A flexible gripper device and control method

Abstract

The present invention provides a flexible gripper device and a control method, wherein the flexible gripper device comprises a gripper base; a gripper assembly arranged in pairs, the gripper assembly comprising at least two side clamping units hinged end to end in sequence, each side clamping unit is respectively provided with a side driver for driving the corresponding side clamping unit to adaptively hold and grasp an object from the side; one end of the side clamping unit located at the head is hinged to the gripper base, the telescopic end of the corresponding side driver is hinged to the side clamping unit, and the end away from the telescopic end is hinged to the gripper base; an auxiliary gripper unit is correspondingly provided with an auxiliary driver, the telescopic end of the auxiliary driver is connected to the middle of the auxiliary gripper unit, and the end away from the telescopic end is connected to the middle of the gripper base, and is used to adaptively hold and grasp an object from the top; the present invention can adaptively clamp street lamp poles, electric poles, circular engineering cement piles, etc. with different diameters / taper specifications, and is not easy to damage the grasped object.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of electric power construction equipment, and in particular to a flexible gripper device and a control method for grasping and carrying objects with different diameters / taper specifications, such as street lamp poles, electric poles, and engineering cement piles. Background Art

[0002] During the construction of street light poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles, etc., professional equipment is often needed to improve construction efficiency. However, since the objects to be grasped have different diameters and tapers, there is rarely a gripper device in the prior art that can be used for objects of all diameters / tapers.

[0003] Traditionally, a Chinese patent with patent number ZL2022107857477 discloses a special device for installing power grid poles, including a grabbing mechanism, wherein the grabbing mechanism includes a connector, a rotating component, a balancing seat, a balancer and an automatic clamping claw; since the power grid poles have different diameter specifications and tapers, in order to improve the utilization rate of the equipment, the grabbing mechanism is provided with a Y-shaped mouthpiece with an opening facing downward, and the opening of the Y-shaped mouthpiece contacts the cylindrical surface of the pole to provide support force; however, the grabbing mechanism still has the following hidden dangers during use:

[0004] 1. The telescopic adjustment of the Y-shaped mouthpiece adopts the form of a pin. The construction personnel need to adjust the position of the pin according to the size of the cement pole to be assembled at that time to ensure that the pole can be clamped during the construction process. Otherwise, it is easy to cause accidents such as failure to clamp tightly and the pole slipping and injuring people.

[0005] 2. During the pole clamping process, the forces exerted on the pole by the Y-shaped mouthpiece and the automatic clamping claws are not in the same plane, and the shear force generated can easily cause the cement pole to break.

[0006] Another Chinese patent application with application number 2023118689003 discloses a method for installing cement poles for power construction, which involves a lateral gripping mechanism, which includes a mounting seat, a rotating seat, a clamping jaw, a driving member, etc., wherein the clamping jaw includes a fixed clamping jaw, a relatively fixed clamping jaw, and a hydraulic cylinder for driving the clamping jaw to open and close; the following problems also exist in the construction process of the clamping jaw:

[0007] 1. During the clamping process, the fixed jaws and the relatively fixed jaws exert forces on the poles in different planes, which may easily damage the poles.

[0008] 2. Due to the taper of the pole, the upper and lower sides of the fixed clamp are unevenly stressed, which can easily lead to the phenomenon of clamping deviation or loose clamping;

[0009] 3. In order to ensure that the upper and lower sides of the fixed jaws are subjected to force as evenly as possible, the upper and lower structures of the fixed jaws should be as close as possible. This results in the relatively thin thickness of the fixed jaws, which is prone to deformation during the clamping process, and the force applied to the pole is too concentrated, which can easily damage the pole; this results in the clamping structure being able to only be used for clamping small-sized and light-weight cement poles.

[0010] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a flexible gripper device and control method that can adaptively clamp objects such as street light poles, electric poles, and engineering cement piles with different diameters / taper specifications, especially suitable for clamping cement electric poles, and has uniform force and is not easy to damage the grasped objects. Summary of the invention

[0011] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a flexible gripper device and a control method, aiming to solve the technical problems that the traditional gripper mechanism cannot adaptively grasp objects such as street lamp poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles with different diameters / taper specifications or the force is uneven during grasping, which is easy to damage the grasped objects.

