Description:

The objective of this project is to Investigate and improve the precision of the deployment of telescopic barrels for spacecraft optical instruments. Barrels are used as part of optical instruments with the secondary lens at the deployed end of the barrel, for these instruments to be properly focussed the barrels need to be deployed with extreme accuracy. The project will build on existing hardware to design and analyse solutions to deploy the barrels with micron precision over a range of scales from 100mm to metres. There will also be research into and implementation of measurement systems to determine deployment accuracy. The project will culminate in the manufacturing and iteration of a prototype barrel deployment mechanism.

Type:

Undergraduate

Outcome:

Survey of the state of the art

Theoretical & Experimental investigation on current technologies

Proposed advanced methodology.

Proof of concept (Hardware)

Final report

 

Prerequisites

None

Specialisations

• Mechanical Engineering
• Mechatronics Engineering

Categories

• Design/Systems Engineering
• Dynamics and Control
• Mechanics of Materials and Manufacturing Processes
• Robotics
• Smart Materials and Microtechnologies
• Space Systems

Supervisor

• Guglielmo Aglietti

Team

• James Armstrong
• Ben Parnell

Lab

Space Institute Lab (405.443, Lab)