CN105818160A - Universal robot joints and robot arm - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention proposes a robot universal joint and a robot arm. The serial and/or parallel connection between the robot universal joints can be realized through the first interface terminal and the second interface terminal uniformly mounted on each joint, conveniently A multi-degree-of-freedom robot system is combined; through the design of the same rotation axis and synchronous rotation of the force transmission axis and the electrical signal, the user only needs to plug in the operation, that is, the physical connection can also be completed at the same time. The connection of the circuit is convenient. use, and at the same time avoid the entanglement of signal and power lines when the robot arm rotates; each general-purpose joint has an independent bus address and an independent motor servo control system, compared with the external motor control system of the traditional controller, the bus structure is reduced. The number of external connections of the joints is reduced, the high-frequency noise outside the joints is reduced, and it is convenient to quickly find the problems of the corresponding bus nodes and carry out modular replacement, which is convenient for networked control and management.

Description

Robot universal joint and robot arm

technical field

The invention relates to the field of robot manufacturing, in particular to a robot universal joint and a robot arm.

Background technique

Usually, the robot arm needs to be composed of multiple joints, and the physical connection and electrical connection between the joints need to be completed independently, which increases the workload; in addition, when the joints are moving, it is easy to cause the cables to be entangled or even knotted, which reduces the lifespan and The risk of short circuit and open circuit of the equipment is increased; in addition, under normal circumstances, the number of signal lines and power lines will also double with the increase in the number of joints, causing the multi-joint robot to move due to connection problems. Excessive quantity will increase the extra load of the system, and will also increase the difficulty and cost of production during production; moreover, when the system fails, the complex arm structure is not conducive to repair and maintenance.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a modular robot universal joint and robot arm, which can realize the synchronous completion of the physical connection and electrical connection between the joints, as well as the network management of all joints, and solve the problem of the robot arm during the movement process. It is easy to cause the problem of cable knotting and entanglement.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention proposes a robot universal joint, comprising: a housing (11), a motor and a control unit, and a first interface terminal (13) and a second interface arranged on different sides of the housing. A terminal (14), wherein the first interface terminal includes a force transmission shaft and a first electrical interface fixed at one end of the force transmission shaft, the second interface terminal includes a force transmission shaft and a second electrical interface, the The second electrical interface is fixed inside the other end of the force transmission shaft, both of which have the same rotation axis or translation track, and can rotate or translate synchronously; the first interface terminal is the force and electrical connection between the joint and the upper joint. The second interface terminal is the force and electrical interface between the joint and the joint at the next level; the electrical signals of the first interface terminal and the second interface terminal are connected inside the joint.

Further, in the universal joint of the robot, the motor and control unit also includes a motor (16), a motor servo control board (12) and a slip ring or slide rail mechanism (19) arranged inside the housing , the first interface terminal (13) is connected to the motor servo control board (12) and the slip ring or slide rail mechanism (19) respectively through connecting cables for signal connection; the motor servo control board (12) and the The signal line of the slip ring or slide rail mechanism (19) is connected to the power line; the signal line of the slip ring or slide rail mechanism (19) is connected to the power line and the signal line of the second signal interface (14) is connected to the power line, The rotation shaft or translation track of the motor is connected with the force transmission shaft (17) of the second interface terminal.

Further, in the said universal joint of the robot, the connecting cable includes a bus signal and a power signal, and the bus signal is a wired bus or a wireless bus.

Further, in the universal joint of the robot, the motor servo control board (12) includes a microprocessor, a motor driver and a motor angle sensor; the control algorithm of the motor servo control driver is feedforward control, feedback control or A combination of the two; the control object is position control, speed control, force control or a combination of the above; the driving object of the motor servo control driver is a DC brush motor, a DC brushless motor, a stepping motor, an AC motor, an ultrasonic Motor or DD motor; the motor angle sensor is an incremental position encoder, an absolute position encoder, a resistive angle sensor, a speed sensor, a current sensor, a Hall element, a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope, a gravity sensor or a combination thereof .

Further, in the general robot joint, the motor servo controller (12) integrates a plurality of devices, including a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, a displacement sensor, a magnetic force line sensor, a wireless signal transmission device and a photoelectric interruption sensor.

Further, in the general robot joint, the motor and the control unit further include a reduction gear set (20), and the rotation shaft or translation track of the motor is connected with the reduction gear set and the force transmission shaft.

Further, in the universal joint of the robot, the universal joint further includes a force lock (18), and the force lock is used to lock the force transmission shaft (17).

Further, in the universal joint of the robot, the second interface terminal (14) is provided with a plug, and the first interface terminal (13) is provided with a jack, and the size of the plug and the jack are similar. match.

