Line-driven soft snakelike robot and walking control method and system

Abstract

The invention provides a line-driven soft snakelike robot and a walking control method and system.The line-driven soft snakelike robot is applied to the technical field of robotics.The line-driven soft snakelike robot comprises a tail, a control system module, a front part, a head and other main parts, and the tail and the front part are designed through a plurality of bionic muscle modules; the length of the snakelike robot can be conveniently adjusted by adding the muscle modules, and the muscle modules are made of soft materials, so that the snakelike robot is simple in structure, small in size, good in flexibility and more suitable for moving in a complex or narrow space. Besides, the control system module controls the bionic muscles to stretch or contract through the ropes, so that the snake-shaped robot moves, the tail part and the front part are driven in a distributed manner by adopting different ropes, so that various movement gaits can be realized, and the movement gaits and the movement form of the snake-shaped robot are closer to those of a biological snake.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of robotics technology, and in particular to a wire-driven soft snake-like robot and a walking control method. Background Art

[0002] Snakes in nature have hundreds of vertebrae to ensure the flexibility of their movements. Their muscles pull various parts of their body to move and achieve various movements through the friction between their scales and the ground. Snake-like robots imitate the body structure and movement of biological snakes and have continuous multiple joints, which makes them have excellent maneuverability and adaptability in unstructured environments. Snake-like robots can simulate snakes' winding crawling, telescopic movement, straight crawling, side winding and climbing, and effectively pass through narrow passages or irregular terrain. Compared with traditional rigid robots, soft robots are continuum robots made of soft materials, which are small in size and light in weight, and are more suitable for movement in complex or narrow spaces. Existing snake-like robots are driven by air pressure and are often connected to cables or air pipes. When crossing narrow spaces, cables or air pipes are prone to entanglement, and a matching air source is required. At the same time, due to the compression characteristics of gas, it is difficult to achieve smooth and precise control of soft snake-like robots. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a wire-driven soft snake-like robot to address the technical deficiencies of existing soft snake-like robots. The robot can sense environmental information in real time, and the motor drives the wire rope to drive the bionic muscle contraction to realize the movement of the snake-like robot. The distributed drive method can realize a variety of movement gaits. The modular design can be used, and the length of the snake-like robot can be adjusted by adding bionic muscle modules. The front part is mainly responsible for direction control and provides movement pulling force; the rear part provides movement thrust to control the balance and coordination during the movement. A power battery is installed in the drive module, and wireless control can be realized without dragging cables for power supply.

[0004] In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is: The present application provides a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, comprising: a tail, a control system, a front part and a head; wherein the control system module is arranged between the tail and the front part; the tail and / or the front part comprises a plurality of wire-driven bionic muscle modules, each of which comprises a flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones and bionic muscles; wherein adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the bionic muscles for supporting the bionic muscles; each supporting muscle is installed on the corresponding bone; the flexible skin is connected to the supporting muscles, and the connecting discs are connected to the supporting muscles. The supporting muscle is connected to the bionic muscle; both sides of the bionic muscle and the skeleton are provided with through holes for passing and fixing the rope; the control system module includes a first rope, a second rope, a first rope retracting mechanism and a second rope retracting mechanism; the first rope passes through the through hole of the front part, and when the first rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the first rope, the bionic muscle in the front part is controlled to stretch or contract; and the second rope passes through the through hole of the tail part, and when the second rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the second rope, the bionic muscle in the tail part is controlled to stretch or contract.

[0005] Preferably, adjacent bionic muscle modules are connected to each other at the top via the connecting disk and at the bottom via a snap-fit ​​structure.

[0006] Preferably, the front end of the bionic muscle is provided with a slot structure, and the rear end is provided with a clamping plate structure, so as to achieve a snap connection between the slot of the front bionic muscle and the clamping plate of the rear bionic muscle.

[0007] Preferably, the structure of the bionic muscle is an integral bellows-shaped structure; wherein the bone is embedded in the crest or trough of the bellows-shaped structure, so as to limit the bionic muscle by using the bone; And / or, the head includes four universal balls and a housing, wherein the universal balls are mounted at the bottom of the housing to reduce friction during movement through the universal balls.

