Conceptual design of an electronic dockingstation and positioner for portable antenna

Sammanfattning: The presented work in this report is a master’s thesis at the machine design track at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The work was commissioned by Ovzon through Svea Teknik AB. The T6 antenna in Ovzons antenna terminal portfolio is as of now fully manual in terms of positioning against satellites. The problem with this is that if the operator is situated in a vehicle, they are required to exit the vehicle and place the antenna on solid ground, aim it, and then return to the vehicle. To cope with the need of manually placing and aiming the antenna, a solution which enables the operator to fully control the antenna from within a vehicle is therefore desired. This work aims to develop a conceptual design that lets the antenna be mounted and automatically aimed against satellites while following tight dimension requirements. The work centered around a concept generating- and evaluation process where different main functions were identified, and to which concepts were formulated by brainstorming. The concepts were mapped with the help of a Functions/Means-Tree and then later evaluated with Pugh’s matrices in order to find a suitable one. The result was two conceptual designs out of which one was chosen by Ovzon for manufacturing. The chosen concept consists of a docking station which is positioned in elevation using a stepper motor connected to a planetary precision gearbox and in azimuth using a direct drive rotary table. The antenna is placed in the docking station and secured into place using latches. The manufactured proof of concept was constructed out of primarily 3D-printed parts but also some that were turned in steel. The resulting concept proved to solve the challenges and given requirements while still being small in size and robust to use.