US 2026/0208374 A1Published application

Special equipment safety supervision inspection institute of jiangsu province

AssigneesSpecial Equipment Safety Supervision Inspection Institute of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Institute Of Technology

InventorsChunlei TU, Donghua SHEN, Yonghua GU, Rou CHENG, Jie LI

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Abstract

The present invention discloses a variable-rigidity continuum robot, relating to the technical field of soft robotics. The present invention includes a driving seat, a first central hole is opened at a center of the driving seat, and a spring chuck is mounted inside the first central hole. A driving unit is disposed on a sidewall of the driving seat, a ball and socket unit is deflectably connected to the driving unit, a steering ball unit is rotatably connected to the other side of the ball and socket unit, and the steering ball unit and the ball and socket unit are alternately arranged. An end of the ball and socket unit is rotatably connected to an end seat unit, and an elastic rod penetrates the steering ball unit and the ball and socket unit. In the present invention, structures of an inner friction layer, an intermediate friction layer, and an outer friction layer are disposed, a membrane balloon is inflated to expand to compress the friction layers, and a frictional force between adjacent units increases under the action of friction, so that adjacent units connected in series have a very large friction locking torque, and the bending rigidity of the entire continuum robot can be changed to a large extent.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A variable-rigidity continuum robot, comprising a driving seat (1), wherein a first central hole (113) is opened at a center of the driving seat (1), a spring chuck (12) is mounted inside the first central hole (113), a tapered portion (122) is disposed at a top of the spring chuck (12), a notch (121) is opened in a sidewall of the tapered portion (122), and a first tapered surface (111) matching the tapered portion (122) is disposed on an inner sidewall of the first central hole (113) close to a bottom;

an elastic rod (2) is detachably mounted on the spring chuck (12), and an end of the spring chuck (12) away from the tapered portion (122) extends out of an end portion of the driving seat (1) and is threadedly connected to a locking nut (13);
a driving unit (11) is disposed on a sidewall of the driving seat (1), a ball and socket unit (4) is deflectably connected to the driving unit (11), a steering ball unit (5) is rotatably connected to the other side of the ball and socket unit (4), both a plurality of steering ball units (5) and a plurality of ball and socket units (4) are disposed, and the steering ball units (5) and the ball and socket units (4) are alternately arranged;
an end of the ball and socket unit (4) is rotatably connected to an end seat unit (6), the elastic rod (2) penetrates the steering ball unit (5) and the ball and socket unit (4), and a tail end of the elastic rod (2) is detachably mounted on the end seat unit (6);
and
a plurality of driving ropes (3) are fixedly connected to the end seat unit (6), the plurality of driving ropes (3) are generally arranged in a circumferential direction, and all the plurality of driving ropes (3) penetrate the steering ball unit (5), the driving unit (11), and the driving seat (1).

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.