1. A tensioning integral robot based on a variable stiffness spring is characterized in that,

the device comprises a driving mechanism, a mechanical arm, a rigidity adjusting unit and an air source;

the driving mechanism is used for driving the mechanical arm to swing;

the rigidity adjusting units are arranged at a plurality of movable joint positions of the mechanical arm;

the rigidity adjusting unit comprises a rubber soft sleeve, a spring and a ventilation interface;

the rubber soft sleeve is wrapped outside the spring, the ventilation interface is communicated with the inside of the rubber soft sleeve, the air source is communicated with the ventilation interface, the air source is used for inflating the rubber soft sleeve to extrude and adjust the rigidity of the spring, and the rigidity change of the rigidity adjusting unit is used for adjusting the movement amplitude change of the movable joint corresponding to the mechanical arm.

2. A tensegrity robot according to claim 1, wherein said stiffness adjustment unit further comprises a hard outer casing, said rubber soft casing and said spring being both provided in a space enclosed by said hard outer casing.

3. A tensegrity robot according to claim 1, wherein the surface of said rubber sock pressing against said spring is provided with a plurality of raised particles distributed around the surface of said rubber sock.

4. A tensegrity robot according to claim 1,

the mechanical arm comprises a plurality of movable rings and a plurality of telescopic units;

the movable ring is provided with a plurality of rigidity adjusting units which are arranged along the circumferential direction of the movable ring, and the rigidity adjusting units are linked with the driving mechanism; a plurality of telescopic units are connected between every two adjacent movable rings and are respectively linked with the rigidity adjusting units of the two adjacent movable rings;

the driving mechanism is used for adjusting the telescopic amount of the spring, the spring is telescopic and used for adjusting the expansion and the furling of the movable ring, and the expansion and the furling of the movable ring are used for controlling the telescopic unit to stretch.

5. A tensegrity robot according to claim 4,

the movable ring comprises a transverse connecting rod and a connecting seat, the connecting seat is connected to two ends of the transverse connecting rod, and the connecting seat is connected to two ends of the spring to form a ring;

between any two opposite rigidity adjusting units, the telescopic units are movably connected with the opposite rigidity adjusting units through the connecting seats.

6. A tensioning integral robot according to claim 5, wherein the telescopic unit comprises two vertical connecting rods, the two vertical connecting rods are arranged in a staggered manner, and two ends of the two vertical connecting rods are respectively and rotatably connected with the connecting seats on different sides of the rigidity adjusting unit.

7. A tensegrity robot according to claim 5,

the connecting seat is provided with a through hole, and the direction of the through hole is the same as the circumferential direction of the movable ring;

the driving mechanism is provided with a plurality of pull ropes, the pull ropes respectively penetrate through the through holes of the connecting seats, the connecting seats which are oppositely arranged share one pull rope, the driving mechanism is used for regulating and controlling the tightness change of the pull ropes, and the tightness change of the pull ropes is used for driving the mechanical arm to swing.

Background

As a new robot, the continuous robot has good environment co-fusion capability, so that the continuous robot has wide application prospect in the actual engineering fields of narrow space equipment maintenance, post-disaster search and rescue and the like. Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the application environment, the continuous robot is required to be rigid and flexible. However, most continuous robots do not have this capability.

In order to meet the requirement of the continuous robot on rigidity and flexibility, the continuous robot can be realized by replacing springs with different stiffness. However, the elastic coefficient of each spring is fixed, the spring is inevitably required to be replaced if the stress state of the structure is required to be changed, and the frequent replacement of the spring in the work of the robot is not a simple matter, which can seriously affect the engineering period, so that a technical scheme capable of solving the problem is urgently needed.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a tensioning integral robot based on a variable-stiffness spring, and the tensioning integral robot is used for solving the problem that the spring needs to be replaced frequently in the prior art.

