Reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable-rigidity household service mechanical armTechnical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of rope-driven mechanical arms, in particular to a reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable stiffness household service mechanical arm. The mechanical arm can be arranged on a desktop, an intelligent wheelchair and an automatic guide trolley and is used for assisting the old or the disabled to perform daily life activities, and further realizing self-care of life. The mechanical arm has the characteristics of light weight and intrinsic safety, and can improve the safety and the practicability of the household service mechanical arm.
Background
In the face of the current situation of rapid aging and huge disabled people in the Chinese society, long-term care of the aged and disabled people becomes a social problem restricting the development of China. The home service robot arm can help the old and the disabled to improve the activities of daily life of the old and the disabled, so that the research on the home service robot arm suitable for the old and the disabled in China is urgent. At present, the problems of heavy arm body, inflexible action and the like exist because joints of the mechanical arm are thick. The rope driving mechanism has the characteristics of small inertia, large working space, high effective load ratio, capability of realizing remote driving, better reconfigurability and the like, and can effectively alleviate the problems.
The rope transmission mode of the existing rope driving mechanical arm concentrates a driving source on the end of a base, so that wiring is complex, and the movement coupling among the ropes is caused along with the increase of driving ropes.
Considering that the acting object of the household service mechanical arm is human, physical man-machine interaction exists, and therefore the mechanical arm is required to have flexibility to adapt to different action requirements.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the problems in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable-stiffness household service mechanical arm, which solves the problems in the prior art that an arm body is heavy, the action is not flexible enough, the movement coupling between ropes is difficult, the variable stiffness is difficult to adjust in real time and the like. The household service mechanical arm is formed by serially connecting a shoulder joint, an elbow joint and a wrist joint, each joint is of a hybrid structure, a variable-rigidity joint is constructed by utilizing the nonlinear characteristic of pressure spring bending, and variable-rigidity adjustment is realized through joint translation.
The technical scheme adopted by the invention for solving the technical problems is as follows:
the shoulder joint and the wrist joint are reconfigurable series-parallel variable stiffness joints driven by 4 ropes, and have 3 rotational degrees of freedom and 1 translational degree of freedom. 4 ropes and a middle nonlinear pressure spring form a joint parallel part to realize inward flexion/outward extension and outward extension/inward retraction of the shoulder joint and the wrist joint; the middle two shafts are connected by a hook hinge, and the middle shaft penetrates through the upper platform and is supported by a linear bearing to form a joint series part, so that the translation of the middle shaft and the upper platform is realized; a direct-drive rotating motor is arranged between the intermediate shaft and the lower platform, so that inward/outward rotation of the shoulder joint and the wrist joint is realized.
The nonlinear pressure spring is a waist drum type nonlinear variable stiffness spring so as to avoid the interference between the spring and a Hooke joint in the motion process of the platform on the joint, and the variable stiffness spring is designed by changing the diameter of the spring wire, the section shape of the spring wire, the thread pitch and the pitch diameter.
Considering the characteristics of the linear push rod such as small volume, large thrust, light weight and the like, the rope driving scheme of the shoulder joint and the wrist joint is as follows: the upper platform is driven by 4 ropes, and each rope is divided into two sections by a linear push rod with a pulley on the upper platform, so that the tension of the ropes is reduced; because the pulley is driven by the linear push rod, the 'break point' of each rope divided into two sections can be changed, so that the configuration of the joint is changed, and the rotating working space and the translation working space of the joint are changed; the slideway of the lower platform is provided with two sections, one section is provided with a linear push rod with a hose, and the other section is provided with a linear push rod with a rope fixing end, so that the configurations of the shoulder joint and the wrist joint are reconstructed through the adjustment of the two sections of linear push rods, and the joint rotation working space and the joint translation working space are further changed; the final rope driving end drives the movable pulley block through the linear push rod to enable the length of the rope between the upper platform and the lower platform to be changed, and then the movable platform is driven to move. The driving scheme can realize the constant tensioning of the rope by means of the cooperation of the linear push rods without adding a rope tensioning mechanism.
