Design and dynamics of a deployable assembly module via rollable booms

On-orbit assembly via deployable modules is a promising way to build large space structures. In this paper, a deployable assembly module is designed for large space structures in both mechanical and electronic aspects in detail. The assembly module utilizes motor-driven rollable booms to achieve high packaging efficiency and easy control of the geometric errors during the assembly process. The deployment dynamics of a single rollable boom is studied via a dynamic model based on the variable-length thin shell element of absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) in the framework of arbitrary Lagrange-Euler (ALE) and the natural coordinate formulation (NCF), and verified via a deployment experiment. Meanwhile, the microgravity experiments for deployment, contraction, and geometric error control of an assembly module are also conducted on a granite platform with air bearings to demonstrate the performance of the deployable assembly module.