CN201189913Y - Simplified Mechanism of Omnidirectional Motion of Spherical Robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to a simplified omnidirectional motion mechanism of a spherical robot, which relates to the technical field of spherical robots. Its walking driving device includes: a semicircular frame (5) in a vertical state, its two ends are horizontally connected to a pair of short shafts (3) passing through the center of the sphere, and the short shaft forms a rotation amplitude through the bearing and the spherical shell; the lower part of the semicircular frame Fixedly connected with a linear traveling mechanism, the mechanism is composed of a traveling motor (6), a main wheel (7), and a counterweight (8). Driven by the traveling motor, the main wheel rolls along the inner side of the spherical shell to push the sphere to move in a straight line; the semicircular frame There is a steering control mechanism on the top, which is composed of a horizontal bar (10) and a mass trolley (11) on the horizontal bar. The mass trolley moves left and right along the horizontal bar under the drive of its internal motor, so that the center of gravity of the ball shifts left and right. Thereby realizing the steering control of the spherical robot. The utility model has the advantages of simple structure, convenient control, flexible movement, good stability, and the ability to move in all directions and carry accessories.

Description

Simplified Mechanism of Omnidirectional Motion of Spherical Robot

technical field

The invention relates to a simplified omnidirectional motion mechanism of a spherical robot, which belongs to the technical field of electromechanical integration. It can be used in environmental detection, equipment diagnosis, military investigation, alien exploration, home entertainment and other fields.

Background technique

A spherical robot is an intelligent robot with a spherical shell and a rolling motion. It not only has the fast walking ability like a wheeled mobile robot, but also can move in uneven and complex terrain like a legged robot, and has strong motion continuity and good direction controllability. It is an ideal robot. Therefore, it has gradually become one of the hot spots in the field of intelligent robot research at home and abroad.

In 1996, Halme et al. proposed a spherical robot scheme in which a drive wheel was set in the spherical shell, which was driven by a motor to roll in the spherical shell, and the linear motion of the robot was realized by changing the center of gravity of the sphere (see "Motion Control of A Spherical Mobile robot", Proceedings of AMC'96-MIE, IEEE, 1996: 259-264), its disadvantage is that it cannot change the direction of motion; a spherical robot designed by Bhattacharya et al. in the United States in 2000 (see "Design, Experiments and Motion Planning of aSpherical Rolling Robot", Proceeding of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics&Automation San Francisco, CA. April 2000), a pair of mutually perpendicular motors are set on the plane passing through the center of the spherical shell to control an independent turntable respectively. Change the speed of the motor to realize the omnidirectional rolling of the sphere. Roball is a spherical robot scheme proposed by Francois Michaud et al. (see "Autonomous Spherical Mobile Robot for Child Development Studies", IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 35(4): 1-10; the similar domestic patent number is 01241360.7's utility model "spherical robot"), which hangs a heavy object on the main shaft passing through the center of the sphere, drives the spherical shell to move forward and backward in a straight line through a motor installed on the main shaft, and makes the sphere tilt left and right by driving the weight to shift left and right. Implement robot steering. The control of this scheme is simple, but the two motors must overcome the moment of inertia of the spherical shell and the moment of inertia of the heavy object respectively, so the requirements for the torque of the motor are relatively high; at the same time, since all the motors are installed on the main shaft, the transmission mechanism is relatively complicated. The lower mass sphere has a higher center of gravity.

In China, the patent No. 99253709.6 is a utility model "Autonomous Spherical Robot", which changes the position of the mass block through a DC servo motor to generate a gravity moment to drive the ball forward, and adjusts the position of the slider through another DC servo motor. Balance and turn. This solution has a flywheel, which consumes a lot of energy when starting, and has a high center of gravity and insufficient stability. In addition, the patent No. is 02128933.6 "Improved spherical robot omnidirectional walking device". There is a circular ring in the spherical shell, two supporting short shafts stretch out at both ends, and a motor on the circular ring drives the circular ring and the spherical shell to work through gear meshing. Relative rolling; a long axis is placed in the direction perpendicular to the short axis in the ring, and a counterweight is placed in the center of the long axis. Another motor on the ring drives the spherical shell and the counterweight through gear meshing to make a relative movement around the long axis. scroll. This solution has a complex structure and a high center of gravity, making it difficult to mount accessories on the outside, making charging and maintenance difficult.