[0012] To achieve the above objectives, in a first aspect, the present invention provides a flexible gripper device, comprising:

[0013] The gripper base is used to connect with the execution end of the equipment;

[0014] A gripper assembly arranged in pairs, the gripper assembly comprising at least a first side gripper unit and a second side gripper unit hinged end to end in sequence, each side gripper unit being respectively provided with a side driver for driving the corresponding side gripper unit to adaptively grip and grasp an object from the side;

[0015] One end of the first side clamping unit is hinged to the gripper base, and the corresponding telescopic end of the first side driver is hinged to the first side clamping unit, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver is hinged to the gripper base; the telescopic end of the second side driver is hinged to the second side clamping unit, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver is hinged to the first side clamping unit;

[0016] The auxiliary clamping unit is correspondingly provided with an auxiliary driver, the telescopic end of the auxiliary driver is connected to the middle of the auxiliary clamping unit, and the end away from the telescopic end is connected to the middle of the gripper base, and is used to adaptively hold and grasp objects from the top.

[0017] As a further improvement of the above solution, a force sensor is provided on the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center, for detecting the pressure exerted on the auxiliary driver.

[0018] As a further improvement of the above solution, the flexible gripper device also includes a processor and a controller electrically connected to the processor, the side driver and the auxiliary driver are both electrically connected to the controller; and the force sensor is electrically connected to the processor.

[0019] As a further improvement of the above solution, elastic anti-slip pads are provided on the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center.

[0020] As a further improvement of the above solution, the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center are both arc-shaped surfaces that are convenient for holding the grasped object.

[0021] As a further improvement of the above solution, the side clamping unit includes a clamping body and an articulated seat arranged on the clamping body, and the articulated seat is arranged on a surface away from the clamping center for connecting to a corresponding side driver.

[0022] As a further improvement of the above solution, the side drive is a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or an electric cylinder.

[0023] As a further improvement of the above solution, the auxiliary drive is a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or an electric cylinder.

[0024] In a second aspect, the present invention further provides a control method for a flexible gripper device as provided in the first aspect, the steps comprising:

[0025] S1: Bring the two gripper assemblies in an open posture close to the periphery of the grasped object, first control the first side driver to extend to its first preset stroke, drive the first side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a first preset clamping state;

[0026] S2: Control the second side driver to extend to its first preset stroke, drive the second side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and further drive the first side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a second preset clamping state;

[0027] S3: Simultaneously controlling all side drivers to further extend, driving the corresponding side clamping units to further converge and clamp from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a third preset clamping state;

[0028] S4: Drive the auxiliary driver to extend, driving the auxiliary clamping unit to converge from the top toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in the fourth preset clamping state; until the force sensor detects that the pressure on the auxiliary driver reaches the preset threshold, it is determined that the clamping state is reached; if the preset threshold is not reached, adjust the extension of the side driver and / or the auxiliary driver until the preset threshold is reached.

[0029] As a further improvement of the above scheme, during the processes of step S1, step S2 and step S3, the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure applied to the auxiliary drive reaches the preset threshold value. If the preset threshold value is not reached, it is determined that the flexible gripper device has not grasped the object and automatically enters the next preset clamping state.

[0030] As a further improvement of the above scheme, between step S2 and step S3, if the gripper assembly includes three or more side clamping units, the side drivers corresponding to the remaining side clamping units are sequentially controlled to extend to their first preset strokes until all the side drivers have completed the extension to their first preset strokes;

[0031] In this process, the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure on the auxiliary driver reaches the preset threshold. If it does not reach the preset threshold, it is determined that the flexible gripper device fails to grasp the object and automatically controls the next-level side driver to extend.

[0032] As a further improvement of the above scheme, step S0 is also included before step S1, in which, before the flexible gripper device grips the grasped object, all side drivers and auxiliary drivers are detected and controlled to be in a retracted state so that the gripper assembly is in an open posture.

[0033] Since the present invention adopts the above technical solution, the beneficial effects of this application are:

[0034] The present invention provides a flexible gripper device, in which the gripper assembly is provided with at least two segmented side gripper units and the cooperation of the auxiliary gripper unit, thereby increasing the degree of freedom of the gripper device in the gripping process and the contact area with the gripper object, and can better adapt to the gripping and handling of gripper objects of different diameters and models; at the same time, the segmented gripper unit has more force points when gripping the gripper object, and the force distribution is more uniform and the force is more balanced, and no shear force is generated to damage the gripper object;

[0035] A driver is also provided corresponding to each clamping unit, so as to control the output force of the drivers of different clamping units and realize flexible control better;

