HIGH-ACCURACY SNAKE ARM WITH LARGE LOAD AND LONG-DISTANCE RADIATION RESISTANCE

Abstract

The present invention provides a high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance, which includes a driving base body and a snake shaped arm, where the snake shaped arm is composed of parallelly-connected joints connected in series, which includes a plurality of identical movable linkages connected in parallel, each of the parallelly-connected joints further includes platforms; when one of the platforms at the two ends of the plurality of identical movable linkages connected in parallel is fixed, the other platform performs translation motion along a circle relative to the fixed platform. The movable linkage includes at least a link; and a plurality of driving units are installed in the driving base body, each driving unit is respectively connected to each link in the parallelly-connected joint via a steel wire rope.

Claims

1. A high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance, comprising a driving base body and a snake shaped arm, wherein one end of the snake shaped arm is connected to the driving base body, and the snake shaped arm is composed of parallelly-connected joints connected in series, which are respectively referred to as an N.sup.th joint according to their distance from the driving base body, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 1; each parallelly-connected joint comprises m identical movable linkages connected in parallel, and m is an integer greater than or equal to 3; each of the parallelly-connected joints further comprises platforms respectively connected to two ends of the m identical movable linkages connected in parallel; when one of the platforms at the two ends of the m identical movable linkages connected in parallel is fixed, the other platform performs translation motion along a circle relative to the fixed platform, the two adjacent platforms always remain to be parallel with each other, and the movable linkage comprises at least a link; and the driving base body have a plurality of driving units installed therein, each driving unit is respectively connected to each link in the parallelly-connected joint via a steel wire rope, and each steel wire rope is connected to one link.

2. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein the movable linkage further comprises two universal joints, each universal joint mounted at each end of the link, and the link is connected to the platform via the universal joints.

3. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein each of the parallelly-connected joints is driven by m driving units, the total number of the driving units being m*N, the m driving units connected to the N.sup.th joint used as an N.sup.th group of driving units, and the driving units having N groups in total.

4. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein a first platform of the first joint is connected to the driving base body, a second platform of the first joint is connected to a first platform of the second joint, and a second platform of the second joint is connected to a first platform of the third joint; a second platform of the (N1).sup.th joint is connected to a first platform of the N.sup.th joint, wherein the second platform of the (N1).sup.th joint is fixedly connected to a platform of the N.sup.th joint to form a platplate (N1); or the second platform of the (N1).sup.th joint and a first platform of the N.sup.th joint are set as the same platplate (N1).

5. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein the driving unit is composed of a linear module and a motor, wherein the linear module contains a lead screw and a sliding table, and the sliding table moves along the lead screw.

6. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein the number of the linear modules is m times the number of parallel joints in the snake arm, the same as the total number of links in all parallel joints.

7. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein the motor is a stepping motor with a brake or a decelerating stepping motor with a decelerator, the driving unit has a self-locking function, and the sliding table in the driving unit can immediately stop moving when the motor stalls or is power off.

8. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein each platform has a central through-hole in the center, and each platform has m steel wire rope through-holes evenly distributed along the circumference; a head end of the sleeve of each sleeve steel wire rope is connected to a base of the driving base body, a middle section of the sleeve steel wire rope passes through the central through-hole of each platform, and a tail end of the sleeve steel wire rope is connected to the steel wire rope through-hole of the corresponding platform; each platform is only connected to the sleeves of m steel wire ropes driving the corresponding joints; after the sleeve steel wire rope passes through the steel wire rope through-hole, the tail end is connected to the link of the joint driven thereby; and the sleeve steel wire ropes driving the other joints only pass through the central through-hole of the platform.

