CN103332235A - Modularized walking robot with flexible torso - Google Patents

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to provide a modular walking robot with a flexible trunk, including a flexible trunk and walking feet. The flexible trunk includes a front fuselage panel, a rear fuselage panel and a waist joint connecting the front fuselage panel and the rear fuselage panel. There are two sets of walking feet, which are respectively installed on the left and right sides of the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate and are connected to the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate. The first steering gear drives the walking legs, and the second steering gear drives the flexible torso. . The invention abandons the traditional body rigid structure, and has three two-degree-of-freedom waist joints, which makes the robot more flexible and stable, and has a stronger ability to overcome obstacles. It can be easily extended to a walking robot with six legs, eight legs, decapod or more legs. Since the structure of the walking foot is more simplified, the reactive power loss due to gravity during walking is reduced, and a double-acting damper is installed between the thigh and the calf, which plays a passive buffering effect and reduces the impact of the robot on walking. impact on the ground.

Description

A modular walking robot with a flexible torso

technical field

The invention relates to a robot, specifically a legged robot.

Background technique

With the development of the times, the research direction of robots has shifted from fixed-point operations in structured environments to autonomous operations in unstructured environments such as aerospace, interstellar exploration, underwater underground pipelines, disease inspection and treatment, emergency rescue and disaster relief, and anti-terrorism activities. develop. In the future, robots will work for humans in environments that are difficult for humans to reach or where there are dangers. Irregularity and unevenness form the common characteristics of these environments, and the application of traditional wheeled or tracked robots is greatly restricted. Under this background, research on legged robots has flourished. The multi-legged walking robot is a robot based on imitating the movement patterns of multi-legged animals. The so-called multi-legged generally refers to four-legged and more than four-legged robots. Common multi-legged robots include quadruped robots, hexapod robots and eight-legged robots. The multi-legged robot has high motion stability in the process of walking, and its redundant limb structure enables it to maintain a stable state in complex and irregular environments, and can still complete the work even if individual joints fail. Compared with wheeled and tracked robots, its discrete footholds make it more adaptable to the ground.

The stability and load capacity of the hexapod robot is better than that of the quadruped robot, and its structure is simpler than that of the eight-legged robot. It is a typical representative of the multi-legged robot. The advantages of the hexapod robot make it especially suitable for field investigation, Underwater exploration and space exploration and other tasks that require relatively high autonomy and reliability. In the field of hexapod robots, such as the robot LEMUR developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology, the LEMUR robot is mainly used for the survey, assembly and maintenance of space equipment. Each leg has 4 rotational degrees of freedom, and the limb is a rigid regular hexagonal structure, which integrates a variety of advanced end effectors with a quick connection function for rapid execution of tools. Another classic hexapod robot is the RHex robot developed by the University of California, Berkeley and other units. Each leg of the robot has an actuation degree of freedom. The rigid body is equipped with a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis fiber optic gyroscope, which can adjust the posture after being disturbed by external forces, obtain the instantaneous posture of the trunk through the strain measurement unit of each leg, and quickly change the gait to reduce the driving force. Load, to achieve adaptive running. Through comparison, it is found that the existing multi-legged robots basically use rigid bodies, such robots have poor flexibility and compliance, and the lack of flexibility of the body will also limit the functions of the robot such as walking, running, jumping and rolling. To improve the stability of the robot during motion, some researchers have begun to try to design flexible bodies for multi-legged robots. For example, the ELIRO-II quadruped robot developed by Kyoung-Ho Kim et al. of Kyungpook University of Technology in South Korea. The bionic quadruped robot includes a waist joint with two degrees of freedom between the front and rear body, one of which is a passive degree of freedom for left and right swings. , used to expand the step length and speed of the robot, and the other pitch degree of freedom is the active degree of freedom, which is used to increase the flexibility of the robot on irregular ground. The multi-legged robot with a flexible torso is more stable than the traditional rigid body walking robot. The gait of walking is more similar to that of animals in nature. There is also a patent application number: 201110196221.7, publication number: CN102343950A patent document records a kind of compliant quadruped robot with flexible waist and elastic legs developed by Zhang Xiuli et al. of Beijing Jiaotong University. The robot trunk has three degrees of freedom. Between the spine and the active pitching degree of freedom, the spine is connected with the waist, waist and rear torso with a rotating joint with torsion springs, so that the robot body has passive degrees of freedom of rolling and deflection respectively. The invention uses a flexible structure to replace the traditional rigid structure, which increases the stability of the robot's movement. Through analysis, it is found that in the literature, most of the quadruped robots use a flexible torso, and there is no related introduction to the hexapod robot with a flexible torso. The existing technology has insufficient flexibility of the body, which makes the robot less flexible and limits the robot's shrinkage. Functions such as twisting and rolling; and the structure of the single walking foot of the robot is complex and heavy, which increases the useless work done by the gravity of the robot in the walking process and increases the energy loss.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a modular walking robot with a flexible torso, which has modularization, strong expandability, compact structure, a flexible torso, and the ability to slow down ground impact.