[0008] Preferably, the head also includes a camera and a mounting seat, the mounting seat is embedded in the interior of the shell, the camera is installed in the mounting seat, a first opening is opened on the shell, and the camera collects image information of the external environment through the first opening; And / or, the head includes a distance sensor and a mounting seat, the mounting seat is embedded in the interior of the shell, the distance sensor is installed in the mounting seat, a second opening is opened on the shell, and the distance sensor collects distance information of objects in the external environment through the second opening; And / or, the head also includes a communication module, and the communication module is used to send image information collected by the camera or distance information collected by the distance sensor to a host computer.

[0009] Preferably, each muscle module includes 5 bones, 5 connecting discs and 5 supporting muscles; and / or, the tail portion includes 3 muscle modules; and / or, the front portion includes 3 muscle modules; And / or, the ends of the flexible skin are spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin 1 of other modules by gluing; and / or, grooves are provided on the bottom and sides of the flexible skin to increase the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground; And / or, the control system module also includes a flexible skin, four universal balls, a control base and a connecting disk; the ends of the flexible skin are respectively spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin at the front and rear; the four universal balls are installed in the mounting holes at the bottom of the control base to reduce the friction of the control system module; the upper part of the control base is respectively connected to the connecting disks at the front and rear through the connecting disks, and the lower part of the control base is respectively connected to the snap-in structures at the front and rear through the snap-in structures.

[0010] Preferably, the first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism and / or the second wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism comprises a stepping motor and a wire wheel, wherein the stepping motor is used to drive the wire wheel to rotate in forward and reverse directions, the rotation of the wire wheel retracts and releases the wire rope, and the retracting and releasing of the wire rope causes the bionic muscle to contract or stretch.

[0011] Preferably, the first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism comprises two first stepper motors and two first wire wheels, and the two first stepper motors and the two first wire wheels correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the front bionic muscle to be retracted and released; wherein the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner; And / or, the second wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism includes two second stepper motors and two second wire wheels, and the two second stepper motors and the two second wire wheels correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the bionic muscles of the tail to be retracted and released; wherein, the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner.

[0012] The present application provides a walking control method for a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, comprising: Determining a walking trajectory of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, wherein the soft snake-like robot is a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications; The relaxation or contraction of the wire rope is controlled according to the walking trajectory, so as to complete the walking action by relaxing or tightening the bionic muscles of the front and / or tail through the wire rope.

[0013] The present application provides a wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system, comprising: a host computer and a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications; Among them, the host computer is used to generate the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot; the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is used to control the relaxation or tightening of the wire rope to complete the walking according to the walking trajectory.

[0014] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has one or more of the following beneficial effects: 1. The present invention adopts a modular design. The length of the snake-like robot can be adjusted by adding bionic muscle modules. The modules are connected by a snap-on structure. The structure is simple, the versatility is strong, and the operation is convenient.

[0015] 2. The bionic muscle module of the present invention is formed by mixing bionic muscles and bones to form a soft snake-like robot body with rigid-flexible coupling characteristics. It has good flexibility and good supporting stiffness, which is more conducive to passing through narrow spaces.

[0016] 3. The present invention adopts a distributed line drive method to arrange the snake-like robot drive. The control system module is located in the middle position. The two stepper motors at the tail of the control module are used to control the movement of the tail of the snake-like robot, provide motion thrust, and control the balance and coordination during the movement; the two stepper motors at the front of the control module are used to control the front movement of the snake-like robot, mainly responsible for direction control, and provide motion pulling force; when the ropes on both sides are tightened or loosened at the same time, the snake-like robot telescopes forward, and when the ropes on one side are tightened and the ropes on the other side are loosened, the snake-like robot moves forward in a winding manner. By controlling the rotation of the motor, a variety of motion gaits can be achieved, the number of motors is small, and the control system is simple.

[0017] 4. The control module of the present invention is powered by a power battery, and the power supply is located in the middle of the control system module. No external cable power supply or external air source is required, which can avoid the entanglement of cables or air pipes in the snake-like robot in a complex environment. The system is more concise and easy to maintain. At the same time, the controller and the host computer use wireless communication, which is convenient for human-computer interaction and more friendly to the operator. Four universal balls are installed at the bottom of the control module to reduce the friction of the control module and improve the flexibility of the robot's movement.

