Pneumatic soft snakelike robot and walking control method and system

Abstract

The invention provides a pneumatic soft snakelike robot and a walking control method and system, and is applied to the technical field of robots, the pneumatic soft snakelike robot comprises a tail part, a front part, a head part and other main parts, the tail part and the front part are designed by adopting a plurality of pneumatic muscle modules, the length of the snakelike robot can be conveniently adjusted by adding the pneumatic muscle modules, and the robot is more flexible. The pneumatic muscle modules are made of soft materials, simple in structure, small in size, good in flexibility and more suitable for moving in complex or narrow space. Besides, the pneumatic bionic muscle is of a tubular structure and is divided into a left air cavity and a right air cavity, the pneumatic muscle is driven to contract through inflation and deflation to achieve movement of the snakelike robot, various movement gaits can be achieved in a distributed driving mode, and the movement gaits and the movement form of the snakelike 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 pneumatic soft snake-like robot and a walking control method. Background Art

[0002] Snakes achieve various movements through muscle pulling and friction between the scales on their surface and the ground. The flexibility of snakes is guaranteed by their hundreds of vertebrae and soft body. Snake-like robots imitate the body structure and movement of biological snakes, achieving a variety of movement modes such as straight crawling, winding crawling, telescopic movement, side winding and climbing, and effectively passing through unstructured environments.

[0003] The joints of traditional snake-like robots are rigid structures, with poor flexibility during movement, and cannot achieve large curvature bending movements. Compared with traditional rigid robots, soft robots are continuum robots made of soft materials, which are small in size and light in weight. The softness of soft materials is more suitable for movement in complex or narrow spaces. Existing soft snake-like robots are driven by a combination of multiple pneumatic muscles, and their size, flexibility, freedom of movement, and bending radius are all limited by pneumatic muscles. Summary of the invention

[0004] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a pneumatic soft snake-like robot to address the technical deficiencies of existing soft snake-like robots, which can realize real-time perception of environmental information, realize the movement of the snake-like robot through the contraction of pneumatic muscles, and the pneumatic bionic muscle adopts an overall bellows structure and is divided into two left and right air cavities. The distributed drive method can realize a variety of movement gaits, and the pneumatic muscle adopts a modular design. The length of the snake-like robot can be adjusted by adding pneumatic bionic muscle modules. The front part is mainly responsible for direction control and provides motion pulling force; the rear part provides motion thrust to control the balance and coordination during the movement.

[0005] In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0006] The present application provides a pneumatic soft snake-like robot, comprising: a tail, a front part and a head; wherein the tail and / or the front part comprises a plurality of pneumatic muscle modules, each muscle module comprises a flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones, a pneumatic bionic muscle and at least two tracheas; wherein the pneumatic bionic muscle comprises two closed air cavities separated left and right; the adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the pneumatic bionic muscle for supporting the pneumatic bionic muscle; each of the supporting muscles is mounted on the corresponding bones; the flexible skin is connected to the supporting muscles and the pneumatic bionic muscle; the closed air cavity of the pneumatic bionic muscle is connected to at least one trachea, so as to inflate or deflate the closed air cavity of the pneumatic bionic muscle through the trachea to achieve the extension or contraction of the pneumatic bionic muscle.

[0007] 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.

[0008] Preferably, the front end of the pneumatic 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 pneumatic bionic muscle and the clamping plate of the rear pneumatic bionic muscle.

[0009] Preferably, the structure of the pneumatic 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 pneumatic bionic muscle by using the bone.

[0010] Preferably, the head comprises 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.

[0011] 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;

[0012] 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.

[0013] Preferably, 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.

[0014] Preferably, in one of the pneumatic soft snake-like robots, each pneumatic muscle module includes 5 bones, 5 connecting discs, 5 supporting muscles and two tracheas, and the left and right air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscle each include 5 connected chambers.

[0015] Preferably, the tail portion includes 3 pneumatic muscle modules, and / or the front portion includes 3 pneumatic muscle modules.

[0016] The present application provides a pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control method, comprising:

[0017] Determine a walking trajectory of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot, wherein the pneumatic soft snake-like robot is a pneumatic soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications;

[0018] According to the walking trajectory, the air tube is controlled to inflate or deflate the air cavity in the pneumatic soft snake-like robot, so as to complete the walking action by extending or contracting the air cavity.

[0019] The present application provides a pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control system, comprising: a host computer and a pneumatic soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications; wherein the host computer is used to generate a walking trajectory of the pneumatic soft snake-like robot; and the pneumatic soft snake-like robot is used to complete walking movements according to the walking trajectory.

[0020] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has one or more of the following beneficial effects:

[0021] 1. The present invention adopts a modular design. The length of the snake-like robot can be adjusted by adding pneumatic bionic muscle modules. The modules are connected by a snap-on structure. It has a simple structure, strong versatility, easy operation, and can achieve arbitrary gait control.

