CN103009379B - Scalable wheel type snake-shaped robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a retractable wheeled snake-like robot. The snake-like robot consists of a head and tail, a torso, and joints, and can move in both directions. The head and tail have the same structure, and mounting holes are designed, and corresponding sensors can be configured as required; the torso adopts an electromagnetic eight-way independent retractable wheel structure. The gravity-sensitive independent expansion and contraction of the wheels can be realized. The driving wheel near the head and tail is installed to provide driving, and the other torso is equipped with passive wheels; the joint part adopts a cross-shaped gear structure to realize the horizontal and pitch deflection of adjacent modules, and adjust each joint reasonably. The deflection angle can realize the meandering and wriggling of the whole snake body. The wheeled movement and the meandering and creeping forms are independent of each other and can be combined, which can effectively improve the adaptability and speed of the snake robot under complex terrain conditions.

Description

Retractable Wheeled Snake Robot

technical field

The invention relates to a snake-like robot mechanism, in particular to a snake-like robot whose wheeled motion can be combined with traditional snake-like motion forms such as meandering and peristalsis, and can also move independently.

Background technique

The snake robot has the following advantages: unique structure, flexible control, reliable performance, strong scalability, strong adaptability, etc. Due to its natural multi-joints, multi-degrees of freedom, and multi-redundant degrees of freedom, snake-shaped robots can have a variety of motion modes, thus catering to the needs of some markets. At present, the existing snake-like robot mechanisms are all designed for the traditional snake-like movement. With the advancement of bionic technology and the highly refined structural design, some advanced snake-like robots in the world have been able to reach or even surpass the natural world. Snakes have some athletic ability, but compared with wheeled movement, traditional snake-like movement limits the movement speed of snake body to a certain extent, and the running ability in complex terrain environment is also limited accordingly. In the existing inventions, the design of the snake-shaped robot is to fix the wheels on the outer edge of the snake to assist the traditional movement of the snake-shaped robot, such as the ACM-R5 amphibious robot of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, designed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences The amphibious snake robot with patent number 200820231889.4, and the multifunctional snake robot with patent number 200920313939.8 designed by students of Central South University are all designed with fixed wheels, either installed on the airfoil structure on the surface of the snake body, or directly installed on the surface , although this design can increase the speed of the snake body in meandering and other movements, it cannot increase the movement mode of the snake-like robot. It is not conducive to special environments such as pipelines.

Contents of the invention

The present invention aims at the characteristics and deficiencies of the current snake-like robot movement forms, and uses the telescopic wheel mechanism to keep the snake body smooth without affecting its meandering and other general forms of movement. Sports, traditional snake-like movement and wheel-assisted snake-like movement, further improve and enhance the adaptability of snake-like robots in complex terrain environments, reduce unnecessary wear on the robot shell or skin, and prolong its service life , to improve the running speed in complex terrain.

The purpose of the present invention is achieved through the following technical solutions:

A retractable wheeled snake-like robot, which adopts a modular design and consists of a head and tail (1), a torso (2), and a joint (3), wherein the head and tail (1) adopt the same structural design, Lighting lamp installation holes (5) and miniature camera installation holes (6) are respectively designed; the torso (2) consists of a torso shell (7), an internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11), a connection plate (9) and a gravity sensor ( 10) Composition, in which eight identical wheel holes (4) are evenly distributed on the torso shell (7), corresponding to the eight wheels of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11), and the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11) includes a base and Eight independently controlled electromagnetically driven telescopic wheel devices evenly distributed on the surface of the base; the internal space of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11) base can be installed with control boards, batteries and wiring between links; the joint part (3) is composed of The first and second twist steering gears (12 and 18), the first and second pinion gears (13 and 17), the first and second semicircular gears (14 and 16), the rotating cross (15), and the U-shaped bracket (19) ;The first and second twist steering gears (12 and 18) provide power to drive the first and second pinion gears (13 and 17), and the power is transmitted to the first and second semicircular gears (14 and 16) through gear meshing; the first 1. Two twist steering gears (12 and 18) are fixed together with the U-shaped bracket (19), the U-shaped bracket (19) is fixedly connected with the trunk (2), and the first and second semicircular gears (14 and 16) are connected with the rotating cross (15) are fixed together, the rotating cross (15) and the U-shaped bracket (19) can be rotated relative to each other, and the two-degree-of-freedom twisting of the joints can be realized; the head and tail (1), the trunk (2) and the joints (3) Connected through the connecting plate (9) and fixed by the corresponding connecting piece.

