The Project
Design, Analysis and Procurement of hardware and software for the development of a controllable structural mockup. This applies to a high-performance expanding system for future Science missions and was made by ADAMANT Composites. The Maximum Achieved Velocity of deployment was 0.08 degrees/sec (measured in experiment).
The Result
The “scissor” mechanism should achieve full opening at 400sec. Therefore, the motors should actuate the mechanism members in a very slow rate under velocity or position control.
Provided that there are no significant deformations, the motors M1,M2 should perform 90deg/400sec in order to achieve a controlled velocity of 0.225degrees/sec. This constitutes an extremely low input voltage, should we wished to operate the motors in open loop voltage regulated control, thus low-torque and instability are unavoidable. Moreover it is imperative that the two motors should operate in synchronisation. Definitely we need a PID controller and a sync start of motors via a control bus.
Innovations
All the above requirements were achieved by our controller integrated in 2X15W dunkermotoren brushed DC 24V motors integrated with a 1:400 Gearbox. Achieved torque: 30Nm (required was 20Nm).