The purpose of the present invention is achieved like this:

A modular walking robot with a flexible trunk of the present invention is characterized in that it includes a flexible trunk and walking feet, the flexible trunk includes a front fuselage board, a rear fuselage board and a waist joint connecting the front fuselage board and the rear fuselage board, There are two sets of walking feet, which are respectively installed on the left and right sides of the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate and are connected to the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate. The first steering gear drives the walking legs, and the second steering gear drives the flexible torso .

The present invention may also include:

1. The walking foot includes the first-third thigh link, calf link, toe, first steering gear, support shaft, support frame, first U-shaped frame, first double-acting damper, support shaft It is fixed on the front fuselage plate, the support shaft and the support frame are fixedly connected to form a support frame, the first steering gear is fixed on the first steering gear fixing seat, the first steering gear fixing seat is fixed on the support frame, and the first steering gear The output shaft is connected with the first steering wheel, one end of the first U-shaped frame is connected with the first steering wheel, and the other end is connected with the tail end shaft of the steering gear and the fixing seat of the first steering gear to form a revolving pair. The first U-shaped frame 1 deviates from One end of the first steering gear is connected with the second thigh link. The first-third thigh link and calf link form a parallelogram mechanism. The first double-acting damper is placed between the toe and the calf connecting rod to form a passive degree of freedom. One end of the first double-acting damper forms a revolving pair with the calf connecting rod, and the other end forms a hinge with the toe.

2. The flexible torso also includes a second steering gear, a second steering gear fixing seat, a second U-shaped frame, a second steering wheel, a first-second ball head rod, a first-second ball head seat, a connecting rod, Shaft with seat, second double-acting damper, cross shaft, bushing, upper bearing seat, lower bearing seat, first-second connecting frame, M-shaped connecting plate;

The flexible torso is a left-right symmetrical structure, and the structure on one side is as follows: the second steering gear is fixed on the second steering gear fixing seat, the second steering gear fixing seat and the rear fuselage plate, the output end of the second U-shaped frame and the second steering gear The two rudder plates are connected, the extended end plate of the second U-shaped frame is connected with the first ball head rod, the first ball head rod and the first ball head seat form a ball joint, and the two ends of the connecting rod are threaded and connected with the first ball head rod. The ball head seat and the second ball head seat form a threaded connection, the second ball head rod and the second ball head seat also form a ball joint, and the second ball head rod is fixedly connected with the front fuselage plate;

The structure of the waist joint is as follows: the seated shaft is fixed on the rear fuselage plate, one end of the second double-acting damper cooperates with the seated shaft to form a rotating pair, and the other end cooperates with a short axis end of the cross shaft to form a rotating pair. The long shaft end of the cross shaft and the shaft sleeve form a revolving pair, so that the waist joint has left and right swing freedom. The upper bearing seat is connected with the lower bearing seat to form a sliding bearing seat. The bearing bush is embedded in the bearing seat to limit its circumferential rotation. The shaft sleeve The two protruding ends of the shaft are inserted into the holes of the bearing bush, so that the waist joint has a degree of freedom of swinging up and down. The first connecting frame is connected with the M-shaped connecting plate, the second connecting frame is fixed on the bushing, and the M-shaped connecting plate is connected with the second The connecting frames are connected, and the first connecting frame and the second connecting frame are respectively fixed on the front fuselage board.

