Pneumatic flexible clamping device

Abstract

The invention discloses a pneumatic flexible clamping device, and belongs to the field of manipulators, a plurality of air bags of a length control assembly are hollow and are communicated with one another, the plurality of air bags are arranged along a straight line, the air bags are radially shrunk and axially expanded and elongated by extracting air from the length control assembly to generate negative pressure, and a plurality of bending control assemblies are mounted on a connecting disc. A grabbing space is formed among the multiple bending control assemblies, the multiple composite bags of each bending control assembly communicate with one another and extend along a straight line, the deformation capacity of the limiting part of each composite bag is smaller than that of the deformation part, and the limiting part is located on the side, facing the grabbing space, of the composite bag. The deformation of the deformation part is larger than that of the limiting part, the bending control assembly bends towards the grabbing space for grabbing, through the design, gas driving is adopted, rigid impact is small, and an object prone to damage can be clamped; a driving piece is not needed, the structure is simple, negative pressure control is adopted during driving, and air bag explosion is avoided.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the field of manipulators, in particular to a pneumatic flexible clamping device. Background Art

[0002] In the field of industrial gripping robots, they are currently mainly divided into rigid grippers, rope-driven grippers, positive pressure pneumatic-driven grippers, etc., but they generally have the following defects and shortcomings:

[0003] 1. Traditional rigid grippers: Some traditional grippers adopt a rigid structure, which makes them often have a large rigid impact during the clamping process, so there are certain limitations in the application of clamping brittle and easily damaged objects. In addition, because they are made of traditional rigid materials, they lack adaptability and lack the safety of human-computer interaction when human-computer interaction is required.

[0004] 2. Rope-driven gripper: The gripper is often composed of a bending actuator, and rope-driven bending drive is one of the most widely used drive methods. However, rope drive often needs to be combined with linear motion components such as linear motors or cylinders, which increases the complexity of the system. Sometimes the original drive component does not provide linear motion, but rotational motion, so it is necessary to further add a motion conversion mechanism, which further increases the complexity of the system.

[0005] 3. Positive pressure driven gripper: Although the existing positive pressure driven gripper can provide a large gripping force, due to the positive pressure drive, when combined with PID and other algorithms, sometimes the system overshoot will inflate the airbag, which will not only make the gripper unable to work normally, but may even cause safety accidents.

[0006] In summary, traditional rigid grippers often have problems such as large rigid impact and poor adaptability, which limits their application in the field of fragile object clamping. Rope grippers need to be used in conjunction with linear motion components, which increases the complexity of the system. Positive pressure-driven grippers may cause the airbag to explode due to overshoot and other reasons, hindering the normal operation of the system. Summary of the invention

[0007] In order to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a pneumatic flexible clamping device which is driven by negative pressure, has small rigid impact, has a simple structure and is capable of clamping fragile objects.

[0008] One of the purposes of the present invention is achieved by the following technical solution:

[0009] A pneumatic flexible clamping device comprises a mounting plate, a length control component, a connecting plate and a plurality of bending control components, wherein the length control component is mounted between the mounting plate and the connecting plate, the length control component comprises a plurality of airbags, the plurality of airbags are hollow and interconnected, the plurality of airbags are arranged along a straight line, and negative pressure is generated by pumping air into the length control component to cause the airbags to contract radially and expand and stretch axially, the plurality of bending control components are mounted on the connecting plate, a gripping space is formed between the plurality of bending control components, each of the bending control components comprises a plurality of composite bags, the plurality of composite bags are interconnected and extend along a straight line, each of the composite bags comprises a limiting portion and a deformation portion, the deformation capacity of the limiting portion is smaller than the deformation capacity of the deformation portion, the limiting portion is located on the side of the composite bag facing the gripping space, when the inside of the bending control component is under negative pressure, the deformation of the deformation portion is greater than the deformation of the limiting portion, and the bending control component bends toward the gripping space for gripping.

[0010] Furthermore, the length control component is provided with a first air inlet, which is communicated with the airbag, and the bending control component is provided with a second air inlet, which is communicated with the composite bag.

