JP2011024983A - Three-legged walking robot - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the following problem: conventional walking robots with two legs are forced to have complex software for attitude control; and those with three or more legs are compelled to include more actuators, thereby having a more complex control circuit for controlling the larger number of actuators, which requires a lot of effort in its production and maintenance. <P>SOLUTION: The three-legged walking robot is designed to walk on the center leg and two side legs while keeping the gravity center from moving sideways as much as possible. In addition, the number of actuators needed to control the legs at a time are reduced to the same as that needed for a two-legged robot, by making the two side legs interlocked with each other and controlled by the same actuators. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

      The present invention relates to a leg structure of a walking robot that is used in the field of hobbies and may be used when working in the near future.

In the conventional walking robot, an actuator for driving the joint of the leg portion, a control device for controlling the actuator, and various methods for maintaining the posture are taken to realize movement.
Of these, the robot walking method generally considered is biped walking using two legs, or when using multiple legs to solve problems that occur when biped walking However, there were problems as described below.

Patent Publication 2009-125838 Patent Publication 2009-56568

According to the conventional technique described in the prior art document, first, as a problem of the robot that performs bipedal walking, various controls as described in Patent Document 1 are programmed to operate the robot. However, in addition to this, it is necessary to use an actuator having performance capable of responding to a control command, or it is necessary to consider a structure for physically stabilizing the moving operation as described in Patent Document 2. .
One solution to this problem is to mount three or more legs and maintain the posture with the other legs even when one leg is not grounded. Compared to biped walking, the number of actuators is large, so it takes a lot of labor to manufacture and maintain the parts, and the circuit for controlling the actuators becomes complicated, and the manufacture and maintenance of these parts is also very large. Will require a lot of effort.
Therefore, in the present invention, by using the same number of actuators as a biped robot, the labor required for the production and maintenance of actuators and control circuits can be reduced, and complicated programming that can be an advantage of a multi-legged robot is not used. An object is to provide a walking robot capable of walking.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the first invention is a walking robot characterized by having an independent leg portion having a turning ability at the center and two interlocking leg portions mounted on the left and right sides thereof. is there.

According to the first invention, the left and right legs are interlocked and operate in exactly the same manner, so the number of required actuators can be reduced to one leg, and the actuator can be manufactured while being a three-speed walking robot. The maintenance effort can be made comparable to that of a biped robot, and as a result, the complexity of the control circuit is the same as that of a biped robot, and the production and maintenance effort for this control circuit is also the same as that of a biped robot. It can be the same level.
Further, according to the first invention, the center of gravity of the walking robot with respect to the grounded leg even when the center foot is down on the ground or when the left and right feet are down on the ground Since the change in the horizontal direction with respect to the traveling direction is reduced, the complexity of programming for posture control is greatly reduced.

It is a perspective view which shows one Embodiment of this invention, and its advancing direction. In one Embodiment of this invention, it is a side view which shows the procedure of the movement operation | movement toward left direction. In one Embodiment of this invention, it is a side view for showing the procedure of turning operation | movement to the left. In one Embodiment of this invention, it is a front view showing the state which grounded only the leg part on either side. In one Embodiment of this invention, it is a front view showing the state which grounded only the center leg part.