[0036] In addition, an auxiliary clamping unit is provided, and the extension length of the auxiliary clamping unit can be adjusted autonomously according to the diameter of the grasped object, thus avoiding the drawback of the traditional latch structure requiring manual adjustment, and improving the construction efficiency and operation safety;

[0037] In some embodiments, elastic anti-skid pads are provided on the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center. The provision of the elastic anti-skid pads can, on the one hand, effectively increase the force-bearing area, increase the friction force, and play an anti-skid role; on the other hand, due to its elasticity, it plays a buffering role to reduce the adverse effect of the taper of the grasped object on the gripper, effectively preventing the grasped object from slipping. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on the structures shown in these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0039] Figure 1 It is a front view schematic diagram of a flexible gripper device described in Example 1 disclosed in the present invention;

[0040] Figure 2 This is an exploded schematic diagram of a flexible gripper device according to Example 1 disclosed in the present invention;

[0041] Figure 3 It is a force diagram of a flexible gripper device in a clamping state according to Example 1 disclosed in the present invention;

[0042] Figure 4 It is a front view schematic diagram of a flexible gripper device described in Example 2 disclosed in the present invention;

[0043] Figure 5 It is a force diagram of a flexible gripper device in a clamping state according to Embodiment 2 disclosed in the present invention;

[0044] Figure 6 This is a flow chart of the control method described in Example 3 disclosed in the present invention.

[0045] Reference numerals:

[0046] 1. Gripper base; 2. Gripper assembly; 21. First side clamping unit; 211. Clamping body; 212. Articulated seat; 22. Second side clamping unit; 23. First side driver; 24. Second side driver; 3. Auxiliary clamping unit; 4. Auxiliary driver; 5. Elastic anti-skid pad.

[0047] The realization of the purpose, functional features and advantages of the present invention will be further explained in conjunction with the implementation methods and with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions 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. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0049] It should be noted that all directional indications (such as up, down, etc.) in the embodiments of the present invention are only used to explain the relative position relationship, movement status, etc. between the components under a certain specific posture (as shown in the accompanying drawings). If the specific posture changes, the directional indication will also change accordingly.

[0050] In addition, in the present invention, the descriptions such as "first", "second", etc. are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying their relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features.

[0051] Furthermore, the technical solutions between the various embodiments of the present invention may be combined with each other, but this must be based on the fact that they can be implemented by ordinary technicians in the field. When the combination of technical solutions is mutually contradictory or cannot be implemented, it should be deemed that such combination of technical solutions does not exist and is not within the scope of protection required by the present invention.

[0052] Example 1

[0053] See also Figure 1-Figure 3 The present invention provides a flexible gripper device, comprising:

[0054] The gripper base 1 is used to connect with the execution end of the equipment;

[0055] The gripper assembly 2 is arranged in pairs, and the gripper assembly 2 comprises a first side gripper unit 21 and a second side gripper unit 22 which are hinged end to end in sequence, the first side gripper unit 21 is correspondingly provided with a first side driver 23, and the second side gripper unit 22 is correspondingly provided with a second side driver 24, which is used to drive the corresponding side gripper unit to adaptively grip street lamp poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles and other grasped objects from the side;

[0056] One end of the first side clamping unit 21 is hinged to the gripper base 1, and the corresponding telescopic end of the first side driver 23 is hinged to the first side clamping unit 21, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver 23 is hinged to the gripper base 1; the telescopic end of the second side driver 24 is hinged to the second side clamping unit 22, and the telescopic end away from the first side clamping unit 21 is hinged;

[0057] The auxiliary clamping unit 3 is provided with an auxiliary driver 4, the telescopic end of the auxiliary driver 4 is connected to the middle of the auxiliary clamping unit 3, and the end away from the telescopic end is connected to the middle of the gripper base 1, and is used to adaptively hold street lamp poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles and other grasping objects from the top;

[0058] In this embodiment, the gripper base 1 includes a base body, a U-shaped groove with an opening facing downward is provided on the base body, and two groups of hinge holes are provided at intervals on the left and right sides of the U-shaped groove, one group of hinge holes is used to be hinged with one end of the first side clamping unit 21 through corresponding pin shafts, and the other group of hinge holes is used to be hinged with the end of the first side driver 23 away from the telescopic end;

[0059] The gripper base 1 further comprises a connecting rod, the two ends of which are connected to the corresponding hinge holes on the left and right sides, or, in some embodiments, the connecting rod is arranged in the U-shaped groove by welding; the auxiliary drive 4 is vertically arranged at the middle part of the connecting rod away from the telescopic end, so that the telescopic end is arranged toward the clamping direction;

