Summary Pre2Pos project results and achievements

Technicians at PhiDrive have been performing a 6-month long Feasibility Study, in order to analyze 3 key areas of the project. On the technical side, based on PhiDrive original and validated Pre2Pos prototype motors, industrial prototypes have been further studied and worked on, focusing on the developments of materials and surface coating assessments, in order to optimize friction and hardness, which are the most important characteristics of our motors. A detailed Execution Plan for the project has been prepared, covering tasks such as planning, budget, risk analysis and organization. At a commercial level, PhiDrive consolidated the project with the recruitment of Arquimea, experienced and innovative with actuators and mechanisms and well established in the Space market. Target markets have been identified and studied in detail, in order to prepare Pre2Pos marketing strategy. Technicians performed a Freedom-to-Operate analysis, which is required to check and validate the innovation of our product. And lastly, financial projections were prepared in order to evaluate the return on investment of the Pre2Pos project.
Thanks to this study, the project won the trust of the European Union, which is now financing it through the Horizion 2020 programme

On the 19th of December 2016, Phi Drive met with Arquimea in Madrid to sign the Consortium Agreement for the Pre2Pos project. The agreement will ensure the project is implemented properly, serving as a guide for the work to come.

On the last week of December 2016, Pre2Pos website goes online.  With mouthly updates, it will record the progress of the project, and provide information on the partners’ background, results and publications.

Intensive research in command laws and materials were conducted by Phi Drive in order to improve AG-HT performances. In addition, an additional industrial ULTM motor was converted into a space application, and named AG-LT. The two motors are not alternative to each other, but are meant to cover completely different needs of torque and speed, while keeping intact the philosophy behind Pre2Pos project.

Once the materials and best layouts had been defined in D1.1, AG-HT and AG-LT became objects of a long process of FEM optimization and prototyping that improved the performances of the existing technology demonstrators. Fully space-worthy versions of the two drives have been produced and characterized, and are now ready to be proved in a simulated space environment.

In the first year of Pre2Pos, Arquimea and Phi Drive have worked together to attract costumers and raise the interest of the public in the project, drawing precise Business and Marketing Plans which will become fruitful in the immediate future.

After a first series of tests conducted in a simulated space environment, AG-LT and AG-HT drives have been subjected to a refit in accordance with the experimental results. This lead to the final design of the motors, already suitable for industrial production.

The motors have been equipped with driving electronics and were characterized through a campaign of functional testing.

Along with the design of the drives, the environmental tests campaign for space qualification was prepared in accordance with the existing standards form the most established international institutions, like the European ECSS. The campaign was designed around a suitable mission and two series of dynamic and thermal-vacuum tests were conducted on both motors, the first one giving important information for the final design, and the second leading to the full qualification of the drives.

A massive documentation was produced, proving the effectiveness of the motors for any future client.

As Phi Drive completed and tested its drives, Arquimea worked on the actuator gimbals that will become the final output of the project.

FEM analysis was used to aid the design and the first prototypes were produced with the intent to integrate them with Phi Drive drives.

This deliverable gathers the results of the functional tests on the two gimbals obtained from Pre2Pos motors AG-HT and AG-LT. From this analysis, partners concluded that LT model could be further improved by using a mono-stage motor core. Thus, results of the re-design process are included in this deliverable, gathering all the necessary calculations and drawings. The improved gimbal design allowed for a simplified device, with significantly reduced weight and increased robustness.

The improved LT Gimbal design was subject to qualification testing and characterization. This document presents the complete test campaign performed on three manufactured gimbal units. Tests include functional, vibrational, shock, thermal vacuum and EMC. Results show a solid suitability of the piezo-based gimbal for space, and the units met most of the specification requirements. Some areas of improvements were identified for achieving an exhaustive compliance of requirements for full qualification.

An overall summary of the results on the gimbal is given in this document, with a clear comparison among achieved performances vs. specified requirements, and explanations in the few cases with non-compliance, as well as improvement strategies. The report includes also a datasheet of the gimbal with the most relevant technical figures and the demonstration plan to be implemented in the near future.

This report includes the finalized Business and Marketing Plan, and a detail of all the activities performed by the two partners linked to the publication and promotion of the project’s progress. Moreover, the industrialization plan deriving from Task 5.4 has been added.