The elbow joint is a hybrid variable stiffness joint driven by 2 ropes and has 1 rotational degree of freedom and 1 translational degree of freedom; the 2 ropes and the middle linear pressure spring form an elbow joint parallel part, the middle two shafts are connected by a hinge, penetrate through the upper platform and are supported by a linear bearing to form an elbow joint serial part; the final driving end of each rope drives the movable pulley block through the linear push rod, so that the length of the rope between the upper platform and the lower platform of the elbow joint is changed, and the movable platform is driven to move.
The final driving end of each rope adopts a linear push rod to drive a movable pulley block so as to change the length of the rope, so that the stroke of the linear push rod can be very small when the number of the movable pulleys is large, and the change of the length of the rope is large; the movable pulley is placed on the thin plate, and the thin plate is connected with the push rod through a bolt.
The lower platform of the shoulder joint is fixedly connected with a platform for placing the linear push rod through 4 studs; the shoulder joint intermediate shaft penetrates through the upper platform and is connected with a platform of the elbow joint for placing the linear push rod by adopting a circular flange plate; the elbow joint lower platform is supported by a middle shaft, and the middle shaft is respectively connected with the lower platform and a platform for placing the linear push rod by a circular flange plate; the middle shaft penetrating through the upper platform of the elbow joint is connected with the wrist joint placing linear push rod platform by a circular flange plate; the lower platform of the wrist joint is fixedly connected with a platform for placing the linear push rod through 4 studs; the wrist joint intermediate shaft passes through the upper platform and is connected with the end paw of the mechanical arm.
The shoulder joint, the elbow joint, the wrist joint upper platform, the wrist joint lower platform and the platform for placing the linear push rod are all light aluminum alloy sheets; the stud, the circular flange plate and the fastening nut are made of stainless steel materials, the linear bearing is a circular flange linear bearing made of stainless steel, and the driving rope is a high-strength stainless steel wire rope; the fixed end of the rope is fixed with the aluminum sleeve by a steel wire rope chuck; the sheet metal material of placing the movable pulley block is the aluminum alloy, and the material of all pulleys is nylon.
Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme of the invention has the following advantages: the mechanical arm adopts a reconfigurable rope to drive a hybrid variable stiffness joint, has 7 rotational degrees of freedom and 3 translational degrees of freedom, has motion redundancy and drive redundancy, and enhances the motion flexibility and safety; the shoulder and wrist joints of the mechanical arm have the same structure, the elbow joint is similar to the shoulder and wrist joints, the joint reconstruction is good, the modularization is easy to realize, the structure is simple, the layout is reasonable, and the popularization is easy; the mechanical arm is light in weight and low in inertia, can be mounted on an intelligent wheelchair seat, and greatly expands the working space of the mechanical arm; the rope driving of the mechanical arm adopts the linear push rod which is directly arranged at the joint, the rope is short, the kinematic coupling among the ropes is avoided, the rigidity of the joint is increased, and the joint oscillation can be avoided through rigidity adjustment so as to enhance the controllability of the mechanical arm; the mechanical arm adopts a variable-stiffness spring, realizes variable-stiffness adjustment by utilizing joint translation, and has the advantages of simple structure, light weight and easy control; the mechanical arm joint provided by the invention realizes the reconfiguration of joint driving ropes by utilizing the plurality of slideways, can reduce the tension of the ropes, simultaneously increases the working space and the variable stiffness adjusting range, and improves the safety and the practicability of the mechanical arm.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the structures shown in the drawings without creative efforts.
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable stiffness home service robot of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the construction of a shoulder or wrist joint of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of the elbow joint of the present invention;
fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the final end drive scheme of the rope of the present invention;
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
The invention provides a reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable stiffness household service mechanical arm.
