CN113334366A

CN113334366A - Bionic robot spine

Info

Publication number: CN113334366A
Application number: CN202110599453.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈刚; 苏俊益; 蒋代发; 杨锦芳; 吴玮
Original assignee: Zhejiang University of Technology ZJUT
Current assignee: Zhejiang University of Technology ZJUT; Zhejiang Sci Tech University ZSTU; Zhejiang University of Science and Technology ZUST
Priority date: 2021-05-31
Filing date: 2021-05-31
Publication date: 2021-09-03

Abstract

The invention relates to a bionic robot. The bionic spine of the quadruped robot can be flexibly bent, so that the quadruped robot can be more flexibly and conveniently adapted to complex terrains, and the bionic spine has the characteristic of reliable work. The technical scheme is as follows: a biomimetic robotic spine comprising a controller; the method is characterized in that: the spine comprises a plurality of spine units which are arranged in sequence and connected in pairs, wherein each spine unit comprises a spherical thin shell with an opening, a plurality of electromagnets fixed on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell, a spherical column head which wraps a permanent magnet and is positioned in the spherical thin shell in a rolling manner, and an elastic column rod with one end connected with the spherical column head and the other end extending to the outside through the opening and connected with the adjacent spherical thin shell; the spine further comprises an elastic rod and batteries, the elastic rod is sequentially connected with the spherical thin shells to ensure the relative movement of the spherical thin shells and the spherical column heads, and the batteries are respectively communicated with the electromagnets through the controller.

Description

Bionic robot spine

Technical Field

The invention relates to a bionic robot, in particular to a spine of the bionic robot.

Background

In recent years, with the increasing improvement of the bionic technology, the development of the bionic robot is faster and faster, the requirement of scientific research on the bionic robot is also increased, the bionic robot can replace human beings to reach places which are difficult to reach, so that data which cannot be collected before can be collected for analysis, and the requirement on the performance of the bionic robot is higher.

Research and investigation show that the quadruped robot runs by means of quadruped, and the spine of the quadruped robot plays a role in connecting small units and transferring force and direction. Biologically, the quadruped robot and quadruped animal are different in the degree of action of the spine; however, although the domestic quadruped robots are diversified, the quadruped robots are too single in the aspect of spine design, and the turning and connecting aspects have great limitations. Therefore, in order to improve the flexibility and the working reliability of the quadruped robot, a spine of the bionic robot which is more flexible in operation and has strong reliability needs to be invented.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings in the background art, and to provide a bionic spine for a quadruped robot, which can be flexibly bent to allow the quadruped robot to more flexibly and conveniently adapt to a complex terrain, and which has the characteristic of reliable operation.

The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:

a biomimetic robotic spine comprising a controller; the method is characterized in that: the spine comprises a plurality of spine units which are arranged in sequence and connected in pairs, wherein each spine unit comprises a spherical thin shell with an opening, a plurality of electromagnets fixed on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell, a spherical column head which wraps a permanent magnet and is positioned in the spherical thin shell in a rolling manner, and an elastic column rod with one end connected with the spherical column head and the other end extending to the outside through the opening and connected with the adjacent spherical thin shell; the spine further comprises an elastic rod and batteries, the elastic rod is sequentially connected with the spherical thin shells to ensure the relative movement of the spherical thin shells and the spherical column heads, and the batteries are respectively communicated with the electromagnets through the controller.

And iron cores in the electromagnets are dispersedly arranged on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell and are in rolling fit with the spherical column head.

The diameter of the opening of each spherical shell is at least 1.5 times of the diameter of the elastic rod, so that relative rolling can be generated between the spherical column head and the spherical shell.

The permanent magnet is a cube and is positioned in the center of the spherical column head.

The iron cores are sheet-shaped, and the iron cores are fixed on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell through a welding method.

The outer wall of the spherical shell is provided with a protruding column provided with a column hole; in addition, the elastic rods are sequentially connected with the protrusions on each spherical thin shell one by one, so that all the spinal column units are connected into a whole.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

the spine bending device has the advantages that the spine is bent by controlling the electrifying mode of the electromagnets, namely the spherical column cap and the spherical thin shell rotate relatively by electrifying different electromagnets, so that the bending of the spine (including the torsion of the whole spine around the axis of the spine and the bending of the spine from a straight line to a curved line) is driven, the spine bending device has the characteristics of simple structure, convenience in control and high overall reliability, can meet higher requirements on the spine in complex terrains, and is very suitable for being popularized and used in a bionic robot.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a left side elevational schematic view of a single spinal unit of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of the cross-sectional structure of fig. 2 taken along line X-X.

Fig. 4 is a schematic front view of the spherical stud and the elastic stud according to the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional structure view of fig. 4 taken along line Y-Y.

Fig. 6 is a front view schematically showing the structure of the spherical shell in the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic view of the cross-sectional structure Z-Z of fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a schematic view of the curved state of the spine of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of the working principle of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be further described with reference to the drawings attached to the specification, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

The bionic robot spine shown in fig. 1 comprises an electromagnet 1, a spherical thin shell 2, a protruding column 3, an elastic rod 4, an elastic column rod 5, a spherical column head 6 and a permanent magnet 7.

The bionic robot spine comprises a plurality of spine unit structures which are all the same.

