CN211779671U

CN211779671U - Running gear of pipeline robot

Info

Publication number: CN211779671U
Application number: CN201921864143.1U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 廖泽武; 郑漫
Original assignee: Dongguan Qiqu Robot Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Karamay Best Technology Development Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-01
Filing date: 2019-11-01
Publication date: 2020-10-27
Anticipated expiration: 2029-11-01

Abstract

The utility model discloses a running gear of pipeline robot, include: the device comprises a front supporting structure, a driving structure, a rear supporting structure, a roller structure, a universal joint and a control system; the front support structure is connected with a universal joint, the universal joint is connected with a roller structure, and the roller structure is connected with a driving structure; the rear support structure is the same as the front support structure and is sequentially connected with the universal joint and the roller structure and then connected with the driving structure, and the front support structure, the driving structure and the rear support structure are connected with the control system through the signal transmission unit; the utility model discloses bearing structure, drive structure and back bearing structure all adopt motor drive lead screw nut mechanism to realize the robot at intraductal walking and support, and it has enough big drive traction force, pipe diameter adaptability and walking ability, sets up different clean parts at the both ends of pipeline, can satisfy the different operation demands of various tiny pipelines.

Description

Running gear of pipeline robot

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of machine equipment, in particular to a walking device of a pipeline robot.

Background

The pipeline robot is a mechanical, electrical and instrument integrated system which can automatically walk along the inside or outside of a pipeline, carry one or more functional modules and carry out a series of pipeline operations under the remote control operation of workers or the automatic control of a computer; at present, the traveling gear of the pipeline robot is reported and achievements are numerous at home and abroad, and the successfully developed traveling gear of the pipeline robot generally has the problem of low performance indexes, such as: insufficient traction force, slow movement speed or short walking distance in single operation and the like; in addition, a pipeline robot for performing various operations on a pipeline generally needs to have an autonomous position control capability, so that the pipeline robot in a real sense must have an autonomous walking capability; the pipeline robot can be divided into crawler type, creeping type, multi-foot creeping type, wheel type and the like according to the moving mode; the crawler-type pipeline robot is suitable for walking under severe conditions such as oil stain, mud and obstacles, has large contact area between a driving crawler and a pipe wall, large adhesive force and excellent obstacle crossing performance, is applied more when the conditions in the pipe are more complicated, but has the defects of difficult miniaturization, inferior steering performance compared with a wheel-type carrier due to complicated structure, poor stability of two wheels, easy overturning and the like, and limits the application range; the peristaltic pipeline robot simulates earthworms and other coelomic animals, realizes movement through the stretching of a body, but has limited traction capacity and cannot run in a vertical pipeline; the control of the multi-foot crawling type pipeline robot is too complicated, the moving speed is slow, and the driving efficiency is low; the wheel type in-pipe mobile robot has the advantages of simple structure, continuous and stable walking, high speed, high efficiency, easy control and the like, most of the developed in-pipe robots are wheel type mobile at present, and the wheel type in-pipe mobile robot is also one of large and medium pipeline robots with higher practical degree and more quantity, but has poor pipeline adaptability, complex structure and is not beneficial to miniaturization; most of the prior walking devices of pipeline robots can only work in pipelines with single diameter, and some walking devices consider the adaptation to the tiny change of the pipe diameter, but mostly adopt a passive spring compression mode, although the structure is simple, the walking devices are easily limited by the rigidity and the deformation of the spring, and the adaptation range of the pipe diameter is small; in order to make the designed walking device of the pipeline robot have better pipeline trafficability, meet the requirements of the pipeline robot for shape closure and force closure, and the problem of support between the robot and the pipe wall must be considered.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides a walking device of a pipeline robot, which has a large enough driving traction force, pipe diameter adaptability, elbow pipe passing capability and walking capability, and different cleaning components are arranged at two ends of the pipeline, so as to meet different operation requirements of various micro pipelines.

The invention is realized by the following technical scheme.

A traveling apparatus of a pipeline robot, comprising: the device comprises a front supporting structure 1, a driving structure 2, a rear supporting structure 3, a roller structure 4 and a control system, wherein the front supporting structure 1 is connected with a universal joint 36, the universal joint 36 is connected with the roller structure 4, and the roller structure 4 is connected with the driving structure 2; the rear supporting structure 3 is the same as the front supporting structure 1, is sequentially connected with the universal joint 36 and the roller structure 4 and then connected with the driving structure 2, and the front supporting structure 1, the driving structure 2 and the rear supporting structure 3 are connected with the control system through the signal transmission unit.