3. Each group of flexible torso and two groups of walking feet form a group of motion units. There are three or more groups of motion units. All the motion units are arranged in front and rear and connected by body connecting frames to form a multi-legged walking mechanism.

4. The first-second circlip is also installed on the flexible torso. The first circlip is stuck in the groove of the shaft with seat to limit the axial movement of the second double-acting damper. The second circlip is installed on the second ball head In the seat, the axial position of the second ball head seat is defined.

The advantage of the present invention is that: the present invention abandons the traditional body rigid structure, and has three two-degree-of-freedom waist joints, which makes the robot more flexible and stable, and has a stronger ability to overcome obstacles. Due to the adoption of a modular design concept, it can be easily extended to a walking robot with six legs, eight legs, full legs or more. Since the structure of the walking foot is more simplified, the reactive power loss due to gravity during walking is reduced, and a double-acting damper is installed between the thigh and the calf, which plays a passive buffering effect and reduces the impact of the robot on walking. impact on the ground.

Description of drawings

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

Fig. 2 is a top view of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the fuselage of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a flexible torso;

Figure 5 is a bottom view of the flexible trunk;

Fig. 6 is a top view of the whole machine of the hexapod walking robot;

Fig. 7 is a three-dimensional view of the whole machine of the hexapod walking robot.

Detailed ways

The present invention is described in more detail below in conjunction with accompanying drawing example:

1 to 7, the walking robot with a flexible torso of the present invention is composed of the following parts: the front end 67 of the fuselage with a modular structure, the middle end 66 of the fuselage with a modular structure, the rear end 64 of the fuselage with a modular structure, and the body connection Frame 65, hex head bolt 63.

The whole machine is assembled as follows: the front end 67 of the modular structure fuselage, the middle end 66 of the fuselage, and the rear end 64 of the fuselage are connected to each other with the connecting frame 65 of the fuselage by hexagon head bolts 63.

Referring to Figure 3, each modular fuselage structure is composed of two walking legs distributed on both sides of the fuselage and a compliant torso with two degrees of freedom.

In conjunction with Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, walking robot comprises walking foot, and it specifically comprises: toe 1, bearing pin 12, cotter pin 3, calf connecting rod 4, double-acting damper 15, bearing pin 26, thigh connecting rod 17, thigh Connecting rod 28, thigh connecting rod 39, pin shaft 310, fixing bolt 111 of steering gear seat, steering gear tail end shaft 12, steering gear shaft fixing screw 13, U-shaped frame fixing screw 14, steering plate 115, steering gear 116, steering gear Fixed bolt 117, steering gear fixing nut 18, steering gear fixing seat 119, U-shaped frame 120, transmission screw 21, support shaft 22, support frame 23, hexagon head bolt 124, hexagon head bolt 225.

