Throat swab soft holder

Abstract

The soft clamp for a throat swab of the present invention relates to the technical field of medical device production, and in particular to a soft clamp for clamping various swabs. The soft clamping motion mechanism of the present invention is inserted into the inner hole of a rigid connector and connected by bonding; the rigid connector is connected to the electromagnet device through a thread; the electrical pipeline is connected to the external control device, and its circuit pipeline portion is connected to the electromagnet device, and the air pipeline portion passes through the electromagnet device and the rigid connector and is connected to the soft clamping motion mechanism; the throat swab is inserted into the soft clamping motion mechanism and contacts the pressure sensor; under the control of the external control device, the electrical pipeline drives the soft clamping motion mechanism to perform a twisting motion under the action of negative pressure to clamp the throat swab. The technical solution of the present invention solves the problems in the prior art of various clamps for clamping swabs, which cannot achieve accurate sensing monitoring and control, lack safety protection devices, and are not accurately controlled, which can easily cause human injuries.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention discloses a soft throat swab holder, which relates to the technical field of medical device production, and in particular to a soft throat swab holder for holding various swabs. Background Art

[0002] As the end effector, the soft gripper has the characteristics of high flexibility, high adaptability, high safety, and high degree of freedom, and is most widely used in the field of soft robotics.

[0003] Currently, most soft grippers use a single bending method to clamp and grasp objects, which is incapable of precise sensing and control. Examples include Patent 202010934730.4 and Patent 202022609161.4. Besides bending, the most important movement method for soft grippers is torsion. Yan Jihong et al. developed a spiral torsion soft robot module (Patent 201610792656.0), while Wang Yong et al. studied an integrated torsion robot module (Patent 202023030782.3). Both patents utilize helical structures to construct soft robots. These structures only enable torsional motion and are incapable of gripping and safely sampling throat swabs. Wu Zhigang and others studied a soft operating head and a rigid base for nucleic acid testing and sampling (patent 202010244081.5). The soft operating head and the rigid base use magnetic adsorption. The nucleic acid sampling soft robot realizes the combination of a flexible clamp and a rigid robotic arm, but lacks a safety protection device. Once the motion control of the rigid arm is not accurate enough, it will cause harm to the human body.

[0004] In view of the problems existing in the above-mentioned prior art, it is very necessary to research and design a new type of throat swab soft clamp to overcome the problems existing in the prior art. Summary of the Invention

[0005] According to the various clamps proposed in the above-mentioned prior art for clamping swabs, there are technical problems such as the inability to achieve accurate sensing monitoring and control, lack of safety protection devices, inaccurate control, and easy to cause human harm, and a soft clamp for throat swabs is provided. The present invention mainly adopts a torsion structure for design, and through the torsional movement of the main body, the scraping action of the throat swab in the oral cavity is accurately achieved; the scraping movement range can be adjusted by adjusting the installation radius of the throat swab. By combining the torsion structure with a pressure sensor, a magnetorheological fluid chamber and an electromagnetic coil structure, the problem of insufficient protection of the working object by the existing clamp is solved, and safe sampling is achieved.

[0006] The technical means adopted in the present invention are as follows:

[0007] A soft throat swab holder comprises: a soft clamping motion mechanism, a rigid connector, an electromagnet device, electrical pipelines and an external control device;

[0008] Furthermore, the soft clamping motion mechanism is inserted into the inner hole of the rigid connector and connected by bonding;

[0009] Further, the rigid connector is connected to the electromagnet device via threads;

[0010] Furthermore, the electrical pipeline is connected to the external control device, the circuit pipeline portion thereof is connected to the electromagnet device, and the gas pipeline portion passes through the electromagnet device and the rigid connector and is connected to the soft clamping motion mechanism;

[0011] Furthermore, the throat swab is inserted into the soft clamping motion mechanism, and the electrical pipeline, under the control of the external control device, drives the soft clamping motion mechanism to perform a twisting motion under the action of negative pressure to clamp the throat swab.

[0012] Furthermore, the soft clamping motion mechanism includes: a restriction layer, a torsion layer, and a safety device layer;

[0013] The restriction layer is a sheet-like structure made of a non-deformable material with a certain hardness, and is provided with a throat swab insertion hole;

[0014] Furthermore, the torsion layer is a columnar structure formed by a one-time casting of silicone and is connected to the restriction layer by a silicone fixation method;

[0015] Furthermore, the safety device layer is a columnar structure formed by one-time casting of silicone, and is connected to the torsion layer by means of silicone fixing.

