JPH09155773A - Sample holding method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispense with a slide mechanism and provide an inexpensive device with high reliability and high precision by providing a pair of right and left arms for a carrier system, putting hands provided at the free ends of the rotationally driven arms in contact with a sample and gripping the sample with gripping force corresponding to elastic deformation caused in the arms. SOLUTION: The output of a motor 1 is transmitted to two driving shafts 4a, 4b arranged in parallel via a single worm 3 and two worm wheels 2, to which rotating arms 5a, 5b are joined. Elastic arms 6a, 6b formed with band plate springs are joined to respective one end of the rotating arms 5a, 5b and hands 7 are joined to the respective other ends. The motor 1, are worm wheels 2, the worm 3 and the driving shafts 4a, 4b are held on a base to drive the motor 1 so that a sample 8 may be held between the right and left hands 7, but at this time the driving shafts 4a, 4b are rotated for the elastic arms 6a, 6b to have desired elastic deformation so that the sample 8 may be gripped.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sample holding method and apparatus which are installed at a predetermined position and hold and transport a sample by bending or sliding motion of constituent members from the position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional sample holding device, for example, FIG.
There is a method shown in.

A pair of left and right hands 7 that come into contact with the sample 8;
It is composed of a motor 1 that drives one hand 7, a feed screw 18 that is connected to the motor 1, a nut 17 that meshes with the feed screw 18, and a linear guide mechanism that includes a linear guide shaft 28 and a linear guide 29. The linear guide shaft 28, the motor 1, and the feed screw 18 are fixed to a base (not shown).

The sample 8 is moved by a moving means (not shown) separately provided with a sample holding device so as to sandwich the sample between the left and right hands 7, and the motor 1 is driven to rotate the feed screw 18. With the rotation of the feed screw 18, the one hand 7 with the nut 17 fixed operates along the trajectory of the linear guide shaft 28 via the linear guide 29, and the sample 8 is brought into contact with and pinched by the hand 7. The sample 7 is gripped. Generally, such a sample holding device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 25435/1992.
It is attached to the tip of the indirect transfer device described in 1 and used as a handling device.

[0005]

However, in the conventional sample gripping device, the gripping force at the time of gripping the sample depends on the power of the motor, and therefore, the gripping force is detected according to the object to be gripped, such as an object or a person. A detection means such as a sensor that operates is added. It was necessary to constantly monitor the gripping force of the sample by the sensor and control the power of the motor so as to grip the sample with a gripping force that does not impair the sample. In addition, the conventional sample holding device has a structure that uses a lot of sliding parts.
It is conceivable that dust may be generated from the sliding parts and pollute the sample or the environment. In particular, it cannot be applied to foods, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, etc. that require clean grip or environment,
Its use range was limited. In addition, since the gripping device up to now has only a sample gripping function, it is generally attached to the tip of an articulated robot, and the degree of freedom in transportation depends on the degree of freedom of the articulated robot. Was.

[0006]

An elastically deformable spring, at least a part of which is made of an elastic material, is fixed to one end of a hand that comes into contact with and grips a sample in such a posture that rigidity in the direction of gravity can be obtained. The other end of each spring is fixed to one end of a rotary arm fixed to a drive shaft supported by a flange via a rotatable rotary bearing so as to form a left-right pair. If only the sample gripping function is desired, the power of the output shaft of the single drive source supported by the flange is paralleled so as to rotate in opposite directions via gears supported by the flange, for example, worm wheel gears. It is transmitted to the two drive shafts arranged in. The rotating arms are fixed to these two drive shafts, respectively. The power of the drive source transmitted to the drive shaft causes the rotary arms to rotate in opposite directions. With the rotation of the rotary arm, each spring fixed to the rotary arm rotationally moves so as to sandwich the sample, and the hand fixed to the free end of the spring contacts the sample. After the contact, the rotary arm is further rotated to elastically deform the spring and hold the sample. At this time, the gripping force of the sample becomes a spring force determined by the elastic deformation amount of each spring. Therefore, after gripping the sample, the gripping force of the sample can be adjusted by controlling the amount of elastic deformation of the spring that occurs corresponding to the amount of rotation of the rotating arm.

When the sample is held and the degree of freedom of rotary transportation around the drive shaft is desired, the drive shafts are arranged coaxially, and each drive shaft is independently driven in an arbitrary direction and at an arbitrary angle and speed in synchronization with power. Is obtained by connecting two drive sources that transmit Each drive source is supported by a flange. The gripping of the sample is obtained by the above-described operation by driving each drive source and rotating the drive shafts in opposite directions. Next, the rotation of the sample around the drive axis rotates the respective drive sources so that the drive axes rotate in the same direction, whereby the two rotary arms rotate in the same direction. Therefore, the sample supported by the hand on the rotating arm via the spring makes an arbitrary angular rotational movement in synchronization with the rotation of the rotating arm.

