A flexible actuator with a rigid frame

Abstract

The present invention discloses a flexible driver with a rigid skeleton, comprising: n-layer base plates, a plurality of latch structures symmetrical about the axis center of the driver are arranged between the two layers of base plates, the two layers of base plates and the latch structures serve as a layer of rigid skeleton with a radially retractable structure; n-layer base plates constitute n-1 layers of rigid skeleton with a radially retractable structure; a hollow tubular flexible outer skin is arranged outside the rigid skeleton; a sandwich sealing structure is arranged outside the first layer of base plates and the nth layer of base plates. The flexible driver provided by the present invention is easy to manufacture, can be flexibly modified in configuration, disassembled and reassembled, and has good reliability and drive performance.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a flexible driver, in particular to a flexible driver with a rigid frame. Background Art

[0002] Flexible actuators are an emerging application with the characteristics of being soft and continuously deformable. Flexible actuators can adapt to various delicate, complex and changeable working environments. At present, through the improvement and innovation of flexible actuators, they can be used in many fields such as medicine, maintenance, production, and assisted rehabilitation. Traditional flexible actuators are generally made of completely soft materials that can quickly respond to external stimuli such as fluid, electricity, and heat. They are packaged in a one-time manner, and the specifications and quantities of production need to be determined according to actual needs. Therefore, traditional flexible actuators are difficult to withstand excessive pressure, and their configuration cannot be changed again after production is completed. Inspired by this, how to increase the reliability of flexible actuators while ensuring driving performance and realize the function of repeated assembly on demand has become one of the hot issues in research.

[0003] Flexible origami actuators are one of the branches of flexible actuators in design. This type of actuator cleverly combines origami structures to construct the actuator's telescopic mechanism. Currently common origami patterns include Zigzag patterns, kresling patterns, Miura origami patterns, Yoshimura patterns, etc. Among them, the kresling pattern has multi-modal deformation capabilities and is an ideal component of a flexible origami actuator. However, the origami units of the existing kresling pattern will couple torsional motion when performing telescopic motion. Therefore, flexible actuators using kresling patterns generally use an even number of kresling units to be stacked and placed in a symmetrical relationship to achieve radial vertical telescopic motion. Similarly, due to pattern restrictions, the kresling pattern cannot perform curling and telescopic motion without applying external pressure. Therefore, how to ignore the number of kresling patterns to eliminate torsion, and even achieve the curling and telescopic motion of the flexible origami actuator with kresling patterns is also one of the hot issues in the relevant field. Summary of the invention

[0004] In order to increase the reliability of the flexible actuator while ensuring the driving performance and using the Kresling pattern, while eliminating the torsion caused by the pattern and realizing the curling movement, the present invention provides a flexible actuator with a rigid frame that is easy to manufacture, can be flexibly modified in configuration, and can be disassembled and reassembled.

[0005] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve its technical problems is: the present invention provides a flexible driver with a rigid skeleton, including: n layers of base plates, a plurality of latch structures symmetrical about the axis center of the driver are arranged between the two layers of base plates, the two layers of base plates and the latch structures serve as a layer of rigid skeleton with a radially retractable structure; the n layers of base plates constitute n-1 layers of rigid skeleton with a radially retractable structure; a hollow tubular flexible outer skin is arranged outside the rigid skeleton; a clamping sealing structure is arranged outside the first layer of base plates and the nth layer of base plates.

[0006] The beneficial effects of the present invention are mainly manifested in: 1. Introducing rigid materials as the skeleton of the driver increases the reliability of the driver to a certain extent while ensuring flexibility; 2. Each structure is designed to be repeatedly disassembled and assembled, so that the configuration and accessories of the driver can be flexibly modified according to actual needs after production, so as to be quickly applied to different working environments; 3. Compared with the traditional flexible driver with a kresling pattern, the flexible driver only uses a latch structure to imitate the folds of the kresling pattern, thereby truly realizing a torsion-free radial telescopic mechanism and avoiding the misalignment and power loss caused by torsion; 4. Compared with the traditional flexible driver with a kresling pattern, the driver can perform a curling movement and has a greater application prospect; 5. It is easy to manufacture, easy to repair, low in processing cost, and easy to operate. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the present invention;

[0008] Figure 2 It is a schematic structural diagram of one layer of the rigid skeleton of the radially retractable structure of the present invention;