As shown in fig. 1, the reconfigurable rope-driven hybrid stiffness household service robot arm according to the embodiment of the invention comprises a shoulder joint S, an elbow joint E and a wrist joint W, wherein the elbow joint E of the embodiment is a 2-degree-of-freedom joint, and the shoulder joint S and the wrist joint W are identical in structure and are both 4-degree-of-freedom joints. In the embodiment, the shoulder joint S, the elbow joint E and the wrist joint W adopt a rope driving parallel-serial mechanism, and the shoulder joint S and the wrist joint W realize the reconstruction of joint driving ropes by utilizing a plurality of slideways; the shoulder joint S and the wrist joint W both adopt nonlinear variable-stiffness combined springs to support the upper platform, and the elbow joint E adopts a linear pressure spring to support the upper platform.
The linear push rod has the characteristics of light weight, small volume, large thrust and the like, so that the reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable-stiffness household service mechanical arm in the embodiment adopts the linear push rod to drive the rope.
In the embodiment, the reconfigurable rope-driven series-parallel variable stiffness household service mechanical arm is configured according to the form of the degree of freedom of a human arm, has a working space similar to that of the human arm, and can realize stiffness adjustment of the mechanical arm through joint translation.
The reconfigurable rope-driven hybrid variable-stiffness household service mechanical arm is light in weight and small in inertia, can be installed on a seat of an intelligent wheelchair, and can be installed on other known schemes such as a desktop and an automatic guided vehicle.
Referring to fig. 2, the shoulder joint S of the present embodiment includes anupper platform 1, alower platform 2, a base platform 3 (a rope driving end on which a linear push rod is placed), an intermediate shaft 4, anintermediate shaft 10, a nonlinear waist drum type compression spring 8, a hooke hinge 9, a linear push rod 6, a linear push rod 15, a linear push rod 16, alinear push rod 19, a direct-drive rotating motor 12, afixed pulley 7, arope fixing end 11, a plasticsoft sleeve 13, aguide wheel 17, amovable pulley block 20, a movable pulleythin plate 21, a fixedpulley support column 18, aninter-platform support column 14, and alinear bearing 5; the intermediate shaft 4 is connected with theintermediate shaft 10 through a Hooke joint 9, and the intermediate shaft 4 penetrates through theupper platform 1 and is supported by the linear bearing 5; the nonlinear waist drum type pressure spring 8 is clamped in the grooves of theupper platform 1 and thelower platform 2 and is fixedly connected through structural adhesive; the shoulder joints are driven by 4 ropes, the end point of each rope is arope fixing end 11, the position of the rope fixing end is adjusted through a linear push rod 15, the rope penetrates through afixed pulley 7, and the reconfiguration of the rope at the driving end point of theupper platform 1 is realized through the linear push rod 6; then, the rope is guided into a plasticsoft sleeve 13, the plasticsoft sleeve 13 is connected to a linear push rod 16 through a bolt, and the reconfigurable driving end of the rope on thelower platform 2 is realized through the linear push rod 15 and the linear push rod 16; the 4 rope driving symmetric arrangement and the required linear push rod symmetric arrangement are shown in fig. 2, the driving ropes realize the reconfiguration of rope driving end points through the cooperative control of the linear push rod 6, the linear push rod 15, the linear push rod 16 and thelinear push rod 19, and therefore the shoulder joint S is a reconfigurable rope driving mechanism.
The drive scheme of the final drive end of all the ropes of the shoulder joint S of the embodiment of the invention is the same as that of fig. 4.
4 ropes are used as 4 movement branched chains to form a shoulder joint S parallel part with a middle nonlinear waist drum type pressure spring 8, an intermediate shaft 4 is connected with anintermediate shaft 10 in series through a hook hinge 9, the intermediate shaft 4 penetrates through anupper platform 1 to form a shoulder joint S series part, and therefore the shoulder joint S is a hybrid mechanism and achieves outward bending/inward stretching and outward expanding/inward contraction of the shoulder joint S; theintermediate shaft 10 is connected with a direct-drive rotating motor 12, and the direct-drive rotating motor 12 is fixedly connected with thelower platform 2, so that the shoulder joint S realizes inward/outward rotation; the nonlinear waist drum type pressure spring 8 realizes the variable stiffness design by changing the diameter of the spring wire, the section shape, the thread pitch and the pitch diameter of the spring wire, and meanwhile, the nonlinear waist drum type pressure spring 8 can present the nonlinear characteristic in the bending process, so the shoulder joint S is a variable stiffness mechanism, and the rigidity of the shoulder joint S can be adjusted by the joint translation because the intermediate shaft 4 penetrates through theupper platform 1 and is supported by the linear bearing 5.