In the above means, it is not necessary to form both the pair of left and right arms with springs. Naturally, the same effect can be obtained by forming only one arm with a rigid body.

Further, by adding a coupling mechanism capable of arbitrarily connecting and separating the free ends of the pair of left and right arms, the degree of freedom as the gripping device is further expanded. After the sample is gripped by the above-mentioned means, the free ends of the left and right springs are joined and restrained by using the joining mechanism. After that, the rotating arms are rotated in the opposite directions to those when gripping the sample. Along with the rotation of the rotary arm, the spring is largely elastically deformed, and the sample held by the left and right hands moves straight toward the center of rotation of the drive shaft along the symmetrical center line of the left and right springs. The amount of straight movement of the sample is determined by the rotation angle and the rotation radius of the rotating arm.

Here, the pair of springs held by the rotary arm and the hand need not be composed of a single spring. Further, it is desirable that the spring strength of this spring be gradually hardened from the hand toward the rotary arm.

By adopting the above construction, the arm sliding mechanism, which has been indispensable for the conventional moving device, becomes unnecessary. Therefore, in the gripping process, dust, gas, and other contaminants are not generated or diffused, and simple spring bending,
The sample can be grasped, rotated, and straightly conveyed only by the stretching action. Therefore, a highly reliable and clean gripping device can be provided. Further, in the gripping device having the above configuration, the arm is composed of a simple leaf spring, so that the gripping device can be easily reduced in size and weight. In particular, by miniaturizing the gripping device, it is also possible to construct micro-tweezers that manipulate cells etc.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the figure, parts having the same function are given the same numbers.

FIG. 1 is a bird's eye view of a gripping device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The output of the motor 1 is transmitted via a single worm 3 and two worm wheels 2 to two drive shafts 4a and 4b arranged in parallel. Each drive shaft 4
Rotating arms 5a and 5b are coupled to a and 4b.
Elastic arms 6a and 6b made of strip-shaped leaf springs are coupled to one ends of the rotary arms 5a and 5b. The other ends of the elastic arms 6a and 6b are connected to the hand 7, respectively. The motor 1, the worm wheel 2, the worm 3, and the drive shafts 4a and 4b are held by a base (not shown) via a rotatable rolling bearing (not shown).
In this embodiment, the leaf springs forming the elastic arms 6a and 6b have a thickness of 0.3 mm and a leaf spring width of 5 mm. The motor 1 is driven, and the drive shafts 4a and 4b are rotated so that the left and right hands 7 sandwich the sample 8 and brought into contact with the left and right hands 7. After contact, the drive shafts 4a and 4b are rotated so that the elastic arms 6a and 6b still undergo desired elastic deformation, and the sample 8 is gripped.

Since the sample holding device according to the present invention uses the simple elastic arms 6a and 6b made of springs for its arms, the sample 8 can be held softly. Further, since the arm that holds the sample 8 does not have the sliding portion, no dust is generated during the process of operating the sample. Therefore, the gripping device according to this configuration can grip the sample 8 without being contaminated with dust or the like and without damaging the sample 8. Further, the gripping force of the sample 8 is determined by the amount of elastic deformation generated in the elastic arms 6a and 6b when gripping the sample and the spring characteristic of the springs forming the elastic arms 6a and 6b. At this time, the elastic arm 6a,
Since the elastic deformation amount of 6b corresponds to the rotation amount of the drive shafts 4a and 4b with good reproducibility, it can be adjusted by controlling the rotation amount of the motor 1. Although the motor 1 is used to rotate the rotating arms 5a and 5b in this embodiment, it may be manually driven. In this case, it is desirable to provide a grip that rotates by hand at the place where the motor 1 is attached.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention.

The difference from the first embodiment is that the two drive shafts 4a and 4b are coaxially arranged and each drive shaft 4a and 4b is driven by a dedicated motor 1. The output of each motor 1 is transmitted to the drive shafts 4a and 4b via a gear 9, and the drive shafts 4a and 4b are connected to a flange 11 via a rotatable rolling bearing 10. Further, in the present embodiment, the elastic arms 6a and 6b are not composed of a single leaf spring, but rather the elastic arms 6a and 6b.
For the purpose of enhancing the rigidity of the plate spring 12, the plate spring 12 and the relay plate 13 connecting the plate springs 12 having different sizes and thicknesses are assembled.

