CN206511005U - Pneumatic soft robot with electromagnetic clamp device - Google Patents

Abstract

A pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device includes an electromagnetic clamping device, a drive control system, and a remote control device that realizes wireless connection with the drive control system through a wireless communication component. The body of the soft robot is in a cylindrical structure after being stretched and unfolded, and the body of the soft robot is provided with a central cavity and several airtight air cavities. The body of the soft robot has three material layers with increasing stiffness, which are the deformation layer, the middle layer and the constraint layer. The electromagnetic clamping device includes electromagnet A and electromagnet B arranged on two open end faces. The drive control system is arranged in the central accommodating cavity, and the drive control system is used to control the charging and discharging of each trachea and the charging and discharging of the electromagnet A and the electromagnet B. The utility model can realize the climbing operation along the rod-shaped object, breaks through the limitation that the soft robot only performs bionic movement in the past, and uses the alternate method to inflate the hose to climb. This climbing principle is a brand-new movement mechanism.

Description

Pneumatic soft robot with electromagnetic clamping device

technical field

The utility model relates to a pole climbing robot, in particular to a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device.

Background technique

Today's high-pole buildings such as utility poles, street lamps or cables have been in the unprotected air for many years, and are corroded and polluted from various aspects. It is very troublesome to detect and maintain these tall pole buildings manually, and the expected effect may not be achieved. Therefore, the pole-climbing robot that can replace manpower has been widely researched and applied.

However, traditional pole-climbing robots are based on rigid kinematic pairs of hard or rigid materials. For example, the industrial robot developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University for cable inspection and maintenance, although its load capacity is very strong, it can well complete bridge cable Its detection, painting, maintenance and other functions, its technical solution is published in the Chinese utility model patent document with the patent number 99252056.8.

The above-mentioned traditional pole-climbing robots all have the following technical problems:

1. Low flexibility, low adaptability to unknown environments, and cannot change the size and size arbitrarily. When applying in a specific environment, prior environmental information such as the shape and size of obstacles needs to be provided. In addition, most of them are clamped by a cam mechanism. Due to the inflexibility of the cam mechanism, a crawler can only crawl rods with a specific diameter and equal diameter. This has brought great constraints to practical applications, and the design and maintenance costs of frequent redesign and replacement of equipment are relatively high.

2. It can only achieve a single climb inside or outside the pipe, and must be redesigned and manufactured when it is in a different external environment, wasting a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

3. High-pole buildings, due to production, processing or later use, will be deformed or bent in future use, and have a certain degree of curvature. Above-mentioned traditional rigid pole-climbing robot can't realize the climbing of bent pipe.

4. For patent 99252056.8, the climbing device of the cable inspection and maintenance robot has a large structure; the whole machine adopts cable power supply, and the length of the connecting cable must be greater than the length of the bridge cable that the robot climbs. The impact is more obvious. In addition, the robot is not designed with a relevant descending device. When an accident occurs during the operation, a steel wire rope connected to the robot is used to drag and recover the robot from a height of tens or even hundreds of meters.

5. The traditional rigid pole-climbing robot has a large weight, and the clamping mechanism is a roller. In the case of an accidental power failure, it will fall automatically under gravity. When it lands, the speed is often too high, which can easily cause the entire robot to be damaged.

6. In the process of climbing, the crawling of variable-diameter rods can only be solved by relying on pneumatic creeping crawlers. The operation is relatively slow, and it is difficult to climb when the friction force is too large.

Utility model content

The technical problem to be solved by the utility model is to provide a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device for the deficiencies of the above-mentioned prior art. The pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device is constructed of soft materials, has a simple structure and has Strong environmental adaptability, suitable for climbing rod-shaped objects inside or outside the pipe, in addition, it can also climb a certain degree of curved pipe.

In order to solve the problems of the technologies described above, the technical solution adopted in the utility model is:

A pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device comprises a soft robot body, an electromagnetic clamping device, a drive control system and remote control equipment.

The body of the soft robot is ring-shaped with openings, has two open end faces, and the cross section of the body of the soft robot is circular.

The central loop line of the soft robot body is provided with a central receiving cavity, and the soft robot body located outside the central receiving cavity is evenly provided with several airtight air cavities, and each airtight air cavity is provided with a trachea.

The body of the soft robot has three material layers, the material layer where several airtight air cavities are located is the middle layer, the material layer outside the middle layer is the deformation layer, and the material layer inside the middle layer is the constraint layer; the deformation layer, the middle layer and the The stiffness of the constrained layers increases gradually.