In order to solve the technical problem, the invention provides a tensioning integral robot based on a variable stiffness spring, which comprises a driving mechanism, a mechanical arm, a stiffness adjusting unit and an air source, wherein the mechanical arm is arranged on the driving mechanism; the driving mechanism is used for driving the mechanical arm to swing; the rigidity adjusting units are arranged at a plurality of movable joint positions of the mechanical arm; the rigidity adjusting unit comprises a rubber soft sleeve, a spring and a ventilation interface; the rubber soft sleeve is wrapped outside the spring, the ventilation interface is communicated with the inside of the rubber soft sleeve, the air source is communicated with the ventilation interface, the air source is used for inflating the rubber soft sleeve to extrude and adjust the rigidity of the spring, and the rigidity change of the rigidity adjusting unit is used for adjusting the movement amplitude change of the movable joint corresponding to the mechanical arm.

In one embodiment, the stiffness adjusting unit further comprises a hard outer sleeve, and the rubber soft sleeve and the spring are both arranged in a space surrounded by the hard outer sleeve.

In one embodiment, the surface of the rubber soft sleeve, which extrudes the spring, is provided with a plurality of raised particles, and the plurality of particles are distributed on the surface of the rubber soft sleeve.

In one embodiment, the robot arm comprises a plurality of movable rings and a plurality of telescopic units; the movable ring is provided with a plurality of rigidity adjusting units which are arranged along the circumferential direction of the movable ring, and the rigidity adjusting units are linked with the driving mechanism; a plurality of telescopic units are connected between every two adjacent movable rings and are respectively linked with the rigidity adjusting units of the two adjacent movable rings; the driving mechanism is used for adjusting the telescopic amount of the spring, the spring is telescopic and used for adjusting the expansion and the furling of the movable ring, and the expansion and the furling of the movable ring are used for controlling the telescopic unit to stretch.

In one embodiment, the movable ring comprises a transverse connecting rod and a connecting seat, the connecting seat is connected to both ends of the transverse connecting rod, and the connecting seat is connected to both ends of the spring, so that a ring shape is formed; between any two opposite rigidity adjusting units, the telescopic units are movably connected with the opposite rigidity adjusting units through the connecting seats.

In one embodiment, the telescopic unit comprises two vertical connecting rods, the two vertical connecting rods are arranged in a staggered manner, and two ends of the two vertical connecting rods are respectively and rotatably connected with the connecting seats on different sides of the rigidity adjusting unit.

In one embodiment, the connecting seat is provided with a through hole, and the direction of the through hole is the same as the circumferential direction of the movable ring; the driving mechanism is provided with a plurality of pull ropes, the pull ropes respectively penetrate through the through holes of the connecting seats, the connecting seats which are oppositely arranged share one pull rope, the driving mechanism is used for regulating and controlling the tightness change of the pull ropes, and the tightness change of the pull ropes is used for driving the mechanical arm to swing.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

the spring is wrapped by the rubber soft sleeve, the ventilation interface is communicated with the interior of the rubber soft sleeve, the air source is communicated with the ventilation interface, the air source is used for inflating the rubber soft sleeve to extrude and adjust the rigidity of the spring, and the rigidity change of the rigidity adjusting unit is used for adjusting the movement amplitude change of the movable joint corresponding to the mechanical arm.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the structure provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the structure of part A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of the stiffness adjusting unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a partial schematic view of the movable ring of FIG. 1;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of the vertical connecting rod structure of fig. 1.

