JPH0537221A - Antenna driving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize the combination and the coupling of driving units with simple combination so as to realize highly accurate directivity control. CONSTITUTION:Piezoelectric elements 13a, 13b for position adjustment are interposed in a coupling section coupling an azimuth driving unit 10 and an elevation driving unit 14 and the alignment of the driving shaft is implemented through the piezoelectric elements 13a, 13b. Thus, while the azimuth driving unit 10 and the elevation driving unit 14 are combined, the position adjustment of each driving shaft is available and the highly accurate unit coupling in which highly accurate directivity control is attained is easily obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an antenna drive device used to control the direction of an antenna mounted on a spacecraft such as an artificial satellite.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an antenna driving device of this type, an XY mount system shown in FIG. 3 or an azimuth elevation system shown in FIG. 4 has been known. That is, in the XY mount type antenna driving device of FIG. 3, the X-axis driving unit 1 and the Y-axis driving unit 2 are coupled in order to form a driving mechanism 3, and the driving mechanism 3 is used to rotate around the X-axis and By rotating around the Y-axis, an antenna (not shown) is three-dimensionally driven to control the pointing direction.

In the azimuth-elevation-type antenna driving device of FIG. 4, the azimuth driving unit 4 and the elevation driving unit 5 are connected in order to form a driving mechanism 6, and the driving mechanism 6 is used to form an azimuth axis. By rotating around and around the elevation axis, an antenna (not shown) is three-dimensionally driven to control the pointing direction.

However, in the above-mentioned antenna driving device, whichever type is used, the antenna (not shown) is driven about two axes to realize a three-dimensional movement of the antenna.
If a mounting error occurs when the drive units 1 and 2, 4 and 5 are coupled to each other, this mounting error causes an antenna pointing error that is difficult to correct, and there is a problem that high-precision pointing control is hindered. For this reason, the work of combining and combining the drive units has been very troublesome.

[0005]

As described above, the conventional antenna driving device has a problem that the combining and combining work is very troublesome because the mounting error of the driving unit becomes the antenna pointing error. Was.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has a simple structure and is capable of realizing highly accurate coupling between drive units, thereby simplifying the coupling and combining work. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an antenna drive device in which a directivity direction of an antenna is controlled by using a drive mechanism in which a plurality of drive units having different drive shafts are sequentially coupled to each other. The connecting portion for connecting the units to each other is provided with position adjusting means for aligning the mutual drive shafts.

[0008]

According to the above construction, the plurality of drive units constituting the drive mechanism are aligned with each other by adjusting the positions of the drive shafts by the position adjusting means, so that the plurality of drive units are combined with desired mounting accuracy. Therefore, the highly accurate combination and combination of the drive units can be easily realized, so that the combination and combination work can be simplified.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an azimuth elevation type drive mechanism to which an antenna drive device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. An azimuth drive unit 10 for azimuth drive is attached to a support base (not shown). .. A mounting portion 11 is formed at the tip portion of the azimuth drive unit 10, and a curved holding portion 12 is provided on the mounting portion 11 for position adjustment, for example, via a pair of piezoelectric elements 13a and 13b, and an arrowhead A, It is provided to be rotatable in the B direction. And
An elevation drive unit 14 for driving an elevation shaft is attached to the holding portion 12.

The piezoelectric elements 13a, 13b are connected to a drive control unit (not shown), and are selectively expanded and contracted via this drive control unit (not shown) to hold the holding unit 12 with respect to the mounting unit 11. The rotation of the elevation drive unit 14 relative to the azimuth drive unit 10 is variably controlled by controlling the rotation in the directions of arrows A and B.

In the above structure, when the azimuth drive unit 10 and the elevation drive unit 14 are combined and connected, first, the holding portion 1 of the azimuth drive unit 10 is connected.
Attach the elevation drive unit 14 to 1. Next, the piezoelectric elements 13a and 13b are driven to expand and contract via the drive control section (not shown), and the holding section 12 is rotationally controlled in the directions of arrows A and B with respect to the mounting section 11. The driving of the piezoelectric elements 13a and 13b is stopped in a state where the elevation axis of the elevation driving unit 14 is aligned with the azimuth axis of the azimuth driving unit 10 at a predetermined position. The mounting portion 11 is positioned, and the elevation driving unit 14 is positioned relative to the azimuth driving unit 10. Then, the azimuth drive unit 10 and the elevation drive unit 14 drive the antennas (not shown) three-dimensionally when the positioning of the mutual drive axes is completed and they are driven around the respective axes via the control unit (not shown). Control the pointing direction.

As described above, in the antenna drive device, the piezoelectric element 1 for position adjustment is provided at the connecting portion for connecting the azimuth drive unit 10 and the elevation drive unit 14 to each other.
3a and 13b are interposed, and the drive shaft is aligned through the piezoelectric elements 13a and 13b. According to this, in the state where the azimuth drive unit 10 and the elevation drive unit 14 are combined and coupled, it becomes possible to adjust the positions of the drive shafts of each other, so that highly precise unit coupling capable of highly precise pointing control can be achieved. This is easily realized and the work of combining and combining can be simplified.

In the above embodiment, the azimuth driving unit 10 and the elevation driving unit 14 are driven around two axes to control the antenna three-dimensionally, but the invention is not limited to this. The present invention is also applicable to a device in which the antenna is three-dimensionally controlled by driving about an axis or more.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the invention is applied to the drive mechanism of the azimuth elevation system is explained.
The present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to an XY mount type drive mechanism.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the piezoelectric elements 13a and 13b are used to adjust the positions of the azimuth drive unit 10 and the elevation drive unit 14 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to use a so-called electrostrictive element formed by stacking materials whose shape changes in accordance with the applied voltage. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
Of course, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0017]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, an antenna drive having a simple structure and capable of realizing highly accurate coupling of drive units to each other and simplifying the coupling and combining work is provided. A device can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an antenna driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of details of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional antenna driving device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional antenna driving device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Azimuth drive unit, 11 ... Attachment part, 12 ... Holding part, 13a, 13b ... Piezoelectric element, 14 ... Elevation drive unit.

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. An antenna drive device, comprising: a drive mechanism in which a plurality of drive units having different drive axes are sequentially coupled to each other to control an antenna directivity direction; An antenna driving device, characterized in that a position adjusting means for adjusting the positions of the mutual drive shafts is provided in a coupling part for coupling the.