Generally speaking, the existing spherical robot schemes have their own advantages and disadvantages, but most of them have the disadvantages of complex structure, difficult engineering realization and low practicability. In particular, the steering motion of some devices is coupled with the forward motion, which makes the state or attitude of the internal driving mechanism of the ball uncertain, which increases the difficulty of control; the center of gravity of the ball is high, making climbing and obstacle climbing capabilities insufficient; there is no external fixed interface or Accessories cannot be mounted outside the spherical shell, causing difficulties in charging and maintenance, and restricting the effective use of various environmental detection sensors or manipulators, reducing the practicability of the spherical robot. The above-mentioned problems limit the popularization and application of spherical robots to a large extent.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to propose a spherical robot structure with simplified structure, convenient control, good stability, strong practicability, good anti-vibration and impact resistance, and can move in all directions, and can carry accessories outside the spherical shell program to overcome the deficiencies of existing programs.

The technical solution of the present invention is: the omnidirectional motion simplified mechanism of the spherical robot is composed of a spherical shell and a walking driving device inside it. Among them, the walking driving device includes a semicircular frame in a vertical state, and its two ends are horizontally connected to a pair of short shafts passing through the center of the sphere, and the short shaft forms a rotating range through the bearing and the spherical shell; , the mechanism is composed of a walking motor, a main wheel and a counterweight. Driven by the walking motor, the main wheel rolls along the inner side of the spherical shell, so that the center of gravity of the ball moves forward and backward to push the ball to move in a straight line; there is a steering control mechanism above the semicircular frame. It consists of a horizontal rod and a mass trolley on it. Driven by its internal motor, the mass trolley moves left and right along the horizontal rod, causing the center of gravity of the ball to shift left and right, causing the ball to tilt left and right to realize the steering control of the spherical robot.

The advantages of this program are:

1) The structure is simple, the cost is low, and it is easy to realize;

2) The center of gravity is always under the sphere, the system has good stability and fast response, and can realize special motion modes such as climbing and stationary on the slope;

3) Two motors respectively control the linear motion and steering motion of the sphere, and the control mode is decoupled, realizing the omnidirectional motion and small radius steering of the spherical robot; at the same time, the driving mode of the main wheel and the trolley has lower requirements on characteristics such as motor torque, which is easy to motor selection;

4) The linear walking mechanism and the quality trolley are equipped with pressure regulators to adjust the contact force between the main wheel and the spherical shell, the quality trolley and the horizontal rod, which can effectively improve the vibration resistance of the spherical robot;

5) The movement range of the mass trolley or linear motor is limited to the semi-circular frame, so the connection between all electrical components will not be entangled, and there is no need for electrical slip rings, which is conducive to centralized and unified control;

6) When the hollow short shaft extends out of the spherical shell, it can be equipped with accessories (for loading cameras, various attitude or environmental sensors, antennas, batteries, charging ports, counterweights, etc.), thereby improving the practical value of the spherical robot;

7) When the spherical shell is wrapped with lightweight air-inflating sealing material, the outer diameter of the spherical shell becomes larger, which can improve the water surface walking ability and impact resistance of the spherical robot.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view of the overall structure of an embodiment 1 of the present invention.

2 is a schematic top view of the overall structure of Embodiment 1.

Marking names in the figure: 1. Spherical shell, 2. Base, 3. Short shaft, 4. Bearing, 5. Semicircular frame, 6. Traveling motor, 7. Main wheel, 8. Counterweight, 9. Accessory, 10. Horizontal bar, 11, quality dolly.