[0011] Furthermore, the mounting plate is provided with an air supply hole, the air supply hole is connected to the first air inlet, the bending control component includes an air inlet portion, the second air inlet is arranged in the air inlet portion, and the air inlet portion is located on the side of the axis of the bending control component.

[0012] Furthermore, the airbag is spherical.

[0013] Furthermore, the limiting portion is circular and has a planar structure, and the deforming portion is hemispherical.

[0014] Furthermore, the bending control component also includes an anti-slip portion, and the anti-slip portion is located at the deformation portion of the composite bladder away from the length control component.

[0015] Furthermore, the anti-slip portion is in a straight line shape, and the anti-slip portion is perpendicular to an extension direction of the bending control component.

[0016] Furthermore, the length control component also includes a first end flange and a second end flange, and the plurality of airbags are installed between the first end flange and the second end flange. The first end flange is fixed to the mounting plate, and the second end flange is fixed to the connecting plate.

[0017] Furthermore, projections of the plurality of bending control components on the connecting disk are located on a circle.

[0018] Furthermore, the mounting plate is parallel to the connecting plate.

[0019] Compared with the prior art, the pneumatic flexible clamping device of the present invention includes an installation disk, a length control component, a connecting disk and multiple bending control components. The length control component is installed between the installation disk and the connecting disk. The length control component includes multiple airbags. The multiple airbags are hollow and interconnected. The multiple airbags are arranged along a straight line. The airbags are radially contracted and axially expanded and elongated by pumping air to the length control component to generate negative pressure. The multiple bending control components are installed on the connecting disk. A gripping space is formed between the multiple bending control components. Each bending control component includes multiple composite bags. The multiple composite bags are interconnected and extend along a straight line. Each composite bag includes a limiting part and a deformation part. The deformation capacity of the limiting part is smaller than that of the deformation part. The limiting part is located on the side of the composite bag facing the gripping space. When the inside of the bending control component is negative pressure, the deformation of the deformation part is greater than that of the limiting part. The bending control component bends toward the gripping space for gripping. Through the above design, gas drive is adopted, the rigid impact is small, and fragile objects can be clamped; no driving part is required, the structure is simple, and negative pressure control is adopted during driving to avoid airbag explosion. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 A three-dimensional diagram of the pneumatic flexible clamping device of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 2 for Figure 1 A three-dimensional view of a mounting plate of a pneumatic flexible clamping device;

[0022] Figure 3 for Figure 1 A three-dimensional diagram of a length control assembly of a pneumatic flexible clamping device;

[0023] Figure 4 for Figure 1 A three-dimensional view of a connection plate of a pneumatic flexible clamping device;

[0024] Figure 5 for Figure 1 A three-dimensional diagram of a bending control assembly of a pneumatic flexible clamping device;

[0025] Figure 6 for Figure 5 Another perspective view of the bending control assembly.

[0026] In the figure: 10, mounting plate; 11, fixing hole; 12, mounting area; 120, groove; 121, first mounting hole; 122, air supply hole; 20, length control component; 21, first end flange; 210, second mounting hole; 211, first air inlet; 22, second end flange; 220, second mounting hole; 23, airbag; 24, first connecting member; 30, connecting plate; 31, connecting groove; 40, bending control component; 41, third end flange; 410, third mounting hole; 42, composite bag; 420, limiting part; 421, deformation part; 43, second connecting member; 44, air inlet; 440, second air inlet; 45, anti-slip part; 50, gripping space. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] 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.

[0028] It should be noted that when a component is referred to as being "fixed to" another component, it may be directly on the other component or there may be another intermediate component through which it is fixed. When a component is considered to be "connected to" another component, it may be directly connected to the other component or there may be another intermediate component at the same time. When a component is considered to be "set on" another component, it may be directly set on the other component or there may be another intermediate component at the same time. The terms "vertical", "horizontal", "left", "right" and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only.

[0029] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art of the present invention. The terms used herein in the specification of the present invention are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present invention. The term "and / or" used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more related listed items.

[0030] See also Figure 1 The pneumatic flexible clamping device includes a mounting plate 10, a length control component 20, a connecting plate 30 and a bending control component 40.

