CN115709472A

CN115709472A - Continuous robot

Info

Publication number: CN115709472A
Application number: CN202211131585.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘霞刚; 杨尚奎; 闫亚东
Original assignee: XiAn Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of CAS
Current assignee: XiAn Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of CAS
Priority date: 2022-09-15
Filing date: 2022-09-15
Publication date: 2023-02-24

Abstract

The invention discloses a continuous robot; the problems that most of the existing continuous robots have no good comprehensive performance, pneumatic-driven continuous robots are difficult to control and the torsion resistance is limited are solved; the device comprises a driving device, M continuous bodies and M groups of connecting rope groups which correspond to the M continuous bodies one by one, wherein M is more than or equal to 1; the M continuous type bodies are sequentially connected to form a continuous type structure, the lower end of the continuous type structure is installed on the driving device, and the upper end of the continuous type structure is used for being connected with an external load; each continuous body is provided with I groups of wire routing hole groups which are communicated up and down along the circumferential direction, and each group comprises Q wire routing holes; the number of the connecting ropes in each group of connecting rope groups is the same as the number of the wiring holes in each group of wiring hole groups, one end of each group of connecting rope groups is arranged at the upper end of the corresponding continuous body, and the other end of each group of connecting rope groups penetrates through the corresponding group of wiring hole groups of each continuous body below the connecting rope groups and then is connected with the driving device.

Description

Continuous robot

Technical Field

The invention relates to a robot, in particular to a continuous robot.

Background

The robot is widely applied in various aspects of industry, military, medical treatment, life and the like, and becomes an indispensable important component in the development of human civilization. At present, a plurality of robots all adopt discrete rigid connecting rods as bodies and are connected through discrete kinematic pairs, and the motion process of the robots has large requirements on space due to the influence of the sizes of the rigid connecting rods.

Therefore, in order to satisfy more complicated and narrow use environments, a continuous robot which can be deformed according to the environment and has certain flexibility is required, and the limitation of the application of the rigid connecting rod to the robot is fundamentally eliminated.

However, most of the continuous robots are difficult to combine multiple functions and characteristics of body extension (non-feeding), high-precision motion, light weight, low cost, torsion resistance, hollowness and the like, so that many of the continuous robots can only obtain outstanding performance on partial performance, and are difficult to obtain good comprehensive performance; if the continuous robot adopting the nickel-titanium alloy rod as the spinal rod does not have the function of body extension and retraction; the adopted scroll spring is easy to deform under the action of load, and the torsion resistance is poor; and the pneumatic driving continuous robot has large control difficulty and limited torsion resistance.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the problems that most of the existing continuous robots have no good comprehensive performance, the pneumatically-driven continuous robots are difficult to control and have limited torsion resistance, and provides the continuous robots.

The technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:

a continuous robot is characterized in that:

comprises a driving device, M continuous bodies and M groups of connecting rope groups which are in one-to-one correspondence with the M continuous bodies, wherein M is more than or equal to 1;

the continuous type body is a wave spring, M wave springs are sequentially arranged, and two adjacent wave springs are connected with each other through a wave trough and a wave crest to form a continuous type structure;

or the continuous body is a hollow elastic tube which is through up and down, the side wall of the hollow elastic tube is circumferentially provided with N rows of hollow grids, each row is uniformly provided with A hollow grids, M hollow elastic tubes are sequentially and correspondingly connected to form a continuous structure, wherein N is more than or equal to 2, and A is more than or equal to 2;

the lower end of the continuous structure is arranged on the driving device, and the upper end of the continuous structure is used for being connected with an external load;

each continuous body is provided with I groups of wire hole groups which are communicated up and down along the circumferential direction, and each group comprises Q wire holes which are uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction; wherein the value of I is the same as the sequence I of the corresponding continuous type body in the continuous type structure, the sequence is counted from top to bottom, I is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and Q is more than or equal to 3;

the number of the connecting ropes in each connecting rope group is the same as the number of the wiring holes in each wiring hole group, one end of each connecting rope group is arranged at the upper end of the corresponding continuous body, the other end of each connecting rope group penetrates through the corresponding wiring hole group of each continuous body below the connecting rope group and then is connected with the driving device, the driving device is used for driving the connecting ropes to be retracted and retracted, the continuous robot has the motion characteristics of stretching, spiraling and bending in all directions through the arranged continuous body with the hollow grids, during task execution, corresponding actuators (such as hand grasping), cameras and other tools can be arranged on the continuous body at the tail end of the robot, and corresponding work can be completed by utilizing the motion characteristics of the robot.