The sample 8 can be grasped by the above-mentioned operation by driving the respective motors 1 and rotating the drive shafts 4a and 4b in mutually opposite directions. Next, the drive shafts 4a, 4 of the sample 8
Rotation around the center b is performed by rotating each motor 1 so that the drive shafts 4a and 4b rotate in the same direction, so that the sample 8 supported by the rotating arms 5a and 5b through the elastic arms 6a and 6b. Makes an arbitrary angular rotation movement.

By adopting the above configuration, in addition to the function of simply gripping the sample and the degree of freedom of rotation for rotationally transporting the sample, the configuration is suitable as a robot handling device. Further, in the above embodiment, both the pair of left and right arms have the elastic arm structure composed of springs, but the same effect and action can be obtained by forming one arm with a rigid body and only the other arm with the elastic arm structure. It goes without saying that you can get

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment in which the present invention is used in a vacuum atmosphere. An example of using it as a manipulator used for various applications in a space environment is shown, and in addition to gripping and rotating a sample, a tilt operation is possible. Needless to say, if only the sample holding function is desired, for example, the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 may be used, and if the degree of freedom of gripping and rotation is desired, FIG.
It suffices to adopt the gripping device having the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 and use it by adding vacuum sealing means to each drive shaft. Drive shaft 4
Reference numerals a and 4b are connected to the flange 11 via the vacuum sealing means 14 and the rotatable rolling bearing 10. In this embodiment, a magnetic fluid seal is used as the vacuum sealing means 14. Needless to say, there is no particular problem even if an O-ring or the like is used as the vacuum sealing means. The flange 11 is connected to the base 16 via a bellows tube 15 which is airtight and is capable of expanding and contracting and deforming.
Inside the bellows-shaped tube 15, a drive unit such as the motor 1 for driving the elastic arms 6a and 6b is included. In addition, four nuts 17 are evenly arranged on the circumference of the flange 11,
Each nut 17 meshes with a lead screw 18 connected to the motor 1 supported by the base 16. Nut 1
7 are connected to the respective flanges 11 via couplings 19 which can follow all the postures of the flanges 11. In the present invention, the inside of the bellows tube 15 is airtightly isolated from the outside, and the pressure is set so that the evaporation amount of the lubricant of the sliding component inside the bellows tube 15 is set to a sufficiently low level. The gripping of the sample 8 and the rotational movement around the drive shafts 4a and 4b are performed by the above-described operation. The vertical movement is achieved by rotating the four feed screws 18 in the same amount and in the same direction in synchronization with the respective motors 1.
The flange 11 fixing 7 performs a vertical movement. Further, the tilting operation of the flange 11 is easily performed by controlling and driving the four motors 1 so that the flange 11 is tilted in a desired direction. As described above, the gripping device according to the present configuration is capable of rotating, vertically moving, and tilting in addition to gripping a sample, and satisfies the degree of freedom required as a manipulator. In addition, the gripping device according to this configuration exposes only the elastic arms 6a and 6b, which are simple leaf springs, and have no sliding parts, which makes lubrication means a problem in a vacuum atmosphere such as a space atmosphere. A reliable and highly precise manipulator can be realized.
Further, by providing the bellows-shaped tube 15 with a shielding function against radiation, infrared rays, etc., the reliability of the sliding component contained therein can be further improved.