Further, in the robot universal joint, the first interface terminal (13) and the second interface terminal (14) are USB interfaces.

Further, in the robot universal joint, the first interface terminal and the second interface terminal adopt NFC, WiFi, Bluetooth or infrared technology for data transmission.

The present invention also proposes a robot arm, which is formed by connecting a plurality of robot universal joints as described above.

Further, the robot arm further includes an expansion part (21), and the expansion part is connected to the universal joint of the robot through a first interface terminal and a second interface terminal.

Further, in the robot arm, the surface of the expansion part is provided with a plurality of expansion plugs, and there are signal and power lines and a plurality of branch structures inside, and the signal and power lines are branched by the branch structures. It is multi-channel, and multiple universal joints of the robot are connected simultaneously through the expansion plug.

Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effect of the present invention is mainly reflected in that the serial and/or parallel connection between the universal joints of the robot can be realized through the first interface terminal and the second interface terminal carried uniformly on each joint , to easily combine a multi-degree-of-freedom robot system; through the design of the same rotation axis and synchronous rotation of the force transmission axis and the electrical signal, the user only needs to plug in the operation to complete the physical connection and complete the circuit at the same time The connection is easy to use, and it also avoids the entanglement of signal and power lines when the robot arm rotates; each general-purpose joint has an independent bus address and an independent motor servo control system. Compared with the external motor control system of the traditional controller, The bus structure reduces the number of external connections of the joints, reduces the high-frequency noise outside the joints, facilitates quick discovery of problems with the corresponding bus nodes and modular replacement, and facilitates networked control and management.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the split structure of the universal joint of the robot in the first embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a top view of the universal joint of the robot in the first embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of a cross-sectional three-dimensional structure of a robot universal joint in the first embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is the schematic structural view of the robot arm in the first embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of the robot arm in the second embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The robot universal joint and the robot arm of the present invention will be described in more detail below in conjunction with schematic diagrams, wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is represented, it should be understood that those skilled in the art can modify the present invention described here, and still realize the present invention Favorable effect. Therefore, the following description should be understood as the broad knowledge of those skilled in the art, but not as a limitation of the present invention.

In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described. In the following description, well-known functions and constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention with unnecessary detail. It should be appreciated that in the development of any actual embodiment, numerous implementation details must be worked out to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as changing from one embodiment to another in accordance with system-related or business-related constraints. Additionally, it should be recognized that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be merely a routine undertaking for those skilled in the art.

In the following paragraphs the invention is described more specifically by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. Advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims. It should be noted that all the drawings are in a very simplified form and use imprecise scales, and are only used to facilitate and clearly assist the purpose of illustrating the embodiments of the present invention.

Embodiment one

Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 , in this embodiment, a robot universal joint 10 is proposed, including: a housing 11 , a motor and a control unit, and first interface terminals arranged on different sides of the housing 11 13 and a second interface terminal 14;

Wherein, the first interface terminal 13 includes a force transmission shaft 17 and a first electrical interface fixed at one end of the force transmission shaft 17, the second interface terminal 14 includes a force transmission shaft 17 and a second electrical interface, the The second electrical interface is fixed inside the other end of the power transmission shaft 17, both of which have the same rotation axis or translation track, and can rotate or translate synchronously; the power transmission shaft 17 is provided with two ends, respectively connected to the first interface a terminal 13 and a second interface terminal 14 for transmitting force;

The first interface terminal 13 is the force and electrical interface between the current joint 10 and the upper joint 10, and the second interface terminal 14 is the force and electrical interface between the current joint 10 and the lower joint 10; the first The electrical signals of the interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 are connected inside the joint.

Specifically, the motor and control unit also includes a motor 16, a motor servo control board 12, a slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19, and a reduction gear set 20 arranged inside the housing 11, and the first interface terminal 13 is connected to the The motor servo control board 12 and the slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19 are respectively connected by connecting cables, and the signal line and power line of the slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19 and the signal line and power line of the second signal interface 14 Connected, thereby realizing the signal and power connection between the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14, and cascading can be carried out through the second interface terminal 14 and the next-level joint; the motor servo control board 12 and the The signal line of the slip ring or the slide rail mechanism 19 is connected with the power line; the rotation shaft or translation track of the motor 16 is connected with the reduction gear set 20 and the force transmission shaft 17; the connecting cable includes a bus signal and a power signal, Its bus signal can be any wired bus or wireless bus.

The signal and power lines (not shown in FIG. 3 ) are located at the center of the force transmission shaft 17 of the joint 10, and are respectively connected to the motor servo controller 12 and the second interface terminal 13 through a slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19. , the signal and power line lead the output signal of the motor servo controller 12 and the input signal of the second interface terminal 13 to the first interface terminal through the slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19 and the signal and power line 14, so as to realize the signal connection between the first interface terminal 14 and the second interface terminal 13.

The slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19 can transmit the output signal of the joint 10 to the next stage. The second interface terminal 14 is fixed inside the force transmission shaft 17 and rotates synchronously. The connection line between the slip ring or slide rail mechanism 19 and the motor servo control board 12 does not rotate synchronously with the force transmission shaft 17 . The force transmission shaft 17 can output the output signal of the joint 10 together with the joint force; the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 can not only receive torsional force or translational force through the force transmission shaft 17, but also have the ability to input or the transfer function of the output signal.

The second interface terminal 14 is provided with a plug whose size matches the jack of the first interface terminal 13, that is, the joint 10 can insert the plug of the second interface terminal 14 into the first interface terminal 13 In the slot, the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 are provided with matching signal and power interfaces, so as to realize the transmission of signals and power. In this embodiment, the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 are USB interfaces, or, the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 use NFC, WiFi, Bluetooth or infrared technology for data transmission .

In this embodiment, the motor servo control board 12 includes a microprocessor, a motor driver, and a motor angle and rotational speed sensor; the microprocessor includes a motor servo control algorithm, which can be feedforward control, feedback control or A combination of the two; the control object is position control, speed control, force control or a combination of the above; the drive object of the motor servo control driver can be a DC brushed motor, a DC brushless motor, a stepping motor, an AC motor, Ultrasonic motor or DD motor. Correspondingly, the type of the motor driver may also be any one or a combination of different motors.

The motor rotation angle and speed sensor can be an incremental position encoder, an absolute position encoder, a resistive rotation angle sensor, a speed sensor, a current sensor, a Hall element, a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope, a gravity sensor or a combination thereof. It is used to detect joint rotation angle or rotational speed.

The motor servo controller 12 can also integrate multiple devices, including a gyro sensor that can measure the 1-3 degrees of freedom attitude of the joint 10, and can measure the translational acceleration, velocity, and displacement acceleration of the 1-3 degrees of freedom of the joint. The acceleration sensor, the displacement sensor to measure the displacement, the magnetic field line sensor to measure the direction of the magnetic field, the wireless signal transmission device and the photoelectric interruption sensor for the initial position setting of the motor.

The motor servo control board 12 is capable of receiving joint rotation angle or rotational speed command signals and converting the signals into high-frequency smooth track signals, and controlling the joints 10 to complete command actions through feedback control or a combination of feedback and feedforward control.

In this embodiment, please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 , the universal joint 10 further includes a force lock 18 for locking the force transmission shaft 17 .

In addition, in the robot universal joint 10, because there is no exposed wire outside, it is easy to seal the shell 11, the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 through corresponding sealing materials using sealing technology, which can be moisture-proof and waterproof. , dust-proof, pressure-proof and other designs, thereby expanding the application scenarios of the universal joint 10.

In another aspect of this embodiment, a robot arm is also proposed, as shown in FIG. 4 , which is formed by connecting multiple robot universal joints 10 as described above.

Each robot universal joint 10 is connected through the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14, that is, the second signal terminal 14 is inserted into the first interface terminal 13 to realize a plug-in connection mode, and at the same time Signal transmission can also be realized.

Embodiment two

In this embodiment, the robot universal joint 10 is the same as the first embodiment, the difference is that it can be applied to different robot arms, please refer to FIG. An expansion part 21 is included, and the expansion part 21 is connected with the robot universal joint 10 through the first interface terminal 13 and the second interface terminal 14 . The surface of the expansion part 21 is provided with a plurality of expansion plugs (not shown in the figure), and is provided with signal and power lines and a plurality of branch structures (not shown in the figure), and the signal and power lines are connected by the branch The structure is divided into multiple paths, and multiple universal joints 10 of the robot are simultaneously connected through the expansion plug, so as to meet the requirements for robot arm control. Specifically, the number of robot universal joints 10 needed for a robot arm can be installed according to different needs, and the size, size, shape, etc. of the expansion part 21 are also determined according to actual requirements, and are not limited here.

To sum up, in the robot universal joint and the robot arm provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the serial and/or Parallel connection makes it easy to combine a multi-degree-of-freedom robot system; through the design of the same rotation axis and synchronous rotation of the force transmission axis and the electrical signal, the user only needs to plug in the operation, that is, the physical connection can be completed at the same time. The connection of the circuit is convenient to use, and it also avoids the winding of the signal and power lines when the robot arm rotates; each general-purpose joint has an independent bus address and an independent motor servo control system, which is different from the external motor control system of the traditional controller. Compared with the bus structure, the number of external connections of the joints is reduced, the high-frequency noise outside the joints is reduced, and it is convenient to quickly find the problem of the corresponding bus node and carry out modular replacement, which is convenient for networked control and management. In addition, it only needs to be installed during installation. Plugging and unplugging reduces installation and manufacturing costs.

