ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF THE DEPLOYMENT PROCESS FOR ASYMMETRIC PLANAR SCISSOR STRUCTURES

This paper studies the kinematics and the dynamics of the asymmetric scissor structure composed of rigid rods and with one degree of freedom. First, the kinematical formulas for determining the position of all the rods of the scissor structure are derived in terms of its generalized coordinate. Then the mass matrix and the constraint equations are formulated and the dynamical equation is built by applying the Lagrange equation of the first kind. The Baumgarte stabilization of default of coordinate and velocity is used to solve the numerical solution. Finally the numerical simulation of the dynamical deployment process is presented for a deployable truss structure consisting of two scissor units. Some conclusions are drawn from the results of numerical simulation. This study provides a theoretical foundation for the engineering application of the asymmetric scissor truss structures.