The single walking foot structure is assembled as follows: the support shaft 22 is fixed on the front fuselage plate 61 by two hexagon socket head bolts 124, the support shaft 22 is fixedly connected with the support frame 23 by two hexagon head bolts 225, the support shaft 22 and the support frame 23 together constitute the supporting frame of the whole walking foot. The steering gear 116 is fixed on the steering gear fixing seat 119 by two steering gear fixing bolts 117 and the steering gear fixing nut 18. The steering gear fixing nut 18 is fixed on the support frame 23 by four steering gear fixing bolts 111. The steering gear 116 As the power source of the active joint of the whole walking foot, the output shaft of the steering gear 116 is connected with the steering wheel 115 by the steering gear shaft fixing screw 13, and one end of the U-shaped frame 116 is connected with the steering wheel 115 by four U-shaped frame fixing screws 14 Linked to each other, the other end and steering gear tail end shaft 12, steering gear fixing seat 119 jointly constitute a revolving pair, the end of U-shaped frame 120 away from steering gear 116 is connected with thigh connecting rod 28 through transmission screw 21, thigh connecting rod 17, thigh Connecting rod 28, thigh connecting rod 39, shank connecting rod 4 constitute parallelogram mechanism, between adjacent two bars, form revolving pair by bearing pin 310 and bearing pin 26, be hinged between shank connecting rod 4 and toe 1, its The rotating shaft is a pin shaft 12, and the cotter pin 3 is inserted into a round hole at one end of the pin shaft 12 to prevent the pin shaft from falling off. The double-acting damper 15 is placed between the toe 1 and the calf link 4 to form a passive free One end of the double-acting damper 15 forms a revolving pair with the lower leg connecting rod 4 through the pin shaft 26, and the other end forms a hinge with the toe 1 through the pin shaft 12.

Its working principle is: steering gear 116 drives thigh connecting rod 28 to rotate, and thigh connecting rod 28 is used as a bar of the plane parallelogram mechanism that thigh connecting rod 17, thigh connecting rod 28, thigh connecting rod 39, shank connecting rod 4 constitute. The rotation of the thigh connecting rod 28 will drive the parallelogram mechanism to move, thereby realizing the up and down swing of the walking foot thigh, and this degree of freedom is an active degree of freedom. Thigh and shank junction constitute revolving pair by toe 1, shank connecting rod 4 and bearing pin 12, here is a passive joint, and a double-acting damper 15 is placed in this passive joint and plays the effect of slowing down ground impact.

4 and 5, the flexible trunk in the modular fuselage structure includes: hexagon head bolt 326, sleeve connecting frame 27, upper bearing seat 28, set screw 129, bearing seat connecting bolt 30, bearing bush 31, opening Slotted cylindrical head screw 132, lower bearing seat 33, shaft sleeve 34, slotted cylindrical head screw 235, hexagonal head bolt 436, seated shaft 37, snap spring 138, double-acting damper 239, cross shaft 40, M-type connecting plate 41. Hex head bolt 542, connecting frame 143, connecting frame 244, slotted cylindrical head screw 345, rear fuselage plate 46, fixing bolt of steering gear seat 247, fixing seat of steering gear 248, fixing screw of steering gear 249, steering gear 250 , rudder plate 251, slotted cylindrical head screw 452, U-shaped frame 253, ball head rod 154, slotted cylindrical head screw 555, ball head seat 156, connecting rod 57, ball head seat 258, ball head rod 259, retaining spring 260, front fuselage plate 61, hex head screw 62.

