CN113320718B

CN113320718B - Replaceable module butt joint device

Info

Publication number: CN113320718B
Application number: CN202110685690.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨丽丽; 孔祥龙; 李文龙; 尤超蓝; 许浩; 黄俊杰
Original assignee: Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering
Current assignee: Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering
Priority date: 2021-06-21
Filing date: 2021-06-21
Publication date: 2022-12-13
Anticipated expiration: 2041-06-21
Also published as: CN113320718A

Abstract

The invention relates to a novel replaceable module butt joint device in the technical field of spaceflight, which comprises a passive end and an active end, wherein the passive end is connected with the active end through a connecting piece; the passive end comprises a spacecraft mounting plate, a position correcting sleeve, an electric connector female head and a lock rod, wherein the position correcting sleeve, the electric connector female head and the lock rod are connected to the spacecraft mounting plate; the driving end comprises a module mounting plate, a position correcting rod, an electric connector male head, a locking mechanism and a driving mechanism; the driving end moves towards the driven end, the position correcting rod is inserted into the position correcting sleeve in an abutting mode and guides the driving end to move towards the driven end continuously, after the locking rod enters a preset position, the driving mechanism drives the locking mechanism to grab the locking rod and lock the locking rod, and the female head of the electric connector is connected with the male head of the electric connector in an inserting mode. The invention adjusts the position and posture deviation between the passive end and the active end by arranging the adaptive position deviation adjusting structure, thereby effectively improving the tolerance range of the passive end and the active end.

Description

Replaceable module butt joint device

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of spaceflight, in particular to a replaceable module docking device for on-orbit maintenance and on-orbit assembly tasks.

Background

In recent years, in order to meet the requirements of long service life and performance upgradable in-orbit of a space high-value spacecraft, the requirements of in-orbit replacement of core stand-alone components influencing the service life of a platform and stand-alone components frequently updated are provided. Meanwhile, with the common application of spacecraft modular design, the in-orbit assembly method becomes a new trend for spacecraft construction. The module docking mechanism is the basis of the replaceable module technology, and therefore, in order to support the in-orbit maintenance and in-orbit assembly technology of the spacecraft, the design of the replaceable module docking mechanism for in-orbit service and in-orbit assembly needs to be developed.

In order to meet the installation requirement of a modular spacecraft single machine load standard replaceable module, a module docking mechanism is required to have stronger universality, and meanwhile, functions of guiding, capturing, locking, inserting of an electric connector and the like are required to be provided in the docking process, so that the replaceable module and the spacecraft can be allowed to have a certain pose error in the docking process, the replaceable module is light and miniaturized as far as possible, and more layout space is provided for single machine loads in the replaceable module.

At present, the US rail express train (OE) plan in 2007 is to perform on-orbit replacement of two functional modules for a target satellite, the interface device of the replaceable module adopts a heterogeneous design, a typical taper rod guiding form of a space docking mechanism and a locking form of a cylindrical cam are adopted, and the replaceable module has good stability, but the envelope size of the interface device is large, and the occupied space in the replaceable module is large. Be applied to Intelligent Space System Interface (ISSI) device of German iBOSS project for the isomorphic design of variant, adopt the locking form of annular buckle to guide the taper rod integration an organic whole with electric connector and interface based on lightweight design thought, have the accurate, the compact structure's of butt joint advantage, but the transmission mode of interface is complicated, needs consider the influence of mechanical cumulative error to the locker. According to the standard docking mechanism of the replaceable module, which is designed by taking the international typical modularized spacecraft project as reference at Nanjing aerospace university in 2016, the docking of the replaceable module is realized in a screw-nut matching mode, the transmission scheme in the docking mechanism is further simplified, and the effective load space in the replaceable module is enlarged, but the scheme adopts a guide structure with a cylindrical guide rod and a guide sleeve matched, so that the docking tolerance capability is insufficient.

