JP2001079791A - Gripping device for manipulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize certain gripping and grip-releasing motion with high precision and high in reliability. SOLUTION: This device is devised to control opening and closing motion of first and second fingers 24, 25 through a link member 26 interlocked with rectilinear movement of this driving body 20 by converting torque to straight motion through a ball screw mechanism 15 and a nut member 19, moving the moving body 20 in a straight line and interlocking with straght movement of this driving body 20. Thereafter, the first and second fingers 24, 25 are secured in a desired capturing region X by a positioning part 23 in its opening state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manipulator system used to construct various structures in, for example, outer space, and more particularly to a gripping device used to grip an object to be gripped.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, in the field of space development, there is a concept of constructing a space navigation vehicle capable of resident in space, that is, a so-called space station. In such a space station construction concept, a manipulator system using a manipulator that performs transportation of construction materials and the like on behalf of humans is considered to be effective. A manipulator used in such a manipulator system is provided with a gripping device for holding an object to be gripped as an end factor.

In this gripping device, a plurality of, for example, two or three fingers for gripping an object to be gripped are disposed on a manipulator base via a link mechanism, and a ball screw mechanism is connected to the link mechanism. . Then, the torque of the drive motor is transmitted to the ball screw mechanism, and the torque from the drive motor is converted into linear motion and transmitted to the link mechanism. The operation of the link mechanism is controlled in conjunction with the driving of the ball screw mechanism, and the opening and closing drive of the finger is performed to perform gripping / releasing of the object to be gripped.

In such a gripping device, since the manipulator is used in a space environment, the operation control is more accurate and more reliable than that used in a terrestrial environment. Is required to realize the above, and there is a problem that the reliability is not satisfactory.

[0005]

As described above, the conventional manipulator gripping device has a problem that it is difficult to perform highly reliable operation control.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a manipulator gripping device capable of realizing a highly accurate, highly reliable and reliable gripping / releasing operation. I do.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a finger mechanism in which a base of a plurality of fingers for gripping / releasing an object to be gripped is disposed on a manipulator base so as to be openable and closable in a rotatable manner. A finger positioning portion for positioning freely at the opened gripping start position, a driver disposed around the plurality of fingers, and assembled so as to be linearly movable with respect to the manipulator base, and one end of the plurality of fingers. A link mechanism that is link-coupled to the intermediate portion, and the other end of which is link-coupled to the driving body, and converts the rotational force into linear motion and transmits the linear motion to the driving body;
A gripping device for a manipulator comprising linearly driving the driving body and gripping drive means for opening and closing the plurality of fingers via the link mechanism at a gripping start position of the object to be gripped and a gripping position. did.

According to the above configuration, the plurality of fingers are positioned at the gripping start position by the positioning section during the gripping operation, a desired capturing range is secured, and the driving body is linearly moved with respect to the manipulator base. With the operation of the link mechanism, the grip start position is closed to the grip position,
An object to be gripped within the capture range is gripped.

With this configuration, the plurality of fingers are supported by the manipulator base via the link mechanism, the driving body and the gripping driving means, and the intermediate portion thereof is positioned on the driving body to perform the gripping / grip releasing operation. With high accuracy,
Reliable operation control is possible, and in this gripping state, the linear moving force of the driving body is transmitted via the link mechanism, so that sufficient gripping force is secured and reliable and reliable holding Operation is realized.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a gripping device for a manipulator according to an embodiment of the present invention. An attachment 10 constituting a gripping drive mechanism is attached to a manipulator base 11. A bolt head 12 has a bearing 13
It is arranged rotatably via. This bolt head 12
Is connected to a rotation drive unit (not shown) provided on the manipulator base 11, and the rotation force is selectively transmitted through the rotation drive unit (not shown). One end of a gear reduction mechanism 14 is connected to the tip of the bolt head 12 so as to be able to transmit a rotational force.

The other end of the gear reduction mechanism 14 is meshed with a drive gear 16 fitted to a well-known ball screw mechanism 15 so as to transmit a rotational force. The ball screw mechanism 15 is attached to the mounting body 10.
A pair of support plates 17a, 17
b between the support plates 17a and 17b.
It is rotatably supported via. A nut member 19 is attached to the ball screw mechanism 15 in the axial direction (arrows A and B).
Direction) so that they can move linearly. , Nut member 19
For example, a cylindrical driving body 20 is connected via a connecting member 21. The connecting member 21 has an intermediate portion engaged with a guide member 22 provided between the support plates 17a and 17b so as to be freely guided in the axial direction (the directions of arrows A and B). Thus, when the ball screw mechanism 15 is driven to rotate, the connecting member 21 is guided by the guide member 22 in accordance with the rotation direction of the nut member 19, and is linearly moved in the directions of arrows A and B.

The bases of the first and second fingers 24 and 25 are rotatably supported on the support plate 17b via shafts 24a and 25a (see FIG. 2). The first and second
One end of a link member 26 is link-coupled to the middle part of the fingers 24 and 25, and the other end of the link member 26 is link-coupled to the inner wall of the driving body.

Further, the positioning plate 2 is provided on the support plate 17b.
3 are provided corresponding to the first and second fingers 24 and 25, respectively. The positioning portion 23 is provided with the first and second fingers 2.
The first and second fingers 24 and 25 are positioned at the capture positions where the first and second fingers 4 and 25 are opened to obtain a desired capture range X.
(Refer to FIG. 3, in FIG. 3, an area indicated by oblique lines).

A handle 27 (see FIG. 3) is attached to an object (not shown) to be gripped by the first and second fingers 24 and 25. Then, the first and second fingers 24, 2
5 is controlled in operation as described later, and grips the grip 27 of the object to be gripped and transports it to a desired place.

