Flexible-Spine Insertion Tool for Precise Narrow-Space Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing guide tubes for snake-arm robots in confined and hazardous spaces lack robustness and precision, requiring complex manufacturing and high costs, which limits their adoption and effectiveness in maintenance and inspection tasks.
Innovation Solution
The use of a flexible spine instead of individual hinges between links in guide tubes, allowing for a rigidizable structure that can be formed through additive manufacturing, providing robustness and precision while reducing production costs and simplifying assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional guide tubes with individual hinges are used, then flexibility is achieved, but robustness and precision deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tube is divided into multiple rigid links connected by a flexible spine mechanism. Each link maintains structural integrity while the connection between links provides necessary flexibility. This segmentation allows the tube to bend and adapt to confined spaces while each individual link remains robust and precise.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide tube combines rigid link structures with flexible spine connections to create a composite system. The rigid portions provide strength and precision, while the flexible spine portions enable adaptation to narrow and complex geometries. This composite approach resolves the contradiction between rigidity and flexibility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional guide tubes with individual hinges are used, then flexibility is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple individual hinge components are merged into a single flexible spine mechanism that connects the rigid links. This integration reduces the total number of parts, simplifies assembly procedures, and lowers manufacturing complexity while maintaining the flexibility needed for navigating confined spaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible spine serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides flexibility for navigation, acts as a structural connector between links, and enables the guide tube to adapt to various geometries. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, thereby simplifying manufacturing.
3Manufacturing precision
If rigid structure is used for precision, then accuracy is improved, but ability to navigate narrow spaces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tube transitions from a completely rigid structure to a dynamic structure with controlled flexibility. The rigid links maintain precision when needed, while the flexible spine connections allow the tube to bend and adapt to narrow spaces. This dynamic characteristic enables the system to switch between rigidity and flexibility as required by the application.
Data Source
AI summary
An insertion tool with a flexible spine and a method for forming thereof are provided. A method includes placing a plurality of links, a flexible spine, and a line assembly into a channel of a fixturing assembly, pulling, via the line assembly, the plurality of links into a tensioned state in the channel, and affixing the flexible spine to each of the plurality of links while in the tensioned state. An insertion tool comprising a plurality of links arranged in a sequence, a flexible spine affixed to three or more links of the plurality of links, and a line assembly inserted through line guides in each of the plurality of links, the line assembly being configured to actuate the plurality of links from a free state to a tensioned state.