Further, the method comprises the following steps: the front supporting structure 1 comprises a supporting motor 5, a shell fixing sleeve 6, a connecting shaft sleeve 7, a supporting lead screw 11, a pushing nut 8, a pushing connecting rod 9, a rotating pin 12, a cam 10, a rotating shaft 13 and a torsion spring 14; the supporting motor 5 is arranged in the shell fixing sleeve 6, the supporting screw rod 11 is connected with the supporting motor 5 through a shaft sleeve, the supporting screw rod 11 is provided with a movable ejection nut 8 and is connected with an ejection connecting rod 9, and the ejection connecting rod 9 is arranged on the shell fixing sleeve 6 through a rotating pin 12; three ejection connecting rods 9 are uniformly distributed on the outer shell fixing sleeve 6 in the circumferential direction, a cam 10 is mounted on each ejection connecting rod 9, and the cam 10 and the torsion spring 14 are mounted on the ejection connecting rods 9 through a rotating shaft 13.

Further, the rear support structure 3 and the front support structure 1 have the same composition structure.

Further, the driving structure 2 includes: the device comprises a driving motor 16, a driving motor shell 17, a retainer ring 19, a bearing 20, an end cover 21, a driving lead screw 22, a nut sleeve 23 and a guide rod 18; the driving motor 16 is installed in a driving motor shell 17, one end of the driving motor shell 17 is connected with the roller structure connecting piece 32, the other end of the driving motor shell 17 is connected with the nut sleeve 23 through the guide rod 18, one end of the driving lead screw 22 is connected with an output shaft of the driving motor 16, and the other end of the driving lead screw is in threaded connection with the nut sleeve 23.

Further, a wire window is provided on the driving motor housing 17.

Furthermore, the driving structure 2 further comprises a flexible shaft, one end of the flexible shaft is connected with the output shaft of the driving motor 16 through a micro connecting sleeve, and the other end of the flexible shaft is connected with the driving lead screw 22.

Further, the roller structure 4 includes: gyro wheel structural connection piece 32, gyro wheel 33, gyro wheel axis of rotation 34 and gyro wheel supporting seat 35, gyro wheel structure 4 passes through gyro wheel structural connection piece 32 and is connected with other modules, gyro wheel structural connection piece 32 is installed at the both ends of gyro wheel supporting seat 35, gyro wheel 33 passes through gyro wheel axis of rotation 34 and installs on gyro wheel supporting seat 35, gyro wheel structure 4 includes 3 gyro wheels, is 120 angular circumference distributions.

Furthermore, the control system is installed in the robot motion control box, receives a control instruction sent by the control box through the wireless communication unit, realizes robot motion control including forward movement, backward movement, stop movement, walking and the like, and sends detection data of the running speed, the current voltage of the power supply module, the inclination angle of a distribution network wire and the like to the external control system receiving unit.

Preferably, the front support structure 1, the rear support structure 3 and the driving structure 2 are all driven by direct current motors.

Preferably, a micro pressure sensor is mounted on the cam 10.

Advantageous effects

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

1. the walking device of the pipeline robot converts the rotation of the motor into a required motion form by driving the screw nut mechanism by the motor, has enough motion traction force, and can be provided with functional modules at the head part and the tail part according to the requirements so as to meet different operation requirements.

2. The walking device of the invention is provided with the flexible shaft driving mechanism, thereby ensuring that the walking device has the capacity of passing bent pipes.

3. The support structure of the walking device is designed according to the cam self-locking principle, the traction force of the robot is constantly changed, the friction force changes along with the load, a certain fixed friction force value is not limited, when the robot works in a pipeline, the robot can be fixed at a certain position in the pipeline by changing the front support structure and the rear support structure, the robot can move without being influenced by the outside, and a stable working platform is created for the operation in the pipeline.