The foregoing are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not limit the present invention in any way. Any person skilled in the technical field, within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention, makes any form of equivalent replacement or modification to the technical solution and technical content disclosed in the present invention, which does not depart from the technical solution of the present invention. The content still belongs to the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (13)

1. a robot universal joint, it is characterized in that, described universal joint includes housing (11), first interface terminal (13) that motor with control unit and is arranged on the different both sides of described hull outside and the second Interface Terminal (14), wherein, described first interface terminal includes power transmission axle and is fixed on first electric interfaces of described power transmission axle one end, described second Interface Terminal includes power transmission axle and the second electric interfaces, described second electric interfaces is fixed on the inside of the described power transmission axle other end, both have same rotary shaft or translation track, can synchronous rotary or translation；Described first interface terminal is this joint and the power in upper level joint and electric interfaces, and described second Interface Terminal is this joint and the power in next stage joint and electric interfaces；Described first interface terminal is connected at intra articular with the electric signal of described second Interface Terminal.

2. robot as claimed in claim 1 universal joint, it is characterized in that, described motor and control unit also include being arranged on the motor (16) of described enclosure interior, motor Servo Control Board (12) and slip ring or sliding track mechanism (19), and described first interface terminal (13) and described motor Servo Control Board (12) and slip ring or sliding track mechanism (19) carry out signal connection by being connected cable respectively；Described motor Servo Control Board (12) is connected with power line with the holding wire of described slip ring or sliding track mechanism (19)；The holding wire of described slip ring or sliding track mechanism (19) is connected with power line with the holding wire of power line with secondary signal interface (14), and the power transmission axle (17) of the rotary shaft of described motor or translation track and the second Interface Terminal is connected.

3. robot as claimed in claim 2 universal joint, it is characterised in that described connection cable includes bus signals and power supply signal, and its bus signals is wired bus or wireless bus.

4. robot as claimed in claim 2 universal joint, it is characterised in that described motor Servo Control Board (12) includes microprocessor, motor driver and motor angle sensor or displacement transducer；The control algolithm of described motor SERVO CONTROL driver is the feedforward, feedback control or a combination of both；Control object is position control, speed controlling, power control or is combinations of the above；The driven object of described motor SERVO CONTROL driver is direct-current brush motor, DC Brushless Motor, stepper motor, alternating current motor, ultrasonic motor or DD motor；Described motor angle sensor is incremental position encoder, absolute position coder, resistance-type rotary angle transmitter, speed probe, current sensor, Hall element, geomagnetic sensor, gyroscope, gravity sensor or a combination thereof.

5. robot as claimed in claim 2 universal joint, it is characterized in that, the upper integrated multiple devices of described motor servo controller (12), interdict sensor including gyrosensor, acceleration transducer, displacement transducer, magnetic line of force sensor, wireless signal transmitter part and photoelectricity.

6. robot as claimed in claim 2 universal joint, it is characterised in that described motor and control unit also include train of reduction gears (20), and rotary shaft or the translation track of described motor are connected with described train of reduction gears and power transmission axle.

7. robot as claimed in claim 1 universal joint, it is characterised in that described universal joint also includes that power locks (18), described power lock is used for locking described power transmission axle (17).

8. robot as claimed in claim 1 universal joint, it is characterised in that described second Interface Terminal (14) place is provided with plug, and described first interface terminal (13) place is provided with jack, and the size of described plug and jack matches.

9. robot as claimed in claim 1 universal joint, it is characterised in that described first interface terminal (13) and the second Interface Terminal (14) are USB interface.

10. robot as claimed in claim 1 universal joint, it is characterised in that described first interface terminal and the second Interface Terminal use NFC, WiFi, bluetooth or infrared technique to carry out data transmission.

11. 1 kinds of robot arms, it is characterised in that use multiple as in claim 1 to 10 any one robot universal joint be connected to form.

12. robot arms as claimed in claim 11, it is characterised in that also include expanding parts (21), described expansion parts are all connected by first interface terminal and the second Interface Terminal with described robot universal joint.

13. robot arms as claimed in claim 12, it is characterized in that, described expansion parts surface is provided with multiple expansion plug, inside it is provided with signal and power line and multiple Bifurcation Structure, described signal and power line are divided into multichannel by described Bifurcation Structure, and are simultaneously connected with multiple described robots universal joint by described expansion plug.