An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.
The black arrow on the left side of FIG. 1 indicates the traveling direction of one embodiment of the present invention, and it is described in advance here that when moving forward in the state of FIG.
First, the structure attached to the waist will be described.
A central leg hip joint 3 is installed at the center of the waist 1 of the walking robot via an actuator 2, and a left thigh 5 is connected to the left side of the waist 1 via an actuator 4. The right thigh 6 is connected to the right side so that it can be moved by hand without using an actuator.
Next, the structure attached to the center leg hip joint 3 will be described.
A central thigh 8 is connected to the central leg hip joint 3 via an actuator 7, a central shin 10 is connected via an actuator 9 attached to the central thigh 8, and an actuator 11 connected to the central shin 10. To the ankle portion of the distal end 12 of the central leg.
Next, the structure attached to the left thigh 5 will be described.
A left shin part 14 is connected via an actuator 13 attached to the left thigh part 5, and a left leg tip 16 is connected via an actuator 15 connected to the left shin part 14.
Next, the structure attached to the right thigh 6 will be described.
The right thigh 6 is connected to the left thigh 5 via a left and right thigh connecting rod 17 in order to move in conjunction with the left thigh 5, and the right thigh 6 can be moved to the right by pressing it with a hand. A shin portion 18 is connected, and the right shin portion 18 is connected to the left shin portion 14 via a left and right shin portion connecting rod 19 to move in conjunction with the left shin portion 14, and the right shin portion 18 is manually connected to the right shin portion 18. If pushed, the right leg tip 20 is connected in a movable manner.
The right leg tip 20 is connected to the left leg tip 16 via a left and right leg tip connecting rod 21 in order to move in conjunction with the left leg tip 16.
Next, the points required for each leg tip will be described.
The central leg tip 12 needs to be appropriately designed to have a front-rear width and a left-right width so that the body can be supported independently, and the left leg tip 16 and the right leg tip 20 are the two. It is necessary to design the width in the front-rear direction so that the torso can be supported only by the legs, but the design value of the width at the tip of each leg is based on the stride required for the walking robot and one direction change operation. It is necessary to set an appropriate value in consideration of the required pivotable angle, the leg size allowed in the place where the activity is performed, and the performance of the actuator used.
An explanation of the walking method when one embodiment of the present invention is used will be described below with reference to FIG.
The large white arrows in FIG. 2 explain the operation procedure over time, and the small black arrows indicate the direction of movement of the waist.
If the walking method of the present invention is compared to human movements and described as easily as possible, the walking movements are performed in a manner similar to "humans moving on crutches". Details of this movement will be described with reference to FIG. First, from the initial state of (1), (2) lift the torso of the walking robot by extending the center leg forward and upward, and extend the left and right legs forward and downward, and (3) knee of the center leg Bending the joint and moving the body forward, the left and right feet are grounded, and the center leg is lifted while being supported by the left and right legs, and the state returns to the state of (1) again. The movement is performed by repeating the operations (4) to (4).
A direction changing method using one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
Here, as in FIG. 2, the large white arrow in FIG. 3 explains the operation procedure over time, and the small black arrow indicates the direction of movement of the waist.
First, (1) is the initial state, (2) The center leg is grounded and the walking robot body is lifted vertically, and (3) In that state, the left and right leg tips and the center leg tip are in any part. Rotate the legs within the non-overlapping range to relatively change the direction of the body, and (4) lift the center leg to lower the body and ground the left and right legs while moving the center leg left and right It is realized by repeating the operations of (1) to (5) to lift it to a position higher than the leg part of (5), return the turning angle of the center leg part to the original position, and return to the state of (1) again. I will do it.

"Effect of the embodiment"
According to this embodiment, since the left and right leg actuators are combined, the actuator used for this part is only one leg, and as a result, the labor for manufacturing and maintaining the actuator and the control circuit is doubled. It can be as much as a walking robot.
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, even when the left and right legs are grounded as shown in FIG. 4 or when only the center leg is grounded as shown in FIG. In addition, the center leg tip 12, the left leg tip 16, and the right leg tip 20 in FIG. Since the walking motion can be performed without performing the control, the control program can be greatly simplified as compared with the biped robot.
"Other embodiments"
In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the actuators are concentrated on the left leg, but in other embodiments, the arrangement of the actuators may be reversed left and right.
In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the connecting rod is attached to link the left and right legs, but in another embodiment, for example, the connecting rod is removed to increase the movable range of the leg, and the actuator The left and right legs may be interlocked using the shaft or link mechanism.
Further, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the actuator is directly attached to the joint portion. However, in another embodiment, for example, when it is desired to install the actuator in a location different from the location shown in FIG. For example, a mechanism may be used to transmit power from another place to the joint for driving.

Claims (1)

A tripod walking robot with a pivotable leg in the center and two legs that are linked to the left and right.

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