[0031] See also Figure 2, the mounting disk 10 is used to fix the pneumatic flexible clamping device to the robot arm. Specifically, the mounting disk 10 is cylindrical, and the mounting disk 10 is provided with a fixing hole 11 and a mounting area 12, and the fixing hole 11 is used to fix the mounting disk 10 to the robot arm. The mounting area 12 is used to fix the length control component 20. The number of mounting areas 12 is the same as the number of length control components 20, and the mounting areas 12 are symmetrically arranged about the axis of the mounting disk 10. The mounting area 12 includes a groove 120, a first mounting hole 121 and an air supply hole 122, the first mounting hole 121 and the air supply hole 122 are located in the groove 120, the groove 120 is used to install the first end flange 21, and the first mounting hole 121 is used to install screws to fix the mounting disk 10 to the first end flange 21. The air supply hole 122 is connected to the length control component 20 for supplying or exhausting air to the length control component 20.

[0032] See also Figure 3 , the length control component 20 is a linear moving drive structure. The length control component 20 is manufactured by integral molding using 80A flexible resin using light-curing 3D printing technology. The length control component 20 includes a first end flange 21, a second end flange 22, a plurality of airbags 23 and a first connecting member 24. The first end flange 21 is used to connect the length control component 20 with the mounting plate 10. The first end flange 21 is provided with a second mounting hole 210 and a first air inlet 211. The second mounting hole 210 is fixed to the first mounting hole 121 by screws, and the first air inlet 211 is connected to the air supply hole 122. The second end flange 22 is provided with a second mounting hole 220, and the second mounting hole 220 is fixed to the connecting plate 30. Each airbag 23 is a hollow structure, and the plurality of airbags 23 are interconnected and located in a straight line through the first connecting member 24. Each airbag 23 is spherical. Specifically, each airbag 23 is formed by lofting a central cross section similar to a honeycomb structure to a circular cross section at the end. The first end flange 21 is located at one end of the plurality of airbags 23, and the second end flange 22 is located at the other end of the plurality of airbags 23. In this embodiment, there are two length control components 20, and the two length control components 20 are symmetrically arranged. When the length control component 20 is inflated to apply positive pressure, the airbag 23 expands radially and contracts axially, pulling the object to move. When air is pumped out from the inside to generate negative pressure, the airbag 23 contracts radially and expands axially, thereby generating reverse displacement and pushing the object to move.

[0033] See also Figure 4 , connecting grooves 31 are provided on both sides of the connecting plate 30, the connecting groove 31 on one side is fixed to the second end flange 22, and the connecting groove 31 on the other side is fixed to the third end flange 41 of the bending control component 40, so that the length control component 20 is connected to the bending control component 40.

[0034] See also Figure 5 as well as Figure 6, multiple bending control components 40 are bending deformation driving structures, multiple bending control components 40 are installed on the connecting disk 30, and a gripping space 50 is formed between the multiple bending control components 40. The projections of the multiple bending control components 40 on the connecting disk 30 are on a circle. Each bending control component 40 includes a third end flange 41, multiple composite capsules 42, a second connecting member 43, an air inlet 44 and an anti-slip portion 45. The third end flange 41 is provided with a third mounting hole 410, and the third end flange 41 is fixed to the connecting disk 30 through the third mounting hole 410. Each composite capsule 42 includes a limiting portion 420 and a deforming portion 421. Since the limiting portion 420 is applied with a strain limiting layer, the deformation capacity of the limiting portion 420 is less than the deformation capacity of the deforming portion 421, so that when negative pressure is applied inside, the side without the strain limiting layer is stretched, while the side with the strain limiting layer is basically maintained at the original length, so the whole will generate bending motion toward the side of the strain limiting layer, converting the linear motion into bending motion. The plurality of composite capsules 42 are connected by a second connecting member 43, the limiting portion 420 is circular and has a planar structure, the deforming portion 421 is hemispherical, and the limiting portion 420 is located near the gripping space 50. The anti-slip portion 45 is disposed on the limiting portion 420 of the last composite capsule 42, the anti-slip portion 45 is linear, and the plurality of anti-slip portions 45 are disposed at intervals.

