A wire-driven soft snake-like robot and walking control method and system

Abstract

The present application provides a wire-driven soft snake-like robot and a walking control method and system for use in the field of robotics. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot includes a tail, a control system module, a front part, and a head. Several bionic muscle modules are designed for the tail and front part, making it easy to adjust the length of the snake-like robot by adding muscle modules. The muscle modules are made of soft materials, have a simple structure, a small size, and good flexibility, making them more suitable for movement in complex or narrow spaces. In addition, the control system module controls the extension or contraction of bionic muscles through wires to achieve snake-like robot movement, and the distributed drive of the tail and front part using different wires can achieve a variety of movement gaits, making the snake-like robot's movement gait and movement form closer to that of a biological snake.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] Snakes in nature possess hundreds of vertebrae, ensuring their flexibility. Their muscles pull various body parts in motion, and they achieve various movements through friction between their scales and the ground. Snake-like robots mimic the structure and movement of biological snakes, possessing continuous multiple joints. This allows them to maneuver and adapt in unstructured environments. Snake-like robots can mimic a snake's various locomotion modes, including serpentine crawling, telescoping, linear crawling, lateral winding, and climbing, effectively navigating narrow passages or irregular terrain. Compared to traditional rigid robots, soft robots are continuum robots made of soft materials. They are compact and lightweight, making them more suitable for maneuvering in complex or confined spaces. Existing snake-like robots are powered by pneumatic pressure and are often connected to cables or air tubes. This can easily lead to entanglement when traversing narrow spaces, and they require a dedicated air source. Furthermore, the compressibility of gas makes it difficult to achieve smooth and precise control of soft snake-like robots. Summary of the Invention

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

[0004] In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0005] The present application provides a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, comprising: a tail, a control system, a front part and a head; wherein the control system module is arranged between the tail and the front part; the tail and / or the front part comprises a plurality of wire-driven bionic muscle modules, each bionic muscle module comprises a flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones and bionic muscles; wherein adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the bionic muscles for supporting the bionic muscles; each supporting muscle is installed on the corresponding bone; the flexible skin is connected to the supporting muscles, and the connecting discs are connected to the supporting muscles. The supporting muscle is connected to the bionic muscle; both sides of the bionic muscle and the skeleton are provided with through-holes for passing and fixing the rope; the control system module includes a first rope, a second rope, a first rope retracting mechanism and a second rope retracting mechanism; the first rope passes through the through-hole at the front, and when the first rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the first rope, the bionic muscle in the front is controlled to stretch or contract; and the second rope passes through the through-hole at the tail, and when the second rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the second rope, the bionic muscle in the tail is controlled to stretch or contract.

[0006] Preferably, adjacent bionic muscle modules are connected to each other at the top via the connecting disc and at the bottom via a snap-fit ​​structure.

[0007] Preferably, the front end of the bionic muscle is provided with a slot structure, and the rear end is provided with a card plate structure, so as to be connected by snapping between the slot of the front bionic muscle and the card plate of the rear bionic muscle.

[0008] Preferably, the structure of the bionic muscle is an integral bellows-shaped structure; wherein the bone is embedded in the crest or trough of the bellows-shaped structure, so as to limit the bionic muscle by using the bone;

[0009] And / or, the head includes four universal balls and a housing, wherein the universal balls are installed at the bottom of the housing to reduce friction during movement through the universal balls.

[0010] Preferably, the head further comprises a camera and a mounting seat, the mounting seat being embedded in the interior of the housing, the camera being mounted in the mounting seat, the housing being provided with a first opening, and the camera collecting image information of the external environment through the first opening;

[0011] And / or, the head includes a distance sensor and a mounting base, the mounting base is embedded in the interior of the housing, the distance sensor is mounted in the mounting base, and a second opening is formed in the housing, and the distance sensor collects distance information of objects in the external environment through the second opening;

[0012] And / or, the head further 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.

[0013] Preferably, each muscle module includes 5 bones, 5 connecting discs and 5 supporting muscles;

[0014] and / or, the tail portion includes 3 muscle modules; and / or, the front portion includes 3 muscle modules;

[0015] and / or, the ends of the flexible skin are spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skins of other modules by gluing;

[0016] and / or, grooves are provided on the bottom and sides of the flexible skin to increase the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground;

[0017] And / or, the control system module also includes a flexible skin, four universal balls, a control base and a connecting disk; the ends of the flexible skin are spliced ​​with the ends of the flexible skin at the front and rear respectively; the four universal balls are installed in the mounting holes at the bottom of the control base to reduce the friction of the control system module; the upper part of the control base is connected to the connecting disks at the front and rear respectively through the connecting disk, and the lower part of the control base is connected to the snap-on structures at the front and rear respectively through the snap-on structures.

