JPH0317629B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a joint device used in a robot manipulator, etc., and particularly relates to a joint device having three degrees of freedom capable of operating in east-west, north-south, and rotational directions. .

Prior art The conventional joint device described above is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 53-83265.
This is known as the operating device described in the above publication. This conventional example has 3 actuators.
Electric motors are installed offset from the joint, and a transmission mechanism is used to drive each member with each degree of freedom, and the joint has three degrees of freedom by combining three gears. , and has a configuration in which the center of rotation of the three degrees of freedom is concentrated at one point.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional joint device described above, the rotation center of three degrees of freedom is concentrated at one point and the joint is constructed by combining gears, so the joint part is large and The big problem was that it was heavy.

Means and Effects for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a joint device that can reduce the size and weight of the joint device as a whole, and its configuration is as follows: , the first arm and the second arm are connected via a spherical joint, and points A and B on both sides in the north-south direction with respect to the axis of the first arm, and points C on both sides in the east-west direction with respect to the axis of the second arm, respectively. D is connected to each other by a telescopic actuator,
By telescoping each telescoping actuator, the first
With respect to the arm, the second arm is bent in the north-south direction, east-west direction, and rotated in the left and right directions.

1 to 4 show the basic configuration and operation of the joint device according to the present invention, and 1 in the figure shows the first
Arm 2 is a second arm, and both arms 1 and 2 are connected via a spherical joint 3 so as to be bendable and rotatable.

Points A and B on both sides in the north-south direction with respect to the axis of the first arm 1 and points C and D on both sides in the east-west direction of the second arm 2 are telescopic actuators 4a, 4b, 4c,
They are connected at 4d. That is, point A on the south side of the first arm 1 and points C and D on the east and west sides of the second arm 2.
are connected by the first and second telescopic actuators 4a and 4b, and the north point B of the first arm 1 and the east and west points C and D of the second arm 2 are connected to the third and fourth telescopic actuators 4a and 4b. They are connected by telescopic actuators 4c and 4d. The lengths of the telescopic actuators 4a, -4d in the basic posture are the same.

The basic operation in the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

(1) Pitch in the north-south direction (i) When bending in the south direction, as shown in Figure 2, the first and second telescopic actuators 4a connected to point A on the south side of the first arm 1 ,4b
The third shortened by the same amount and connected to point B on the north side,
The fourth telescopic actuators 4c and 4d are extended by the same amount.

(ii) When bending to the north, each set of telescopic actuators described above operates in the opposite direction.

(2) East-west bending (Yaw) (i) When bending to the east, as shown in Figure 3, the bend is at both points A and B of the first arm 1 and point C on the east side of the second arm 2. The connected first and third telescopic actuators 4a and 4c are shortened by the same amount,
Second and fourth telescopic actuators 4 on the opposite side
Stretch b and 4d by the same amount.

(ii) When bending in the west direction, each set of expansion/contraction actuators is operated in the opposite direction.

(3) Roll (i) When rotating clockwise, as shown in Fig. 4, the first and fourth telescopic actuators 4a and 4d are shortened by the same amount and the second and third telescopic actuators 4
Stretch b and 4c by the same amount.

(ii) Left rotation operates each set of telescopic actuators described above in the opposite manner.

Example An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

In this example, pinna muscle was used for each elastic actuator. The same reference numerals are assigned to each of the pinna muscle muscles to correspond to the reference numbers assigned to the telescopic actuator shown in FIG. Each of the pincushion muscles 4a, to 4d is connected to a pressure source 8 via pressure control valves 6a, 6b, 6c, and 6d controlled by a controller 5. 7a, 7b,
Reference numerals 7c and 7d are pressure gauges that detect the pressure of each of the muscle muscles 4a and 4d and feed back to the controller 5.

The above-mentioned Matsukiben muscles 4a, ~4d are designed to contract when the internal pressure is increased, and expand when the internal pressure is lowered.
The effect when using is explained below.

(1) North-south direction bending (Pitch) The first and second Matsukin Bens 4a, 4b and the third and fourth Matsukin Bens 4c, 4d are paired, respectively, and the pressure control valves 6a, - 6d are used to control the former pair. The internal pressure of the latter is P ₁ and the internal pressure of the latter is P ₂
When, bending to the south P ₁ > P ₂ Bent to the north P ₁ < P ₂ Neutral P ₁ = P ₂ (2) Bending in the east-west direction (Yaw) 1st and 3rd pine needles 4a, 4c and the second and fourth Matsukinben muscles 4b and 4d are respectively paired, and when the internal pressure of the former is P ₃ and the internal pressure of the latter is P ₄ , bending to the east P ₃ < P ₄ Bending to the west P ₃ > P ₄ Neutral P ₃ = P ₄ (3) Roll The internal pressure of the second and third Matsukin Benis muscles 4b and 4c and the first and fourth Matsukin Benb muscles 4a and 4d are each paired as a pair. P ₅ , and when the internal pressure of the latter is P ₆ , counterclockwise rotation P ₅ <P ₆ clockwise rotation P ₅ >P ₆ neutral P ₅ =P ₆ Note that another example of the telescopic actuator is a shape memory alloy.

In this specification, directions with respect to the axis are expressed as east, west, north, south, but this is for convenience and merely indicates mutual relative directions with respect to the axis, and the directions are not limited.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, the first arm 1 and the second arm 2
By constructing the joint portion connecting the joints with the spherical joint 3 and four telescopic actuators, it is possible to reduce the size and weight of the entire joint device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram, FIGS. 2 to 4 are basic operation diagrams, and FIG. be. 1 is a first arm, 2 is a second arm, 3 is a spherical joint, and 4a, to 4d are telescopic actuators.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 The first arm 1 and the second arm 2 are connected by a spherical joint 3
Points A and B on both sides of the axis of the first arm 1 in the north-south direction and points C and D on both sides of the axis of the second arm 2 in the east-west direction are connected to telescopic actuators 4a and 4d, respectively. A joint device characterized by being connected at.