[0009] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the mortise lock of the present invention;

[0010] Figure 4 A diagram showing the sandwich sealing method of the ventilation side sealing cover and the outer layer base plate of the present invention;

[0011] In the figure, 1-flexible outer skin; 2-rigid skeleton; 3-first outer layer base plate; 4-second outer layer base plate; 5-first sealing cover; 6-second sealing cover; 701-first sealing cover latch; 702-second sealing cover latch; 801-i-th layer base plate; 802-i+1-th layer base plate; 9-latching structure; 10-boss cover; 11-locking piece; 12-plug-in; 13-plug-in pad. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] The present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the absence of conflict, the features of the following embodiments and implementations can be combined with each other.

[0013] like Figure 1 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides a flexible driver with a rigid skeleton, comprising n layers of base plates, a plurality of latch structures symmetrical about the axis center of the driver are arranged between each two layers of base plates, the two layers of base plates and the latch structures serve as a layer of rigid skeleton 2 with a radially retractable structure; the n layers of base plates constitute n-1 layers of rigid skeleton 2 with a radially retractable structure; a hollow tubular flexible outer skin 1 is arranged outside the rigid skeleton 2; a clamping sealing structure is arranged outside the first layer of base plates and the nth layer of base plates.

[0014] like Figure 3 As shown, the latch structure 9 is composed of a lock 11, a plug-in 12 and a plug-in spacer 13. A circular through hole is formed on the left side of the lock 11, and a rectangular groove is formed on the right side of the lock 11. A circular through hole is formed on the right end of the plug-in 12, and the left end of the plug-in 12 cooperates with the lock 11 through the rectangular groove formed on the right side of the lock 11. The plug-in spacer 13 is used to adjust the installation position of the plug-in 11, and a circular through hole is formed on the right end of the plug-in spacer 13, and the left end of the plug-in spacer 13 cooperates with the lock 11 through the rectangular groove formed on the right side of the lock 11.

[0015] Among them, a protrusion is provided on the left side of the plug-in 12, and the thickness of the thickest area of ​​the protrusion should not be greater than the width of the right opening of the lock 11, so that the plug-in 12 can be inserted into the lock 11; the sum of the thickness of the thinnest area in the center of the plug-in 12 and the thickness of the thinnest area in the center of the plug-in pad 13 should not be greater than the width of the right opening of the lock 11, so that the plug-in pad 13 can be inserted after the plug-in 12 is inserted; there should be a through opening above the lock 11, so that after the plug-in pad 13 is inserted to pad the plug-in 12, the protrusion on the left side of the plug-in 12 will not hinder the plug-in 12 from moving left and right in the lock 11. When assembling the latch structure 9, the plug-in 12 should be inserted into the lock 11 first, and then the plug-in pad 13 is inserted. Figure 2 and 3 As shown, the circular through holes on the right ends of the plug-in unit 12 and the plug-in unit spacer 13 of each latch structure 9 are connected to the same L-shaped rotating body, so that the plug-in unit 12 and the plug-in unit spacer 13 can move synchronously in the lock 11.

[0016] The number of layers of the rigid skeleton 2 with radially retractable structure in the flexible actuator can be determined according to actual needs, that is, according to the maximum length required for extension and the minimum length required for contraction. The layer base plate is in the shape of a regular polygonal wireframe, for example, a regular triangle wireframe, a square wireframe or a regular pentagonal wireframe. In this example, the layer base plate is in the shape of a regular triangle wireframe, and the rigid skeleton 2 is an example of a three-layer rigid skeleton with radially retractable structure ( Figure 1 ).

[0017] The base plate of the rigid skeleton is in the shape of an equilateral triangle wireframe. The i-th base plate 801, three groups of latch structures 9 and the i+1-th base plate 802 form a rigid skeleton with a radially retractable structure. An L-shaped rotating body is installed at three corners on both sides of the i-th base plate 801 and the i+1-th base plate 802. The L-shaped rotating body installed on the upper side of the i-th base plate 801 (i=2, 3, 4, ..., n-1) is fixed to the lock 11 in the latch structure 9 through a boss cover 10, and the L-shaped rotating body installed on the lower side of the i-th base plate 801 is fixed to the plug-in 12 and the plug-in spacer 13 in the latch structure 9 through a boss cover 10.