[0018] Preferably, the first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism and / or the second wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism include a stepping motor and a wire wheel, wherein the stepping motor is used to drive the wire wheel to rotate in forward and reverse directions, the rotation of the wire wheel retracts and releases the wire rope, and the retraction and release of the wire rope causes the bionic muscle to contract or stretch.

[0019] Preferably, the first wire rope retracting and releasing mechanism includes two first stepper motors and two first wire pulleys, and the two first stepper motors and the two first wire pulleys correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the front bionic muscle to retract and release; wherein the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner;

[0020] And / or, the second rope retraction and release mechanism includes two second stepper motors and two second pulleys, and the two second stepper motors and the two second pulleys correspondingly drive the ropes on both sides of the bionic muscles of the tail to retract and release; wherein, the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner.

[0021] The present application provides a walking control method for a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, comprising:

[0022] Determining a walking trajectory of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, wherein the soft snake-like robot is a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications;

[0023] The rope is controlled to relax or contract according to the walking trajectory, so as to complete the walking action by relaxing or tightening the bionic muscles of the front and / or tail through the rope.

[0024] The present application provides a wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system, comprising: a host computer and a wire-driven soft snake-like robot as described in any one of the present applications;

[0025] Among them, the host computer is used to generate the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot; the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is used to control the relaxation or tightening of the rope according to the walking trajectory to complete the walking.

[0026] Compared with the prior art, this application has one or more of the following beneficial effects:

[0027] 1. The present invention adopts a modular design. The length of the snake-like robot can be adjusted by adding bionic muscle modules. The modules are connected by a snap-fit ​​structure. It has a simple structure, strong versatility and easy operation.

[0028] 2. The bionic muscle module of the present invention is made of a mixture of 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.

[0029] 3. The present invention adopts a distributed line drive method to arrange the snake robot drive. The control system module is located in the middle position. The two stepper motors at the tail of the control module are used to control the movement of the snake robot's tail, provide motion thrust, and control the balance and coordination during the movement; the two stepper motors at the front of the control module are used to control the front movement of the snake robot, mainly responsible for direction control, and provide motion pulling force; when the ropes on both sides are tightened or loosened at the same time, the snake robot stretches and moves forward. When the ropes on one side are tightened and the ropes on the other side are loosened, the snake robot moves forward in a winding manner. By controlling the rotation of the motor, a variety of motion gaits can be achieved. The number of motors is small and the control system is simple.

[0030] 4. The control module of this invention is powered by a power battery located in the center of the control system module. This eliminates the need for external power cables or an external air source, preventing cable or air tube entanglement in complex environments. This makes the system simpler and easier to maintain. Furthermore, wireless communication between the controller and the host computer facilitates human-machine interaction and is more operator-friendly. Four universal ball joints are installed at the bottom of the control module to reduce friction and enhance the robot's mobility.

[0031] 5. The head of the present invention is equipped with a camera and an ultrasonic distance sensor, which can perceive external images and distance information in real time, thereby improving the perception ability of the snake-like robot in complex environments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments. 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 any creative work.

[0033] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot in this application;

[0034] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the linear drive bionic muscle module in this application;

[0035] Figure 3 It is a structural diagram of the control system module in this application;

[0036] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the head structure of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot in this application;

[0037] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a walking control method of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot in this application;

[0038] Figure 6 This is a structural diagram of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] The embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0040] The following describes the embodiments 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 embodiments, 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 features in the following embodiments and embodiments can be combined with each other. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without making creative work are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0041] 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 this 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 an apparatus and / or practice a method. In addition, other structures and / or functionalities other than one or more of the aspects described herein can be used to implement this apparatus and / or practice this method.

[0042] 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 illustrations only show components related to the present application and are not drawn according to the number, shape and size of components in actual implementation. In actual implementation, the type, quantity and proportion of each component can be changed at will, and the component layout type may also be more complicated.

[0043] Additionally, in the following description, specific details are provided to provide a thorough understanding of the examples, however, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the examples can be practiced without these specific details.

[0044] like Figure 1 As shown, a wire-driven soft snake-like robot consists of a tail II, a control system III, a front part IV and a head V. The tail II is composed of three bionic muscle modules I connected and connected to the control system III. The front part IV is also composed of three bionic muscle modules I connected and connected to the control system III and the head V. The upper part of each bionic muscle module I is connected to other modules through a connecting disk 3, and the lower part of the bionic muscle module I is connected to other modules through a snap-fit ​​structure.

