According to the design requirement of large aperture, light mass and longevity, membrane reflectors have already become the developing direction for future space reflectors. In order to overcome membrane reflectors’ defect of low stiffness, active control for reflectors must be adopted to ensure the shape accuracy. This paper puts forward an active shape control method based on PVDF piezoelectric film for plane membrane reflectors: using in-plane laminated PVDF piezoelectric actuators to change the shape of the plane membrane reflector by activating the PVDF converse piezoelectric effect, so that active shape control can be achieved. In this paper, a plane membrane reflector model is built. Then shape error caused by thermal effect in medium earth orbit (MEO) and geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) in which membrane reflectors mainly work is analyzed. After that the shape and layout of PVDF actuators is designed and the validity of the control method is verified by simulation. Lastly, the PLZT/PVDF hybrid drive theory is induced, and the possibility of distance control is demonstrated based on the photo/piezoelectric control strategy.