The flexible torso structure is assembled as follows: the flexible torso is made up of three parts, the front fuselage plate 61, the rear fuselage plate 46 and the waist joint. Two steering gears 250 are the power source of the two-degree-of-freedom waist joint, and are distributed on the left and right sides of the body. The steering gear 250 is fixed to the steering gear fixing seat 248 by the steering gear fixing screw 249, and the steering gear fixing seat 248 passes through four The fixing bolt 247 of the steering gear seat is fixedly connected with the rear fuselage plate 46. The output end of U-shaped frame 253 links to each other with rudder plate 251 by four slotted cylindrical head screws 452, and the stretched end flat plate of U-shaped frame 253 is connected with ball stud 154 by slotted cylindrical head screw 555, and ball stud 1 is connected with ball stud 154. The ball joint 156 constitutes a ball hinge, and the two ends of the connecting rod 57 are threaded, and form a threaded connection with the ball joint 156 and the ball joint 258. The spring 260 plays a role in axially positioning the ball head seat 2 , and the ball head rod 259 is fixedly connected with the front fuselage plate 61 through four hexagon head screws 62 . The seated shaft 37 is fixed on the rear fuselage plate 46 by four hexagonal head bolts 436, one end of the double-acting damper 239 is fitted with the seated shaft 37 to form a rotating pair, and the circlip 138 is stuck in the groove of the seated shaft 37 , play the role of limiting the axial movement of the double-acting damper 239, the other end of the double-acting damper 239 and a short shaft end of the cross shaft 40 also carry out a clearance fit to form a rotating pair, the long shaft end of the cross shaft 40 and the shaft The sleeve 34 constitutes a revolving pair, so that the waist has a degree of freedom to swing left and right. The upper bearing seat 28 and the lower bearing seat 33 are connected by bearing seat connecting bolts 30 to form a sliding bearing seat, which plays the role of supporting the bearing bush and the rotating shaft. The bearing bush 31 is embedded in the bearing seat Inside, its circumferential rotation is limited by set screws 129, and the two protruding ends of the bushing 34 are inserted into the holes of the bearing bush 31, so that the waist has a degree of freedom of swinging up and down, and the connecting frame 143 is connected to M by four hexagon head bolts 542. Type connecting plate 41 is connected, connecting frame 244 is fixed on the axle sleeve 34 by four slotted cylinder head screws 235, and M type connecting plate 41 is connected with connecting frame 244 by two hexagon head bolts 542. The connecting frame 143 and the connecting frame 244 are respectively fixed on the front fuselage panel 61 by four slotted cylindrical head screws 345 .

Its working principle is: when the steering gear 250 located at the left and right ends of the body rotates, it will drive the ball head rod 154 to do circular motion, the ball head rod 154 and the ball head seat 156 form a ball joint, and the motion of the ball head rod 154 will be transmitted to the Connecting rod 57, thereby drives the swing of connecting rod 57, the other end ball head seat 258 of connecting rod 57 and ball head rod 259 also constitute ball joint, the swing of connecting rod 57 also can drive the motion of ball head rod 259 equally, because the ball The head rod 259 is fixedly connected with the front fuselage plate 61, and the movement of the ball head rod 259 will drive the relative rotation of the front fuselage plate 61 and the rear fuselage plate 46 accordingly. In summary, when the steering gears 250 at the left and right ends of the fuselage rotate at the same speed and in the same direction, the front fuselage plate 61 will move up and down relative to the rear fuselage plate 46, and when the steering gears 250 at the left and right ends of the fuselage rotate at the same speed When rotating in the opposite direction, the front fuselage panel 61 will swing left and right relative to the rear fuselage panel 46 .

Claims (9)