[0045] like Figure 2 As shown, the bionic muscle module I includes a flexible skin 1, five supporting muscles 2, five connecting discs 3, five bones 4, and bionic muscles 5; the flexible skin 1 is wrapped around the outside of the bionic muscle module I and glued to the five supporting muscles 2 and the bionic muscles 5, and the end of the flexible skin 1 is spliced ​​with the end of the flexible skin 1 of other modules by gluing. The bottom and sides of the flexible skin 1 have triangular grooves to increase the friction between the snake-like robot and the ground; the five bones 4 are connected in sequence through five connecting discs 3, the five supporting muscles 2 are respectively installed on the five bones 4, and the five bones 4 are embedded in the bionic muscles 5 to increase the rigidity of the bionic muscles 5. There are holes for ropes 11 on the five bones 4 and the bionic muscles 5, and the elongation and contraction of the ropes 11 drive the elongation and contraction of the bionic muscles 5 to realize the movement of the snake-like robot.

[0046] like Figure 3 As shown, the control system module III includes a flexible skin 1, four universal balls 6, a control base 7, a connecting disk 3, a power supply 8, a controller 9, four stepper motors 10, four pulleys 12, four ropes 11, and four retaining rings 13; the flexible skin 1 is wrapped around the outside of the control system module III, and the end of the flexible skin 1 is spliced ​​with the end of the flexible skin 1 of the bionic muscle module I by gluing; the four universal balls 6 are installed in the mounting hole at the bottom of the control base 7 to reduce the friction of the control system module III; the upper part of the control base 7 is connected to the other bionic muscle modules I through the connecting disk 3, and the lower part is connected to the other bionic muscle modules I through a snap-fit ​​structure, and the four stepper motors 10 are installed on the control base 7 by screws, and the two stepper motors 10 for controlling the movement of the tail are installed up and down at the tail of the control base 7, and the two stepper motors 10 for controlling the movement of the front are installed up and down at the front of the control base 7; the four pulleys 12 are installed on the output shafts of the four stepper motors 10, and the four The ends of the reels 12 are fixed with four retaining rings 13, and the four ropes 11 are installed on the spiral grooves of the four reels 12. One end of the rope 11 is fixed to the reels 12 and passes through the guide hole on the control base 7, and the other end passes through the bionic muscle modules 1 at the tail and front of the snake-like robot from the left and right, and is fixed at the end. The stepper motor 10 drives the reels 12 to rotate forward and reverse to drive the rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the telescopic control of the bionic muscle module 1 and finally realizing the motion control of the snake-like robot; the power supply 8 is installed in the middle position of the control base 7 to provide power for the snake-like robot control system; the controller 9 is installed on the side of the control base 7 by screws, and the controller 9 communicates with the PC via wireless network or Bluetooth to realize wireless control. The controller 9 is connected to the camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 for processing environmental information. The controller 9 is connected to the four stepper motors 10 respectively to control the rotation of the four stepper motors 10. The snake-like robot does not need to be connected to an external device with ropes.

[0047] like Figure 4 As shown, the snake-like robot head includes four universal balls 6, a camera mounting seat 14, a camera 15, a shell 16, and an ultrasonic distance sensor 17; the four universal balls 6 are installed at the bottom of the shell 16 to reduce the friction of the head, the camera 15 is installed on the camera mounting seat 14, the camera mounting seat 14 is fixed to the bottom of the shell 16 by screws, and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 is installed on the shell 16 by screws. The camera 15 and the ultrasonic distance sensor 17 are used to collect environmental information and transmit it to the controller 9.

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

[0049] First, the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is determined; then, based on the walking trajectory, the wire rope is controlled to relax or tighten, allowing the bionic muscle to stretch by relaxing the wire rope, or to contract by tightening the wire rope.

[0050] The snake-like robot is placed in an unstructured environment. Power supply 8 provides control and driving power for the snake-like robot. Camera 15 acquires real-time information about environmental objects, and ultrasonic distance sensor 17 acquires real-time position information. Both transmit this information to controller 9, which processes the environmental information obtained by camera 15 and ultrasonic distance sensor 17 to generate the snake-like robot's trajectory. Controller 9 then sends motor position commands to four stepper motors 10. These four stepper motors 10 drive reels 12 in a forward and reverse rotation, extending and contracting wires 11, thereby controlling the extension and contraction of bionic muscle module 1 and ultimately controlling the snake-like robot's motion. During the snake-like robot's motion, the camera 15 and ultrasonic distance sensor 17 acquire real-time environmental information, continuously adjusting the snake-like robot's trajectory to adapt to its movement in the unstructured environment.

