Mechanical arm for fine butt joint of metal wires

Abstract

The utility model discloses a mechanical arm for fine butt joint of metal wires, and belongs to the technical field of bubble generation. Comprising a supporting frame and two transmission arms rotationally connected to the supporting frame, wire feeding mechanisms are installed at the tail ends of the two transmission arms, and the wire outlet directions of the wire feeding mechanisms are opposite; the transmission arm serves as an execution module, and the driving module serves as a power source of the rotation angle and direction of the transmission arm. Wherein the driving module and the execution module adopt a mechanical transmission mode to realize accurate control of the positions of the metal wires at the two ends, automation and mechanization of butt joint of the metal wires are realized, the problems of inaccuracy and unsafety caused by manual copper wire lap joint in an existing experimental device are solved, and potential safety hazards caused by manual operation in a conducting medium are eliminated.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of bubble generation, and particularly relates to a robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires. Background Art

[0002] The dynamic characteristics of bubbles in water have always been an important fundamental issue concerned in many fields. Bubbles are widely applied in fields such as oil extraction, chemical industry, marine environment, and medical treatment. Due to the complexity of bubble movement, people's research on various characteristics of bubbles is still not sufficient, and many unknown mechanisms remain to be explored. The research methods are divided into two methods: experimental design and numerical simulation. Among them, experimental design is the most direct means for people to understand bubbles and provides an effective verification means for numerical simulation.

[0003] Currently in China, under laboratory conditions, non-explosive means are usually adopted to generate bubbles. For example, the low-voltage electric spark method is a common method for generating cavitation bubbles. Two copper wires are overlapped together, and the two ends of the copper wires are respectively connected to the positive and negative electrodes of a capacitor (generally below 250V). When the circuit is closed, a large circuit current will be generated, causing the overlapping part of the copper wires to melt. The melting of the copper wires will quickly vaporize the surrounding liquid, forming an expanding cavitation bubble. During the experimental operation, the copper wires need to be manually overlapped in water. This operation not only cannot accurately overlap the copper wires but also lacks safety. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Technical Problem to be Solved:

[0005] In order to avoid the deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires, in which the driving module and the execution module adopt a mechanical transmission method to accurately control the positions of the metal wires at both ends, solving the problems of inaccuracy and insecurity caused by manual overlapping of copper wires in the existing experimental devices, and eliminating the safety hazards brought by manual operation in the conductive medium.

[0006] The technical solution of the present invention is: a robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires, including a support frame and two transmission arms rotatably connected thereto. Wire feeding mechanisms are installed at the ends of both transmission arms, and the wire outlet directions of the wire feeding mechanisms are arranged oppositely; the transmission arms serve as the execution module, and the driving module serves as the power source for the rotation angle and direction of the transmission arms.

[0007] A further technical solution of the present invention is: the support frame is in an I shape, used to support the components of the robotic arm, and a transmission arm fixing frame is installed thereon; the top of the transmission arm fixing frame is a cross beam, and two support arms are symmetrically arranged below the cross beam. The two support arms extend along an inclined direction, and the ends are respectively rotatably connected to the two transmission arms.

[0008] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the top end of the transmission arm is hinged to the support arm of the transmission arm fixing frame, the input end of the hinge shaft is connected to the first servo motor, and the first servo motor serves as a driving module to control the rotation of the transmission arm; the end of one of the transmission arms is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame.

[0009] A further technical solution of the present invention is that symmetric lugs are provided at both ends of the transmission arm. Symmetric through holes are provided on the lugs at the top end, and the hinge shaft passes through the through holes and is connected to the output shaft of the first servo motor; two symmetric through holes are provided on the lugs at its end, and are fixedly connected to the lugs on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame through fastening components.

[0010] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the wire feeding mechanism is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame through a rotating shaft; the second servo motor is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame, and its output shaft is connected to the rotating shaft for adjusting the wire feeding angle of one of the wire feeding mechanisms.

[0011] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the wire feeding mechanism includes a fixed seat, a wire feeding gear and a stepping motor. The wire feeding gear includes a driving friction gear and a driven wheel; the stepping motor is installed on the fixed seat, and a driving friction gear is installed on its output shaft. The driven wheel is rotatably installed on the fixed seat through a rotating shaft and a bearing; the rotating shafts of the driving friction gear and the driven wheel are parallel, and cooperate with each other to drive the metal wire passing through the fixed seat to perform a linear feeding motion; the fixed seat is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame.