With a search for prior art, chinese invention patent publication No. CN106132832B, discloses a spacecraft docking system, a method and an apparatus for docking a spacecraft, the apparatus comprising an elongated member associated with a docking structure for a spacecraft, a motion system configured to axially move the elongated member such that the docking structure for the spacecraft moves, each of the elongated members being configured to move independently, and a force management system connecting the motion system to the elongated member during the motion of the elongated member and configured to limit the force applied by each of the elongated members to a desired threshold value. However, the above techniques have the following disadvantages: the butt joint device has the disadvantages of large occupied space and insufficient butt joint tolerance capability of the slender components.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a replaceable module docking device.

The invention provides a replaceable module butt joint device, which comprises a passive end and an active end, wherein the passive end is connected with the active end;

the passive end comprises a spacecraft mounting plate, a position correcting sleeve, an electric connector female head and a lock rod, the position correcting sleeve, the electric connector female head and the lock rod are connected to the spacecraft mounting plate, the position correcting sleeve is symmetrically arranged on two sides of the lock rod, and the electric connector female head is arranged between the position correcting sleeve and the lock rod;

the driving end comprises a module mounting plate, position correcting rods, a male head of an electric connector, a locking mechanism and a driving mechanism, the position correcting rods, the male head of the electric connector and the locking mechanism are connected onto the module mounting plate, the male head of the electric connector is positioned between the two position correcting rods, and the driving mechanism is in transmission connection with the locking mechanism;

the driving end moves towards the passive end, the position correcting rod is inserted into the position correcting sleeve in a butt joint mode and guides the driving end to move towards the passive end, after the locking rod enters a preset position, the driving mechanism drives the locking mechanism to grab the locking rod and lock, and the female head of the electric connector is connected with the male head of the electric connector in an inserting mode.

In some embodiments, the position correcting sleeve is funnel-shaped, the position correcting sleeve hangs upside down on the spacecraft mounting plate, and the position correcting rod enters the position correcting sleeve from the end with the larger opening.

In some embodiments, the number of the female electrical connectors is two, the two female electrical connectors are symmetrically disposed on two sides of the lock bar, and the male electrical connectors are disposed to be matched with the female electrical connectors.

In some embodiments, the locking bar is T-shaped, and the locking bar is hung upside down on the spacecraft mounting plate.

In some embodiments, the locking mechanism includes screw rods, jaws and nuts, two sets of nuts are rotatably connected to the module mounting plate at a certain distance, two screw rods are respectively screwed with the two sets of nuts, the end portions of the two screw rods located between the two sets of nuts are respectively connected with one set of jaws, and the driving mechanism drives the two screw rods to approach or separate from each other by driving the two sets of nuts to rotate;

after the two lead screws are close to each other to a preset position, the two groups of clamping jaws are in contact with and locked on the T-shaped end plate of the lock rod, and the driven end and the driving end are locked; after the two lead screws are mutually far away from the preset position, the two groups of clamping jaws release the lock rod, and the driven end and the driving end are unlocked.

In some embodiments, the jaws are wedge-shaped.

In some embodiments, the claws are hinged to the end portions of the screw rod, the two groups of claws move to the end plate of the lock rod and then move to the rod body of the lock rod or the end portions of the two groups of claws, and when the screw rod is continuously driven to approach each other, the claws rotate through the hinge shafts and pull the lock rod to continuously move towards the direction of the driving end.

In some embodiments, the driving mechanism includes a motor, an optical axis and nut gears, the motor drives the optical axis to rotate, two sets of the nut gears are rotatably connected to two ends of the optical axis, and the two sets of the nut gears are respectively rotatably connected to two sets of the nuts.

In some embodiments, the active end further includes two sets of support components, two sets of support components are symmetrically installed between the two position correcting rods, the support components include a support cylinder and a dynamic pressure head, one end of the support cylinder is fixed on the module mounting plate, the dynamic pressure head is installed at the other end of the support cylinder, and after the passive end is close to the active end, the dynamic pressure head elastically contacts the spacecraft mounting plate and adjusts the relative position of the passive end and the active end.

