A New Extensible Continuum Manipulator Using Flexible Parallel Mechanism and Rigid Motion Transmission
A New Extensible Continuum Manipulator Using Flexible Parallel Mechanism and Rigid Motion Transmission
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DOI：
10.1115/detc2020-22173
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发表时间：
2020-08
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通讯作者：
Yujiong Liu;Pinhas Ben-Tzvi
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文献类型：
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作者：
Yujiong Liu;Pinhas Ben-Tzvi
一个可扩展的连续体机械手（ECM）具有特定的优势，其不可扩展的同行。例如，在某些应用中，诸如微创手术或管道检查，基部运动可能被限制或不允许。附加的可扩展性为机器人提供了更灵巧的操作和更大的工作空间。现有的连续体机器人设计主要通过人工肌肉/气动，可扩展的骨干，同心管，和基础的扩展，本文提出了一种新的方式来实现这一额外的运动自由度，利用刚性耦合混合机构的概念和柔性并联机构。更具体地，齿条和小齿轮组用于传递第i个子段的运动以驱动第（i+1）个子段。一个六链柔性并联机构是用来产生所需的空间弯曲和一个扩展移动的每个子段。这样，新的机械手可以同时实现尾巴状的空间弯曲和蠕虫状的延伸。简化的运动学分析进行估计的工作空间和运动的不均匀性。一个概念验证原型集成，以验证机构的移动性和评估运动学模型的准确性。结果表明，该机构实现了所需的流动性，最大延伸率为32.2%，最大弯曲角为80 °。
An extensible continuum manipulator (ECM) has specific advantages over its nonextensible counterparts. For instance, in certain applications, such as minimally invasive surgery or pipe inspection, the base motion might be limited or disallowed. The additional extensibility provides the robot with more dexterous manipulation and a larger workspace. Existing continuum robot designs achieve extensibility mainly through artificial muscle/pneumatic, extensible backbone, concentric tube, and base extension, etc. This article proposes a new way to achieve this additional motion degree-of-freedom by taking advantage of the rigid coupling hybrid mechanism concept and a flexible parallel mechanism. More specifically, a rack and pinion set is used to transmit the motion of the i-th subsegment to drive the (i+1)-th subsegment. A six-chain flexible parallel mechanism is used to generate the desired spatial bending and one extension mobility for each subsegment. This way, the new manipulator can achieve tail-like spatial bending and worm-like extension at the same time. Simplified kinematic analyses are conducted to estimate the workspace and the motion nonuniformity. A proof-of-concept prototype was integrated to verify the mechanism’s mobility and to evaluate the kinematic model accuracy. The results show that the proposed mechanism achieved the desired mobilities with a maximum extension ratio of 32.2% and a maximum bending angle of 80 deg.