The reference numbers are as follows:

10. a drive mechanism; 11. pulling a rope;

20. a mechanical arm; 21. a movable ring; 211. a transverse connecting rod; 212. a connecting seat; 213. perforating; 22. a telescopic unit; 221. a vertical connecting rod;

30. a rigidity adjusting unit; 31. a rubber soft sleeve; 32. a spring; 33. a vent interface; 34. a hard coat;

40. and (4) a gas source.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

The invention provides a variable-stiffness spring-based tensioning integral robot, which is shown in figures 1, 3 and 4 and comprises a driving mechanism 10, a mechanical arm 20, a stiffness adjusting unit 30 and an air source 40; the driving mechanism 10 is used for driving the mechanical arm 20 to swing; a rigidity adjusting unit 30 is arranged at each of a plurality of movable joint positions of the mechanical arm 20; the rigidity adjusting unit 30 comprises a rubber soft sleeve 31, a spring 32 and a ventilation interface 33; the rubber soft sleeve 31 is wrapped outside the spring 32, the ventilation interface 33 is communicated with the inside of the rubber soft sleeve 31, the air source 40 is communicated with the ventilation interface 33, the air source 40 is used for inflating the rubber soft sleeve 31 to extrude and adjust the rigidity of the spring 32, and the rigidity change of the rigidity adjusting unit 30 is used for adjusting the movement amplitude change of the movable joint corresponding to the mechanical arm 20.

When the pneumatic robot is applied, the change of the input air quantity of the air source 40 can be used for adjusting the expansion degree of the rubber soft sleeve 31, the larger the expansion degree of the rubber soft sleeve 31 is, the larger the compression degree of the spring 32 is, so that the rigidity of the spring 32 is enhanced, that is, the range of motion of the movable joint corresponding to the robot arm 20 is reduced, similarly, the smaller the expansion degree of the rubber soft sleeve 31 is, the smaller the compression degree of the spring 32 is, so that the rigidity of the spring 32 is reduced, that is, the range of motion of the movable joint corresponding to the robot arm 20 is increased.

Specifically, the air quantity input by the air source 40 is regulated, so that the rigidity of part of the rigidity regulating units 30 can be controlled to be larger, the rigidity of part of the rigidity regulating units 30 can be controlled to be smaller, the rigidity of each movable joint position of the mechanical arm 20 can be controlled to be in different states, and the requirement of the mechanical arm 20 for the combination of rigidity and flexibility is met; at the moment, the rigidity of each movable joint position of the mechanical arm 20 can be automatically regulated, so that more choices are provided for the movable regulation and control modes of the mechanical arm 20, and the use requirements of more application scenes are met.

As shown in fig. 3 and 4, the stiffness adjusting unit 30 further includes a hard outer sleeve 34, and the rubber soft sleeve 31 and the spring 32 are disposed in a space surrounded by the hard outer sleeve 34.

After the hard outer sleeve 34 is arranged, the installation positions of the rubber soft sleeve 31 and the spring 32 are fixed, so that when the rubber soft sleeve 31 is in an inflated state, the movable space of the rubber soft sleeve 31 can be limited, the extrusion force of the rubber soft sleeve 31 on the spring 32 is enhanced, and the requirement of applying stronger pressure on the spring 32 is met.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, it is preferable that the surface of the rubber soft sleeve 31 that presses the spring 32 is provided with a plurality of protruding particles (not shown), and the plurality of particles are distributed on all positions of the surface of the rubber soft sleeve 31, so as to further enhance the pressing effect of the rubber soft sleeve 31 on the spring 32.

As shown in fig. 1, 2, 5, and 6, the robot arm 20 includes a plurality of movable rings 21 and a plurality of telescopic units 22; a plurality of rigidity adjusting units 30 are arranged on the movable ring 21, the rigidity adjusting units 30 are arranged along the circumferential direction of the movable ring 21, and the rigidity adjusting units 30 are all linked with the driving mechanism 10; a plurality of telescopic units 22 are connected between two adjacent movable rings 21, and the plurality of telescopic units 22 are respectively linked with the plurality of rigidity adjusting units 30 of two adjacent movable rings 21; the driving mechanism 10 is used for adjusting the amount of extension and contraction of the spring 32, the extension and contraction of the spring 32 is used for adjusting the extension and contraction of the movable ring 21, and the extension and contraction of the movable ring 21 is used for controlling the extension and contraction of the telescopic unit 22.