In some embodiments, the support assembly further comprises a spring, the support cylinder is of a cavity structure, one end of the spring is fixed at the bottom end in the cylinder of the support cylinder, and the other end of the spring is provided with a dynamic pressure head which can be pressed into the support cylinder.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

1. the invention adjusts the position and posture deviation between the passive end and the active end by arranging the adaptive position deviation adjusting structure, thereby effectively improving the tolerance range of the passive end and the active end.

2. After the active end and the passive end are butted and locked, the invention has compact structure, small space occupation of envelope size and butt joint direction, and is more beneficial to the layout of a single machine in a replaceable module.

3. The motor drives the gear pair mechanism to drive, the capturing, locking and unlocking actions can be repeatedly carried out, and the motor has high reliability and good repeatability.

4. According to the invention, the connection relation between the clamping jaw and the lead screw in the locking assembly is optimized to be hinged, so that the clamping jaw is changed from a horizontal state to a vertical state under the condition that the lead screw axially moves, the relative displacement between the driving end and the driven end is increased, and the driving end and the driven end are further ensured to be locked in place.

5. The support assembly is arranged at the active end, so that double adjustment can be formed with the position deviation adjusting structure, the position and attitude tolerance range of the active end and the passive end is further expanded, and the adjusting performance of the butt joint mechanism is improved.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon reading of the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments with reference to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a replaceable module docking mechanism according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an initial docking state of the docking mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a beginning state of a docking process of a replaceable module docking mechanism according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a state in which a replaceable module docking mechanism according to the present invention is in a docking process;

fig. 5 is a butt-joint locking state of a replaceable module docking mechanism according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific examples. The following examples will assist those skilled in the art in further understanding the invention, but are not intended to limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. All falling within the scope of the present invention.

Example 1

The invention provides a docking mechanism of a replaceable module for a spacecraft, which comprises a passive end 1 and an active end 2 for locking and unlocking the passive end 1, as shown in figure 1. The passive end 1 mainly comprises a spacecraft mounting plate 11, a position correcting sleeve 12, an electric connector female head 13 and a lock rod 14. The spacecraft mounting plate 11 can be fixed on the butt joint surface of the spacecraft through screws and the like, the position correcting sleeve 12, the female head 13 of the electric connector and the lock rod 14 are fixedly mounted on the other surface opposite to the butt joint surface of the spacecraft, the lock rod 14 is preferably mounted at the central position of the spacecraft mounting plate 11, the two groups of position correcting sleeves 13 are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the lock rod 14, the female head 13 of the electric connector is arranged between the position correcting sleeve 13 and the lock rod 14, and preferably, the female heads 13 of the electric connector are two groups and symmetrically arranged on two sides of the lock rod 14. The locking rod 14 is preferably a T-shaped structure, the end head of which is a square plate or a circular plate, and the locking rod 14 is installed on the spacecraft mounting plate 11 in an inverted manner. Meanwhile, the shape of the position correcting sleeve 13 is preferably funnel-shaped, that is, the end with a smaller opening of the funnel-shaped position correcting sleeve 12 is connected with the spacecraft mounting plate 11, and the connected position correcting sleeve 12 is hung upside down on the spacecraft mounting plate 11.

