said second inflatable support ring (2) and to be able to be detached from being articulated with said first inflatable support ring (1) or said second inflatable support ring (2) by exerting an external force on said first limit locking mechanism (4) by said inflatable rings (3) assuming a gradually expanded state, so as to release the locking of said first stage deployment assembly (11) in the expansion/contraction direction.

8. Satellite dish as in claim 7, wherein said second folding antenna surface (6) comprises at least one foldable rib provided on said second folding antenna surface (6) in correspondence of said second stage unfolding assembly (12), wherein,

the foldable rib is configured to enable the second stage unfolding component (12) to be movably connected with the shape memory material plate (7) arranged on the foldable rib by the second stage unfolding component (12) being driven to be elongated in a graded manner, so that the shape memory material plate (7) can drive the shape memory material plate (7) to release the shape memory effect of the shape memory material plate by the heating of the resettable heating component (8) arranged on the second stage unfolding component (12), and enable the second stage unfolding component (12) to be disconnected with the shape memory material plate (7) arranged on the foldable rib by the second stage unfolding component (12) being driven to be further elongated in a graded manner, so that the shape memory material plate (7) can drive the shape memory material plate (7) by the heating of the resettable heating component (8) arranged on the second stage unfolding component (12) ) Releasing its shape memory effect and the second antenna folding surface (6) being able to remain in the current unfolded position in such a way that the plate of shape memory material (7) cools and solidifies.

9. Satellite dish according to claim 8, characterised in that the second stage of deployment elements (12) provided on the secondary support bar (16) comprise at least a second limit locking mechanism (10) for deploying and/or retaining the first antenna folded surface (5), the second limit locking mechanism (10) being provided on the secondary support bar (16) in such a way as to be able to extend with respect to the secondary support bar (16) in a direction away from the secondary support bar (16).

10. Satellite inflation antenna according to claim 9, characterized in that the first inflation support ring (1) and the second inflation support ring (2) are arranged at a spacing adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction in such a way that their centres are at the same point,

the two sides of the first inflatable supporting ring (1) are the second inflatable supporting rings (2) and are respectively connected with the two second inflatable supporting rings (2) in an embedded mode.

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