| abstract |
A deployable truss composed of a plurality of three-dimensional truss units. Each said three-dimensional truss unit includes a plurality of ridge members located in the position of ridges of an imaginary substantial hexahedron having a front face, a rear face and four side faces, a plurality of side face diagonal members each located in the position of one of two diagonal lines of each side face of the hexahedron and having an articulated joint located in the intermediate position so as to be bendable, said side face diagonal members being oriented such that each member is not parallel to the diagonal member in the opposite side face and is connected to the same vertex as the diagonal member in the adjacent side face, and a front face diagonal member and a rear face diagonal member located in the position of one of two diagonal lines of the front face and in the position of one of two diagonal lines of the rear face, respectively, and each having an articulated joint in the intermediate position so as to be bendable. The three-dimensional truss units are oriented and joined together in such a manner that each unit shares with the adjacent unit one side face of the hexahedron and the ridge members and side face diagonal member in said one side face, and the side face diagonal members of each unit are essentially in mirror-image relation to the corresponding members of the adjacent unit with respect to the shared one side face. The diagonal members and ridge members of each said three-dimensional truss unit are dimensioned such that the lengths thereof satisfy a predetermined geometrical condition which enables each unit to be folded and allows same to maintain the geometrical configuration, whereby the deployable truss can be folded to occupy a small space by bending all the diagonal members and can be deployed by straightening all the diagonal members. |