The active end 2 comprises a module mounting plate 21, a position correcting rod 22, an electric connector male head 23, a locking assembly 24 and a driving assembly 25. The module mounting plate 21 can be fixedly connected with the replaceable module butt joint surface through screws, the mounting position correcting rod 22 and the electric connector male head 23 are fixedly arranged on the other surface of the module mounting plate opposite to the replaceable module butt joint surface, the locking assembly 24 is connected with the module mounting plate 21, and the driving assembly 25 is in transmission connection with the locking assembly 24 and drives the locking assembly 24. Preferably, a hole with a certain size is formed in the center of the module mounting plate 21, so that the locking rod 14 of the passive end 1 can enter = the capture channel of the active end 2 during docking. Preferably, the locking assembly 24 mainly includes a screw 241, a jaw 242 and a nut 243, two sets of nuts 243 are rotatably connected to the module mounting plate 21 at a certain distance, the two screw 241 are respectively in threaded connection with the two sets of nuts 243, the two screw 241 and the nut 243 are preferably coaxial after being in threaded connection, and the nut 243 is rotated to drive the two screws 241 to axially move and to approach or separate from each other. Two sets of jaws 242 are attached to the end of the screw 241, and the two sets of jaws 242 are located between two sets of nuts 243. Preferably, the latch 242 has a wedge-shaped structure with an inclined surface, and the lock rod 14 can be pressed down to a certain extent through the inclined surface, so as to ensure that the driven end 1 and the driving end 2 are locked in place. Preferably, the driving assembly 25 mainly comprises a motor 251, an optical axis 252 and a nut gear 253, the two ends of the optical axis 252 are respectively connected with the nut gear 253, the two sets of motors 251 are preferably in transmission connection with the nut gear 253 at one end of the optical axis 252 in a gear meshing transmission manner and drive the optical axis 252 to rotate, meanwhile, the two sets of nut gears 253 are also in meshing transmission with the two sets of nuts 243 respectively, and further the rotation of the two sets of nuts 243 drives the rotation of the lead screws 241, so that the axial relative or back-to-back movement of the two lead screws 241 is realized. At this time, the two sets of nuts 243 can be positive and negative nuts to realize the relative or reverse movement of the lead screw 241.

The working principle of the invention is as follows:

the locking process of the passive end 1 and the active end 2 is as follows: as shown in fig. 2, when the passive end 1 and the active end 2 are far away from each other in the initial butt joint state, and the poses of the two ends have a certain error, as the replaceable module gradually approaches the spacecraft, as shown in fig. 3, the initial pose deviation between the active end 2 and the passive section 1 is corrected under the action that the position correction rod 22 and the position correction sleeve 12 are in mutual contact and achieve sleeving, the inverted T-shaped lock rod 14 of the passive end 1 gradually enters the capturing channel of the active end 2 through a hole in the center of the module mounting plate 21, and the capturing channel is a channel between the two claws 242. The docking process begins as a start microswitch (not shown in the drawings) on the module mounting plate 21 touches the spacecraft mounting plate 11 and feeds back a signal. As shown in fig. 4, the motor 251 drives the nut gear 253 to rotate through the motor gear, and then drives the optical axis 252 to rotate, the nut gear 253 at the other end of the two ends is driven to rotate synchronously by the rotation of the optical axis 252, and then two sets of nuts 243 are driven to rotate by two sets of nut gears 253, two sets of nuts 243 arranged in forward and reverse directions drive two lead screws 241 to approach each other, so that two sets of claws 242 move towards the central position and contact with the end plate of the lock rod 14, and then the claws 242 with a wedge-shaped structure continue to press the lock rod 14 for a certain distance, and then the female connector 13 and the male connector 23 are inserted and communicated with each other and trigger a microswitch (not shown in the drawing) in place, the butt joint process is finished, the motor 251 stops rotating, and the passive end 1 and the active end 2 are locked.

The unlocking and separating process of the passive end 1 and the active end 2 is the reverse process of the butt-joint locking process, the motor 251 is driven to rotate reversely, so that the two lead screws 241 drive the two groups of clamping jaws 242 to be separated gradually, the locking force of the locking rod 14 disappears, the passive end 1 and the active end 2 are separated gradually, the female end 13 of the electric connector is disconnected with the male end 23 of the electric connector, and the passive end 1 and the active end 2 complete unlocking.

The invention adjusts the position and posture deviation between the passive end and the active end by setting the adaptive position deviation adjusting structure, effectively improves the tolerance range of the passive end and the active end, and simultaneously, after the active end and the passive end are butted and locked, the butt joint mechanism formed by the passive end and the active end can reach the size of 200mm multiplied by 160mm multiplied by 38mm, wherein the size in the butt joint direction is 38mm, the invention has compact structure, small envelope size and small occupation space in the butt joint direction, and is more beneficial to the layout of a single machine in a replaceable module. In addition, the gear pair mechanism is driven by the motor, and the capturing, locking and unlocking actions can be repeatedly carried out, so that the reliability is high, and the repeatability is good.