[0016] Furthermore, the torsion layer, the restriction layer and the safety device layer are cast in layers. The torsion layer is cast first, and the restriction layer is placed before solidification to firmly connect the torsion layer and the restriction layer together; the safety device layer is cast, and the solidified torsion layer is placed on top of the solidified torsion layer before solidification to solidify the two layers together.

[0017] Furthermore, the twisting layer includes: a throat swab clamping cavity, an air pressure cavity and a vent;

[0018] Furthermore, the throat swab clamping cavity is a through hole, which passes through the entire torsion layer along the axial direction;

[0019] Furthermore, the throat swab clamping cavity and the throat swab insertion hole are arranged opposite to each other;

[0020] Furthermore, there are a plurality of air pressure chambers, which are evenly distributed around the central axis of the torsion layer;

[0021] Furthermore, the number of the vent holes is the same as the number of the air pressure chambers, and one end of each vent hole is opened at the bottom end of the torsion layer, and the other end is connected to the air pressure chambers one by one.

[0022] Furthermore, the safety device layer includes: a vent hole, and a safety device;

[0023] Furthermore, the vent holes are through holes, and their positions and number are arranged relative to the positions and number of the vent holes on the torsion layer;

[0024] Furthermore, the safety device includes: a pressure sensor, a magnetorheological fluid and a silicone shell; the silicone shell is fixedly embedded in the mounting groove of the safety device layer; the magnetorheological fluid fills the entire cavity of the silicone shell; the pressure sensor is installed on the upper part of the silicone shell;

[0025] Furthermore, the pharyngeal swab is inserted into the pharyngeal swab insertion hole and the pharyngeal swab clamping cavity to contact the pressure sensor.

[0026] Furthermore, the rigid connector serves as a connecting structure for the soft clamping motion mechanism and the electromagnet device, and is provided with: an air hole, an air hole channel and an integrator;

[0027] Furthermore, air holes are provided on the assembly surface of the rigid connector and the soft clamping motion mechanism, and their positions and number correspond to the positions and number of the air holes on the soft clamping motion mechanism;

[0028] Furthermore, the integrator is provided at one end of the assembly surface of the rigid connector and the electromagnet device;

[0029] Furthermore, each pore is connected to the integrator through a pore channel.

[0030] Furthermore, the electromagnet device comprises: a housing, an iron core, a coil and an air pipe channel;

[0031] Furthermore, the outer shell is a cylindrical thin-walled tube made of insulating hard material;

[0032] Furthermore, the coil is a copper enameled wire, which is tightly wound around the iron core to form an electromagnet component; a plurality of electromagnet components surround the interior of the housing;

[0033] Furthermore, the tracheal channel is arranged inside the shell and passes through the entire electromagnet device, one end of the tracheal channel is arranged opposite to the position of the integrator, and the other end passes through the bottom of the pipeline electromagnet device.

[0034] Furthermore, the electrical pipeline includes a circuit pipeline and a gas pipeline;

[0035] Furthermore, one end of the circuit pipeline is connected to the electromagnet component, and the other end passes through the through passage and is connected to the external control device;

[0036] Furthermore, one end of the air pipeline passes through the tracheal channel, the integrator, the air hole channel, the air hole, the vent hole and communicates with the air pressure chamber, and the other end is connected to the external control device.

[0037] Furthermore, the cross-sectional shape of the air pressure chamber is a polygon, including but not limited to a right triangle, an equilateral triangle, and an isosceles triangle;

[0038] Furthermore, the depth of the air pressure cavity is 95% of the height of the torsion layer;

[0039] Furthermore, the center of the electromagnet device is a larger electromagnet component, and multiple smaller electromagnet components are arranged around the outside, including but not limited to being arranged in a circular form with the larger electromagnet component as the center.

[0040] The use process of the present invention is:

[0041] The pharyngeal swab is inserted into the pharyngeal swab clamp of the soft clamping motion mechanism through the pharyngeal swab socket until it contacts the pressure sensor. The insertion stops, and negative pressure is applied to the air pressure chamber of the clamping motion mechanism through the tracheal channel. The clamping motion mechanism produces torsional deformation while clamping the pharyngeal swab, causing the end of the pharyngeal swab to undergo arc-shaped displacement for sampling. When the sampling process exceeds the human body's tolerance limit, the pressure sensor will detect the pressure signal and transmit it to the external control system. After receiving the electrical signal from the pressure sensor, the external control system reduces the current of the coil in the electromagnetic device, thereby reducing the magnetic field strength, and then reducing the stiffness of the magnetorheological fluid in the safety protection device, that is, the supporting force of the pharyngeal swab is reduced, and the pharyngeal swab retreats back to the human oral cavity, thereby achieving the purpose of protecting the test object.