Furthermore, the positions of the wiring holes in the continuous body above the continuous body are the same as the positions of the wiring holes in the group (I-1) in the continuous body below and adjacent to the continuous body, and the positions are guaranteed to be the same, so that the connection rope can be smoothly wound and unwound.

Furthermore, Q =3,3 wiring holes, and the continuous type body circumference evenly distributed, both can guarantee the atress of continuous type body, do not need many wiring holes again.

Further, the driving device comprises a mounting shell, motors with the same number as the connecting ropes and rope winding shafts coaxially mounted on output shafts of the motors;

the motor is arranged in the mounting shell;

the other end of the connecting rope penetrates through the mounting shell and then is wound and fixed on the rope winding shaft.

Further, in order to improve the running stability of the continuous robot and reduce the occupied space, the axis of the output shaft of the motor is vertically arranged;

the driving device also comprises steering shafts which correspond to the rope winding shafts one by one;

the steering shaft is arranged in the mounting shell, and the axis of the steering shaft is horizontally arranged;

the other end of the connecting rope penetrates through the mounting shell to be wound on the steering shaft and then is wound and fixed on the rope winding shaft.

Further, the continuous body is formed by additive manufacturing through 3D printing.

Further, in order to improve the telescopic performance of the continuous body, the hollow grids are rhombic hollow grids or elliptic hollow grids, and the short axes of the rhombic hollow grids or the elliptic hollow grids are parallel to the axis of the continuous body.

Further, in order to improve the loading capacity of the robot, an air bag is arranged inside the continuous structure.

Further, in order to meet the requirement of health and safety in the medical field, a sleeve is sleeved outside the continuous structure.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate the connection of the two wave springs, the two ends of each wave spring are provided with connecting plane rings, and the two connecting plane rings which are adjacent up and down are welded.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

1. compared with the existing continuous robot, the continuous robot has the advantages that the wave spring with the hollowed grids is arranged as the continuous body, or the hollow elastic tube with the hollowed grids is arranged as the continuous body, so that the continuous robot has the moving characteristics of stretching, circling and bending in all directions, when a task is executed, corresponding tools such as an actuator (such as a hand grab) and a camera can be installed on the continuous body at the tail end of the robot, and corresponding work can be completed by utilizing the moving characteristics of the robot.

2. The invention provides a continuous robot, which is controlled by a connecting rope, and compared with a pneumatically driven continuous robot, the control difficulty is reduced, and the torsion resistance is improved.

3. The invention provides a continuous robot, which is characterized in that through the overlapped wiring holes, namely I x Q through wiring holes are uniformly formed in a continuous body along the circumferential direction of the continuous body, each connecting rope can penetrate through one wiring hole of each continuous body below the connecting rope, the independent control of the continuous bodies can be realized through the connecting ropes connected to each continuous body, and the common control of M continuous bodies can be realized through the connecting ropes sequentially penetrating through the wiring holes of the continuous bodies below the connecting ropes.

4. The invention provides a continuous robot which is simple in structure, good in bending and stretching performance and high in torsion resistance.

5. The invention provides a continuum robot, which can avoid the interference of a connecting rope by a rope winding shaft and improve the running stability of the continuum robot by changing the driving direction of the connecting rope wound on the rope winding shaft through a steering shaft.

6. The invention provides a continuous robot, wherein the hollow grids are arranged to be rhombic or elliptical, and the short axes of the rhombic or elliptical hollow grids are parallel to the axis of the continuous body, so that stronger torsion resistance can be obtained.

7. The invention provides a continuous robot, which is characterized in that an air bag is arranged in a continuous structure, so that the load capacity of the continuous robot is improved, and devices such as an optical fiber bundle, an electric wire and a sensor can be penetrated in the continuous structure, or an annular air bag is adopted, and the devices such as the optical fiber bundle, the electric wire and the sensor can be penetrated in the annular air bag.

8. The invention provides a continuous robot, wherein a sleeve is sleeved outside a continuous structure, so that the safety of the whole device can be improved, and the continuous robot is particularly suitable for the medical field.