[0012] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame includes a support plate and two lugs oppositely arranged in parallel thereon. The two lugs are respectively fixedly connected to the lugs at the end of the transmission arm through fasteners.

[0013] A further technical solution of the present invention is that a control module is installed on the bottom plate of the support frame. The control module includes a circuit board and a power supply. The main control chip on the circuit board uses STM32F103C8T6, and the power supply is a lithium battery for supplying power to the circuit board and the driving module.

[0014] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the driving module selects a PDI-6221MG servo motor.

[0015] A further technical solution of the present invention is that the control module is connected to the host computer through a communication module, and converts the signal of the host computer into a signal recognizable by the main control chip to complete communication.

[0016] Beneficial effects

[0017] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: The robotic arm device of the present invention for performing fine tasks is simple in structure and low in cost. During the experiment, the driving module is used to complete the lap joint of the wire. This device can not only improve the experimental efficiency, save scientific research time, but also protect the lives and safety of experimental personnel. This is of great significance for bubble research, underwater blasting and ship damage research. Most importantly, it greatly promotes the work of university scientific research teams and ship research institutes.

[0018] At the same time, regardless of the application background of the bubble experiment, the robotic arm device of the present invention is low in cost, and the robotic arm can also be applied to industrial scenarios such as the assembly of micro parts and precise docking operations, which is of great significance for the future development of the robot industry and the improvement of the quality of human life. Description of the Drawings

[0019] Figure 1 It is the front view of the robotic arm in the embodiment of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 2 It is the axonometric view of the robotic arm in the embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 3 It is the overall structural schematic diagram of the wire feeder in the embodiment of the present invention.

[0022] Description of the reference numerals: 1. First servo; 2. Transmission arm; 3. Wire feeding mechanism fixing frame; 4. Wire feeding mechanism, 41. Fixed seat, 42. Active friction gear, 43. Driven wheel, 44. Stepper motor; 5. Copper wire; 6. Support frame, 61. Bottom plate; 7. Second servo; 8. Transmission arm fixing frame, 81. Support arm. Detailed Embodiments

[0023] The embodiments described below by referring to the drawings are exemplary and are intended to explain the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

[0024] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by terms such as "center", "longitudinal", "transverse", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

[0025] Based on the problem that in the prior art, when performing experimental operations, it is necessary to manually lap copper wires in water, and this operation not only cannot accurately lap the copper wires, but also lacks safety, refer to Figure 1, Figure 2 As shown, the present invention provides a robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires, including a support frame 6 and two transmission arms 2 rotatably connected thereto, wire feeding mechanisms 4 are installed at the ends of the two transmission arms 2, and the wire feeding directions of the wire feeding mechanisms 4 are relatively arranged; the transmission arm 2 serves as an execution module, and the driving module serves as a power source for the rotation angle and direction of the transmission arm 2.

[0026] Specifically, the support frame 6 is I-shaped and is used to support the various components of the robotic arm, and a transmission arm fixing frame 8 is installed on it; the top of the transmission arm fixing frame 8 is a crossbeam, and two support arms 81 are symmetrically arranged below the crossbeam. The two support arms 81 extend in an inclined direction, and the ends are rotatably connected to the two transmission arms 2 respectively.

[0027] Specifically, the top end of the transmission arm 2 is hinged to the support arm 81 of the transmission arm fixing frame 8, and the input end of the hinged shaft is connected to the first servo 1. The first servo 1 serves as a driving module to control the rotation of the transmission arm 2; one end of the transmission arm 2 is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame 3.

[0028] Specifically, symmetrical lugs are provided at both ends of the transmission arm 2, and symmetrical through holes are opened on the lug at the top, and the hinge shaft passes through the through holes and is connected to the output shaft of the first servo 1; the lug at the end has two symmetrical through holes, which are fixedly connected to the lugs on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame 3 through fastening components.

[0029] Specifically, the wire feeding mechanism 4 is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame via a rotating shaft; the second servo 7 is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame 3, and its output shaft is connected to the rotating shaft for adjusting the wire feeding angle of one of the wire feeding mechanisms 4.