[0022] 2. The pneumatic muscle module of the present invention is formed by mixing pneumatic 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.

[0023] 3. The pneumatic bionic muscle is an overall bellows structure, which is divided into two air chambers on the left and right. The upper part of the two air chambers has a pipe joint connected to the trachea. The pneumatic bionic muscle has a compact structure and a small size, and can achieve left and right contraction control. In addition, during the movement of the snake-like robot, 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.

[0024] 4. 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

[0025] 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.

[0026] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot in this application;

[0027] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the pneumatic muscle module in this application;

[0028] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the pneumatic bionic muscle in this application;

[0029] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the head structure of the pneumatic soft snake-like robot in this application;

[0030] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control method in this application;

[0031] Figure 6 It is a structural schematic diagram of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control system in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] The embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0033] 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.

[0034] 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.

[0035] 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.

[0036] 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.

[0037] refer to Figure 1 Schematic diagram of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot, consisting of a tail II, a front part III and a head IV, wherein the tail II is formed by connecting three pneumatic muscle modules I, a baffle 12 is installed at the end of the tail II, and the front end of the tail II is connected to the front part III; the front part III is also formed by connecting three bionic muscle modules I, connected to the tail II and the head IV; 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.

[0038] It should be noted that the tail and / or the front part includes several pneumatic muscle modules, that is, the number of bionic muscle modules I used in the tail II and the front part III can be 3 in the above example, or other numbers.

[0039] like Figure 2As shown, each bionic muscle module I includes a flexible skin 1, five supporting muscles 2, five connecting discs 3, five skeletons 4, pneumatic bionic muscles 5, and two tracheas 6; the flexible skin 1 is wrapped around the outside of the pneumatic muscle module I, and is connected to the five supporting muscles 2 and the pneumatic bionic muscles 5 (for example, by gluing); the five skeletons 4 are connected in sequence through five connecting discs 3, the five supporting muscles 2 are respectively mounted on the five skeletons 4, the five skeletons 4 are embedded in the pneumatic bionic muscles 5, and the two tracheas 6 are connected to the left and right air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscles 5 through joints, and the elongation and contraction of the bionic muscle module I are achieved by continuously flushing and releasing air from the left and right air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscles 5, thereby realizing the movement of the snake-like robot.

[0040] In some examples, the ends of the flexible skin 1 are spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin 1 of other modules by gluing, and triangular grooves are provided on the bottom and sides of the flexible skin 1 to increase the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground.

[0041] It should be noted that the number of components in the bionic muscle module I can be the number in the above example or other numbers.

[0042] like Figure 3 As shown, the pneumatic bionic muscle 5 is preferably an integral corrugated tubular structure, which is divided into two left and right air cavities, which are separated and not connected to each other, and the upper parts of the two air cavities are provided with pipe joints connected to the trachea 6, and the pneumatic bionic muscle 5 has a slot at the front end and a card plate at the rear end for connecting with the card plates and slots of other pneumatic muscle modules respectively.

[0043] During implementation, the skeleton is embedded in the crest or trough of the corrugated tubular structure, so that the skeleton can be used to limit the pneumatic bionic muscle, better respond to the extension or contraction of the pneumatic bionic muscle in a timely manner, and better imitate the walking trajectory.

[0044] like Figure 4 As shown, the head of the snake-like robot includes four universal balls 6, a camera mounting seat 8, a camera 9, a housing 10, and an ultrasonic distance sensor 11; the four universal balls 6 are installed at the bottom of the housing 10 to reduce the friction of the head, the camera 9 is installed on the camera mounting seat 8, the camera mounting seat 8 is fixed to the bottom of the housing 10 by screws, the ultrasonic distance sensor 11 is installed on the housing 10 by screws, and the camera 9 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 11 are used to collect environmental information and transmit it to the host computer.

[0045] In some examples, the mounting base 8 is embedded in the interior of the housing 10, and the mounting base 8 is vertically arranged, and the camera 9 is installed in the mounting base, and a first opening is opened on the housing 10, and the camera 9 collects image information of the external environment through the first opening.

[0046] In some examples, the distance sensor 11 is installed in the mounting base 8, for example, the distance sensor 11 and the camera 9 are arranged on the mounting base 8 in the vertical direction, and a second opening is opened on the shell 10, and the distance sensor 11 collects distance information of objects in the external environment through the second opening.

[0047] In some examples, the head also includes a communication module (not shown in the figure), which is used to send image information collected by the camera 9 or distance information collected by the distance sensor 11 to the host computer. In implementation, the communication can be wireless communication or wired communication, which is not limited here.

[0048] refer to Figure 5 The working process of the snake robot is as follows:

[0049] First, the walking trajectory of the pneumatic soft snake-like robot is determined; then, the air tube is controlled to inflate or deflate the air cavity in the pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to the walking trajectory.