The shoulder joint S of the embodiment of the invention can be arranged on a seat of an intelligent wheelchair or other known schemes such as a table top, an automatic guided vehicle and the like through thebase platform 3.
The shoulder joint S and the wrist joint W of the embodiment of the present invention have the same structure.
Referring to fig. 3, the elbow joint E of this embodiment includes anupper platform 22, alower platform 24, a base platform 25 (rope driving end, on which a linear push rod is placed), anintermediate shaft 26, a linear bearing 27, anintermediate shaft 31, alinear compression spring 30, ahinge 29, alinear push rod 32, amovable pulley block 33, aguide wheel 34, a movable pulleythin plate 35, a fixedpulley support post 36,rope fixing ends 28 and 37, and acircular flange 38. Theintermediate shaft 26 is connected with theintermediate shaft 31 through ahinge 29, and theintermediate shaft 26 penetrates through theupper platform 22 and is supported by thelinear bearing 27; thelinear compression spring 30 is clamped in the grooves of the upper platform and the lower platform and is fixedly connected through structural adhesive; the elbow joint is driven with a total of 2 cables, each cable terminating in acable securing end 28 and 37, the cables passing from theupper platform 22 through thelower platform 24 driven by a cable drive scheme as shown in figure 4.
The elbow joint E parallel connection part is formed by the 2 ropes serving as the 2 moving branched chains and the middlelinear pressure spring 30, themiddle shaft 26 is connected with themiddle shaft 31 in series through thehinge 29, themiddle shaft 26 penetrates through theupper platform 22 to form the elbow joint E series connection part, and therefore the elbow joint E is a parallel-serial connection mechanism and achieves the flexion and extension actions of the elbow joint E; thelinear compression spring 30 exhibits a non-linear characteristic during the bending process, so that the elbow joint E is a variable stiffness mechanism, and since theintermediate shaft 26 is supported by thelinear bearing 27 through theupper platform 22, the stiffness of the elbow joint E can be adjusted by joint translation.
Referring to fig. 4, the rope final driving schemes of the present embodiment all adopt the rope driving scheme of fig. 4, arope 39 passes through the platform under the joint, is guided into the base platform by aguide wheel 34, and therope 39 passes through theguide wheel 34 to themovable pulley block 33 and is finally connected to arope fixing end 37; themovable pulley block 33 is arranged on a movable pulleythin plate 35, the movable pulleythin plate 35 is fixedly connected with thelinear push rod 32 through bolts, the fixed pulley is supported by afixed pulley support 36 to ensure that the height of the fixed pulley is consistent with that of the push rod of thelinear push rod 32, arope fixing end 37 is supported by asupport column 38 to ensure that the height of the fixed pulley is consistent with that of the push rod of thelinear push rod 32, therefore, the change value of the length of the rope between theupper platform 22 and thelower platform 24 is just 2n times of the stroke of thelinear push rod 32, the thrust of thelinear push rod 32 is 2n times of the tension of the rope, and n is the number of the movable pulleys in themovable pulley block 33. The number of the movable pulleys in the embodiment is 3, which is only one implementation, and it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiment described above, and those skilled in the art can make various changes or modifications within the scope of the claims without affecting the essence of the present invention.
The foregoing is a preferred embodiment of the present application, and it should be noted that those skilled in the art can make several improvements and modifications without departing from the technical principle, and these improvements and modifications should also be considered as the protection scope of the present application.