[0018] 5. The head of the present invention is equipped with a camera and an ultrasonic distance sensor, which can perceive external images and distance information in real time, thereby improving the perception ability of the snake-like robot in complex environments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required for use in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0020] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot in this application; Figure 2It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the linear drive bionic muscle module in this application; Figure 3 It is a structural diagram of the control system module in this application; Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the head structure of the line-driven soft snake-like robot in this application; Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a walking control method of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot in the present application; Figure 6 It is a structural schematic diagram of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] The embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0022] The following describes the implementation methods of the present application through specific examples, and those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present application from the contents disclosed in this specification. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. The present application can also be implemented or applied through other different specific implementation methods, and the details in this specification can also be modified or changed in various ways based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the present application. It should be noted that, in the absence of conflict, the following embodiments and the features in the embodiments can be combined with each other. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in the field without making creative work belong to the scope of protection of the present application.

[0023] It should be noted that various aspects of the embodiments within the scope of the appended claims are described below. It should be apparent that the aspects described herein can be embodied in a wide variety of forms, and any specific structure and / or function described herein is merely illustrative. Based on the present application, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that an aspect described herein can be implemented independently of any other aspect, and two or more of these aspects can be combined in various ways. For example, any number and aspect described herein can be used to implement the device and / or practice the method. In addition, other structures and / or functionalities other than one or more of the aspects described herein can be used to implement this device and / or practice this method.

[0024] It should also be noted that the illustrations provided in the following embodiments are only schematic illustrations of the basic concept of the present application. The drawings only show components related to the present application rather than being drawn according to the number, shape and size of components in actual implementation. In actual implementation, the type, quantity and proportion of each component may be changed arbitrarily, and the component layout may also be more complicated.

[0025] Additionally, in the following description, specific details are provided to facilitate a thorough understanding of the examples. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the examples can be practiced without these specific details.

[0026] like Figure 1 As shown, a wire-driven soft snake-like robot is composed of a tail II, a control system III, a front part IV and a head V. The tail II is formed by connecting three bionic muscle modules I and is connected to the control system III. The front part IV is also formed by connecting three bionic muscle modules I and is connected to the control system III and the head V. The upper part of each bionic muscle module I is connected to other modules through a connecting disk 3, and the lower part of the bionic muscle module I is connected to other modules through a snap-on structure.

[0027] like Figure 2 As shown, the bionic muscle module I includes a flexible skin 1, five supporting muscles 2, five connecting discs 3, five bones 4, and bionic muscles 5; the flexible skin 1 is wrapped around the outside of the bionic muscle module I and glued to the five supporting muscles 2 and the bionic muscles 5, and the end of the flexible skin 1 is spliced ​​with the end of the flexible skin 1 of other modules by gluing, and the bottom and sides of the flexible skin 1 have triangular grooves to improve the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground; the five bones 4 are connected in sequence through five connecting discs 3, the five supporting muscles 2 are respectively installed on the five bones 4, and the five bones 4 are embedded in the bionic muscles 5 to improve the rigidity of the bionic muscles 5, and the five bones 4 and the bionic muscles 5 have holes for the ropes 11, and the elongation and contraction of the ropes 11 drive the elongation and contraction of the bionic muscles 5 to realize the movement of the snake-like robot.

[0028] like Figure 3As shown, the control system module III includes a flexible skin 1, four universal balls 6, a control base 7, a connecting disk 3, a power supply 8, a controller 9, four stepper motors 10, four wire wheels 12, four wire ropes 11, and four retaining rings 13; the flexible skin 1 is wrapped around the outside of the control system module III, and the end of the flexible skin 1 is spliced ​​with the end of the flexible skin 1 of the bionic muscle module I by gluing; the four universal balls 6 are installed in the mounting hole at the bottom of the control base 7 to reduce the friction of the control system module III; the upper part of the control base 7 is connected to other bionic muscle modules I through the connecting disk 3, and the lower part is connected to other bionic muscle modules I through a snap-on structure, four stepper motors 10 are installed on the control base 7 by screws, the two stepper motors 10 for controlling the movement of the tail are installed up and down at the tail of the control base 7, and the two stepper motors 10 for controlling the movement of the front are installed up and down at the front of the control base 7; the four wire wheels 12 are installed on the output shafts of the four stepper motors 10, and the four The end of the reel 12 is fixed by four retaining rings 13, and four ropes 11 are installed on the spiral grooves of the four reels 12. One end of the rope 11 is fixed to the reel 12 and passes through the guide hole on the control base 7, and the other end passes through the bionic muscle module I at the tail and front of the snake-like robot from the left and right respectively, and is fixed at the end. The stepper motor 10 drives the reel 12 to drive the rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the telescopic control of the bionic muscle module I, and finally realizing the motion control of the snake-like robot; the power supply 8 is installed in the middle position of the control base 7 to provide power for the snake-like robot control system; the controller 9 is installed on the side of the control base 7 by screws, and the controller 9 communicates with the PC computer through a wireless network or Bluetooth to realize wireless control. The controller 9 is connected to the camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 for processing environmental information. The controller 9 is respectively connected to the four stepper motors 10 to control the rotation of the four stepper motors 10, and the snake-like robot does not need to be connected to an external device with ropes.