9. The high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 8, wherein the links are named in sequence according to the serial number names of the parallelly-connected joints, the links of the first joint are respectively links 1_m, the links of the second joint are respectively links 2_m, and the links of the N.sup.th joint are respectively links N_1, N_2, N_3, . . . , N_m, wherein the sleeve steel wire ropes are connected in such a manner that: as for m sleeve steel wire ropes for driving the N.sup.th joint, head ends of the sleeves are connected to the base of the driving base body and tail ends are connected to m steel wire rope through-holes of the platform (N1), the head ends of the steel wire rope thereof are connected to the N.sup.th group of driving units, the tail ends of the steel wire rope thereof are respectively connected to the links N_m of the N.sup.th joint, and the distance between the position where the steel wire rope and the link are connected and the platform (N1) is L.sub.N, wherein L.sub.1, L.sub.2, . . . , L.sub.N are any constant values.

10. A method for operating a high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance according to claim 1, wherein a group of driving units connected to the N.sup.th joint move cooperatively to drive the N.sup.th joint to move to a corresponding position, and each group of the driving units move cooperatively to realize the motion of the snake arm.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0030] The advantages of the above and/or additional aspects of the present invention will become apparent and easily understood by the following description of the embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

[0031] FIG. 1 is a structural schematic diagram showing a snake arm of the present invention in a straightened state;

[0032] FIG. 2 is a local structural schematic diagram showing a snake arm of the present invention;

[0033] FIG. 3 is a structural schematic diagram showing a parallelly-connected joint of the present invention;

[0034] FIG. 4 is a structural schematic diagram showing the inside of the driving base body of the present invention;

[0035] FIG. 5 is a structural schematic diagram showing a snake arm according to the present invention in a bent state.

[0036] In the figure: 1driving base body, 11housing, 12base board, 13linear module, 131sliding table, 132motor, 2snake arm, 21sleeve steel wire rope, 22fixed link, 23fixed platform, 231central through-hole, 232steel wire rope through-hole, 24movable linkage, 241, 243universal joint, 242link, 25, 26movable platform.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0037] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without involving any inventive effort fall within the scope of protection of the Invention.

[0038] In the present invention, the terms install, connect with, connect to, fix, front and back, left and right, inside and outside, up and down and the like are to be interpreted broadly on the basis of the device, for example, connected may be a fixed connection, may be a detachable connection, or may be integrally connected; connect with can be either directly or indirectly connected with something through an intermediary. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by a person skilled in the art according to specific circumstances.

[0039] In the following embodiments of the present invention, a high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance includes a driving base body and a snake shaped arm, where one end of the snake shaped arm is connected to the driving base body, and the other end can be connected to an end effector or be installed with other instruments and equipment; the driving base body is a centralized driving part; the snake shaped arm is a moving part; the snake shaped arm is composed of a plurality of parallelly-connected joints connected in series, and respectively referred to as a first joint, a second joint, . . . , and an N.sup.th joint according to the distance from the driving base body.

[0040] A parallelly-connected joint is a multi-link parallelly-connected mechanism, the number of links is m, and m is greater than or equal to 3, and can be formed by parallel connection of three identical linkages, such as a 3UU mechanism, where two ends each has a platform, and the platforms are respectively referred to as a platform A and a platform B according to the distance from the driving base body. According to the existing relevant theory, when one of the platforms, such as the platform A, is fixed, the platform B can perform spherical translational motion relative to the platform A, and the two platforms always remain to be parallel with each other.

[0041] The two ends of the linkage mechanism (multi-link parallelly-connected mechanism) each include a universal joint, the middle of linkage mechanism are links, and the links are named in a certain order according to the number names of parallelly-connected joints, the links of the first joint are respectively links 1_1, 1_2 and 1_3, the links of the second joint are respectively links 2_1, 2_2 and 2_3. and the links of the N.sup.th joint are respectively links N_1, N_2 and N_3.