Further, a flexible protective cover is installed on the adjacent torso (2), and a silicone soft cover is installed in the wheel hole (4) of the torso (2).

Further, the head and tail (1) are conical, the torso (2) is cylindrical, and the joints (3) are orthogonally symmetrical.

Further, the gravity sensing device (10) is fixed on the connection plate (9) and concentrically connected with the U-shaped bracket (19) of the joint part (3).

Further, the positions of the eight evenly distributed wheels of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11) and the eight wheel holes (4) of the trunk shell (7) correspond one-to-one.

Further, the first torsion steering gear (12) and the second torsion steering gear (18) are respectively installed on two U-shaped brackets (19) perpendicular to each other, and the output axes are perpendicular to each other.

Further, the two semicircular gears (14 and 16) on the rotating cross (15) of the joint part (3) are installed vertically, the first pinion (13) is installed on the first torsion steering gear (12), the second The second pinion (17) is installed on the second torsion steering gear (18), and the axes are perpendicular to each other. The first semicircular gear (14) is parallel to the axis of the first pinion (13), and the second semicircular gear (16) is parallel to the axis of the second pinion (17).

The head and tail of the present invention are designed according to the same structure and function, and are mainly used for the installation of sensor communication devices and the collection of environmental information, while the trunk and joints are designed in a modular manner, and the required modules can be freely selected according to the actual situation Number, the joints rely on the steering gear and gear structure to achieve two degrees of freedom of movement, the torso is equipped with an independent telescopic wheel mechanism, in which the driving wheel is designed on the torso link near the head and tail, and all other links are equipped with passive wheels.

On the whole, the movement function of the telescopic wheel is designed as a supplement and auxiliary to the traditional movement mode of the snake robot. The special mechanical structure is used to realize the telescopic movement of the wheel, and the sensing device is used to distinguish the direction of gravity in real time. According to the sensor and the telescopic wheel The corresponding relationship realizes the expansion and contraction of the wheels corresponding to the ground contact direction of the bottom of the snake-shaped robot. Independent power-on control is adopted for each telescopic wheel, no matter what the position of the robot is, it can always ensure normal travel without twisting the body. In the traditional movement of snake-like robots, telescopic wheels can be used as an aid to adapt to different terrains; when moving with telescopic wheels alone, the snake body can maintain a fast sliding state. In addition, in addition to the snake body can be equipped with skin, the telescopic wheels can also be replaced according to terrain conditions Different materials improve its adaptability.

The present invention boldly explores and innovates the motion form of the traditional snake robot, and has the following advantages:

1. It not only maintains the smooth shape of the snake body surface, but also realizes the diversification of movement. The wheel movement can be controlled independently, and can be combined with traditional snake movement methods such as winding, wriggling, and stretching, which can be changed flexibly;

2. The ingenious and unique mechanical telescopic wheel structure fully considers the subdivision of the angle of the snake body, and does not need to distinguish the front and side of the snake body, and it moves in eight directions;

3. Electromagnetic telescopic design, gravity induction identification, independent corresponding double-wheel balanced telescopic;

4. The silicone soft wheel hole cover design is used to prevent the environment from polluting the inside of the snake body. The wheels can be replaced with different tires to adapt to different terrains;

5. Simple cross-shaped gear design, flexible realization of double degrees of freedom, simple structure, convenient installation, and easy realization.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the snake body after the head and tail and the joint sheath are removed in the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the overall installation structure of the torso;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the assembly position of the shell of the torso and the internal telescopic mechanism;

5 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the joint;

Among them, 1 is the head and tail, 2 is the trunk, 3 is the joint, 4 is the wheel hole of the trunk shell, 5 is the installation hole of the lighting lamp, 6 is the installation hole of the micro camera, 7 is the trunk shell, 8 is the telescopic wheel, and 9 is the connection Disk, 10 is a gravity sensing device, 11 is an internal telescopic wheel mechanism, 12 is a first torsion steering gear, 13 is a first pinion, 14 is a first semicircular gear, 15 is a rotating cross, 16 is a second semicircular gear, , 17 is the second pinion, 18 is the second twist steering gear, and 19 is a U-shaped bracket.

Detailed ways

The present invention will be described in further detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the present invention is made up of head and tail part 1, trunk part 2 and joint part 3, and wherein head is mainly used for installing the sensor device that is responsible for environmental information collection, such as camera, ultrasonic radar, laser rangefinder etc.; the trunk is mainly equipped with a telescopic wheel mechanism, corresponding controllers, batteries, etc., to realize the wheeled movement and power supply control of the snake; the joints are covered with protective sleeves, which have two degrees of freedom, and mainly realize the snake's wriggling and winding The combination of joints and wheels can realize traditional snake-like motions such as wheel-assisted meandering and wriggling.