For example, when the driving mechanism 10 controls the spring 32 to be in the extended state, the stiffness adjusting unit 30 will drive the movable ring 21 to be in the extended state, and the form change of the movable ring 21 will drive the telescopic unit 22 to be shortened, thereby realizing the shortening control of the robot arm 20.

Similarly, when the driving mechanism 10 controls the spring 32 to be in the contracted state, the stiffness adjusting unit 30 can drive the movable ring 21 to be in the contracted state, and the change of the shape of the movable ring 21 can also drive the telescopic unit 22 to extend, thereby realizing the extension control of the mechanical arm 20.

At this time, only the change of the amount of expansion and contraction of each part of the robot arm 20 needs to be controlled, so that the swing control of the robot arm can be realized, for example, the left side of the robot arm 20 is controlled to be in an extended state, and the right side of the robot arm 20 is controlled to be in a shortened state, so that the right swing driving of the robot arm 20 can be realized.

As shown in fig. 1, 2 and 5, the movable ring 21 includes a transverse connecting rod 211 and a connecting seat 212, the two ends of the transverse connecting rod 211 are connected with the connecting seats 212, and the two ends of the spring 32 are connected with the connecting seats 212, so as to form a ring shape; between any two opposite rigidity adjusting units 30, the telescopic unit 22 is movably connected with the opposite rigidity adjusting unit 30 through the connecting seat 212.

After the arrangement mode is adopted, if the spring 32 is in an extended state, the spring 32 can push the connecting seats 212 on both sides to move outwards, and each transverse connecting rod 211 also moves outwards, so that the expansion of the movable ring 21 is realized; if the spring 32 is in a contracted state, the spring 32 can pull the connecting seats 212 at two sides to move inwards, and each transverse connecting rod 211 also moves inwards, so that the movable ring 21 is folded.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the telescopic unit 22 includes two vertical connecting rods 221, the two vertical connecting rods 221 are disposed in a staggered manner, and two ends of the two vertical connecting rods 221 are rotatably connected to the connecting seats 212 on different sides of the stiffness adjusting unit 30.

With reference to the directions shown in fig. 1, 2 and 6, the two vertical connecting rods 221 are staggered into a cross shape, the upper end of the first vertical connecting rod 221 is rotatably connected with the upper left connecting seat 212, the lower end of the first vertical connecting rod 221 is rotatably connected with the lower right connecting seat 212, the upper end of the second vertical connecting rod 221 is rotatably connected with the upper right connecting seat 212, and the lower end of the second vertical connecting rod 221 is rotatably connected with the lower left connecting seat 212.

Therefore, when the movable ring 21 is in the expanded state, the upper ends of the two vertical connecting rods 221 will be separated from each other, and the lower ends of the two vertical connecting rods 221 will also be separated from each other, thereby shortening the telescopic unit 22; similarly, when the movable ring 21 is in the closed state, the upper ends of the two vertical connecting rods 221 will be close to each other, and the lower ends of the two vertical connecting rods 221 will be close to each other, so as to achieve the extension of the telescopic unit 22.

As shown in fig. 2 and 5, the connecting seat 212 is provided with a through hole 213, and the direction of the through hole 213 is the same as the circumferential direction of the movable ring 21; the driving mechanism 10 is provided with a plurality of pulling ropes 11, the pulling ropes 11 respectively pass through the through holes 213 of the connecting seats 212, the connecting seats 212 arranged oppositely share one pulling rope 11, the driving mechanism 10 is used for regulating and controlling the tightness change of the pulling ropes 11, and the tightness change of the pulling ropes 11 is used for driving the mechanical arm 20 to swing.

For example, after the driving mechanism 10 controls the pull rope 11 to be pulled, each movable ring 21 can be pulled, so that the mechanical arm 20 is shortened, and after the pull rope 11 is loosened, the mechanical arm 20 can be conveniently stretched; therefore, the swing of the robot arm 20 can be achieved by controlling the degree of tightness of each of the ropes 11 to be different.

While the foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.