Research On Structure Analysis Methods And Application Of Origami-type Metamorphic Mechanisms

Metamorphic mechanism is a new class of mechanisms which can change the topological structure and the mobility of movements in the process of continuous motion, it also can change the constraint characteristics based on the different work tasks. These features of the metamorphic mechanism make it hard to analyze and design its structure, so study on the metamorphic mechanisms will be helpful to find new ideas or ways for the mechanism innovative design. Metamorphic mechanisms have a wide range of applications in the aerospace field, robotics, manufacturing systems and toy industry.This paper studied the structure analysis of the origami-type metamorphic mechanism and its application on the solar wings with the theory of the developable surfaces. This paper took varying topology and variable mobility as key points to research the structure of origami-type metamorphic mechanisms. New topology matrixes and new matrix transformation formulas were proposed to describe the metamorphic process. The mobility analysis of the metamorphic mechanisms used geometric parameters models and screw theory. The metamorphic solar wing was designed with the advantages of the origami-type metamorphic mechanisms.Firstly, this paper studied the method to describe structure of the origami-type metamorphic mechanisms and analyze its configuration with the theory of developable surface. The relationship among the developable surface, folding and metamorphic mechanisms was clarified. The method to analyze the structure of the origami-type metamorphic mechanisms with the theory of developable surface was proposed. The geometric characteristics of the different origami-type metamorphic mechanisms’ configuration based on the theory of developable surface were found and its corresponding geometric constraint equations were extracted. The geometric parameters models were established through the parametric equations of the developable surface and the geometric constraint equations. The metamorphic process was described by new topological matrixes and matrix transformation formulas, which provided research foundation for the computer-aided design of the metamorphic mechanisms.Secondly, this paper studied the method to analyze the mobility of the origami-type metamorphic mechanisms through the screw theory. The screw theory was used to analyze the mobility of simple origami-type mechanism. Due to the complex origami-type mechanisms with a large number of over-constraints, the method to analyze their mobility was proposed which combined the screw theory with the geometric parameters models. The mobility analysis of the origami-type metamorphic mechanisms facilitates structure analysis and design of the metamorphic mechanisms.Finally, the origami- type metamorphic mechanism was used in the configuration design of the solar wing panels. The components of the solar wing panels were clarified. The reason was illustrated that the configuration of the panels was the origami-type mechanisms. The disadvantages of the existing panel configurations were found, a new metamorphic solar wing was designed whose features were modular, single mobility and large unfolding ratio.