[0029] like Figure 4 As shown, the head of the snake-like robot includes four universal balls 6, a camera mounting seat 14, a camera 15, a shell 16, and an ultrasonic distance sensor 17; the four universal balls 6 are installed at the bottom of the shell 16 to reduce the friction of the head, the camera 15 is installed on the camera mounting seat 14, the camera mounting seat 14 is fixed to the bottom of the shell 16 by screws, the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 is installed on the shell 16 by screws, and the camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 are used to collect environmental information and transmit it to the controller 9.

[0030] refer to Figure 5 The working process of the snake robot is as follows: First, the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is determined; then, according to the walking trajectory, the wire is controlled to relax or tighten, so that the bionic muscle stretches by relaxing the wire, or contracts by tightening the wire.

[0031] The snake-like robot is placed in an unstructured environment, the power supply 8 provides control and driving power for the snake-like robot, the camera 15 obtains environmental object information in real time, and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 obtains position information in real time, and both transmit the information to the controller 9, which processes the environmental information obtained by the camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17, generates the trajectory of the snake-like robot's movement, and sends the motor position command to the four stepper motors 10, and the four stepper motors 10 drive the wire wheel 12 to rotate forward and reverse according to the command to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the extension and contraction control of the bionic muscle module I, and finally realizing the movement control of the snake-like robot. During the movement of the snake-like robot, the camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 obtain environmental information in real time, and the movement trajectory of the snake-like robot is continuously adjusted to adapt to the movement in the unstructured environment.

[0032] When the snake-like robot moves forward in a straight line, the two stepper motors 10 that control the movement of the tail II simultaneously drive the wire wheel 12 to rotate forward and reverse to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the extension and retraction control of the bionic muscle module I in the tail II, and realizing the straight movement of the tail II of the snake-like robot. The two stepper motors 10 that control the movement of the front part IV simultaneously drive the wire wheel 12 to rotate forward and reverse to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the extension and retraction control of the bionic muscle module I in the front part IV, and realizing the straight movement of the front part IV of the snake-like robot.

[0033] When the snake-like robot moves forward in a winding manner, the two stepper motors 10 controlling the movement of the tail II drive the wire wheel 12 in a forward and reverse direction to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the bending and extension control of the bionic muscle module I in the tail II, and realizing the winding forward movement of the snake-like robot's tail II. The two stepper motors 10 controlling the movement of the front IV drive the wire wheel 12 in a forward and reverse direction to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the bending and extension control of the bionic muscle module I in the front IV, and realizing the winding forward movement of the front IV of the snake-like robot. The winding forward movement of the tail II of the snake-like robot and the winding forward movement of the front IV cooperate with each other, and finally realize the winding forward movement of the snake-like robot.

[0034] refer to Figure 6 In the diagram, the host computer (such as a computer, also called a computer, etc.) generates a walking trajectory, and then the line-driven soft snake-like robot moves in real time in the environment according to the walking trajectory. The specific moving process can refer to the above example description.

[0035] In addition, during the movement, the host computer can also be used to receive data from the line-driven soft snake-like robot, such as environmental image data captured by the camera 15, obstacle distance data obtained by the distance sensor 17, etc., to achieve real-time linkage between the host computer and the robot.

[0036] In this specification, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for the embodiments described later, the description is relatively simple, and the relevant parts can be referred to the partial description of the previous embodiments.