The electromagnetic clamping device includes an electromagnet A and an electromagnet B, and the electromagnet A and the electromagnet B are respectively arranged on two opening end faces of the soft robot body.

The drive control system is arranged in the central cavity, and the drive control system includes an inflation control valve, an air pump, a micro-controller and a portable power supply; one end of the inflation control valve is connected with each air pipe in the airtight cavity, and the other end of the inflation control valve One end is connected with the air pump; the air pump and the portable power supply are respectively connected with the microcontroller; the portable power supply is used to supply power to the electromagnet A and the electromagnet B.

The remote control device realizes wireless connection with the microcontroller in the drive control system through the wireless communication component.

Each trachea has several air holes uniformly arranged along the length direction.

The rigidity of the deformation layer, the middle layer and the constrained layer is adjusted by filling particles with different hardness.

The middle layer between two adjacent airtight chambers forms a rib plate, and a cloth-like fabric structure is embedded in each rib plate, and all the cloth-like fabric structures are arranged radially along the cross-sectional circle of the soft robot body.

The exterior of the deformable layer is coated with a puncture-resistant protective layer.

The shape of each airtight air chamber is one of circle, arc, semicircle or sector.

The cross section of the central containing cavity is circular, and the shape of each airtight cavity is fan-shaped.

The drive control system also includes a drive system control board, on which an inflation control valve, an air pump, a microcontroller and a portable power supply are all arranged.

After the utility model adopts the above-mentioned structure, it has the following beneficial effects:

(1) The entire robot is made of soft materials. On the one hand, it fundamentally overcomes the shortcomings of large and bulky rigid materials. It adopts cable-free drive and does not need to connect long and bulky cables. On the other hand, it overcomes the limitation of lack of flexibility of traditional rigid materials. The soft pole-climbing robot of the present application has sufficient compliance, adaptability or infinite degrees of freedom, has little resistance to pressure, and can be compatible with obstacles through flexible deformation, thus having unprecedented adaptability, sensitivity and agility It can be fully bent or twisted with high curvature, can be used flexibly in a limited space, and can better adapt to the environment.

The specific form of expression is:

a. Able to climb over various obstacles, such as some rough pipe surfaces, relatively narrow spaces, and cables with helical lines or depressions on the surface.

b. It can climb a certain degree of curved pipes, while the previous rigid pole-climbing robots can only crawl on straight poles.

(2) It can generate power through its own deformation to move, and it can have a large number of degrees of freedom compared with traditional hard material pole climbing robots. Soft robots are composed of soft materials that can withstand large strains, have distributed continuous deformation capabilities, and have broad application prospects in unstructured environments. It can make the end effector reach any point in the three-dimensional working space through different configurations.

(3) The soft pole-climbing robot can be compatible with obstacles through compliant deformation, so the contact force can be greatly reduced, so that the soft robot can easily carry soft or fragile objects. Manipulate objects in an appropriate way to change shape to fit the environment and adapt to uneven surfaces.

(4) In the actual use process, it can adapt to rods of various diameters, and the flexible switch between the inside and outside of the pipe can be realized by simply replacing the electromagnetic clamping device, without redesigning and manufacturing.

(5) Reverse inflation can realize the robot's descent and recovery work, without the need to manually pull back from tens of meters or hundreds of meters after the end.

(6) In addition, it can fall by itself under the action of its own gravity, and when it falls, it will slide and move, with relatively large friction force, and the landing speed can be controlled. Under the action of gravity, it can descend and recover by itself in the event of a power failure. And because the robot itself is designed by the plasticity of the soft elastic material and the cavity structure, it will form a certain buffering and protective effect on the entire robot internal device when it lands.

(7) The design of the whole robot is very simple, and the working principle is concise and easy to understand. In practical application, the price of raw materials can be achieved, and the manufacturing process is simple and easy to realize.

(8) Climbing can be realized by inflating the airtight air cavity, which is a clean, low-cost and easy-to-implement driving method, and will not cause any damage to the environment after use. In addition, with pneumatic rolling climbing, the friction force will have much less influence on the climbing of the whole mechanism.