As shown in FIGS. 3-5 , the torso is mainly composed of a torso shell 7 , an internal retractable wheel mechanism 11 , a connecting plate 9 and a gravity sensing device 10 . For the trunk shell 7, eight telescopic wheel holes 4 are evenly distributed on the surface of the shell. The telescopic wheel hole 4 is equipped with a silica gel hole cover to ensure that the telescopic wheel is free to come in and out while preventing the internal device of the snake body from being polluted. Connecting screw holes are respectively provided at both ends of the casing, and the internal telescoping mechanism 11 is connected with the trunk shell 7 and the sensing device 10 through the connecting plate 9 . Wherein 11 is telescopic wheel telescopic mechanism, its technical realization relies on the power-on and power-off of electromagnetic mechanism, utilizes the lever principle to realize stretching out and retracting of telescopic wheel 8 by the effect of electromagnetic force.

10 among Fig. 3 is the schematic diagram of sensing device structure, in the present invention, the profile of connecting surface of sensing device is set to regular octagon, and groove is arranged inside, and gravity ball is placed, and sensor is installed, utilizes the effect of gravity to the corresponding position of ball The sensor processing information controls the power-on and power-off of the corresponding electromagnetic circuit, and realizes the extension and retraction control of the wheel in the direction of gravity. In the design of the present invention, the relative positions of the two wheels corresponding to the gravitational direction induction action are just located on two adjacent corners, so that the relative angle of the two wheels is maintained at 90 degrees, which can ensure the balance and stability of the snake body during travel. No matter which side of the snake body touches the ground, when the wheels need to be stretched out, each torso always has two corresponding wheels stretched out, so that the movement of the snake body is not affected by overturning.

Figure 4 shows the schematic diagram of the installation of the trunk shell and the internal telescopic wheel mechanism. The two have the same length and symmetrical structure. The wheel holes correspond to each other. The position is fixed by the connecting plate. The cylindrical space inside the telescopic mechanism can be used to install the controller and battery. and connecting wires.

Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the joint. The joint part is mainly composed of U-shaped bracket 19, first and second torsion steering gears 12 and 18, rotating cross 15, and gear transmission mechanism (including first and second pinion gears 13 and 17 and first and second semicircular gears 14 and 16) . The four end faces of the rotating cross 15 can rotate relative to the U-shaped bracket 19, and the two rotation directions are perpendicular to each other. When the steering gears in the two directions act alone, the horizontal deflection and the pitching twist are respectively realized, and the two steering gears act simultaneously When , controlling the rotation angle in two directions can realize the torsion of different angles in space.

In the present invention, except that the design and structure of the head and tail are unique, the structures of other trunks and joints are correspondingly the same.

The invention realizes the combination of various motion forms on the snake-like robot, and the traditional snake-like meandering and peristaltic motion forms and the wheel-type motion can be independently controlled, and can be activated separately or simultaneously. Their respective working principles are:

The first type of movement: traditional meandering or creeping. When all the torsion steering gear 18 at the same position rotates according to the corresponding angle, it will drive the corresponding gear set to move, so that the twisting of the snake body joint in the horizontal direction of the same degree of freedom can be realized according to the corresponding settings of positive and negative angles. Serpentine motion; when the torsional steering gear 12 at all positions of the robot rotates according to the corresponding angle, it will drive the corresponding gear set to move, so that the twist of the snake body joint in the vertical direction of the same degree of freedom is set according to the corresponding positive and negative angles. The peristalsis of the snake body can be realized.

The second way of exercise: wheel exercise. The joint position is restored and the joint movement function is disconnected, so that the snake body is kept in a straight line, and the wheel movement function is enabled, the corresponding telescopic wheel will stretch out, relying on the movement of the driving wheel of the trunk to drive the movement of the driven wheel, the installation position of the driving wheel is the same as that of the slave The driving wheel is the same, but the difference is that the motor and the wheel are combined and installed. The driving motor adopts an outer rotor biaxial DC motor. The telescopic wheel is fixed with the outer rotor, and the stator is fixed with the telescopic shaft. Realize the linear wheel motion of the snake body.

The third mode of movement: wheel-assisted meandering or creeping. The wheel movement function and joint movement function are enabled, but the driving wheel does not provide power, relying on the torsion of the joints to achieve wheel winding or creeping, increasing the speed of travel in complex terrain environments.