[0035] When using the pneumatic flexible clamping device, in the initial state, the pneumatic flexible clamping device is above the object to be clamped and at a certain distance from the object. After receiving the instruction to clamp the object, negative pressure is applied inside the two length control components 20 above, and the length control component 20 produces an elongated linear displacement to lower the height of the bending control component 40 to make it reach the height of the object; then negative pressure is applied inside the four bending control components 40, and the clamping claws are bent to clamp the object; then positive pressure is applied inside the two length control components 20 above, and the length control component 20 is converted from a negative pressure elongated state to a positive pressure contracted state to lift the object after clamping; after moving the object to the desired position, negative pressure is applied again inside the two length control components 20 above, and the bending control component 40 is lowered to the height of releasing the object; then positive pressure is applied inside the bending control component 40, so that the four-finger clamp formed by the bending control component 40 quickly returns to the straightened state, and the object is released naturally; finally, all air sources are cut off, and the pneumatic flexible clamping device returns to the initial state.

[0036] In addition, when positive pressure is applied inside the left-side length control component 20, resulting in a contraction displacement, and negative pressure is applied inside the right-side length control component 20, resulting in an extension displacement, the entire device can exhibit a left-handed movement state; similarly, when positive pressure is applied to the right-side length control component 20 and negative pressure is applied to the left-side length control component 20, it will exhibit a right-handed movement state.

[0037] Different from the clamp composed of the traditional positive pressure pneumatic bending actuator, the present application proposes a soft clamp composed of a negative pressure driven length control component 20 and a bending control component 40, which effectively avoids the situation where the actuator airbag is filled with gas and exploded due to improper application of positive pressure. The pneumatic flexible clamping devices of the present application are all 3D printed parts. On the basis of ensuring the strength of the parts, the appropriate material filling ratio is set to achieve convenient and simple manufacturing and lightweight design of the entire pneumatic flexible clamping device. The present application can achieve multiple actions such as rising, falling, left rotation, right rotation, etc. by applying positive or negative pressure to the two length control components 20.

[0038] The above embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present invention, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be pointed out that, for ordinary technicians in this field, several modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, which are equivalent modifications and improvements made to the above embodiments based on the essential technology of the present invention, and all of them belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A pneumatic flexible clamping device, comprising a mounting plate and a length control assembly, characterized in that: The pneumatic flexible clamping device also includes a connecting disk and a plurality of bending control components. The length control component is installed between the installation disk and the connecting disk. The length control component includes a plurality of airbags. The plurality of airbags are hollow and interconnected. The plurality of airbags are arranged in a straight line. The airbags are radially contracted and axially expanded and elongated by pumping air into the length control component to generate negative pressure. The plurality of bending control components are installed on the connecting disk. A gripping space is formed between the plurality of bending control components. Each of the bending control components includes a plurality of composite bags. The plurality of composite bags are interconnected and extend in a straight line. Each of the composite bags includes a limiting portion and a deformation portion. The deformation capacity of the limiting portion is smaller than that of the deformation capacity of the deformation portion. The limiting portion is located on the side of the composite bag facing the gripping space. When the inside of the bending control component is under negative pressure, the deformation of the deformation portion is greater than that of the limiting portion. The bending control component bends toward the gripping space for gripping.

2. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The length control component is provided with a first air inlet, which is communicated with the airbag, and the bending control component is provided with a second air inlet, which is communicated with the composite bag.

3. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 2, characterized in that: The mounting plate is provided with an air supply hole, which is communicated with the first air inlet. The bending control component includes an air inlet portion, and the second air inlet is arranged in the air inlet portion. The air inlet portion is located on the side of the axis of the bending control component.

4. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The air bag is spherical.

5. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The limiting portion is circular and has a planar structure, and the deforming portion is hemispherical.

6. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The bending control component further includes an anti-slip portion, which is located at a deformation portion of the composite bladder away from the length control component.

7. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 6, characterized in that: The anti-slip portion is in a straight line shape, and the anti-slip portion is perpendicular to an extension direction of the bending control component.

8. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The length control component also includes a first end flange and a second end flange, and the plurality of airbags are installed between the first end flange and the second end flange. The first end flange is fixed to the mounting plate, and the second end flange is fixed to the connecting plate.

9. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The projections of the plurality of bending control components on the connection disk are located on a circle.

10. The pneumatic flexible clamping device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mounting plate is parallel to the connecting plate.

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