(9) During the high-altitude operation, due to the streamlined design of the robot itself, it is less affected by the wind force, and the existence of the clamping device can also make the influence of external factors such as wind force negligible. Climbing and descending can be achieved through self-control,

In a word, the utility model can realize the climbing operation along the rod, breaks through the limitation that the soft robot only performs bionic movement in the past, and creates a brand-new movement mechanism. And the climbing principle of alternately inflating the hose to climb is also a good development.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional structure of a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the cross-sectional view of the body of the soft robot before the airtight cavity is not inflated and deformed.

Figure 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the body of the soft robot when one of the closed air chambers is inflated and deformed.

Figure 4 shows a cross-sectional view along the central axis of the cylinder after the body of the soft robot is stretched into a cylinder.

Figure 5 shows a block diagram of the remote control device.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device climbing outside the pole climbing pipe of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device climbing in a climbing rod tube according to the present invention.

Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the three material layers in the body of the soft robot.

Figure 9 shows schematic diagrams of different shapes of the airtight cavity.

Fig. 10 shows a mechanical plane analysis diagram of a single airtight cavity after inflation.

Including:

1. The body of the soft robot;

11. Central cavity; 12. Deformation layer; 13. Intermediate layer; 14. Constraint layer; 15. Airtight cavity; 16. Trachea; 161. Air hole;

21. Electromagnet A; 22. Electromagnet B;

31. Drive system control board; 32. Inflatable control valve; 33. Air pump; 34. Microcontroller; 35. Portable power supply;

4. Remote control equipment; 41. Wireless communication components; 42. Energy managers; 43. Switches; 44. Microprocessors;

5. Climbing poles.

detailed description

The utility model will be described in further detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific preferred embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 1 , a pneumatic soft robot with an electromagnetic clamping device includes a soft robot body 1 , an electromagnetic clamping device, a drive control system and a remote control device 4 .

The soft robot body 1 is ring-shaped with openings, has two open end faces, and the cross section of the soft robot body is circular as shown in FIG. 2 .

When the ring-shaped soft robot body is straightened, the soft robot body takes on a cylindrical structure.

The soft silica gel or rubber of the soft robot body 1 is preferably EPDM.

A central accommodating cavity 11 is provided at the central loop line of the soft robot body, and the cross section of the central accommodating cavity is preferably circular.

Several airtight air cavities 15 are uniformly arranged on the body of the soft robot located outside the central accommodating cavity.

The above-mentioned central accommodating cavity 11 and several airtight air cavities 15 are arranged along the length direction of the soft robot body.

The cross-sectional shape of the airtight air cavity 15 is shown in Figure 9, which can be a circle as shown in 9-1, or an arc as shown in 9-2, or a semicircle as shown in 9-3, or 9- 4 as shown in the sector and so on.

The number of airtight air cavities 15 can be 3, 4, 5 or more, which is specifically set according to needs.

In the present invention, the airtight air cavities 15 are all preferably designed as fan-shaped as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 , and the number of airtight air cavities is preferably five. Due to the airtightness of the airtight air chamber, when the airtight air chamber is inflated, it can expand and deform, and the fan-shaped structure can make the deformation more obvious, and can form a stronger extrusion with surfaces such as climbing poles or cables.

A trachea 16 made of soft material is arranged in each airtight air cavity, and each trachea is evenly arranged with several air holes along the length direction. In this way, the inflation and deflation speed in each closed air cavity can be faster, the inflation and deflation can be more uniform, and the pole climbing robot can climb more smoothly.

As shown in Figure 8, the body of the soft robot has three material layers, the material layer where several airtight air cavities are located is the middle layer 13, the material layer outside the middle layer is the deformation layer 12, and the material layer inside the middle layer is the constraint layer. Layer 14.

The stiffness of the deformed layer, intermediate layer and constrained layer increases gradually. The stiffness of the deformation layer, the middle layer and the constraining layer is preferably adjusted by filling particles with different hardness.

That is, when each airtight air cavity is fan-shaped, the outer arc surface of the fan-shaped airtight air cavity is a part of the deformation layer, the inner arc surface of the fan-shaped airtight air cavity is a part of the constraint layer, and the two sides of the fan-shaped airtight air cavity part of the middle layer.

The middle layer between two adjacent airtight chambers forms a rib, and each rib is preferably embedded with a cloth-like fabric structure, and all the cloth-like fabric structures are arranged radially along the cross-sectional circle of the soft robot body.

When the airtight air cavity is inflated, the airtight air cavity is pressurized and expanded, and the above-mentioned deformation layer is most affected by the pressure in the airtight air cavity, and it is the first to produce a large deformation as shown in Figure 3, so that it can be connected with the surface of the climbing pole or the cable. Squeeze to provide the climbing force of the pole-climbing robot.