[0050] In the implementation, the snake-like robot is placed in an unstructured environment, and the twelve air tubes 6 provide control and driving power for the snake-like robot. The camera 9 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 11 obtain environmental object information and position information in real time, and both transmit the information to the host computer. The host computer processes the environmental object information and position information, generates the trajectory of the snake-like robot's movement, and controls the inflation and exhaust of the twelve air tubes to achieve the extension and contraction control of the corresponding six pneumatic muscle modules 1, and finally realizes the movement gait control of the snake-like robot. During the movement of the snake-like robot, the camera 9 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 11 obtain environmental information in real time, and continuously adjust the movement trajectory of the snake-like robot to adapt to the movement in the unstructured environment.

[0051] When the snake-like robot moves forward in a straight line, the six air tubes 6 that control the movement of the tail II are inflated and deflated at the same time, driving the two air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscles 5 to extend and contract at the same time, thereby realizing the extension and contraction control of the three bionic muscle modules I in the tail II, and realizing the straight movement of the tail II of the snake-like robot; the six air tubes 6 that control the movement of the front part III are inflated and deflated at the same time, driving the two air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscles 5 to extend and contract at the same time, thereby realizing the extension and contraction control of the three bionic muscle modules I in the front part III, and realizing the straight movement of the front part III of the snake-like robot.

[0052] When the snake-like robot moves forward in a winding manner, the six tracheae 6 controlling the movement of the tail II, of which the three tracheae 6 on both sides charge and discharge air in opposite directions to drive the two air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscle 5 to extend and contract in opposite directions, thereby realizing the bending and extension control of the three bionic muscle modules I in the tail II, and realizing the winding movement of the tail II of the snake-like robot; the six tracheae 6 controlling the movement of the front III, of which the three tracheae 6 on both sides charge and discharge air in opposite directions to drive the two air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscle 5 to extend and contract in opposite directions, thereby realizing the bending and extension control of the three bionic muscle modules I in the front III, and realizing the winding movement of the front III of the snake-like robot. The winding movement of the tail II of the snake-like robot and the winding movement of the front III cooperate with each other, and finally realize the winding movement of the snake-like robot.

[0053] refer to Figure 6 In the figure, the host computer (such as a computer, also called a computer, etc.) generates a walking trajectory, and then the pneumatic soft snake-like robot moves in real time in the environment according to the walking trajectory. The specific moving process can be referred to the above example description.

[0054] In addition, during the movement, the host computer can also be used to receive data from the pneumatic soft snake-like robot, such as environmental image data captured by the camera 9, obstacle distance data obtained by the distance sensor 11, etc., to achieve real-time linkage between the host computer and the robot.

[0055] 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.

[0056] 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 pneumatic soft snake-like robot, comprising: Tail, front and head; characterized in that the tail and / or front include a plurality of pneumatic muscle modules, each muscle module includes flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones, pneumatic bionic muscles and at least two tracheas; wherein the pneumatic bionic muscle includes two closed air cavities separated left and right; the adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the pneumatic bionic muscle to support the pneumatic bionic muscle; each of the supporting muscles is installed on the corresponding bones; the flexible skin is connected to the supporting muscles and the pneumatic bionic muscle; the closed air cavity of the pneumatic bionic muscle is connected to at least one trachea, so as to inflate or deflate the closed air cavity of the pneumatic bionic muscle through the trachea to achieve the extension or contraction of the pneumatic bionic muscle.

2. The pneumatic 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 snap-fit ​​structure.

3. The pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to claim 2, characterized in that: The front end of the pneumatic 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 pneumatic bionic muscle and the clamping plate of the rear pneumatic bionic muscle.

4. The pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The structure of the pneumatic bionic muscle is an integral bellows structure; wherein the bone is embedded in the crest or trough of the bellows structure, so as to limit the pneumatic 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 pneumatic 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.

6. The pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to claim 5, characterized in that: The head also includes a communication module, which is used to send image information collected by the camera or distance information collected by the distance sensor to a host computer.

7. The pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: Each pneumatic muscle module includes 5 bones, 5 connecting discs, 5 supporting muscles and two tracheas. The left and right air cavities of the pneumatic bionic muscle each include 5 connected chambers.

8. The pneumatic soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The tail portion includes 3 pneumatic muscle modules; and / or, the front portion includes 3 pneumatic muscle modules.

9. A pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control method, characterized in that: include: Determining a walking trajectory of a pneumatic soft snake-like robot, wherein the pneumatic soft snake-like robot is a pneumatic soft snake-like robot as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8; According to the walking trajectory, the air tube is controlled to inflate or deflate the air cavity in the pneumatic soft snake-like robot, so that the moving action is completed by the expansion or contraction of the air cavity.

10. A pneumatic soft snake-like robot walking control system, characterized in that: include: A host computer and a pneumatic 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 pneumatic soft snake-like robot; the pneumatic soft snake-like robot is used to complete walking according to the walking trajectory.

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