[0042] The platform A of the first joint is connected to the driving base body, the platform B of the first joint is connected to the platform A of the second joint, and the platform B of the second joint is connected to the platform A of the third joint, . . . , the platform B of the (N1).sup.th joint is connected to the platform A of the N.sup.th joint, the platform B of the first joint and the platform A of the second joint can be the same platform or can be two different platforms fixedly connected in a known manner, and can be considered as a whole motion, and are considered as the same platform herein, and the platforms of each joint are respectively referred to as platplates 0, 1, 2, . . . , and N.

[0043] A plurality of driving units are installed in the driving base body, each driving unit is respectively connected to a link in a parallelly-connected joint via a steel wire rope, each of the parallelly-connected joints is driven by m driving units, the total number of the driving units being m*N, the m driving units connected to the first joint being referred to as a first group of driving units, the m driving units connected to the second joint being referred to as a second group of driving units, . . . , the m driving units connected to the N.sup.th joint being referred to as an N.sup.th group of driving units, and the driving units having N groups in total.

[0044] The driving unit is composed of a linear module and a motor, wherein the linear module includes a lead screw and a sliding platform, the sliding platform moves on the lead screw, the motor is a stepping motor with a brake or a decelerating step motor with a decelerator, the driving unit has a self-locking function, and the sliding platform in the driving unit can immediately stop moving when the motor stalls or is power off.

[0045] The steel wire rope is a sleeve steel wire rope provided with a sleeve outside and a steel wire rope inside, and the steel wire rope can slide inside the sleeve, and the sleeve serves as a guide pipeline for the steel wire rope.

[0046] As for platforms 0, 1, 2, . . . , and N, each platform has a large through-hole in the center, and m smaller steel wire rope through-holes are evenly distributed along the circumference of the large through-hole; a head end of the sleeve of the sleeve steel wire rope is connected to a base of the driving base body, a middle section of the rope passes through the central through-hole of each platform, and a tail end of the rope is connected to each platform; each platform is only connected to the m sleeve steel wires driving the joint, while the sleeve steel wires driving the other joints have no connection relationship with this platform and only pass through the centre of the platform.

[0047] The sleeve steel wire ropes are connected in such a manner that: as for m sleeve steel wire ropes for driving the first joint, the head ends of the sleeves thereof are connected to the base of the driving base body, the tail ends of the sleeve thereof are connected to m steel wire rope through-holes of the platform 0, the head ends of the steel wire ropes thereof are connected to the first group of driving units, and the tail ends of the steel wire ropes thereof are respectively connected to the links 1_1, 1_2 and 1_3 of the first joint, and the distance between the position where the sleeve steel wire rope and the link are connected and the platform 0 is L.sub.1; as for m sleeve steel wire ropes for driving the second joint, their sleeve head ends are connected to the base of the driving base body and tail ends are connected to m steel wire rope through-holes of the platform 1, head ends of their steel wire ropes connected to the second group of driving units, and the tail ends of the steel wire rope respectively connected to the links 2_1, 2_2, and 2_3 of the second joint, and the distance between the connection positions of the steel wire ropes and the link and the platform 1 is L.sub.2; . . . ; as for m sleeve steel wire ropes for driving the N.sup.th joint, their sleeve head ends are connected to the base of the driving base body and tail ends are connected to m steel wire rope through-holes of the platform (N1), the head ends of the steel wire rope thereof are connected to the N.sup.th group of driving units, the tail ends of the steel wire rope thereof are respectively connected to the links N_1, N_2, and N_3 of the N.sup.th joint, and the distance between the position where the steel wire rope and the link are connected and the platform (N1) is L.sub.N.

[0048] The above-mentioned N is an integer greater than or equal to 1, L.sub.1, L.sub.2, . . . , L.sub.N are any constant values, and an appropriate value can be selected according to actual situations; a snake arm robot works in the following manner: a first group of driving units connected to the first joint move cooperatively to drive the first joint to move to a corresponding position; a second group of driving units connected to the second joint move cooperatively to drive the second joint to move to a corresponding position, . . . , m driving units connected to the N.sup.th joint move cooperatively to drive the N.sup.th joint to move to a corresponding position, and each group of the driving units move cooperatively to realize the motion of the snake arm.