Needless to say, the flexibility and operating range of the manipulator can be remarkably expanded by using it together with the conventional articulated manipulator 20 as in another embodiment shown in FIG. 4 in addition to this embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the holding device used in water, and FIG. 6 shows an embodiment in which the holding device of FIG. 5 is used in a culture device. In this embodiment, the holding device according to the present invention is resident in the culture tank 21,
The living body 22 to be cultured in the culture tank 21 is carried in and out. In the culture tank 21, only the drive shafts 4a and 4b, the elastic arms 6a and 6b, and the hand 7 are exposed. In this embodiment, the elastic arm 6 is provided so as not to contaminate the culture solution.
a, 6b and the hand 7 are made of elastic plastic, and the drive shaft 4
The a and 4b and the flange 11 are made of hard plastic, and a plurality of O-rings 23 are adopted as the sealing means of the drive shafts 4a and 4b. Further, in this embodiment, one elastic arm is constructed by combining two upper and lower leaf springs with different fixing positions of the hand 7. With this configuration, the rigidity of the hand 7 can be significantly enhanced. The living body 22 is gripped by the hand 7 by the operation described above, and the water tank 24
It is possible to carry out the rotation and to carry out and take out. According to the present invention, the living body 22 can be taken out without requiring operations such as discharging and injecting the culture solution in the culture tank 21. In addition, since the moving means according to the present invention can configure the components of the gripping device in the culture tank 21 only with the plastic that does not contaminate the culture solution, the moving means maintains a high level in a highly clean state. Reliable living body 22
Can be carried in and out. In addition to this, the elastic arm 6
Proper selection of the materials of a, 6b and the hand 7 does not impair their highly reliable and highly clean operation even in environments such as cleaning solutions, developing solutions, etching solutions and seawater. Further, in the embodiments described above, the left and right arms have elastic arm structures using springs, but it is natural that the same effect can be obtained by forming one arm with a rigid body.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a gripping device which is capable of straight-line transport as well as rotary transport of the sample, and FIG. 8 is an enlarged bird's-eye view of the hand part of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 8, it is possible to couple the two separate hands 7 with each other by generating an electromagnetic force by the coil 25. In this embodiment,
Since the sample 8 has a structure in which it is brought into contact with and gripped by the hand 7 via the leaf spring 26, the sample 8 can always be gripped by the hand 7 with a constant gripping force. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the wire 27 is connected to one end of the hand 7 and the drive shafts 4a and 4a.
It is fixed to the peripheral edge of b. At this time, one end of the wire 27 is fixed to the side of the hand 7 to which the elastic arm 6a is fixed, and the other end is wound around and fixed to the peripheral edge of the drive shaft 4b for driving the elastic arm 6b. On the contrary, the wire 27 fixed to the hand 7 on the elastic arm 6b side is provided with the drive shaft 4 for driving the elastic arm 6a.
Similarly, it is wound around a and fixed. After gripping the sample 8 by the operation described above, the coil 25 is energized and the hands 7 are connected to each other by electromagnetic force.

Thereafter, the motor 1 is driven to drive the drive shafts 4a, 4
b and the rotating arms 5a and 5b are respectively rotated in the opposite directions to those when gripping the sample. As the rotating arms 5a and 5b rotate,
The elastic arms 6a and 6b elastically deform into the shape shown by the broken line in FIG. 7, and the sample 8 held by the left and right hands 7 is driven along the center line where the left and right elastic arms 6a and 6b are symmetrical. Moves straight toward the shafts 4a, 4b. Since the amount of straight movement of the sample 8 is determined by the rotation angle of the rotating arms 5a and 5b, when the sample 8 moves straight, the hand 7 and the drive shaft 4a,
The wire 27 wound around and fixed to the drive shaft 4b is wound around the drive shafts 4a and 4b without slack. After that, as described above, the sample 8 is rotationally moved in an arbitrary direction by rotating the rotary arms 5a and 5b in the same direction. When opening the sample 8, the coil 8 is stopped from being energized, and the rotary arms 5a and 5b are rotationally driven in the opposite directions to open the sample 8. At this time, the left and right elastic arms 6a,
Since the position of 6b is restricted by the wire 27, the position of 6b is maintained in the open state. Therefore, the gripping device according to this configuration can grip, transport, and open the sample 8 at any position within the operating range of the hand 8. Of course, if the gripping position of the sample 8 is always the extended position of the elastic arms 6a and 6b, the wire 27 becomes unnecessary. In this case, even if there is an obstacle on the rotary transport path, the sample 8 can be moved linearly while avoiding the rotary transport.

By adopting the above construction, the sample can be grasped and rotated or conveyed straight forward only by the simple bending and stretching action of the spring, so that contaminants such as dust and gas are generated and diffused during the grasping process. There is nothing to do. Therefore, a highly reliable and clean gripping device can be provided. Further, the elastic arm that constitutes the gripping device having the above-mentioned configuration does not pose any problem as long as it is an elastically deformable material, and therefore a gripping device suitable for any environment can be constructed. Furthermore, since the arm is composed of a simple leaf spring, it is easy to reduce the size and weight of the gripping device. In particular, by miniaturizing the gripping device, it is possible to construct microtweezers that manipulate cells and the like during gene manipulation.

Further, in the series of embodiments described above, the sealing means has been changed according to the use environment, but which sealing means is adopted in which environment is arbitrary and has been described above. It is needless to say that the same effect as described above can be obtained even if the composite or another sealing means is not limited to the above-mentioned sealing means.

