Design of a novel three-limb deployable mechanism with mobility bifurcation

This paper presents a novel three-limb deployable mechanism (TLDM) using a set of metamorphic mechanism modules, which has potential applications in providing support to the large curved-surface deployable membrane structures. The deployable mechanism consists of three modular limbs, and each limb is composed of two types of metamorphic mechanism modules; one is for supporting the curved-surface deployable membrane structure, the other that inspired by thick-panel origami is used for the connection of basic supporting modules and curvature adjustment of membrane structure. Both the basic supporting module and connection module are metamorphic mechanisms with mobility bifurcation, which makes the TLDM transform from a compact folded configuration to the deployed configuration. The design parameters that enable the mechanism to have a large deploy/fold ratio and high curved-surface fitness are analyzed. A physical prototype is also fabricated to verify the feasibility of the proposed mechanism.