[0042] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages:

[0043] 1. The throat swab soft holder provided by the present invention is designed by combining a torsion structure with a safety device, which can further improve the protection of the subject;

[0044] 2. The throat swab soft clamp provided by the present invention adopts a structure that clamps the detection device when twisting, eliminating redundant clamping structures, further reducing structural complexity, and lowering manufacturing difficulty;

[0045] 3. The throat swab soft holder provided by the present invention has a torsion structure that uses a polygonal air cavity, which can increase the torsion angle of the torsion structure and expand its working range;

[0046] 4. The soft throat swab holder provided by the present invention can use negative pressure to twist the structure, avoiding the disadvantage of the traditional positive pressure application that causes the entire structure to expand radially and thus affects the operation of the holder;

[0047] 5. The throat swab soft clamp provided by the present invention has a safety protection device that combines magnetorheological fluid variable stiffness with a pressure sensor, which has a more agile response and increases the protection of the object.

[0048] In summary, the technical solution of the present invention solves the problems in the prior art of various clamps for clamping swabs, which cannot achieve accurate sensing monitoring and control, lack safety protection devices, and are not accurately controlled, which can easily cause human injuries. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative labor.

[0050] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the present invention;

[0051] Figure 2 This is a disassembled diagram of the soft clamping motion mechanism of the present invention;

[0052] Figure 3 is a top view of the restriction layer of the present invention;

[0053] Figure 4 is a top view of the twisted layer of the present invention;

[0054] Figure 5 A bottom view of the twisted layer of the present invention;

[0055] Figure 6 For the present invention Figure 4 Ⅰ-Ⅰ view;

[0056] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the air pressure chamber structure of the present invention;

[0057] Figure 8 A top view of the safety device of the present invention;

[0058] Figure 9 A bottom view of the safety device of the present invention;

[0059] Figure 10 For the present invention Figure 8 II-II view;

[0060] Figure 11 is a top view of the rigid connector of the present invention;

[0061] Figure 12 is a bottom view of the rigid connector of the present invention;

[0062] Figure 13 A top view of the electromagnet device of the present invention;

[0063] Figure 14A bottom view of the electromagnet device of the present invention;

[0064] Figure 15 For the present invention Figure 13 III-III view.

[0065] In the picture:

[0066] 1. Throat swab;

[0067] 2. Soft clamping motion mechanism 21, restriction layer 211, throat swab jack 22, torsion layer 221, air pressure chamber 222, throat swab clamping chamber 223, vent 23, safety device layer 231, safety device 2311, pressure sensor 2312, magnetorheological fluid 2313, silicone shell;

[0068] 3. Rigid connector 31, air hole 32, air hole channel 33, integrator;

[0069] 4. Electromagnet device 41, housing 42, iron core 43, coil 44, and air pipe channel;

[0070] 5. Electrical pipelines. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0071] It should be noted that, in the absence of conflict, the embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present invention can be combined with each other. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and in combination with the embodiments.

[0072] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is actually only illustrative and is in no way intended to limit the present invention and its application or use. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0073] It should be noted that the terms used herein are only for describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments according to the present invention. As used herein, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the singular form is intended to include the plural form. In addition, it should be understood that when the terms "comprise" and / or "include" are used in this specification, they indicate the presence of features, steps, operations, devices, components and / or combinations thereof.

[0074] Unless otherwise specifically stated, the relative arrangement of the parts and steps, numerical expressions and numerical values ​​set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention. At the same time, it should be clear that, for ease of description, the sizes of the various parts shown in the drawings are not drawn according to the actual proportional relationship. The technology, methods and equipment known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but in appropriate cases, the technology, methods and equipment should be considered as part of the authorization specification. In all examples shown and discussed here, any specific value should be interpreted as being merely exemplary and not as a limitation. Therefore, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may have different values. It should be noted that similar numbers and letters represent similar items in the following figures, and therefore, once an item is defined in one figure, it does not need to be further discussed in subsequent figures.