Due to the use of soft materials with medium rigidity, the above-mentioned middle layer plays the role of supporting the above-mentioned deformed layer. The arrangement of the cloth-like fabric structure in the above-mentioned ribs makes the middle layer only deformable under compression and cannot be elongated under tension, which is beneficial to improve climbing. The overall stability of the pole robot satisfies the function of smooth obstacle surmounting.

Due to the use of soft material (but non-rigid material) with relatively high rigidity, the constraining layer can support the drive control system and is basically not affected by the pressure in the airtight cavity and does not deform.

In addition, due to the existence of the above-mentioned constrained layer, only the deformable layer in contact with the climbing pole or the cable is deformed, rather than the entire deformable layer being expanded and deformed, resulting in the phenomenon that the pole-climbing robot cannot be driven to climb.

When only one of the airtight air chambers is inflated, the single airtight air chamber will produce expansion deformation as shown in Figure 10, and form extrusion on the pipe wall surfaces such as climbing poles or draglines. Assume that the extrusion force on the pipe wall is F, and the angle between it and the pipe wall is α, and the pipe wall will give the robot a reaction force N. N=Fsinα (to the right along the common normal direction of the contact surface between the pipe wall and the robot), assuming that the original contact point is p, which extends to p′ after deformation, and the vertical distance from p′ to the center of circle o is l, that is, the force N is The moment arm of the robot is l, and the rotational moment M=Fsinα*l (counterclockwise). This torque is the driving force for the robot to rotate counterclockwise.

The contact surface between the pipe wall and the robot is not smooth. Under the action of the clamping force, the pipe wall will generate friction force f to prevent the robot from rotating. We assume that the radius after extrusion deformation remains unchanged, then Rolling climbing can only be achieved when f is greater than the static friction between the pipe wall and the robot. Assuming that the influence of dynamic friction is neglected, the climbing moment is approximately equal to M.

Assuming that the horizontal distance from p′ to the center o is R, then it can be written as The torque is

When the pressure of the gas inflated changes, the curvature of the corresponding part also becomes larger, that is, the expansion deformation is larger. That is, the distance between pp' becomes larger, and the moment arm l becomes larger. It can be seen from the above formula that R is constant, and we assume that when the force F is constant during climbing, the rotational moment M becomes larger.

Further, the outside of the deformation layer is coated with a puncture-resistant protective layer, and the puncture-resistant protective layer is preferably a polyurethane coating with self-healing function. The function of the anti-puncture protective layer is to protect the robot from being punctured by hard objects such as particles or protrusions outside the pipe during the upward climb.

The electromagnetic clamping device includes an electromagnet A21 and an electromagnet B22, and the electromagnet A and the electromagnet B are respectively arranged on two open end faces of the soft robot body.

The drive control system is arranged in the central accommodating cavity, and the drive control system is used to control the charging and discharging of each trachea and the charging and discharging of the electromagnet A and the electromagnet B.

The drive control system includes an inflation control valve 32 , an air pump 33 , a microcontroller 34 and a portable power supply 35 . Microcontroller 34 preferably adopts the Arduino Mega microcontroller based on ATmega1280.

One end of the inflation control valve is connected with each trachea in the airtight chamber, and the inflation control valve can control the inflation and deflation states of all the airtight chambers.

The other end of the inflation control valve is connected with the air pump; the air pump and the portable power supply are respectively connected with the microcontroller.

A portable power supply is used to power Solenoid A and Solenoid B.

Further, the drive control system preferably also includes a drive system control board, on which the inflation control valve, air pump, micro-controller and portable power supply are all arranged.

The material of the robot itself has a certain degree of elasticity. Using an electromagnetic clamping device, it is connected to the portable power supply on the control board of the drive system through the wire group. The polar plates have the same polarity, and the same sex repels each other to provide the expansion force for climbing in the tube as shown in Figure 7. When one end is positively energized through wire A, and the other end is reversely energized through wire B, the polarities of the two plates are opposite, and opposites attract each other to provide clamping force suitable for climbing outside the tube as shown in Figure 6.

In addition, when the robot fails and the power is cut off, it can descend by itself under the action of gravity. Since it is a soft material, it can be recycled safely. The clamping force or expansion force is used to prevent the robot from slipping and idling in situ under the action of climbing torque.