Drawings

FIG. 1 (a) is a front view of a continuous body in the form of two hollow grids according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1 (b) is a schematic three-dimensional structure diagram of two continuous bodies in the form of hollow grids in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1 (c) is a schematic structural view of the same spot welding of two wave-shaped elastic pieces in two continuous bodies in the form of hollow grids in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 (a) is a front view of a continuous body in the form of three hollow grids in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 (b) is a schematic three-dimensional structure of a continuous body in the form of three hollow grids in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 (c) is a schematic structural view of the same spot welding of two wave-shaped elastic pieces in a continuous body in the form of three hollow grids in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 (a) is a front view of a continuous body in the form of four open grids in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 (b) is a schematic perspective view of a continuous body in the form of four hollow grids according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 (c) is a schematic structural view of the same spot welding of two wave-shaped elastic sheets of the continuous body in the form of four hollow grids in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 (a) is a schematic view of a single continuous body according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 (b) is a schematic view of a series structure of two continuous bodies according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 (c) is a schematic view of a series structure of three continuous bodies according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention (hidden mounting case);

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a continuous structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1, a continuous type structure; 11. a continuous body; 111. a wave-shaped elastic sheet; 2. connecting ropes; 3. a drive device; 31. mounting a shell; 32. a motor; 33. a rope winding shaft; 34. a steering shaft; 4. a wiring hole.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The present invention provides a continuous robot, as shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6, comprising a driving device 3, a continuous structure 1 and a connecting rope 2;

the functions of the components are as follows:

the continuous structure 1 is used for realizing telescopic transformation, spiral transformation and all-direction bending transformation; the purpose of the connecting rope 2 is to control the continuous structure 1 to perform stretching, circling and bending transformation in all directions; the driving device 3 is used for providing support for the continuous structure 1 and providing power for the connecting rope 2 to control the connecting rope 2 to be retracted.

The connection structure of each part is as follows:

the continuous structure 1 is formed by connecting three continuous bodies 11 in series, each continuous body 11 can be composed of an open wave spring and connecting plane rings arranged at two ends of the open wave spring, and the number of the hollow grids on each layer of the open wave spring and the number of the hollow grids arranged on each layer are set according to actual requirements;

or the hollow elastic pipe can be a hollow elastic pipe which is communicated up and down, the side wall of the hollow elastic pipe is provided with N rows of hollow grids along the circumferential direction, and each row of hollow elastic pipes is distributed with A hollow grids, namely the hollow elastic pipe is of a hollow net structure, wherein N is more than or equal to 2, A is more than or equal to 2; each hollow grid can be deformed, and the number of the hollow grids on each continuous body 11 can be the same or different, and can be set according to actual requirements.

The continuous type body 11 of the top has seted up a set of line punch combination that link up from top to bottom along its circumference, and a set of line punch combination includes three wire walking hole 4, and middle continuous type body 11 has seted up two sets of line punch combination that link up from top to bottom, six wire walking holes 4 that link up from top to bottom promptly, and the continuous type body 11 of the bottom has seted up three sets of line punch combination that link up from top to bottom, nine wire walking holes 4 that link up from top to bottom promptly, and wherein, the spacing distance between every group wire walking hole 4 is confirmed according to demand or processing degree of difficulty.

The positions of two sets of routing holes on the lowermost continuous body 11 are the same as the positions of the routing holes on the intermediate continuous body 11, and the positions of one set of routing holes on the intermediate continuous body 11 are the same as the positions of the routing holes on the uppermost continuous body 11.

The driving device 3 comprises a mounting shell 31, nine steering shafts 34, nine motors 32 and nine rope winding shafts 33, wherein the motors 32, the steering shafts 34 and the rope winding shafts 33 are in one-to-one correspondence; the mounting shell 31 is hollow, a mounting plate is horizontally arranged in the mounting shell, the motor 32 is mounted at the lower end of the mounting plate, an output shaft of the motor 32 penetrates through the mounting plate to be coaxially connected with the rope winding shaft 33 positioned above the mounting plate, the steering shaft 34 is mounted on the mounting plate and positioned on one side of the rope winding shaft 33, the axis of the rope winding shaft 33 is vertically arranged, and the axis of the steering shaft 34 is horizontally arranged;

compared with the mode that the output shaft of the motor 32 is horizontally arranged, the mode that the output shaft of the motor 32 is vertically arranged has the advantages of small required space and more compact structure, and can be applied to the robot with the continuous body 11 and smaller radial size.