[0075] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the directions or positional relationships indicated by directional words such as "front, back, up, down, left, right", "horizontal, vertical, vertical, horizontal" and "top, bottom" are usually based on the directions or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description. Unless otherwise specified, these directional words do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific direction or be constructed and operated in a specific direction. Therefore, they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention: the directional words "inside and outside" refer to the inside and outside relative to the outline of each component itself.

[0076] For ease of description, spatially relative terms such as "above," "above," "on the upper surface of," and "above" may be used herein to describe the spatial positional relationship of a device or feature to other devices or features as shown in the figures. It should be understood that spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is inverted, a device described as "above" or "on top of" another device or structure would then be positioned as "below" or "below" the other device or structure. Thus, the exemplary term "above" may include both the orientations of "above" and "below." The device may also be positioned in other different ways (rotated 90 degrees or in other orientations), and the spatially relative descriptions used herein should be interpreted accordingly.

[0077] In addition, it should be noted that the use of terms such as "first" and "second" to limit components is only for the convenience of distinguishing the corresponding components. Unless otherwise stated, the above terms have no special meaning and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0078] like Figure 1 、4 -6, the present invention provides a soft throat swab clamp, comprising: a throat swab 1, a soft clamping motion mechanism 2, a rigid connector 3, an electromagnet device 4, an electrical pipeline 5 and a control device. The throat swab 1 is inserted into the clamping motion mechanism 2 and is tightly connected to the pressure sensor 2311 therein. The rigid connector 3 is connected to the clamping motion mechanism 2 and the electromagnet device 4 by tracheal adhesion. The clamping motion mechanism 2 contains a plurality of polygonal air pressure chambers 221. By applying negative pressure to the air pressure chambers 221, the entire clamping motion mechanism 2 and the throat swab 1 are driven to perform a twisting motion.

[0079] like Figure 2 As shown, the clamping motion mechanism 2 includes a restriction layer 21. When negative pressure is applied to the air pressure chamber 221, the restriction layer 21 can prevent the front end surface of the clamping motion mechanism 2 from being deformed too much, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the movement of the detection device.

[0080] like Figure 1-10 As shown, the throat swab 1 is connected to the pressure sensor 2311 of the safety device layer 23 through the throat swab clamping cavity 222 in the clamping movement mechanism 2. When negative pressure is applied to the air pressure cavity 221, the deformation of the air pressure cavity 221 will clamp the throat swab 1, so that it will not fall off during use; in addition, when the throat swab 1 is subjected to a large axial external force, the external force will be transmitted to the pressure sensor 2311, and then the electrical signal will be transmitted to the external control system;

[0081] like Figure 1 、 8 -10 Safety device layer 23 mainly includes: magnetorheological fluid 2312 and pressure sensor 2311. When the pressure sensor 2311 transmits an electrical signal to the external control system, the control system will change the magnitude of the magnetic field generated by it by controlling the current of the electromagnet 4, thereby controlling the stiffness of the magnetorheological fluid 2312. The reduced stiffness of the magnetorheological fluid 2312 will reduce the supporting force of the throat swab 1, causing the throat swab 1 to retreat towards the silicone shell 2313, and at the same time, the entire clamp is retracted in time to avoid damage to the test subject;

[0082] like Figure 1 、 7 As shown in Figures 9 and 11-14, the rigid connector 3 is connected to the electromagnet device 4 and is connected to the air pump of the external control device through the air pipe channel 44 therein; the rigid connector 3 is connected to the clamping movement mechanism 2 in a one-to-one correspondence between the air holes 31 and the vent holes 223 in the safety device layer 23; an integrator 33 is included inside the rigid connector 3 to integrate the five air pipe channels of the safety device layer with the air pipe channel 44 in the electromagnet;

[0083] like Figure 13-15As shown, electromagnet device 4 comprises a coil 43, an iron core 42, and an insulating housing 41. When the external control system receives an electrical signal from pressure sensor 2311, it changes the current in coil 43, thereby altering the magnitude of the magnetic field generated by coil 43 and iron core 42. This in turn changes the stiffness of magnetorheological fluid 2312, providing protection.

