Synthesis and Design of a One Degree of Freedom Planar Deployable Mechanism With a Large Expansion Ratio

Abstract

This paper presents a new design of a deployable one degreeoffreedom (DOF) mechanism. Polygonal rigidlink designs are first investigated. Then, beltdriven links are considered in order to maximize the expansion ratio while avoiding flattened illconditioned parallelogram configurations. The planar basic shape of the proposed design is a triangle. Hence, virtually any planar or spatial surface can be created by assembling such faces. For architecture and telescopic applications, the cupola assembly is investigated. The advantages of this approach are discussed, and the scalability is demonstrated. Finally, a prototype is built for illustration purposes.