[0060] In the present invention, the gripper assembly 2 is provided with at least two segmented side gripping units and the cooperation of the auxiliary gripping unit 3, thereby increasing the degree of freedom of the gripping process of the flexible gripper device and the contact area with the gripped object, and can better adapt to the gripping and handling of gripped objects of different diameters and models; at the same time, the segmented gripping unit has more force points when gripping gripped objects such as street lamp poles, electric poles, and engineering cement piles, and the force distribution is more uniform and the force is more balanced, and no shear force will be generated to damage the gripped object;

[0061] A driver is also provided corresponding to each clamping unit, so as to control the output force of the drivers of different clamping units and realize flexible control better;

[0062] In addition, an auxiliary clamping unit 3 is provided, and the extension length of the auxiliary clamping unit 3 can be adjusted autonomously according to the diameter of the grasped object, thereby avoiding the disadvantage that the traditional latch structure needs manual adjustment, and improving the construction efficiency and operation safety.

[0063] As a preferred embodiment, a force sensor is provided on the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit 3 facing the clamping center, which is used to detect the pressure on the auxiliary driver 4; the flexible gripper device also includes a processor and a controller electrically connected to the processor, and the first side driver 23, the second side driver 24 and the auxiliary driver 4 are all electrically connected to the controller; the force sensor is electrically connected to the processor; with such a configuration, the force sensor can detect the force condition of the auxiliary driver 4 in real time, and feed back the obtained force value to the processor, the processor compares it with a preset threshold stored therein, and feeds back the comparison result to the controller, and the controller sends a control signal to the side driver and / or the auxiliary driver 4;

[0064] Specifically, if it is greater than the preset threshold, it is determined that the grasped object is clamped, and the controller controls all drivers to stop extending;

[0065] Otherwise, it is determined that the clamping is not completed, and the controller continues to send an extension signal to the side driver and / or the auxiliary driver 4 until a preset threshold is reached;

[0066] See also Figure 3 From the force situation of the flexible gripper device provided by the present invention when clamping objects such as street lamp poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles, etc., the two second side clamping units 22 in contact with the grasped object respectively provide two clamping forces to it. and ,because and The magnitude of the force is the same, and the pressure on the auxiliary drive 4 is , The clamping force With horizontal direction The pressure value obtained by the force sensor can be used to calculate the pressure value provided by the corresponding side driver;

[0067] The setting of the force sensor makes it convenient to judge whether the grasped objects such as street lamp poles, electric poles, and engineering cement piles are clamped according to the force conditions of the auxiliary driver 4, and whether to send a control signal to the next-level side driver; at the same time, it also provides a guarantee for the flexible gripper device to automatically control and adaptively grasp objects of different diameters and / or different tapers.

[0068] As a preferred embodiment, elastic anti-skid pads 5 are provided on the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit 3 facing the clamping center. The provision of the elastic anti-skid pads 5 can, on the one hand, effectively increase the force-bearing area, increase the friction force, and play an anti-skid role; on the other hand, due to its elasticity, it plays a buffering role to reduce the adverse effect of the taper of the grasped object on the gripper, and effectively prevent the grasped object from slipping.

[0069] As a preferred embodiment, the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit 3 facing the clamping center are both curved surfaces that are convenient for holding the grasped object; the setting of the curved surfaces is convenient for fitting with the outer surface of the grasped object to provide stable and uniform supporting force; specifically, the curvature of the curved surface of each side clamping unit facing the clamping center can be adaptively adjusted according to the contact position.

[0070] As a preferred embodiment, the side clamping unit includes a clamping body 211 and an articulated seat 212 arranged on the clamping body 211, wherein the articulated seat 212 is arranged on a surface away from the clamping center and is used to connect to a corresponding side driver;

[0071] Specifically, the shape of the clamping body 211 can be differently set according to the position of the segment where the head and tail are hinged. For details, see Figure 2 In the present embodiment, the shape of the clamping body 211 of the first side clamping unit 21 is crescent-shaped, and the shape of the clamping body 211 of the second side clamping unit 22 is sickle-shaped; a hinge seat 212 is provided on the clamping body 211 at the tail end; two hinge seats 212 are provided on the remaining clamping bodies 211, one for hinged connection of the telescopic end of the current-stage side driver, and the other for hinged connection of the telescopic end of the next-stage side driver.