[0030] Specifically, refer to Figure 3 As shown, the wire feeding mechanism 4 includes a fixed seat 41, a wire feeding gear and a stepper motor 44, the wire feeding gear includes an active friction gear 42 and a driven wheel 43; the stepper motor 44 is installed on the fixed seat 41, and the active friction gear 42 is installed on its output shaft, and the driven wheel 43 is rotatably installed on the fixed seat 41 through a rotating shaft and a bearing; the rotating shafts of the active friction gear 42 and the driven wheel 43 are parallel, and they cooperate with each other to drive the metal wire passing through the fixed seat 41 to perform linear feeding motion; the fixed seat 41 is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixed frame 3.

[0031] Specifically, the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame 3 includes a support plate and two lugs arranged thereon in parallel and opposite to each other, and the two lugs are fixedly connected to the lugs at the end of the transmission arm 2 through fasteners.

[0032] Specifically, a control module is installed on the bottom plate 61 of the support frame 6. The control module includes a circuit board and a power supply. The main control chip on the circuit board is STM32F103C8T6, and the power supply is a lithium battery, which is used to supply power to the circuit board and the drive module.

[0033] Specifically, the control module is connected to the host computer through a communication module, and converts the signal of the host computer into a signal that can be recognized by the main control chip to complete the communication.

[0034] Embodiment:

[0035] This embodiment is a robotic arm device for assisting in underwater bubble generation under laboratory conditions, including: a control module, a drive module, and an execution module.

[0036] As Figure 1 and Figure 2 shown, a transmission arm 2 fixing bracket is mounted on the support frame 6. Two transmission arms 2 are hinged to the transmission arm 2 fixing bracket. Each transmission arm 2 rotates through a servo motor. The left wire feeder rotates in place driven by the servo motor. The drive module is composed of three servo motors on the robotic arm, and the transmission arm 2 and the wire feeding mechanism 4 serve as the execution module.

[0037] As Figure 3 shown, the wire feeder is composed of a stepping motor 44, a driving friction gear 42, and a fixing seat 41. The stepping motor 44 drives the friction gear to rotate, and the friction gear drives the copper wire 5 to perform a linear feeding action, so as to achieve the purpose of automatic wire feeding, which is beneficial to improving the wire changing efficiency.

[0038] The control module is jointly composed of a host computer and a main control board. The host computer part is composed of a python script. When the script is executed, it will capture the user's key information and send the corresponding key information through a USB to TTL module. At the same time, it will prompt the operation through the terminal to achieve the purpose of controlling the peripheral device. When the main control board receives the TTL signal, it will trigger a serial port interrupt, and at this time the single-chip microcomputer will parse the corresponding instruction and coding information to achieve the corresponding operation. The user can flexibly send instructions to accurately control the smooth progress of the lapping process.

[0039] The selection of hardware in this embodiment is as follows:

[0040] The control module uses the STM32F103C8T6 main control chip to realize the control and signal transmission of other modules, and finally realizes an accurate alignment system to achieve the purpose of underwater bubble generation. The specific selected models are as follows:

[0041] (1) Main control

[0042] In this embodiment, the main control chip is selected as STM32F103C8T6, which uses a high-performance ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit RISC core with a working frequency of 72 MHz. It has an internal high-speed memory (up to 128K bytes of flash memory and 20K bytes of SRAM), rich enhanced I / O ports, and peripherals connected to two APB buses, including 2 12-bit ADCs, 3 general 16-bit timers, and 1 PWM timer. It also includes standard and advanced communication interfaces: up to 2 I2C interfaces, 2 SPI interfaces, 3 USART interfaces, one USB interface, and one CAN interface, enabling communication with the host computer, servo motors, motors, and other chips simultaneously.

[0043] A serial port, two DRV8825 module interfaces, and 3 PWM interfaces are reserved on the main control board. The serial port part is used to communicate with the host computer program. The DRV8825 module is controlled by the single-chip microcomputer to achieve the movement of the stepper motor 44 for the purpose of loosening the wire. The 3 PWM interfaces are respectively connected to 3 servo motors to control the movement of the robotic arm.

[0044] (2) Power supply

[0045] The power supply module provides power for all parts of the system. In this embodiment, a lithium battery with a standard voltage of 8.4V is selected for the power supply, meeting the long-term battery life and operation requirements of the device.

[0046] The entire power supply system is divided into multiple paths through a buck module and a voltage regulator module. One path supplies power to the STM32 main control board. When powering the main control board, a special method is used for overvoltage and overcurrent protection to prevent the single-chip microcomputer from being burned out. Another path supplies power to the actuator. The advantage of this isolated power supply is that it can reduce the occurrence of faults and the impact of faults on the device.