Example 2

The embodiment 2 is formed on the basis of the embodiment 1, and the connection relation between the clamping jaw and the lead screw in the locking assembly is optimized to be hinged, so that the clamping jaw is changed from a horizontal state to a vertical state under the condition that the lead screw axially moves, the relative displacement between the driving end and the driven end is increased, and the driving end and the driven end are further ensured to be locked in place. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps:

as shown in fig. 4-5, the jaws 242 are connected to the ends of the lead screw 241 by gluing, and in the process of locking the passive end 1 and the active end 2, the jaws 242 move toward the center under the driving of the lead screw 241 and reach the center position, the ends of the two sets of clamping posts 242 contact with the rod body of the lock rod 14 or the ends of the two jaws 242 are in butt joint, at this time, the two lead screws 241 are continuously driven to approach each other, the jaws 242 start to rotate downward under the action of the torsion spring at the hinge joint under the action of the axial force, where the downward rotation refers to rotation toward the active end 2, thereby driving the lock rod 14 to further move toward the active end 2, further increasing the relative displacement between the passive end 1 and the active end 2, and ensuring that the two are locked in place.

Example 3

In this embodiment 3, the support assembly is disposed at the active end, and the support assembly and the position deviation adjusting structure can be adjusted in a double manner, so as to further expand the range of the position tolerance between the active end and the passive end and improve the adjusting performance of the docking mechanism. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps:

as shown in fig. 1-5, the driving end 2 is further provided with two supporting assemblies 26, two groups of supporting assemblies 26 are symmetrically installed between the two position correcting rods 22, and preferably two groups of supporting assemblies 26 are symmetrically installed between the two groups of male connectors 23. The support assembly 26 is mainly composed of a support cylinder 261 and a dynamic pressure head 262, wherein one end of the support cylinder 261 is fixed on the mocha mounting plate 21, and the other end thereof is connected with the dynamic pressure head 262, and the dynamic pressure head 262 can be an elastic rubber column or the like. Preferably, the supporting assembly 26 further comprises a spring 263, in this case, the supporting cylinder 261 has a cylindrical structure with at least one open end, one end of the spring 263 is connected to the bottom end of the supporting cylinder 261, the other end of the spring 263 is provided with the dynamic pressure head 262, the end surface of the dynamic pressure head 262 is located above the top of the supporting cylinder 261 without being affected by external force, and after the external force is applied, the dynamic pressure head 262 can be pressed into the supporting cylinder 261, and the end surface is flush with or located in the supporting cylinder 261.

In the locking process that the passive end 1 and the active end 2 are close to each other, the dynamic pressure head 262 is firstly contacted with the spacecraft mounting plate 11, and the posture of the replaceable module can be adjusted again under the action of the supporting example of the spring 263, so that the postures of the locked passive end 1 and the locked active end 2 are more accurate. When the supporting element 26 is not provided with the spring 263 but only depends on the dynamic pressure head 262 with a certain elastic action for contact adjustment, the posture adjustment effect is still achieved, which is only inferior to the effect of the spring 263.

In the description of the present application, it is to be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, merely for convenience of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed in a particular orientation, and be operated, and therefore, are not to be construed as limiting the present application.

The foregoing description of specific embodiments of the present invention has been presented. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and that various changes or modifications may be made by one skilled in the art within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention. The embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other arbitrarily without conflict.

Claims

1. The replaceable module butt joint device is characterized by comprising a passive end (1) and an active end (2);

the passive end (1) comprises a spacecraft mounting plate (11), a position correcting sleeve (12), an electric connector female head (13) and a lock rod (14), wherein the position correcting sleeve (12), the electric connector female head (13) and the lock rod (14) are connected to the spacecraft mounting plate (11), the position correcting sleeve (12) is symmetrically arranged on two sides of the lock rod (14), and the electric connector female head (13) is arranged between the position correcting sleeve (12) and the lock rod (14);