[0072] As a preferred embodiment, the side driver and the auxiliary driver 4 are both one of a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or an electric cylinder, and are also configured with corresponding electromagnetic control valves, and the electromagnetic control valves are electrically connected to the controller.

[0073] Example 2

[0074] See also Figure 4 and Figure 5 The present invention provides a flexible gripper device. On the basis of embodiment 1, the gripper assembly 2 comprises a first side gripper unit 21, a second side gripper unit 22 and a third side gripper unit which are hinged end to end in sequence. The first side gripper unit 21 is correspondingly provided with a first side driver 23, the second side gripper unit 22 is correspondingly provided with a second side driver 24, and the third side gripper unit is correspondingly provided with a third side driver for driving the corresponding side gripper unit to adaptively grip street lamp poles, electric poles, engineering cement piles and other gripping objects from the side;

[0075] One end of the first side clamping unit 21 is hinged to the gripper base 1, and the corresponding telescopic end of the first side driver 23 is hinged to the first side clamping unit 21, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver 23 is hinged to the gripper base 1; the telescopic end of the second side driver 24 is hinged to the second side clamping unit 22, and the telescopic end away from the second side driver 24 is hinged to the first side clamping unit 21; the telescopic end of the third side driver is hinged to the third side clamping unit, and the telescopic end away from the second side clamping unit 22 is hinged;

[0076] In this embodiment, the gripper assembly 2 is configured as a three-stage gripper unit. Compared with the two-stage gripper unit in Embodiment 1, the degree of freedom of the gripper device in the gripping process and the contact area with the gripper are further increased, and the gripper device can better adapt to the gripping and handling of grippers with larger diameters. At the same time, the segmented gripper unit has more force points when gripping the gripper, and the force distribution is more uniform and the force is more balanced, so that shear force will not be generated to damage the gripper.

[0077] A driver is also provided corresponding to each clamping unit, so as to control the output force of the drivers of different clamping units and realize flexible control better;

[0078] It should be noted that the number of sections of the clamping unit of the clamping assembly 2 can be set to more than three sections according to the diameter specifications of the grasped objects such as street light poles, electric poles, and engineering cement piles, so as to increase the degree of freedom of the clamping process of the flexible gripper device and the contact area with the grasped object, and increase more force points to avoid the generation of shear force and damage to the grasped object; since the remaining features are the same as those described in Example 1, they will not be repeated in this embodiment.

[0079] Example 3

[0080] See also Figure 6 The present invention also provides a control method for a flexible gripper device as provided in Example 1, the steps of which include:

[0081] S1: Bring the two gripper assemblies 2 in an open posture close to the periphery of the grasped object such as a street lamp pole, a telephone pole, or an engineering cement pile, and first control the first side driver 23 to extend to its first preset stroke, driving the first side clamping unit 21 to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies 2 are in a first preset clamping state; preferably, the first preset stroke is half of the stroke formed by the first side driver 23;

[0082] S2: Control the second side driver 24 to extend to its first preset stroke, drive the second side clamping unit 22 to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and further drive the first side clamping unit 21 to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies 2 are in a second preset clamping state; preferably, the second preset stroke is half of the stroke formed by the first side driver 23;

[0083] S3: Simultaneously controlling all side drivers to further extend, driving the corresponding side clamping units to further converge and clamp from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies 2 are in a third preset clamping state;

[0084] S4: driving the auxiliary driver 4 to extend, driving the auxiliary clamping unit 3 to converge from the top toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies 2 are in the fourth preset clamping state; until the force sensor detects that the pressure on the auxiliary driver 4 reaches the preset threshold, it is judged that the clamping state is reached; if the preset threshold is not reached, adjusting the extension of the side driver and / or the auxiliary driver 4 until the preset threshold is reached;

[0085] In the control method provided by the present invention, by gradually controlling the output force of the side drivers corresponding to the different side clamping units, the gripper assembly 2 can present a variety of preset clamping states to better achieve flexible control; at the same time, during step S1, step S2 and step S3, the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure on the auxiliary driver 4 reaches the preset threshold value. If the preset threshold value is not reached, it is determined that the flexible gripper device has not grasped the grasped object and automatically enters the next preset clamping state; at the same time, the force value of the auxiliary driver 4 is detected in real time by the force sensor, and the detected force value is compared with the preset threshold value to adjust the extension length of each level of the side driver, thereby achieving flexible control of the flexible gripper device; the extension length of the auxiliary clamping unit 3 can be adjusted autonomously according to the diameter of the grasped object, avoiding the disadvantage that the traditional latch structure needs to be manually adjusted, thereby improving construction efficiency and operation safety.

