Octopus-tentacle-simulated curved and torsional flexible joint

Abstract

The invention relates to an octopus-tentacle-simulated curved and torsional flexible joint. The octopus-tentacle-simulated curved and torsional flexible joint comprises a flexible hollow tube, supporting end faces for sealing the two ends of the hollow tube, a first actuation structure arranged on the hollow tube and used for simulating longitudinal muscles and a second actuation structure used for simulating oblique muscles. The first actuation structure shrinks to generate bending deformation in an energized heating state to drive the hollow tube to conduct bending motion. The second actuation structure shrinks to generate bending deformation in an energized heating state to drive one end of the hollow tube to do twisting motion clockwise or anticlockwise relative to the other end of the hollow tube. Through the technical scheme, the flexible joint is not provided with any rigid transmission parts such as motor gears, excess burden brought by the rigid transmission parts to a flexible robot is avoided, and the damage risk caused by the flexible robot to the flexible robot application environment (such a human body) is reduced. The octopus-tentacle-simulated curved and torsional flexible joint is a simple and efficient novel bionic flexible joint which is low in energy consumption and convenient to control.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the field of soft robots, in particular to a flexible joint imitating the bending and twisting of octopus tentacles. Background technique [0002] Soft robots imitating octopus tentacles are a type of robot composed of single or multi-segment flexible joints without any discrete joints and rigid links. It relies on continuous deformation of flexible joints to achieve its own motion. Soft robots imitating octopus tentacles can flexibly and flexibly change their shape, suitable for operations in narrow spaces and environments with many obstacles, and can perform tasks that traditional rigid industrial robots are difficult to complete, such as nuclear power plant cooling pipeline maintenance, earthquake site personnel Search and rescue, human digestive tract or blood vessel inspection and other tasks. [0003] Bending and twisting are two important movements in the movement of octopus tentacles. However, in the existing soft ro...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] Rigid transmission structures such as traditional motors and gears are relatively large and heavy compared to soft robots. If this method is used to realize the bending and twisting motion of a soft robot imitating octopus tentacles, during the movement, the large and heavy Rigid structures such as conventional motors and gears would place additional burdens on soft robots

In addition, large and heavy rigid transmission structures such as traditional motors and gears have high rigidity, and have large inertia and kinetic energy during motion, which is easy to cause certain damage to the application environment of soft robots (such as the human body)

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