[0018] In particular, the first layer of the base plate in the rigid frame 2 is only equipped with an L-shaped rotating body on the lower side, and the nth layer of the base plate is only equipped with an L-shaped rotating body on the upper side. The first layer of the base plate and the nth layer of the base plate are selected as regular triangle solid plates, and a cylinder is arranged on the upper side of the first layer of the base plate, and a cylinder is arranged on the lower side of the nth layer of the base plate.

[0019] Specifically, a cuboid is provided on the end face of one end where the L-shaped rotating body and the latch structure 9 are installed. The cuboid is located at the horizontal center of the end face, and the length of the cuboid is greater than the diameter of the end face of the L-shaped rotating body. Correspondingly, the boss cover 10 adopts a structure in which the inner layer is hollow and one side is open, and the shape of the opening is consistent with the shape of the end face of the L-shaped rotating body. The hollow area of ​​the inner layer is a circular groove, and the diameter of the circular groove is slightly larger than the diameter of the end face of the L-shaped rotating body.

[0020] When using the boss cover 10 to fix the latch structure 9, the opening of the boss cover 10 is aligned with the end face of the L-shaped rotating body through the rectangular parallelepiped, and the boss cover 10 is inserted into the L-shaped rotating body. After it is fully inserted, the boss cover 10 is rotated about 90 degrees to prevent it from falling off. The rectangular parallelepiped set on the end face of the L-shaped rotating body is buckled by the hollow circular area of ​​the inner layer to prevent the boss cover 10 from falling out, thereby fixing the latch structure 9.

[0021] The sandwich sealing structure includes a sealing cover and a sealing cover latch, specifically: Figure 4As shown, the first layer substrate is used as the first outer layer substrate 3 on the ventilation side, and the first outer layer substrate 3 is provided with a cylinder, and a through hole is opened in the radial direction of the cylinder. The first outer layer substrate 3 cooperates with the first sealing cover 5, and the first sealing cover 5 is correspondingly provided with a circular through hole for passing through the cylinder on the first outer layer substrate 3; the first sealing cover latch 701 passes through the through hole opened in the radial direction of the cylinder to perform sandwich sealing. The sandwich sealing structure of the nth layer substrate is the same as the sandwich sealing structure of the first layer substrate, and the nth layer substrate is used as the second outer layer substrate 4 on the non-ventilation side, and the second outer layer substrate 4 is provided with a cylinder, and a through hole is opened in the radial direction of the cylinder. The second outer layer substrate 4 cooperates with the second sealing cover 6, and the second sealing cover 6 is correspondingly provided with a circular through hole for passing through the cylinder provided on the second outer layer substrate 4; the second sealing cover latch 702 passes through the through hole opened in the radial direction of the cylinder to perform sandwich sealing. The first outer layer base plate 3 cooperates with the first sealing cover 5 to clamp the front end opening of the flexible outer skin 1, and the second outer layer base plate 4 cooperates with the second sealing cover 6 to clamp the rear end opening of the flexible outer skin 1, so that the flexible outer skin 1 wraps the rigid frame 2.

[0022] like Figure 4 As shown, the packaging method of the ventilation side of the flexible actuator with a rigid skeleton provided by the present invention is: the opening of the hollow tubular flexible outer skin 1 is clamped between the first outer layer base plate 3 and the first sealing cover 5 on the ventilation side, ensuring that the ventilation holes of the first outer layer base plate 3 on the ventilation side and the sealing cover 5 on the ventilation side are facing each other, and the cylinder on the first outer layer base plate 3 on the ventilation side passes through the circular through hole in the center of the first sealing cover 5 on the ventilation side, and then the first sealing cover latch 7 is inserted to fix the packaging; refer to the above steps, and the packaging method of the non-ventilation side is the same. The first sealing cover 5 also has a through circular opening for ventilation to the outside, and the circular opening is connected to the external air pipe through a flange (the external air pipe is not shown in the figure), and the other end of the external air pipe is connected to the air pump device.