Detailed ways

As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, Embodiment 1 of the present invention is: a spherical robot omni-directional movement simplified mechanism, which is composed of a spherical shell 1 and a walking drive device inside it. Wherein the walking driving device comprises a semicircular frame 5 in a vertical state, and its two ends are horizontally fixedly connected to a pair of short shafts 3 crossing the center of the sphere, and the short shaft 3 forms a rotating range through the bearing 4 and the spherical shell 1; the semicircular frame 5 A linear walking mechanism is fixed at the bottom, which consists of a traveling motor 6, a main wheel 7 and a counterweight 8. Driven by the traveling motor 6, the main wheel 7 rolls along the inner side of the spherical shell 1, so that the center of gravity of the ball moves forward and backward to push the ball in a straight line. Movement; there is a steering control mechanism above the semicircular frame 5, which is composed of a horizontal bar 10 and a quality trolley 11 located on it. The mass trolley 11 moves left and right along the horizontal bar 10 under the drive of its internal motor, so that the center of gravity of the ball Left and right offset, so as to realize the steering control of the spherical robot.

In this embodiment, the main wheel 7 and the spherical shell 1 , and the mass trolley 11 and the horizontal bar 10 are in wheel contact or gear mesh respectively. In order to prevent falling off, the quality trolley 11 and the horizontal bar 10 form an anti-falling constraint such as wrapping, and a pressure regulator is provided inside the quality trolley 11 to ensure that the quality trolley 11 has a suitable contact force when moving on the horizontal bar 10 .

As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, embodiment 2 of the present invention is: the linear traveling mechanism is the same as embodiment 1, but the horizontal rod 10 in the steering control mechanism is a screw mandrel, and the quality trolley 11 is a linear motor.

In all embodiments of the present invention, the counterweight 8 can be a battery, a circuit board or the like.

In addition, a pressure regulator is provided inside the linear traveling mechanism to ensure proper contact force when the main wheel 7 rolls in the spherical housing 1 .

In addition, the two short shafts 3 can be hollow and protrude from the spherical shell, and the accessories 9 (for loading cameras, sensors, manipulators, antennas, batteries, counterweights and expansion interfaces, etc.) are mounted in a fixed or suspended manner.

In addition, the exterior of the spherical shell 1 can be wrapped with lightweight air-inflating sealing material to increase the outer diameter of the spherical shell, thereby improving the water surface walking ability and impact resistance of the spherical robot.

Claims (7)

1. A spherical robot omni-directional movement simplified mechanism is composed of a spherical shell (1) and an internal walking drive device, characterized in that: the walking drive device includes a semicircular frame (5) in a vertical state, and its two ends are horizontal A pair of short shafts (3) passing through the center of the ball are fixedly connected, and the short shafts (3) form a rotation range through the bearing (4) and the spherical shell (1); a linear traveling mechanism is fixedly connected below the semicircular frame (5), The mechanism consists of a traveling motor (6), a main wheel (7) and a counterweight (8). Driven by the traveling motor (6), the main wheel (7) rolls along the inner side of the spherical shell (1), so that the center of gravity of the ball moves forward and backward. Thereby promoting the rectilinear motion of the spheroid; there is a steering control mechanism above the semicircular frame (5), and this mechanism is made up of a horizontal bar (10) and a quality trolley (11) positioned thereon, and the quality trolley (11) is in the position of its internal motor Driven to move left and right along the horizontal rod (10), the center of gravity of the ball is shifted left and right, causing the ball to tilt left and right so as to realize the steering control of the spherical robot. 2. The omnidirectional movement simplified mechanism of a spherical robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: said linear traveling mechanism includes a pressure regulator for adjusting the contact force between the main wheel (7) and the spherical shell (1). 3. The omni-directional motion simplified mechanism of a spherical robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: an anti-falling constraint is formed between the mass trolley (11) and the horizontal bar (10); 4. The mechanism for simplifying omni-directional motion of a spherical robot according to claim 1 or 3, characterized in that: said mass trolley (11) includes a pressure regulator for adjusting its contact force with the horizontal bar (10). 5. The spherical robot omni-directional movement simplified mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that: the horizontal rod (10) is a screw rod, and the mass trolley (11) is a linear motor. 6. The spherical robot omni-directional motion simplified mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that: the short axis (3) is hollow and extends out of the spherical shell (1) to carry accessories (9). 7. The mechanism for simplifying omni-directional movement of a spherical robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: said spherical shell (1) is wrapped with light-weight gas-inflating sealing material or vibration-absorbing material.

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