In the above configuration, when gripping the grip 27 of an object to be gripped, first, the manipulator body is operated so that the first and second fingers 24 and 25 are opposed to the grip 27 of the object to be gripped. , The rotation drive unit (not shown) is rotationally driven. Then, the head bolt 12 is driven to rotate, the gear reduction mechanism 14 is driven, and the ball screw mechanism 1 is rotated.
5, the nut member 19 is linearly moved in the direction of arrow A by the action of the connecting member 21 and the guide member 22. In conjunction with this, the connecting member 21 linearly moves the driving body 20 in the same direction, and the first and second fingers 24, 25
Is opened to the gripping start position via the link member 26.

Here, the first and second fingers 24 and 25 are
When the gripping start position is reached, it is positioned by the positioning unit 23, and a desired capture range X is secured.
The handle 27 of the object to be grasped is accommodated therein.

When gripping the object to be gripped within the capture range X of the first and second fingers 24 and 25, first, the above-mentioned rotary drive unit (not shown) is driven in reverse, so that the head bolt 12 is inverted. Then, the gear reduction mechanism 14 is driven in reverse, the ball screw mechanism 15 is driven in reverse, and the nut member 19 is linearly moved in the direction of arrow B by the action of the connecting member 21 and the guide member 22. In conjunction with this, the connecting member 21 linearly moves the driving body 20 in the same direction,
The first and second fingers 24 and 25 are closed to the gripping positions via the link members 26. Here, the first and second fingers 2
4 and 25 grip the grip 27 of the object to be gripped within the capture range X.

At this time, the first and second fingers 24 and 25 are
Sufficient gripping force is secured by the linear moving force of the driving body 20 in which the rotating force of the ball screw mechanism 15 is transmitted through the nut member 19 and the linear moving force of the driving body 20 is directly transmitted through the link member 26. As a result, a reliable and reliable holding operation is realized. Specifically, the link member 26 is
By combining them so as to be substantially perpendicular to the inner wall of 0, a so-called boosting effect is obtained, which acts to increase the gripping force of the finger.

In order to release the gripping of the object to be gripped in the gripping state of the grip 27, first, the rotation drive unit (not shown) is driven in reverse to the gripping operation. As a result, the first and second fingers 24 and 25 are opened with their gripping operations and each part inverted, and release the holding.

As described above, the gripping device of the manipulator applies the rotational force to the ball screw mechanism 15 and the nut member 19.
The driving body 20 is linearly moved by converting the driving body 20 into a linear movement through the first and second movements.
The first and second fingers 2 and 25 are controlled to open and close via the link member 26 in the opened state.
4 and 25 are configured to secure a desired capture range X by the positioning portion 23.

According to this, when the rotational force is converted into a linear motion and transmitted and the driving body 20 disposed around the first and second fingers 24 and 25 is linearly moved, the first and second driving forces are converted. The operation of the fingers 24, 25 is controlled to realize the gripping of the grip 27 of the object to be gripped in the capture range X, whereby the secure grip in the capture range X is realized as much as possible.

According to this, in the gripping state,
The linear movement force of the driving body 20 is directly transmitted through the link member 26, so that the link member 26 is
By arranging at a substantially right angle with respect to 0, it is possible to easily increase the gripping force depending on the amplification term. A reliable holding operation is realized.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the ball screw mechanism 15 and the nut member 19 are used to convert the rotary motion into the linear motion. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various configurations are possible. .

In the above embodiment, the first and second
Although the present embodiment is configured with a two-finger structure using the fingers 24 and 25, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to configure with a finger mechanism having three or more finger structures.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case has been described where the driving body 20 that is moved linearly is formed using a cylindrical one. However, the driving body 20 is not limited to this shape, but may be of various shapes. It is possible to configure.

Therefore, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a manipulator gripping device capable of realizing a highly accurate, reliable and reliable gripping / releasing operation. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a manipulator holding device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which FIG. 1 is viewed from a front end direction.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a part of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Mounting body. 11 ... Manipulator base. 12 ... bolt head. 13, 18 ... Bearing. 14. Gear reduction mechanism. 15 ... Ball screw mechanism. 16 ... Drive gear. 17a, 17b ... Support plate. 19 ... Nut member. 20 ... Driver. 21 ... Connecting member. 22 ... guide member. 23 positioning part. 24, 25... First and second fingers. 24a, 25a ... axis. 26 ... Link member. 27 ... Handle.

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Akiba 1F, Komukai Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa F-term in the Toshiba Komukai Plant (reference) 3F061 AA01 BA03 BB03 BC01 BC09 BF00 BF11

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A finger mechanism in which bases of a plurality of fingers for gripping / releasing an object to be gripped are rotatably arranged on a base of a manipulator so as to be openable and closable; A finger positioning portion that positions the finger, a driving body that is disposed around the plurality of fingers, and that is assembled so as to be linearly movable with respect to the manipulator base, one end of which is linked to an intermediate portion of the plurality of fingers, and A link mechanism having an end linked to the driving body; converting a rotational force into a linear motion and transmitting the linear force to the driving body; and linearly driving the driving body to move the plurality of fingers through the link mechanism. A gripping device for a manipulator, comprising: a gripping start position of the object to be gripped; 2. The gripping device for a manipulator according to claim 1, wherein said gripping drive means reduces the rotational force with a gear reduction mechanism and transmits the torque to a ball screw mechanism to convert the torque into linear motion. 3. The gripping device for a manipulator according to claim 1, wherein the driving body is formed in a cylindrical shape, and one end is attached to a manipulator base.