the driving end (2) comprises a module mounting plate (21), position correcting rods (22), an electric connector male head (23), a locking mechanism (24) and a driving mechanism (25), the position correcting rods (22), the electric connector male head (23) and the locking mechanism (24) are connected to the module mounting plate (21), the electric connector male head (23) is located between the two position correcting rods (22), and the driving mechanism (25) is in transmission connection with the locking mechanism (24);

the driving end (2) moves towards the driven end (1), the position correcting rod (22) is inserted into the position correcting sleeve (12) in a butt joint mode and guides the driving end (2) to continue to move towards the driven end (1), after the lock rod (14) enters a preset position, the driving mechanism (25) drives the locking mechanism (24) to grab the lock rod (14) and lock the lock rod, and the female head (13) of the electric connector is connected with the male head (23) of the electric connector in an inserting mode;

the locking mechanism (24) comprises screw rods (241), clamping jaws (242) and nuts (243), two groups of nuts (243) are rotatably connected to the module mounting plate (21) at certain intervals, the two screw rods (241) are respectively in threaded connection with the two groups of nuts (243), the end parts of the two screw rods (241) located between the two groups of nuts (243) are respectively connected with one group of clamping jaws (242), and the driving mechanism (25) drives the two screw rods (241) to mutually approach or separate through driving the two groups of nuts (243) to rotate;

after the two lead screws (241) approach to a preset position, two groups of clamping jaws (242) are in contact with and locked on a T-shaped end plate of the lock rod (14), and the passive end (1) and the active end (2) are locked; after the two lead screws (241) are far away from each other to a preset position, the two groups of clamping jaws (242) release the lock rod (14), and the passive end (1) and the active end (2) are unlocked;

the clamping jaws (242) are of a wedge-shaped structure;

the jack catch (242) articulate in the tip of lead screw (241), two sets of jack catch (242) move to on the end plate of locking lever (14) back with the body of rod contact of locking lever (14) or two sets of the tip of jack catch (242) is docked mutually, continues the drive when lead screw (241) are close to each other the jack catch (242) rotate and the pulling through the articulated shaft locking lever (14) continue towards the direction of initiative end (2) removes.

2. A replaceable module docking device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the position correcting sleeve (12) is funnel-shaped, the position correcting sleeve (12) hanging upside down on the spacecraft mounting plate (11), the position correcting rod (22) entering into the position correcting sleeve (12) from the end with the larger opening.

3. The docking device of claim 1, wherein the electrical connector female heads (13) are provided in two sets, the two sets of electrical connector female heads (13) are symmetrically disposed on two sides of the locking bar (14), and the electrical connector male head (23) is disposed to be matched with the electrical connector female head (13).

4. A replaceable module docking device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the locking bar (14) is T-shaped, the locking bar (14) hanging upside down on the spacecraft mounting plate (11).

5. The docking device of claim 1, wherein the driving mechanism (25) comprises a motor (251), an optical shaft (252), and nut gears (253), the motor (251) drives the optical shaft (252) to rotate, two sets of the nut gears (253) are rotatably connected to two ends of the optical shaft (252), and two sets of the nut gears (253) are rotatably connected to two sets of the nuts (243), respectively.

6. The docking device of one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the active end (2) further comprises two sets of supporting members (26), two sets of supporting members (26) are symmetrically installed between the two position correcting rods (22), each supporting member (26) comprises a supporting cylinder (261) and a dynamic pressure head (262), one end of the supporting cylinder (261) is fixed on the module mounting plate (21), the dynamic pressure head (262) is installed at the other end of the supporting cylinder (261), and after the passive end (1) approaches the active end (2), the dynamic pressure head (262) elastically contacts the spacecraft mounting plate (11) and adjusts the relative position of the passive end (1) and the active end (2).

7. The docking device of claim 6, wherein the supporting assembly (26) further comprises a spring (263), the supporting cylinder (261) is of a cavity structure, one end of the spring (263) is fixed at the bottom end inside the supporting cylinder (261), and the other end of the spring (263) is mounted with a dynamic pressure head (262), and the dynamic pressure head (262) can be pressed into the supporting cylinder (261).