[0084] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the above embodiments, or replace some or all of the technical features therein with equivalents. However, these modifications or replacements do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A soft throat swab holder, characterized by: The pharyngeal swab soft clamp comprises: a soft clamping motion mechanism (2), a rigid connector (3), an electromagnet device (4), an electrical pipeline (5) and an external control device; The soft clamping motion mechanism (2) is inserted into the inner hole of the rigid connector (3) and connected by bonding; the soft clamping motion mechanism (2) includes: a restriction layer (21), a torsion layer (22), and a safety device layer (23); the restriction layer (21) is a sheet structure made of a non-deformable material with a certain hardness, and a throat swab insertion hole (211) is provided on it; the torsion layer (22) is a columnar structure formed by one-time casting of silicone, and is connected to the restriction layer (21) by a silicone solid connection method; the safety device layer (23) is a columnar structure formed by one-time casting of silicone, and is connected to the torsion layer (22) by a silicone solid connection method; the safety device layer (23) includes: a vent (223), and Safety device (231); the vent holes (223) are through holes, and the positions and number of the vent holes (223) are arranged relative to the positions and number of the vent holes (223) on the torsion layer (22); the safety device (231) comprises: a pressure sensor (2311), a magnetorheological fluid (2312) and a silicone shell (2313); the silicone shell (2313) is fixedly embedded in the mounting groove of the safety device layer (23); the magnetorheological fluid (2312) fills the entire cavity of the silicone shell (2313); the pressure sensor (2311) is installed on the upper part of the silicone shell (2313); the pharyngeal swab (1) is inserted into the pharyngeal swab insertion hole (211) and the pharyngeal swab clamping cavity (222) to contact the pressure sensor (2311); The rigid connector (3) is connected to the electromagnet device (4) via threads; The electrical pipeline (5) is connected to the external control device, the circuit pipeline portion is connected to the electromagnet device (4), and the gas pipeline portion passes through the electromagnet device (4) and the rigid connector (3) and is connected to the soft clamping motion mechanism (2); The pharyngeal swab (1) is inserted into the soft clamping motion mechanism (2), and the electrical pipeline (5) drives the soft clamping motion mechanism (2) to perform a twisting motion under the action of negative pressure under the control of an external control device, thereby clamping the pharyngeal swab.

2. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The twisting layer (22) comprises: an air pressure cavity (221), a throat swab clamping cavity (222), and a vent (223); The pharyngeal swab clamping cavity (222) is a through hole that passes through the entire torsional layer (22) along the axial direction; The pharyngeal swab clamping cavity (222) is arranged opposite to the pharyngeal swab insertion hole (211); There are multiple air pressure chambers (221) evenly distributed around the central axis of the torsional layer (22); The number of the vent holes (223) is the same as the number of the air pressure chambers (221), and one end of each vent hole (223) is opened at the bottom end of the torsion layer (22), and the other end is respectively connected to the air pressure chambers (221).

3. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The rigid connector (3) serves as a connecting structure for the soft clamping motion mechanism (2) and the electromagnet device (4), and is provided with: an air hole (31), an air hole channel (32) and an integrator (33); The air holes (31) are arranged on the assembly surface of the rigid connector (3) and the soft clamping motion mechanism (2), and their positions and number correspond to the positions and number of the air holes (223) on the soft clamping motion mechanism (2); The integrator (33) is arranged at one end of the assembly surface of the rigid connector (3) and the electromagnet device (4); Each pore (31) is connected to the integrator (33) via a pore channel (32).

4. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electromagnet device (4) comprises: a housing (41), an iron core (42), a coil (43) and an airway passage (44); The housing (41) is a cylindrical thin-walled tube made of insulating hard material; The coil (43) is a copper enameled wire, which is tightly wound around the iron core (42) to form an electromagnet component; a plurality of electromagnet components are surrounded inside the housing (41); The tracheal passage (44) is arranged inside the housing (41) and passes through the entire electromagnet device (4), one end of which is arranged opposite to the position of the integrator (33) and the other end of which passes through the bottom of the pipeline electromagnet device (4).

5. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electrical pipeline (5) includes a circuit pipeline and a gas pipeline; One end of the circuit pipeline is connected to the electromagnet component, and the other end passes through the through-channel and is connected to the external control device; One end of the air pipeline passes through the tracheal channel (44), the integrator (33), the air hole channel (32), the air hole (31), the vent hole (223) and communicates with the air pressure chamber (221), and the other end is connected to the external control device.

6. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 2, characterized in that: The cross-sectional shape of the air pressure chamber (221) is a polygon, including but not limited to a right triangle, an equilateral triangle, and an isosceles triangle; The depth of the air pressure cavity (221) is 95% of the height of the torsion layer (22).

7. The soft throat swab holder according to claim 4, characterized in that: The center of the electromagnet device (4) is a larger electromagnet component, and a plurality of smaller electromagnet components are arranged around the outside, including but not limited to being arranged in a circular form with the larger electromagnet component as the center.

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