Design Method and Driving Optimization of Origami-Inspired Single-Layer Truss Structures for Parabolic Cylindrical Mesh Reflector Antennas

Newswise — In the field of aerospace engineering, deployable parabolic cylindrical mesh reflector antennas with lightweight properties and high deploy/fold ratios are research hotspots, as they can realize automatic beam scanning and multi-band signal transmission. However, most existing deployable structures of such antennas are double-layer truss structures, which have drawbacks of heavy weight and oversized folded volume. Although 2D origami-inspired structures offer solutions for single-layer deployable designs, current research mainly focuses on planar or rigid thick-panel origami structures, making them unsuitable for curved parabolic cylindrical antenna scenarios and difficult to achieve lightweight requirements.

To address these issues, a research team from Xidian University and Shanghai Institute of Aerospace System Engineering conducted a study titled “Design Method and Driving Optimization of Origami-Inspired Single-Layer Truss Structures for Parabolic Cylindrical Mesh Reflector Antennas”.

This study proposes a design method for origami-inspired single-layer truss structures applied to deployable parabolic cylindrical mesh reflector antennas. Unlike widely studied thick-panel origami structures, this method equates creases in the origami model to links with constant length and vertices to hinges. By analyzing engineering issues during the design process (including motion compliance, link-hinge follow-up motion, and link deploy/fold ratio), corresponding design criteria are summarized: decoupling link motions in different directions, adding auxiliary links perpendicular to the paper plane, and arranging links alternately at the front and rear of hinges.

Based on this design method, a single-layer deployable truss for parabolic cylindrical antennas is developed. The truss consists of mutually perpendicular transverse and longitudinal links connected by hinges, with a metal mesh as the reflective surface laid on cables between transverse links. To ensure proper antenna deployment, the study calculates the truss’s degree of freedom (DOF) using screw theory and optimizes the gear transmission ratio between transverse links to avoid gear-transmitting singularity. Additionally, an optimization model for antenna driving components is established via MATLAB and Abaqus co-simulation. Elastic parts (spiral springs for transverse links and tape springs for longitudinal links) are used as driving sources, and spring dimensions are optimized to achieve synchronous truss deployment in two directions.

Validation through software simulation and prototype testing shows the effectiveness of the proposed design and optimization: the designed 8m×8m antenna has a deploy/fold ratio of 11.27, an areal density of 0.88 kg·m⁻², and a fundamental frequency of 1.38 Hz, demonstrating advantages over existing deployable antennas in comprehensive performance.

This work broadens the application of origami-inspired structures and provides a reference for the design of parabolic cylindrical antennas or curved surface mechanisms.