The lower end of the continuous structure 1 is mounted on the upper end of the mounting case 31, and the upper end of the continuous structure 1 is used for connecting an external load.

Nine connecting ropes 2 are provided, and the connecting ropes 2 correspond to the motor 32, the steering shaft 34, the rope winding shaft 33 and the wire running holes 4 one by one; three ends of the three continuous bodies are respectively fixed on three rope winding shafts 33, then the three continuous bodies penetrate through the mounting shell 31 after being wound by the rope winding shafts 33 and the steering shaft 34, and the three continuous bodies sequentially penetrate through one group of wiring hole groups of the three continuous bodies 11 and then are connected with the upper end of the uppermost continuous body 11; the other three ends are respectively fixed on the other three rope winding shafts 33, then are wound by the rope winding shafts 33 and the steering shafts 34 and then penetrate out of the mounting shell 31, sequentially penetrate through the other group of routing hole groups of the two continuous bodies 11 and then are connected with the upper end of the middle continuous body 11, the remaining three ends are respectively fixed on the remaining three rope winding shafts 33, then are wound by the rope winding shafts 33 and the steering shafts 34 and then penetrate out of the mounting shell 31, and penetrate through the remaining group of routing hole groups of the lowermost continuous body 11 and then are connected with the upper end of the lowermost continuous body 11.

In order to improve the load capacity of the continuum robot, an airbag may be provided inside the continuum structure 1;

in order to increase the safety of the whole device, a sleeve may be sleeved outside the continuous structure 1.

The continuous body 11 may also be formed by additive manufacturing using 3D printing.

In order to ensure the torsion resistance and the expansion performance of the continuous body 11, the hollow grids are set to be rhombic hollow grids or elliptic hollow grids, the short axes of the rhombic hollow grids or the elliptic hollow grids are parallel to the axis of the continuous body 11, namely, the short edges of the crossed lines at the center of the rhombic hollow grids or the elliptic hollow grids are parallel to the axis of the continuous body 11.

The wave spring may be formed by connecting a plurality of wave elastic pieces 111 to each other sequentially through valleys and peaks, that is, the wave elastic pieces 111 are protruded upward to form a plurality of peaks, the wave elastic pieces 111 are recessed upward to form a plurality of valleys, and the peaks of the current wave elastic pieces 111 are welded to the valleys of the wave elastic pieces 111 located above the peaks.

In order to more intuitively show the structure of the continuous body 11, taking the example that the continuous body 11 is composed of a wave spring and a connection plane ring installed at both ends of the wave spring, the following multiple views are provided:

as shown in fig. 1 (a), 1 (b) and 1 (c), the two hollow grids are stacked to form a continuous body 11, and the bending and stretching of the continuous body are realized by the deformation of the hollow grid edge strips.

As shown in fig. 2 (a), 2 (b) and 2 (c), the three-dimensional hollow grid is formed.

As shown in fig. 3 (a), 3 (b) and 3 (c), the number of the hollow grids can be selected according to the requirements (such as rigidity).

The continuous bodies 11 have three degrees of freedom, i.e., two bending (rotation) degrees of freedom and one expansion (contraction) degree of freedom, as shown in fig. 4 (a), 4 (b) and 4 (c), the continuous bodies 11 can be used alone to have three degrees of freedom, or M continuous bodies 11 can be used in series, the number of degrees of freedom is 3M, so that the robot obtains redundant degrees of freedom to increase the flexibility thereof.

As shown in fig. 7, if a single continuous body 11 is used as a robot, three connecting ropes 2 are required for the continuous body 11, and the connecting ropes 2 are optimally arranged to be evenly distributed at 120 °. When 11 two sections series connection of continuous type body use, connect 2 quantity increases of rope, need six to connect rope 2 to this analogizes that M continuous type body 11 is established ties and is used, connects 2 quantity of rope and is 3M.

When the continuous body 11 is manufactured by the hollow elastic tube, holes can be punched on the hollow elastic tube, wiring holes 4 for connecting the ropes 2 are processed, and then required grid quantity is directly cut on the periphery of the hollow elastic tube; when the wave-shaped elastic sheet 111 is used for processing, the wave-shaped elastic sheet 111 may be perforated, and then a plurality of wave-shaped elastic sheets 111 may be stacked and connected together, and coaxial connection plane rings may be installed on the wave-shaped elastic sheets 111 at both ends, thereby forming the continuous body 11.