In each spine unit, the spherical thin shell is a thin-wall structure with an inner cavity, and the outer surface of the spherical thin shell is provided with protruding columns which can be fixed by elastic rods, so that the shape of the spine is kept when the spine is static, and a force application fulcrum is provided when the spine bends. The inner surface of the shell is attached with a sheet-shaped electromagnet which can provide a magnetic field for driving the permanent magnet to rotate when being electrified; and meanwhile, iron cores in the electromagnet are dispersedly arranged on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell and combined to form a supporting arc surface which can be in rolling fit with the spherical column head (preferably, the supporting arc surface is in slidable contact with the spherical column head). The distribution positions of the electromagnets are related to the driving force generated by the electromagnets, and the specific positions can be selected according to requirements.

Preferably, the electromagnets are distributed on the inner wall of the thin spherical shell at equal intervals.

Because the permanent magnet 7 (square permanent magnet) is coated by the spherical column head, the spherical column head can rotate along with the permanent magnet, thereby realizing the bending of the spine; one end of each elastic post rod is connected with a spherical post head (generally formed by integral injection molding), and the other end of each elastic post rod is fixedly connected with an adjacent spherical thin shell. As can be seen from fig. 5: the upper end and the lower end of the permanent magnet are respectively an N-level 7-1 and an S-level 7-1, and the permanent magnet is wrapped in the spherical column head.

As shown in fig. 6, the iron core (preferably, a sheet iron core) of the electromagnet is disposed on the inner wall of the thin spherical shell by welding.

The magnetic field acting force between the electromagnet and the permanent magnet is the power for bending the spine; when the spine needs to be bent, the permanent magnet is rotated by electrifying the electromagnet to generate a magnetic field, the rotation of the permanent magnet drives the spine to be twisted and bent, and different electromagnets are electrified according to different modes, so that the twisting and bending of different rotational degrees of freedom of the spine can be realized.

Each spherical shell is connected into a whole in sequence by an elastic rod (a post hole is arranged on a protruding post on the outer wall of the spherical shell, and the elastic rod can be inserted into the post hole and then locked by a fixing screw). The elastic rod can enable the spine to have certain elasticity, and the spine can be bent when the electric power is supplied; the normal shape of the spine can be maintained even in the non-energized state.

The controller can adopt a PLC controller. The exterior of the spherical shell is also provided with a power supply (preferably a battery, which is omitted in the figure) for connecting the controller and the electromagnet.

The working process of the bionic spine is explained in detail as follows:

1. non-energized state: the mechanism is in a power-off state, and the bionic robot spine is in a relieving state due to the elastic support of the elastic rod.

2. The electrifying fixed state: the mechanism is in a power-on state, and the magnetic force generated by the electromagnet at the inner part of the spine of the bionic robot enables the spine to be in a certain stretching state. This state is often used when walking on a field with a relatively gentle topography.

3. Bending: the rotating magnetic field is generated by electrifying the electromagnet coil, and the rotating torque is generated to the permanent magnet, so that the spine is driven to bend. The spine is now in tension. This state is often used in terrain with more complex terrain, and walking can be achieved by bending the spine, which has a total of two rotational degrees of freedom (rotation about the spine axis, rotation from a straight line to a curved line as shown in fig. 8). These two rotational degrees of freedom may accommodate bending of the spine during running.

Taking the upward rotation as an example (as shown in fig. 9), when the electromagnet a is powered on first and the electromagnet F is powered on later, the direction of the force generated by the electromagnet a, the electromagnet F and the permanent magnet together will point to the obliquely upward direction from the permanent magnet, the permanent magnet drives the spherical column head to generate torsion under the action of the force, and the torsion amplitude is determined by the electromagnet powered on later. When the rotation is required to be large, the electromagnet F can be selected to be electrified, and when the rotation is required to be small, the electromagnet E or the electromagnet D can be selected to be electrified.

Finally, the above embodiments are only for illustrating the present invention and not for limiting the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, so that all equivalent technical solutions also belong to the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A biomimetic robotic spine comprising a controller; the method is characterized in that: the spine comprises a plurality of spine units which are arranged in sequence and connected in pairs, wherein each spine unit comprises a spherical thin shell (2) provided with an opening, a plurality of electromagnets (1) fixed on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell, a spherical column head (6) wrapped by a permanent magnet and positioned in the spherical thin shell in a rolling manner, and an elastic column rod (5) with one end connected with the spherical column head and the other end extending to the outside through the opening and connected with the adjacent spherical thin shell; the spine also comprises an elastic rod (4) which is sequentially connected with each spherical thin shell to ensure the relative motion of the spherical thin shell and the spherical column head, and batteries which are respectively communicated with the electromagnets through the controller.

2. The biomimetic robotic spine of claim 1, wherein: and iron cores in the electromagnets are dispersedly arranged on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell and are in rolling fit with the spherical column head.

3. The biomimetic robotic spine of claim 2, wherein: the diameter of the opening of each spherical shell is at least 1.5 times of the diameter of the elastic rod, so that relative rolling can be generated between the spherical column head and the spherical shell.

4. The biomimetic robotic spine of claim 3, wherein: the permanent magnet is a cube and is positioned in the center of the spherical column head.

5. The biomimetic robotic spine of claim 4, wherein: the iron cores are sheet-shaped, and the iron cores are fixed on the inner wall of the spherical thin shell through a welding method.

6. The biomimetic robotic spine of claim 5, wherein: the outer wall of the spherical shell is provided with a protruding column (3) provided with a column hole; in addition, the elastic rods are sequentially connected with the protrusions on each spherical thin shell one by one, so that all the spinal column units are connected into a whole.