[0051] When the snake-like robot moves forward in a straight line, the two stepper motors 10 that control the movement of the tail II simultaneously drive the wire wheel 12 to rotate forward and reverse to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the extension and contraction control of the bionic muscle module I in the tail II, and realizing the straight movement of the snake-like robot's tail II. The two stepper motors 10 that control the movement of the front part IV simultaneously drive the wire wheel 12 to rotate forward and reverse to drive the wire rope 11 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the extension and contraction control of the bionic muscle module I in the front part IV, and realizing the straight movement of the snake-like robot's front part IV.

[0052] When the snake-like robot snakes forward, the two stepper motors 10 controlling the movement of tail II drive pulleys 12 in forward and reverse rotations, causing ropes 11 to extend and retract, achieving bending and extension control of the bionic muscle module I in tail II, enabling the snake-like robot's tail II to snake forward. The two stepper motors 10 controlling the movement of front section IV also drive pulleys 12 in forward and reverse rotations, causing ropes 11 to extend and retract, achieving bending and extension control of the bionic muscle module I in front section IV, enabling the snake-like robot's front section IV to snake forward. The snake-like robot's tail II and front IV snake forwards coordinate with each other, ultimately achieving the snake-like robot's snake forward.

[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 line-driven 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.

[0054] In addition, during the movement process, the host computer can also be used to receive data from the wire-driven soft snake-like robot, such as environmental image data captured by the camera 15, obstacle distance data obtained by the distance sensor 17, etc., to achieve real-time linkage between the host computer and the robot.

[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 description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present application should be included in the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A wire-driven soft snake-like robot, characterized in that: include: The tail, control system, front and head; wherein the control system module is arranged between the tail and the front; the tail and / or the front include a plurality of wire-driven bionic muscle modules, each bionic muscle module includes a flexible skin, a plurality of supporting muscles, a plurality of connecting discs, a plurality of bones and bionic muscles; wherein the adjacent bones are connected by the connecting discs, and the bones are embedded in the outer surface of the bionic muscles for supporting the bionic muscles; each supporting muscle is installed on the corresponding bone; the flexible skin is wrapped around the outside of the bionic muscle and is in contact with the supporting muscles and The bionic muscle is glued; both sides of the bionic muscle and the skeleton are provided with through-holes for threading and fixing the rope; the control system module includes a first rope, a second rope, a first rope retracting mechanism and a second rope retracting mechanism; the first rope passes through the through-hole of the front portion, and when the first rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the first rope, the bionic muscle in the front portion is controlled to stretch or contract; and the second rope passes through the through-hole of the tail portion, and when the second rope retracting mechanism relaxes or contracts the second rope, the bionic muscle in the tail portion is controlled to stretch or contract; Adjacent bionic muscle modules are connected to each other at the top via the connecting disc and at the bottom via a snap-fit ​​structure.

2. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The front end of the bionic muscle is provided with a slot structure, and the rear end is provided with a card plate structure, so as to be connected by snapping between the slot of the bionic muscle and the card plate of the bionic muscle.

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

4. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 3, 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 base, the mounting base is embedded in the interior of the housing, the distance sensor is mounted in the mounting base, and a second opening is formed in the housing, and the distance sensor collects distance information of objects in the external environment through the second opening; And / or, the head further 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.

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

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

7. The wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to claim 6, characterized in that: The first wire rope retraction and release mechanism includes two first stepper motors and two first wire pulleys, which respectively drive the wire ropes on both sides of the front bionic muscle to retract and release; wherein the two first stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner; And / or, the second wire rope retraction and release mechanism includes two second stepper motors and two second wire wheels, and the two second stepper motors and the two second wire wheels correspondingly drive the wire ropes on both sides of the bionic muscle of the tail to retract and release; wherein, the two second stepper motors are installed in a vertically staggered manner.

8. A walking control method for a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, characterized in that: include: Determining a walking trajectory of a wire-driven soft snake-like robot, wherein the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is a wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to any one of claims 1 to 7; The rope is controlled to relax or contract according to the walking trajectory, so as to complete the walking action by relaxing or tightening the bionic muscles of the front and / or tail through the rope.

9. A wire-driven soft snake-like robot walking control system, characterized in that: include: A host computer and a wire-driven soft snake-like robot according to any one of claims 1 to 7; Among them, the host computer is used to generate the walking trajectory of the wire-driven soft snake-like robot; the wire-driven soft snake-like robot is used to complete walking according to the walking trajectory.

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