The remote control device preferably includes a wireless communication component 41 , an energy manager 42 , a switch 43 , and a microprocessor 44 .

The microprocessor 44 in the remote control device realizes wireless connection with the microcontroller in the drive control system through the wireless communication component. The wireless communication group is preferably bluetooth or wireless signals, etc., to realize the control and data processing of the entire robot on the ground.

The energy manager 42 functions with the exchanger, and the energy manager 42 is used to adjust the amount of air in each airtight cavity. The exchanger is used to control the charging pipeline.

The microprocessor is also preferably an ATmega1280-based Arduino Mega microcontroller.

The remote control device is an open platform that can be used to manipulate and control the inflation time and volume of the air pump, as well as inflate the trachea with the corresponding serial number, including the time of opening and closing the inflation control valve, and forward or reverse the electromagnetic clamping device power ups. After processing by the microprocessor, the remote control device can be controlled manually or automatically, and the climbing of the whole pole-climbing robot can be realized by setting the inflation sequence and inflation time in each closed air cavity.

The climbing working principle of the utility model pole-climbing robot: the airtight air cavity is connected to the drive control system through the trachea, and the airtight air cavity at the corresponding position is inflated through the air pipe. Since it is a soft material, as the air pressure inside the airtight air cavity increases, The deformation layer of the corresponding part will produce expansion deformation and form extrusion with the pipe wall. The extrusion force between the robot and the pipe wall provides power for the robot to climb. The greater the pressure of the gas charged, the greater the corresponding force, and the climbing The effect is more obvious. The airtight air chamber is inflated sequentially, and the cycle is repeated, so as to realize the climbing action. If it is necessary to move downward, it can reversely inflate the corresponding cavities sequentially.

The preferred embodiment of the utility model has been described in detail above, but the utility model is not limited to the specific details in the above-mentioned embodiment, and within the scope of the technical concept of the utility model, various equivalent transformations can be carried out to the technical solution of the utility model , these equivalent transformations all belong to the protection scope of the present utility model.

Claims (8)

1. a kind of pneumatic soft robot with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Including soft robot body, electromagnetism Clamping device, driving control system and remote control equipment；

Soft robot body is the annular for being provided with opening, with two open ends, and the section of soft robot body For circle；

Center accommodating cavity is provided with the center loop wire of soft robot body, the software machine on the outside of the accommodating cavity of center Several closed air cavitys are evenly arranged with device human body, a tracheae is provided with each closed air cavity；

Soft robot body has three material layers, and the material layer where several closed air cavitys is intermediate layer, positioned at centre Material layer on the outside of layer is deformation layer, and the material layer on the inside of intermediate layer is restraint layer；Deformation layer, intermediate layer and restraint layer Rigidity is gradually incremented by；

Electromagnetic clamp device includes electromagnet A and electromagnet B, and electromagnet A and electromagnet B are separately positioned on soft robot body Two open ends on；

In the centrally disposed accommodating cavity of driving control system, driving control system be used for the inflation/deflation for controlling every tracheae and Electromagnet A and electromagnet B discharge and recharge；

Remote control equipment realizes wireless connection by wireless communication assembly and driving control system.

2. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Every tracheae Several stomatas have been evenly arranged along its length.

3. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Deformation layer, Realization is adjusted by filling the method for different hardness particle in the rigidity of intermediate layer and restraint layer.

4. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：It is two neighboring Intermediate layer between closed air cavity, which is formed in one piece of floor, every piece of floor, is embedded with cloth-like fabric construction, all cloth-like fabrics The radial arrangement that structure is justified along the section of soft robot body.

5. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Deformation layer It is externally coated with and prevents puncturing protective layer.

6. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：It is each closed The shape of air cavity is one kind in circle, arc, semicircle or sector.

7. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 6 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Center is accommodated The section of cavity is circle, and the shape of each closed air cavity is sector.

8. the pneumatic soft robot according to claim 1 with electromagnetic clamp device, it is characterised in that：Drive control System includes ventilating control valve, air pump, microcontroller, portable power supplies and drive system control panel；Ventilating control valve, air pump, Microcontroller and portable power supplies are arranged on drive system control panel；One end of ventilating control valve with it is every in closed air cavity Root tracheae is connected, and the other end of ventilating control valve is connected with air pump；Air pump and portable power supplies respectively with microcontroller phase Connection；Portable power supplies are used to power to electromagnet A and electromagnet B.