[0029]

The gripping device according to the present invention does not require any sliding mechanism such as a rolling bearing for the hand and arm, and controls the gripping and movement of the sample by a simple bending and stretching operation of the leaf spring. Because of its simple structure, it is inexpensive, compact, highly reliable, and highly accurate in a wide range of industrial fields ranging from food movement in the atmosphere to manipulators used in space environments.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a gripping device showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a gripping device showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a gripping device showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a gripping device showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a gripping device showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view of a biological culture tank to which the grip device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a gripping device showing a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view in which a hand unit is extracted.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged perspective view of a hand portion of a conventional gripping device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 .. motor, 2 ... worm wheel, 3 ... worm,
4a, 4b ... drive shaft, 5a, 5b .. rotary arm, 6
a, 6b .... elastic arm, 7 .... hand, 8 ... sample,
9 ... Gears, 10 ... Rolling bearings, 11 ... Flange,
12 ... leaf spring, 13 ... relay plate, 14 ... vacuum sealing means, 15 ... pipe, 16 ... base, 17 ... nut, 1
8 ... Lead screw, 19 ... Coupling, 20 ... Articulated manipulator, 21 ... Culture tank, 22 .... Living body, 23 ...
O-ring, 24 ... Water tank, 25 ... Coil, 26 ... Leaf spring, 27 ... Wire, 28 ... Straight guide shaft, 29 .... Straight guide guide.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Takamichi Suzuki, 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Ltd., Production Engineering Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor, Hitoshi Odajima 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Address Incorporated company Hitachi, Ltd. Production Technology Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Michiyasu Inoue 3-3, Fujibashi, Ome-shi, Tokyo 2-3 Hitachi 2nd, Tokyo Electronics Co. (72) Inventor Takeshi Tajima 3-chome, Fujibashi, Ome-shi, Tokyo Address 2 within Hitachi Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Seiichiro Kobayashi 3-3 Fujitabashi, Ome City, Tokyo Address 2 within Hitachi Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. At least one arm is provided with a pair of left and right conveying devices, at least a part of which is made of an elastic material, and one end of each arm is in the form of a free end. The other end is connected to a drive source and can be driven to rotate.
Each of which is fixed to one drive shaft, and a hand portion is provided at a free end of the arm, and each drive shaft and each arm are driven in reverse rotation so as to sandwich an arbitrary sample, and the hand portion is moved to the sample. Sample gripping, which is determined by the amount of elastic deformation of the arm made of the elastic material and the spring characteristics of the arm at the time of contact, or which grips the sample with a gripping force corresponding to the amount of rotation of the drive shaft. Method. 2. The sample holding method according to claim 1, wherein the drive shafts are arranged coaxially, and a drive source capable of being driven independently or in synchronization is connected to each drive shaft, A sample gripping method in which the sample is clamped at a free end and gripped, and then the coaxially arranged drive shafts are synchronously driven to rotate in the same direction by the same amount, whereby the sample is rotationally conveyed. 3. Negative pressure, normal pressure, positive pressure, in liquid, in gas, clean,
At least one or more processing chambers having different atmospheric conditions such as a space environment and operating in the processing chambers, the driving source capable of rotational driving, the driving shaft connected to the driving source, and one end serving as the driving shaft. At least the form of a free end having a fixed hand, the other end of which directly or indirectly abuts a sample such as foods, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor materials, and mechanical parts, electrical parts, optical parts and / or their composite devices A sample gripping device having at least one arm, a part of which is made of an elastic material. 4. The sample gripping method and apparatus according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the arms are a pair of left and right arms, and the pair of arms are held after gripping the sample by the hand. After connecting the free ends of the arms and restraining the free ends of the arms to each other, the drive sources are driven independently or in synchronization, and the respective arms are rotated in opposite directions or in the same direction to obtain the sample. A method of gripping a sample in which each of the arms is separated and the sample is released after being gripped at any position within an operating range determined by the length and the rotation angle of the arm, and moved straight and rotated. 5. The sample gripping method and apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the arms are a pair of left and right arms, and at least one of the pair of arms has a free end.
A sample gripping device provided with a coupling mechanism that uses mechanical force, electromagnetic force, or a combined force thereof to connect and disconnect the pair of arms from each other. 6. The sample holding method and apparatus according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the elastic material forming all or at least a part of the arm is metal, nonmetal, nonferrous metal, and / or the material. A sample gripping device characterized by an elastic material coated on the surface of the arm. 7. The sample holding method and apparatus according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein a function of transmitting power by air-tightly or physically shutting off the drive shaft and a drive source for driving the drive shaft is provided. The sample holding device according to claim 1, wherein the sample holding device is connected via a sealing means provided therein. 8. The sample holding method and apparatus according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the driving source is placed in a space hermetically sealed with respect to an atmosphere in which the sample is placed. Gripping device.