[0023] Furthermore, the shape of the hollow tubular flexible outer skin 1 can be a straight tube or a curved tube, and the flexible outer skin 1 can be made of a film of PVC or PE. The shape of the outer skin determines the shape of the flexible actuator when it is fully extended. Specifically, the hollow tubular flexible outer skin 1 is clamped and encapsulated by the two ends of the actuator, so the shape of the remaining exposed part determines the maximum deformation shape of the flexible actuator with a rigid frame. For example, if the exposed part of the hollow tubular flexible outer skin 1 is an arc-shaped curved tube, the flexible actuator with a rigid frame will be able to curl and retract.

[0024] Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate other embodiments of the present application after considering the description and practicing the contents disclosed herein. The present application is intended to cover any variations, uses or adaptations of the present application, which follow the general principles of the present application and include common knowledge or customary technical means in the art that are not disclosed in the present application. The description and examples are intended to be exemplary only.

[0025] It will be appreciated that the present application is not limited to the exact construction that has been described above and shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof.

Claims

1. A flexible actuator with a rigid frame, characterized in that: include: n layers of base plates, a plurality of latch structures (9) symmetrical about the axis of the driver are arranged between two layers of base plates, and the two layers of base plates and the latch structures serve as a layer of rigid skeleton (2) with a radially retractable structure; n layers of base plates constitute n-1 layers of rigid skeleton (2) with a radially retractable structure; a hollow tubular flexible outer skin (1) is arranged outside the rigid skeleton (2); a sandwich sealing structure is arranged outside the first layer of base plates and the nth layer of base plates; The latching structure (9) is composed of a locking element (11), a plug-in element (12) and a plug-in element spacer (13); the plug-in element (12) and the plug-in element spacer (13) are installed in the hollow locking element (11) and can move in the locking element (11) to perform synchronous telescopic movement; the thickness of the thickest part of the insertion portion of the plug-in element (12) is less than the thickness of the opening portion of the locking element (11), and the sum of the thickness of the insertion portion of the plug-in element spacer (13) and the thickness of the thickest part of the right end of the plug-in element (12) is greater than the thickness of the opening portion of the locking element (11); An L-shaped rotating body is installed at three corners on both upper and lower sides of the i-th layer base plate (801) and the i+1-th layer base plate (802); the L-shaped rotating body is installed only on the lower side of the i-th layer base plate, and the L-shaped rotating body is installed only on the upper side of the n-th layer base plate; the L-shaped rotating body installed on the upper side of the i-th layer base plate (801) is fixed to the lock element (11) in the latch structure (9) via a boss cover (10); the L-shaped rotating body installed on the lower side of the i-th layer base plate (801) is fixed to the plug-in element (12) and the plug-in element spacer (13) in the latch structure (9) via a boss cover (10); A rectangular parallelepiped is provided on the end surface of one end of the L-shaped rotating body where the latch structure (9) is installed. The rectangular parallelepiped is located at the horizontal center of the end surface, and the length of the rectangular parallelepiped is greater than the diameter of the end surface of the L-shaped rotating body. Correspondingly, the boss cover (10) adopts a structure with a hollow inner layer and an open one side, the shape of the opening is consistent with the shape of the end surface of the L-shaped rotating body, and the hollow area of ​​the inner layer is a circular groove, the diameter of the circular groove is slightly greater than the diameter of the end surface of the L-shaped rotating body.

2. The flexible actuator with a rigid frame according to claim 1, characterized in that: The i-th layer base plate is in the shape of a regular polygonal wireframe, where i=2, 3, 4, ..., n-1; the 1st layer base plate and the nth layer base plate are in the shape of a regular polygonal solid plate.

3. The flexible actuator with a rigid frame according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first layer base plate serves as the first outer layer base plate (3) on the ventilation side. The first outer layer base plate (3) is provided with a cylinder, and a through hole is opened in the radial direction of the cylinder; the first outer layer base plate (3) cooperates with the first sealing cover (5), and the first sealing cover (5) is correspondingly provided with a circular through hole for passing through the cylinder on the first outer layer base plate (3); the first sealing cover latch (701) passes through the through hole opened in the radial direction of the cylinder to perform clamping sealing; the clamping sealing structure of the nth layer base plate is the same as the clamping sealing structure of the first layer base plate.

4. The flexible actuator with a rigid frame according to claim 1, characterized in that: The hollow tube-shaped flexible outer skin (1) is in the shape of a straight tube or a curved tube; the flexible outer skin (1) is made of a film made of PVC or PE material.

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