1. A modular walking robot with flexible trunk is characterized in that: comprise flexible trunk, walking foot, flexible trunk comprises front fuselage board, rear fuselage board and connects the waist joint of front fuselage board, rear fuselage board, There are two sets of walking feet, which are respectively installed on the left and right sides of the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate and are connected to the front fuselage plate and the rear fuselage plate. The first steering gear drives the walking legs, and the second steering gear drives the flexible torso . 2. A kind of walking robot with flexible trunk modularization according to claim 1, it is characterized in that: described walking foot comprises first-third thigh link, calf link, toe, first steering gear, The support shaft, the support frame, the first U-shaped frame, and the first double-acting damper, the support shaft is fixed on the front fuselage plate, the support shaft and the support frame are fixedly connected to form a support frame, and the first steering gear is fixed on the first steering gear On the fixing seat, the fixing seat of the first steering gear is fixed on the supporting frame, the output shaft of the first steering gear is connected with the first steering wheel, one end of the first U-shaped frame is connected with the first steering wheel, and the other end is connected with the tail of the steering gear The end shaft and the fixing seat of the first steering gear together form a revolving pair, the end of the first U-shaped frame 1 away from the first steering gear is connected with the second thigh connecting rod, and the first-third thigh connecting rods and lower leg connecting rods form a parallelogram mechanism, a rotating pair is formed between two adjacent connecting rods, the calf connecting rod and the toe are hinged, the first double-acting damper is placed between the toe and the calf connecting rod to form a passive degree of freedom, and the first double-acting One end of the damper forms a revolving pair with the lower leg link, and the other end forms a hinge with the toe. 3. A kind of walking robot with flexible trunk modularization according to claim 1 or 2, it is characterized in that: flexible trunk also comprises second steering gear, second steering gear fixing seat, second U-shaped frame, second rudder Disc, first-second ball head rod, first-second ball head seat, connecting rod, shaft with seat, second double-acting damper, cross shaft, bushing, upper bearing seat, lower bearing seat, first -Second connection frame, M type connection plate; The flexible torso is a left-right symmetrical structure, and the structure on one side is as follows: the second steering gear is fixed on the second steering gear fixing seat, the second steering gear fixing seat and the rear fuselage plate, the output end of the second U-shaped frame and the second steering gear The two rudder plates are connected, the extended end plate of the second U-shaped frame is connected with the first ball head rod, the first ball head rod and the first ball head seat form a ball joint, and the two ends of the connecting rod are threaded and connected with the first ball head rod. The ball head seat and the second ball head seat form a threaded connection, the second ball head rod and the second ball head seat also form a ball joint, and the second ball head rod is fixedly connected with the front fuselage plate; The structure of the waist joint is as follows: the seated shaft is fixed on the rear fuselage plate, one end of the second double-acting damper cooperates with the seated shaft to form a rotating pair, and the other end cooperates with a short axis end of the cross shaft to form a rotating pair. The long shaft end of the cross shaft and the shaft sleeve form a revolving pair, so that the waist joint has left and right swing freedom. The upper bearing seat is connected with the lower bearing seat to form a sliding bearing seat. The bearing bush is embedded in the bearing seat to limit its circumferential rotation. The shaft sleeve The two protruding ends of the shaft are inserted into the holes of the bearing bush, so that the waist joint has a degree of freedom of swinging up and down. The first connecting frame is connected with the M-shaped connecting plate, the second connecting frame is fixed on the bushing, and the M-shaped connecting plate is connected with the second The connecting frames are connected, and the first connecting frame and the second connecting frame are respectively fixed on the front fuselage board. 4. A modular walking robot with a flexible trunk according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: each group of flexible trunks and every two groups of walking feet constitute a group of motion units, and the described motion units have three groups or More than three groups, all the motion units are arranged front and back, and are connected as a whole through the body connecting frame to form a multi-legged walking mechanism. 5. A modular walking robot with a flexible trunk according to claim 3, characterized in that: each group of flexible trunks and every two groups of walking feet constitute a group of motion units, and there are three or three groups of motion units In the above, all the motion units are arranged front and back, and are connected as a whole through the body connecting frame to form a multi-legged walking mechanism. 6. A modular walking robot with a flexible torso according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: the flexible torso is also equipped with a first-second circlip, and the first circlip is stuck in the groove of the shaft with seat Inside, the axial movement of the second double-acting damper is limited, and the second clamp ring is installed in the second ball seat to limit the axial position of the second ball seat. 7. A modular walking robot with a flexible torso according to claim 3, characterized in that: the flexible torso is also equipped with a first-second circlip, and the first circlip is stuck in the groove of the seated shaft. The axial movement of the second double-acting damper is limited, and the second retaining ring is installed in the second ball seat to limit the axial position of the second ball seat. 8. A modular walking robot with a flexible torso according to claim 4, characterized in that: the flexible torso is also equipped with a first-second circlip, and the first circlip is stuck in the groove of the seated shaft, The axial movement of the second double-acting damper is limited, and the second retaining ring is installed in the second ball seat to limit the axial position of the second ball seat. 9. A modular walking robot with a flexible torso according to claim 5, characterized in that: the flexible torso is also equipped with a first-second circlip, and the first circlip is stuck in the groove of the seated shaft, The axial movement of the second double-acting damper is limited, and the second retaining ring is installed in the second ball seat to limit the axial position of the second ball seat.

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