4. When the robot is ready to leave the pipeline, the cams at the front end and the rear end are not in contact with the pipe wall, only the supporting wheels are in contact sliding with the pipe wall at the moment, and the robot is separated from the pipeline through cable dragging, so that the robot can be effectively prevented from damaging the inner wall of the pipeline in the dragging process.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the main structure of a walking device of a pipeline robot according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a supporting structure of a walking device of a pipeline robot according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the walking device of the pipeline robot with the cams of the front and rear supporting structures separated from the pipe wall;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the walking device of the pipeline robot with the cams of the front and rear supporting structures separated from the pipe wall;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a driving structure in a traveling apparatus of a pipeline robot according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a force unloading structure of a driving structure in a second embodiment of the walking device of the pipeline robot according to the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic view of a roller structure of a walking device of a pipeline robot according to the present invention.

Description of reference numerals: 1. a front support structure; 2. a drive structure; 3. a rear support mechanism; 4. a roller structure; 5. a support motor; 6. a housing-fixed sleeve; 7. connecting the shaft sleeve; 8. pushing the nut; 9. pushing the connecting rod; 10. a cam; 11. a support lead screw; 12. a rotation pin; 13. a rotating shaft; 14. a torsion spring; 15. a universal joint connecting base; 16. a drive motor; 17. a drive motor housing; 18. a guide bar; 19. a retainer ring; 20. a bearing; 21. an end cap; 22. driving a lead screw; 23. a nut sleeve; 24. an outer retainer ring; 25. a ball bearing; 26. an air vent; 27. driving a lead screw; 28. a drive motor housing; 29. a drive motor; 30. an inner retainer ring; 31. an output shaft of the motor; 32. a roller structure connecting piece; 33. a roller; 34. a roller rotating shaft; 35. a roller supporting seat; 36. a universal joint.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is to be understood that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments; all other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present invention without any inventive step, are within the scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc., indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention; furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; the two components can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and the two components can be communicated with each other; the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.

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

Example one

Referring to fig. 1, a traveling apparatus of a pipeline robot includes: the device comprises a front supporting structure 1, a driving structure 2, a rear supporting structure 3, a roller structure 4 and a control system, wherein according to the figure 1, the front supporting structure 1 is connected with one end of a universal joint 36, the other end of the universal joint 36 is connected with the roller structure 4, and the roller structure 4 is connected with one end of the driving structure 2; back bearing structure 3 is the same with preceding bearing structure 1, connects gradually and connects again at the other end of drive structure 2 behind universal joint 36 and the gyro wheel structure 4, preceding bearing structure 1, drive structure 2 and back bearing structure 3 are connected with control system through signal transmission unit, bearing structure and drive structure all use direct current motor drive, and supporting mechanism can realize with the autonomic locking of pipe wall, and actuating mechanism provides power for the robot realization walking.

Referring to fig. 2, the following: the front supporting structure 1 comprises a supporting motor 5, a shell fixing sleeve 6, a connecting shaft sleeve 7, a supporting lead screw 11, a pushing nut 8, a pushing connecting rod 9, a rotating pin 12, a cam 10, a rotating shaft 13 and a torsion spring 14; according to fig. 2, the supporting motor 5 is installed in the housing fixing sleeve 6, the supporting screw 11 is connected with the supporting motor 5 through a shaft sleeve, the supporting screw 11 is provided with a movable ejection nut 8 and is connected with an ejection connecting rod 9, and the ejection connecting rod 9 is installed on the housing fixing sleeve 6 through a rotating pin 12; three ejector connecting rods 9 are uniformly distributed on the outer shell fixing sleeve 6 in the circumferential direction, a cam 10 is mounted on each ejector connecting rod 9, and the cam 10 and a torsion spring 14 are mounted on the ejector connecting rods 9 through a rotating shaft 13; the rear support structure 3 and the front support structure 1 have the same structure; referring to fig. 3 and 4, the working principle of the supporting structure is as follows: the supporting motor 5 drives the supporting screw rod 11 to rotate through the connecting shaft sleeve 7, the ejection nut 8 arranged on the supporting screw rod 11 can move left and right, when the ejection nut moves left, the left end of the ejection connecting rod 9 rises, the right end falls, the cam 10 is driven to descend, and the cam 10 is not in contact with the pipe wall (as shown in figure 3); when the ejection nut 8 moves rightwards, the left end of the ejection connecting rod 9 is driven to descend, and the right end of the ejection connecting rod is driven to lift up, so that the cam 10 is in contact with the inner wall of the pipeline (as shown in fig. 4), certain pressure exists between the cam 10 and the inner wall of the pipeline, and when the integral mechanism is stressed, the cam 10 can realize self-locking; in addition, the cam 10 is provided with a miniature pressure sensor which can directly measure the pressure between the cam 10 and the pipe wall, thereby not only ensuring that the supporting structure is tightly supported on the pipe wall with constant pressure, but also playing a role in overload protection for the supporting motor 5.