The working principle of the invention is as follows:

every continuous type body 11 all is through three connection rope 2 independent control, through the operation of control motor 32, changes the flexible volume of connecting rope 2 to control continuous type robot motion: if the deformation of 11 one sides fretwork grids of continuous type body is little with the deformation of opposite side fretwork grid, self bending motion is just realized to the continuous type robot, if every fretwork grid deformation when all the same, self concertina movement is just realized to the continuous type robot, is in different crooked directions through controlling a plurality of continuous type bodies 11, realizes the function of circling.

Claims

1. A continuum robot, comprising:

comprises a driving device (3), M continuous bodies (11) and M groups of connecting rope groups which correspond to the M continuous bodies (11) one by one, wherein M is more than or equal to 1;

the continuous body (11) is a wave spring, M wave springs are sequentially arranged, and two adjacent wave springs are connected with each other through a wave trough and a wave crest to form a continuous structure (1);

or the continuous body (11) is a hollow elastic tube which is communicated up and down, N rows of hollow grids are arranged on the side wall of the hollow elastic tube along the circumferential direction, A hollow grids are uniformly arranged in each row, M hollow elastic tubes are sequentially and correspondingly connected to form a continuous structure (1), wherein N is more than or equal to 2, A is more than or equal to 2;

the lower end of the continuous structure (1) is arranged on the driving device (3), and the upper end of the continuous structure (1) is used for being connected with an external load;

each continuous body (11) is provided with I groups of wiring hole groups which are communicated up and down along the circumferential direction, and each group comprises Q wiring holes (4) which are uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction; wherein the value of I is the same as the sequence I of the corresponding continuous type body (11) in the continuous type structure (1), the sequence is counted from top to bottom, I is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and Q is more than or equal to 3;

the number of connecting ropes (2) in each group of connecting rope groups is the same as the number of wiring holes (4) in each group of wiring hole groups, one end of each group of connecting rope groups is arranged at the upper end of the corresponding continuous body (11), the other end of each group of connecting rope groups penetrates through the corresponding group of wiring hole groups of each continuous body (11) below the connecting rope groups and then is connected with the driving device (3), and the driving device (3) is used for driving the connecting ropes (2) to be folded and unfolded.

2. The continuum robot of claim 1, wherein:

the positions of the wiring holes (4) on the continuous body (11) positioned above the wiring holes are the same as the positions of the wiring holes (4) of the group (I-1) on the continuous body (11) positioned below and adjacent to the wiring holes.

3. The continuum robot of claim 2, wherein:

q =3.

4. The continuum robot of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein:

the driving device (3) comprises a mounting shell (31), motors (32) with the same number as the connecting ropes (2) and rope winding shafts (33) which are coaxially mounted on the output shaft of each motor (32);

the motor (32) is arranged in the mounting shell (31);

the other end of the connecting rope (2) penetrates through the mounting shell (31) and then is wound and fixed on the rope winding shaft (33).

5. The continuum robot of claim 4, wherein:

the axis of the output shaft of the motor (32) is vertically arranged;

the driving device (3) also comprises steering shafts (34) which correspond to the rope winding shafts (33) one by one;

the steering shaft (34) is installed inside the installation shell (31), and the axis of the steering shaft (34) is horizontally arranged;

the other end of the connecting rope (2) penetrates through the mounting shell (31) to be wound on the steering shaft (34) and then is wound and fixed on the rope winding shaft (33).

6. The continuum robot of claim 5, wherein:

the continuous body is formed by additive manufacturing through 3D printing.

7. The continuum robot of claim 6, wherein:

the hollow grids are rhombic hollow grids or elliptic hollow grids, and the short shafts of the rhombic hollow grids or the elliptic hollow grids are parallel to the axis of the continuous body.

8. The continuum robot of claim 7, wherein:

an air bag is arranged in the continuous structure (1).

9. The continuum robot of claim 8, wherein:

and a sleeve is sleeved outside the continuous structure (1).

10. The continuum robot of claim 9, wherein:

the wave spring both ends are all installed and are connected the plane ring, and two adjacent connection plane ring welding from top to bottom.