[0047] (3) Drive

[0048] In this embodiment, PDI-6221MG is selected as the servo motor. It is small in size, appropriate in weight, and can provide sufficient torque to ensure the normal movement of the robotic arm. For the two stepper motors 44 installed on the top of the robotic arm, the DRV8825 chip is used to drive them through the PWM signal of the single-chip microcomputer.

[0049] (4) Communication module

[0050] In this embodiment, a USB to TTL module is used to convert the USB signal at the computer end into a TTL signal that can be recognized by the single-chip microcomputer. This method allows us to avoid the complex communication protocol of the USB signal and achieve the communication goal only using the serial port.

[0051] III. Software design

[0052] In this embodiment, a Python script is edited on the host computer side, that is, the computer side. This script is adapted to our device, and this script can send different instructions to the single-chip microcomputer according to the user's needs to achieve the control of the device.

[0053] The serial port part on the device side will also capture the signals from the host computer side in real time, and perform corresponding processing after receiving the signals. For example, changing the PWM signal to control the state of the robotic arm, or controlling the stepper motor 44 to achieve the wire feeding operation.

[0054] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described above, it can be understood that the above embodiments are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art can make changes, modifications, substitutions, and variations to the above embodiments within the scope of the present invention without departing from the principles and purposes of the present invention.

Claims

1. A robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires, characterized in that: It includes a support frame and two transmission arms rotatably connected thereto. Wire feeding mechanisms are installed at the ends of the two transmission arms, and the wire feeding directions of the wire feeding mechanisms are arranged oppositely; the transmission arms serve as execution modules, and the driving module serves as the power source for the rotation angle and direction of the transmission arms.

2. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 1, characterized in that: The support frame is in the shape of an "I", which is used to support the components of the robotic arm. A transmission arm fixing frame is installed thereon; the top of the transmission arm fixing frame is a cross beam, and two support arms are symmetrically arranged below the cross beam. The two support arms extend along an inclined direction, and their ends are respectively rotatably connected to the two transmission arms.

3. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 2, characterized in that: The top end of the transmission arm is hinged to the support arm of the transmission arm fixing frame. The input end of the hinge shaft is connected to the first servo motor, and the first servo motor serves as the driving module to control the rotation of the transmission arm; the end of one of the transmission arms is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame.

4. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 3, wherein: Symmetric lugs are provided at both ends of the transmission arm. Symmetric through holes are opened on the lugs at the top end. The hinge shaft passes through the through holes and is connected to the output shaft of the first servo motor; two symmetric through holes are opened on the lugs at its end, and are fixedly connected to the lugs on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame through fastening components.

5. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 4, characterized in that: The wire feeding mechanism is rotatably connected to the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame through a rotating shaft; the second servo motor is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame, and its output shaft is connected to the rotating shaft for adjusting the wire feeding angle of one of the wire feeding mechanisms.

6. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 5, characterized in that: The wire feeding mechanism includes a fixed seat, a wire feeding gear and a stepper motor. The wire feeding gear includes a driving friction gear and a driven wheel; the stepper motor is installed on the fixed seat, and the driving friction gear is installed on its output shaft. The driven wheel is rotatably installed on the fixed seat through a rotating shaft and a bearing; the rotating shafts of the driving friction gear and the driven wheel are parallel, and cooperate with each other to drive the wire passing through the fixed seat to perform a linear feeding movement; the fixed seat is installed on the wire feeding mechanism fixing frame.

7. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 6, characterized in that: The wire feeding mechanism fixing frame includes a support plate and two lugs arranged parallel and opposite to each other thereon. The two lugs are respectively fixedly connected to the lugs at the end of the transmission arm through fasteners.

8. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 1, characterized in that: A control module is installed on the bottom plate of the support frame. The control module includes a circuit board and a power supply. The main control chip on the circuit board uses STM32F103C8T6, and the power supply is a lithium battery, which is used to supply power to the circuit board and the driving module.

9. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 8, wherein: The driving module selects the PDI-6221MG servo motor.

10. The robotic arm for fine docking of metal wires according to claim 8, wherein: The control module is connected to the upper computer through a communication module, and converts the signal of the upper computer into a signal that the main control chip can recognize to complete the communication.

Images