 1500mm，其中头尾部尺寸为Ф100mm

81mm，躯干部尺寸为Ф100mm

138mm，关节部尺寸为108mm

90mm

90mm，关节部的舵机选用可连续旋转舵机。 In the structural design of the present invention, the shape of the head and tail, the structure of the trunk, and the structure of the joints are mainly designed. The snake-shaped robot in the overall structure diagram consists of two identical modules at the head and tail, five identical modules at the trunk, and six identical modules at the joints. Composition, the overall size is Ф100mm

1500mm, of which the size of the head and tail is Ф100mm

81mm, the trunk size is Ф100mm

138mm, joint size is 108mm

90mm

90mm, the steering gear of the joint part can be continuously rotated.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention without limitation. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the technical solutions of the present invention can be Modifications or equivalent replacements without departing from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the present invention shall be covered by the claims of the present invention.

Claims (7)

1. A retractable wheeled snake-like robot, characterized in that the robot adopts a modular design and consists of a head and tail (1), a torso (2), and a joint (3), wherein the head and tail (1) Using the same structural design, there are lighting installation holes (5) and miniature camera installation holes (6) respectively; the torso (2) consists of a torso shell (7), an internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11), and a connecting plate (9) It is composed of a gravity sensing device (10), wherein eight identical wheel holes (4) are evenly distributed on the torso shell (7), corresponding to the eight wheels of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11), and the internal telescopic wheel mechanism ( 11) It includes a base and eight independently controlled electromagnetically driven telescopic wheel devices evenly distributed on the surface of the base; the inner space of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11) base can be installed with control boards, batteries and wiring between links; Joint part (3) is made of torsion steering gear (12 and 18), pinion (13 and 17), semicircular gear (14 and 16), rotating cross (15), U-shaped bracket (19); by twisting steering gear ( 12 and 18) provide power to drive the pinion gears (13 and 17), and transmit the power to the semicircular gears (14 and 16) through gear meshing; the twist steering gear (12 and 18) is fixed with the U-shaped bracket (19), and the U Type bracket (19) is fixedly connected with trunk portion (2), and semicircular gear (14 and 16) is fixed together with rotating cross (15), can rotate relatively between rotating cross (15) and U-shaped bracket (19), can Realize two-degree-of-freedom twisting of joints; head and tail (1), torso (2) and joints (3) are connected through connecting discs (9) and fixed by corresponding connecting pieces; The snake-like robot can realize meandering motion, creeping motion, and wheeled motion independently or simultaneously: when all the twisting steering gears (18 or 12) at the same position rotate according to the corresponding angle, it will drive the corresponding gear set to move, so that The twisting of the snake body joints in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction of the same degree of freedom, according to the corresponding settings of positive and negative angles, can realize the meandering or wriggling motion of the snake body; the position of the joint part (3) is restored and the joint movement function is disconnected, Thereby keep the snake body in a straight line, enable the wheel movement function, the corresponding telescopic wheel (8) will stretch out, drive the movement of the wheel through the rotation of the motor, and finally realize the linear wheel movement of the snake body. 2. The retractable wheeled snake robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: a flexible protective cover is installed on the adjacent torso (2), and a silicone soft cover is installed in the wheel hole (4) of the torso (2). set. 3. The retractable wheeled snake robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: the head and tail (1) are conical, the trunk (2) is cylindrical, and the joints (3) are orthogonal Symmetrical structure. 4. The retractable wheeled snake robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: the gravity sensing device (10) is concentrically fixed on the connection plate (9), and is connected to the U-shaped joint part (3) The bracket (19) is connected. 5. The retractable wheeled snake robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: the eight evenly distributed wheels of the internal telescopic wheel mechanism (11) and the eight wheel holes (4) of the torso shell (7) ) are in one-to-one correspondence. 6. The retractable wheeled snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: the first torsion steering gear (12) and the second torsion steering gear (18) are respectively mounted on two mutually perpendicular U-shaped brackets ( 19), and the output axes are perpendicular to each other. 7. The retractable wheeled snake robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: the two semicircular gears (14 and 16) on the rotating cross (15) of the joint part (3) are installed vertically, the first The pinion (13) is installed on the first twist steering gear (12), the second pinion (17) is installed on the second twist steering gear (18), and the first pinion (13) and the second pinion ( The axes of 17) are perpendicular to each other, the axes of the first semicircular gear (14) and the first pinion (13) are parallel, and the axes of the second semicircular gear (16) and the second pinion (17) are parallel.

Images