[0049] Referred to FIGS. 1-5, a snake arm structure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown, wherein the high-accuracy snake arm with large load and long-distance radiation resistance includes a driving base body 1 and a snake shaped arm 2, where the driving base body 1 includes a housing 11, a base board 12 and a linear module 13, the linear module 13 is installed on the base board 12 which is connected to the snake shaped arm 2 via a fixed link 22, the other end of the fixed link 22 is connected to a fixed platform 23, and three identical movable linkages 24 are connected at one end to the fixed platform 23 and at the other end to a movable platform 25; three sleeve steel wire ropes 21 are connected at one end to a linear module 13, and at the other end to a movable linkage 24, and the movable linkage 24 is driven by the linear module 13 to realize the motion of the snake shaped arm 2.

[0050] As shown in FIG. 2, in the present embodiment, three identical movable linkages 24 are connected in parallel between the fixed platform 23 and the movable platform 25, and the fixed platform 23, the movable linkages 24 and the movable platform 25 together constitute a parallelly-connected joint. The fixed platform 23 includes a central through-hole 231 and a circumferentially evenly distributed steel wire rope through-hole 232. The fixed platform 23 is connected to the base board 12 of the driving base body 1 via three fixed links 22. Three sleeve steel wire ropes 21 are used for driving parallel joints, wherein one end of the sleeve is installed on the base board 12, and the other end of the sleeve is installed on a steel wire rope through-hole 232 of the fixed platform 23; two ends of the steel wire rope inside the sleeve steel wire rope 21 respectively extend, and one end is connected to the linear module 13, and the other end is connected to the movable linkage 24; and the remaining sleeve steel wire ropes pass through the central through-hole 231 and are connected to the next parallel joint.

[0051] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a parallelly-connected joint in the present embodiment, including a first platform 25, three identical movable linkages 24 and a second platform 26, where two ends of the movable linkage 24 are respectively connected to the first platform 25 and the second platform 26, a triangle formed by the connection points thereof is an equilateral triangle, and two ends of the movable linkage 24 respectively include a first universal joint 241 and a second universal joint 243, and the two universal joints are connected via a link 242. The first platform 25 includes a central through-hole 251 and a steel wire rope through-hole 252 uniformly distributed circumferentially, and the center of the steel wire rope through-hole 252 is located on a corner bisector of an equilateral triangle composed of the above-mentioned platform connection points. The distribution of the central through-holes and the steel wire rope through-holes on the second platform 26 is the same as that of the first platform 25, and the second platform 26 can be obtained by spatial translation of the first platform 25. The steel wire rope to which the steel wire rope through-hole 252 is connected is connected to the link 242 diagonally thereto for driving parallelly-connected joint motion. As this parallelly-connected joint moves, the platform 26 moves in a spherical translation relative to the platform 25, and the platform 26 is always parallel to the platform 25.

[0052] As shown in FIG. 4, it is a structural schematic diagram inside the driving base body in the present embodiment, the linear module 13 is installed on the base board 12 and includes a sliding table 131 and a motor 132, wherein the sliding table 131 is connected to the steel wire rope, the motor 132 drives the movement of the sliding table 131, the sliding table 131 drives the steel wire rope to pull the link on the parallelly-connected joints to move, and the three linear modules cooperate to move to pull the link on the corresponding parallel joints to realize the motion of the parallelly-connected joints. The number of linear modules 13 is three times the number of parallel joints in the snake arm, the same as the total number of links in all parallel joints.

[0053] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of the parallelly-connected joints of the present embodiment when bent, with each joint moving to a different position, allowing the tail end joint to reach a position in space.

[0054] The snake arm of the present invention can be applied to different scenarios by varying the number of parallelly-connected joints and the length, spacing, etc. of the linkages 242 in the parallelly-connected joints;

[0055] Finally, it should be noted that: while the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by a person skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.