Referring to fig. 5, the driving structure 2 includes: the device comprises a driving motor 16, a driving motor shell 17, a retainer ring 19, a bearing 20, an end cover 21, a driving lead screw 22, a nut sleeve 23 and a guide rod 18; according to fig. 5, the driving motor 16 is installed in a driving motor housing 17, one end of the driving motor housing 17 is connected with the roller structure connecting piece 32, the other end of the driving motor housing 17 is connected with the nut sleeve 23 through the guide rod 18, one end of the driving lead screw 22 is connected with an output shaft of the driving motor 16, the other end of the driving lead screw is in threaded connection with the nut sleeve 23, so that routing of various signal transmission lines and power supply lines is facilitated, and a wire window is arranged on the driving motor housing 17; in addition, in order to ensure that the walking device of the pipeline robot can smoothly pass through the bent pipe, the driving structure 2 further comprises a flexible shaft, a driving motor 16 in the driving structure transmits torque through the flexible shaft, the length of the flexible shaft is about 16mm, one end of the flexible shaft is connected with an output shaft of the driving motor 16 through a micro connecting sleeve, and the other end of the flexible shaft is connected with a driving screw 22.

Referring to fig. 7, the roller structure 4 includes: the roller structure comprises roller structure connecting pieces 32, rollers 33, roller rotating shafts 34 and roller supporting seats 35, the roller structures 4 are connected with other modules through the roller structure connecting pieces 32, the roller structure connecting pieces 32 are installed at two ends of the roller supporting seats 35, the rollers 33 are installed on the roller supporting seats 35 through the roller rotating shafts 34, and the roller structures 4 comprise 3 rollers which are distributed circumferentially at an angle of 120 degrees; when the roller mechanism 4 is in the condition that the cams 10 in the front supporting structure 1 and the rear supporting structure 3 of the robot are not in contact with the pipe wall, the mechanism is supported by the roller mechanism 4 to move when still needing to move, and the damage to the inner wall of the pipeline in the dragging process when the robot is separated from the pipeline can be effectively prevented.

And finally, the control system is arranged in the robot motion control box, receives a control instruction sent by the control box through the wireless communication unit, realizes robot motion control including advancing, retreating, stopping motion, walking and the like, and sends detection data of the running speed, the current voltage of the power supply module, the inclination angle of a distribution network wire and the like to the external control system receiving unit.

In addition, a function expansion module is arranged on the functional module mounting seat 12 at the head or the tail of the robot, and devices such as a sensor, a miniature CCD camera, a miniature manipulator and the like can realize function expansion, so that the robot has the function of in-pipe operation.

Example two

As shown in fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7, the present embodiment is similar to the first embodiment in structural principle, and is different from the first embodiment in that, in order to protect the driving motor 16, a force unloading structure is designed on an output shaft of the driving motor 16, the force unloading structure is to transmit torque by gluing and matching the output shaft of the driving motor and a driving lead screw 22, a bearing 20 is axially positioned by inner and outer retainer rings, and the structure is specifically shown in fig. 6; when the output shaft of the driving motor 16 bears the axial load, the force transmission path is as follows: when bearing pressure, force is transmitted to the bearing 20, the outer retainer 24, the driving motor 16 and the driving motor shell 17 in sequence through the driving lead screw 22; when the tension is borne, the force is transmitted to the bearing 20, the inner retainer ring 30 and the driving motor shell 17 in sequence through the driving lead screw 22; thus, the axial load is transmitted to the drive motor housing 17, and the purpose of protecting the output shaft of the drive motor 16 is achieved.

The motion mechanism of the walking device of the pipeline robot is as follows:

step 1: the cam of the rear end supporting structure is tightly pressed with the pipe wall, the rear end of the robot is fixed, the cam of the front end supporting structure is not contacted with the pipe wall, the driving motor of the driving structure rotates to drive the screw nut, the front end is pushed to move forwards, and the whole robot extends;

step 2: after the robot extends, the cam of the front end supporting structure is tightly pressed with the pipe wall, the front end of the robot is fixed, the driving motor drives the screw nut to enable the whole robot to be shortened, and the rear end of the robot is pulled to move forwards.

