Analysis and Optimization of Transmission Performance of Low-Impact Docking Mechanism

Abstract

Compared with the traditional docking mechanism, a low-impact docking mechanism (LIDM) has a big advantage, that is, LIDMs can realize low-impact docking by controlling the movement of the driving rods in real-time. In this process, the load sensing ring (LSR) of the chaser spacecraft is adjusted in real-time according to the position and attitude of the target spacecraft, which requires that the LIDM has high transmission efficiency, so that the position and attitude of the LSR can be changed rapidly under the motion of the driving rods and respond to the position and attitude requirements of the docking control system to the LSR as soon as possible. In this paper, a transmission efficiency solution and an optimization method suitable for LIDMs are proposed. The LIDM dynamic model and transmission efficiency model are established, and an improved genetic algorithm with better convergence effect is proposed and used to optimize the transfer efficiency. The results of numerical examples in this paper show that the improved genetic algorithm has stronger global optimization ability when calculating high-complexity optimization problems. In the optimized LIDM configuration parameters, the size of LSR and the bottom reference circle are close to the lower limit and upper limit of the given size limit, respectively, and the instantaneous transmission force ratio is increased from 0.6477 to 0.9160. The reliability of the optimized results is verified in dynamic simulation software. This study provides ideas and methods for the design and optimization of subsequent high transmission efficiency mechanisms.