[0037] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily thought of by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A wire-driven soft snake-like robot, characterized in that: include: A tail, a control system, a front part and a head part; wherein the control system module is arranged between the tail and the front part; the tail and / or the front part include a plurality of wire-driven bionic muscle modules, each of which includes a flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones and bionic muscles; wherein the adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the bionic muscles for supporting the bionic muscles; each of the supporting muscles is installed on the corresponding bones; the flexible skin is connected to the supporting muscles and the bionic muscles; both sides of the bionic muscles and the bones are provided with through holes for passing and fixing the wires; the control system module includes a first wire, a second wire, a first wire retracting and releasing mechanism and a second wire retracting and releasing mechanism; the first wire passes through the through hole of the front part, and when the first wire retracting and releasing mechanism relaxes or contracts the first wire, the bionic muscle in the front part is controlled to stretch or contract; and the second wire passes through the through hole of the tail part, and when the second wire retracting and releasing mechanism relaxes or contracts the second wire, the bionic muscle in the tail is controlled to stretch or contract.

2. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: Adjacent bionic muscle modules are connected to each other at the top via the connecting disk and at the bottom via a buckle structure.

3. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 2, characterized in that: The front end of the bionic muscle is provided with a slot structure, and the rear end is provided with a clamping plate structure, so as to be connected by a clamping connection between the slot of the bionic muscle and the clamping plate of the bionic muscle.

4. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The structure of the bionic muscle is an overall bellows structure; wherein the bone is embedded in the crest or trough of the bellows structure, so as to limit the bionic muscle by using the bone; And / or, the head includes four universal balls and a housing, wherein the universal balls are mounted at the bottom of the housing to reduce friction during movement through the universal balls.

5. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 4, characterized in that: The head also includes a camera and a mounting seat, the mounting seat is embedded in the interior of the shell, the camera is installed in the mounting seat, the shell is provided with a first opening, and the camera collects image information of the external environment through the first opening; And / or, the head includes a distance sensor and a mounting seat, the mounting seat is embedded in the interior of the shell, the distance sensor is installed in the mounting seat, a second opening is opened on the shell, and the distance sensor collects distance information of objects in the external environment through the second opening; And / or, the head also includes a communication module, and the communication module is used to send image information collected by the camera or distance information collected by the distance sensor to a host computer.

6. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: Each muscle module consists of 5 bones, 5 connecting discs and 5 supporting muscles; and / or, the tail portion includes 3 muscle modules; and / or, the front portion includes 3 muscle modules; And / or, the ends of the flexible skin are spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin 1 of other modules by gluing; and / or, grooves are provided on the bottom and sides of the flexible skin to increase the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground; And / or, the control system module also includes a flexible skin, four universal balls, a control base and a connecting disk; the ends of the flexible skin are respectively spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin at the front and rear; the four universal balls are installed in the mounting holes at the bottom of the control base to reduce the friction of the control system module; the upper part of the control base is respectively connected to the connecting disks at the front and rear through the connecting disks, and the lower part of the control base is respectively connected to the snap-in structures at the front and rear through the snap-in structures.

7. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism and / or the second wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism include a stepping motor and a wire wheel, wherein the stepping motor is used to drive the wire wheel to rotate in forward and reverse directions, and the rotation of the wire wheel retracts and releases the wire rope, and the retraction and release of the wire rope causes the bionic muscle to contract or stretch.

8. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 7, characterized in that: The first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism comprises two first stepper motors and two first wire wheels, and the two first stepper motors and the two first wire wheels correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the front bionic muscle to be retracted and released; wherein the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner; And / or, the second wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism includes two second stepper motors and two second wire wheels, and the two second stepper motors and the two second wire wheels correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the bionic muscles of the tail to be retracted and released; wherein, the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner.

9. A walking control method for a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, characterized in that: include: Determining a walking trajectory of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, wherein the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8; The relaxation or contraction of the wire rope is controlled according to the walking trajectory, so as to complete the walking action by relaxing or tightening the bionic muscles of the front and / or tail through the wire rope.

10. A wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system, characterized in that: include: A host computer and a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8; Among them, the host computer is used to generate the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot; the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is used to complete walking according to the walking trajectory.

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