Repeating the above actions, the robot can crawl forwards in the pipeline, and when moving reversely, the steps are similar to the above steps, and are not described again; when the robot is ready to leave the pipeline, the cams at the front end and the rear end are not in contact with the pipe wall, only the supporting wheels are in contact sliding with the pipe wall at the moment, and the robot is dragged by the cable to be separated from the pipeline.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A walking device of a pipeline robot, comprising: the device comprises a front supporting structure (1), a driving structure (2), a rear supporting structure (3), a roller structure (4) and a control system, wherein the front supporting structure (1) is connected with a universal joint (36), the universal joint (36) is connected with the roller structure (4), and the roller structure (4) is connected with the driving structure (2); the rear supporting structure (3) is the same as the front supporting structure (1), is connected with the driving structure (2) after being sequentially connected with the universal joint (36) and the roller structure (4), and the front supporting structure (1), the driving structure (2) and the rear supporting structure (3) are connected with the control system through the signal transmission unit.

2. The walking apparatus of pipeline robot according to claim 1, wherein said: the front supporting structure (1) comprises a supporting motor (5), a shell fixing sleeve (6), a connecting shaft sleeve (7), a supporting lead screw (11), a pushing nut (8), a pushing connecting rod (9), a rotating pin (12), a cam (10), a rotating shaft (13) and a torsion spring (14); the supporting motor (5) is arranged in the shell fixing sleeve (6), the supporting lead screw (11) is connected with the supporting motor (5) through a shaft sleeve, a movable ejection nut (8) is arranged on the supporting lead screw (11) and is connected with an ejection connecting rod (9), and the ejection connecting rod (9) is arranged on the shell fixing sleeve (6) through a rotating pin (12); three ejection connecting rods (9) are circumferentially and uniformly distributed on the outer shell fixing sleeve (6), a cam (10) is mounted on each ejection connecting rod (9), and the cam (10) and the torsion spring (14) are mounted on the ejection connecting rods (9) through a rotating shaft (13).

3. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 2, wherein the rear support structure (3) and the front support structure (1) have the same composition structure.

4. The walking device of the pipeline robot according to claim 1, wherein the driving structure (2) comprises: the device comprises a driving motor (16), a driving motor shell (17), a retainer ring (19), a bearing (20), an end cover (21), a driving lead screw (22), a nut sleeve (23) and a guide rod (18); the driving motor (16) is installed in a driving motor shell (17), one end of the driving motor shell (17) is connected with the roller structure connecting piece (32), the other end of the driving motor shell is connected with the nut sleeve (23) through the guide rod (18), one end of the driving lead screw (22) is connected with an output shaft of the driving motor (16), and the other end of the driving lead screw is in threaded connection with the nut sleeve (23).

5. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 4, wherein the driving motor housing (17) is provided with a wire window.

6. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 4, wherein the driving structure (2) further comprises a flexible shaft, one end of the flexible shaft is connected with the output shaft of the driving motor (16) through a micro-connecting sleeve, and the other end of the flexible shaft is connected with the driving lead screw (22).

7. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein the roller structure (4) comprises: gyro wheel structural connection spare (32), gyro wheel (33), gyro wheel axis of rotation (34) and gyro wheel supporting seat (35), gyro wheel structure (4) are connected with other modules through gyro wheel structural connection spare (32), the both ends at gyro wheel supporting seat (35) are installed in gyro wheel structural connection spare (32), gyro wheel (33) are installed on gyro wheel supporting seat (35) through gyro wheel axis of rotation (34).

8. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system is installed in the robot motion control box, the control system receives the control command from the control box through the wireless communication unit, so as to control the robot motion, including forward, backward, stop, walking, etc., and sends the detected data, such as the operation speed, the current voltage of the power module, the inclination angle of the distribution network wire, etc., to the control system receiving unit.

9. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein the front support structure (1), the rear support structure (3) and the driving structure (2) are driven by DC motors.

10. The walking device of the pipeline robot as claimed in claim 2, wherein a micro pressure sensor is mounted on the cam (10).