[0086] As a preferred embodiment, between step S2 and step S3, if the gripper assembly 2 includes three or more side gripping units, the side drivers corresponding to the remaining side gripping units are sequentially controlled to extend to their first preset strokes until all the side drivers have completed the extension to their first preset strokes;

[0087] In this process, the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure on the auxiliary driver 4 reaches the preset threshold. If it does not reach the preset threshold, it is determined that the flexible gripper device fails to grasp the object and automatically controls the next-level side driver to extend.

[0088] As a preferred embodiment, step S0 is also included before step S1, and before the flexible gripper device grips a street light pole, a utility pole, an engineering cement pile or the like, all side drivers and auxiliary drivers 4 are detected and controlled to be in a retracted state so that the gripper assembly 2 is in an open posture.

[0089] The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. All equivalent structural changes made using the contents of the present invention's specification and drawings, or directly / indirectly applied in other related technical fields, are included in the patent protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A control method for a flexible gripper device, characterized in that: A flexible gripper device is provided, comprising: A pair of gripper assemblies, the gripper assemblies at least comprising a first side gripper unit and a second side gripper unit hinged end to end in sequence, each side gripper unit being respectively provided with a side driver; The auxiliary clamping unit is provided with an auxiliary driver, the telescopic end of the auxiliary driver is connected to the middle of the auxiliary clamping unit, and is used to adaptively hold and grasp objects from the top. A force sensor is provided on the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center; The steps of the control method include: S1: Bring the two gripper assemblies in an open posture close to the periphery of the grasped object, first control the first side driver to extend to its first preset stroke, drive the first side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a first preset clamping state; S2: Control the second side driver to extend to its first preset stroke, drive the second side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and further drive the first side clamping unit to converge from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a second preset clamping state; S3: Simultaneously controlling all side drivers to further extend, driving the corresponding side clamping units to further converge and clamp from the side toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in a third preset clamping state; S4: Drive the auxiliary driver to extend, driving the auxiliary clamping unit to converge from the top toward the clamping center, and the two gripper assemblies are in the fourth preset clamping state; until the force sensor detects that the pressure on the auxiliary driver reaches the preset threshold, it is determined that the clamping state is reached; if the preset threshold is not reached, adjust the extension of the side driver and / or the auxiliary driver until the preset threshold is reached.

2. The control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: During step S1, step S2 and step S3, the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure on the auxiliary driver reaches the preset threshold. If it does not reach the preset threshold, it is determined that the flexible gripper device does not grasp the object and automatically enters the next preset clamping state.

3. The control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Between step S2 and step S3, if the gripper assembly includes three or more side clamping units, the side drivers corresponding to the remaining side clamping units are controlled to extend to their first preset strokes in turn until all the side drivers have completed the extension to their first preset strokes; the force sensor detects in real time whether the pressure on the auxiliary driver reaches the preset threshold value, and if it does not reach the preset threshold value, it is determined that the flexible gripper device has not grasped the object and automatically controls the next-level side driver to extend.

4. The control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Before step S1, step S0 is also included, in which, before the flexible gripper device grips the grasped object, all side drivers and auxiliary drivers are detected and controlled to be in a contracted state so that the gripper assembly is in an open posture.

5. The control method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The flexible gripper device also includes: The gripper base is used to connect with the execution end of the equipment; One end of the first side clamping unit is hinged to the gripper base, and the corresponding telescopic end of the first side driver is hinged to the first side clamping unit, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver is hinged to the gripper base; the telescopic end of the second side driver is hinged to the second side clamping unit, and the telescopic end away from the first side driver is hinged to the first side clamping unit; The surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center are both arc-shaped surfaces that are convenient for holding the grasped object.

6. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The flexible gripper device further includes a processor and a controller electrically connected to the processor, the side driver and the auxiliary driver are both electrically connected to the controller; and the force sensor is electrically connected to the processor.

7. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: Elastic anti-skid pads are provided on the surface of the side clamping unit facing the clamping center and on the surface of the auxiliary clamping unit facing the clamping center.

8. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The side clamping unit comprises a clamping body and an articulated seat arranged on the clamping body. The articulated seat is arranged on a surface away from the clamping center and is used for connecting to a corresponding side driver.

9. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The side drive and the auxiliary drive are both pneumatic cylinders, hydraulic cylinders or electric cylinders.

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