JPH0460796B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in control stick devices for human-operated manipulators.

This type of manipulator has been developed mainly in the nuclear power field, but it has not yet reached the level where an operator can control it at will with multiple degrees of freedom. In particular, manipulators for remote maintenance work that require dexterous operation have many degrees of freedom at the wrist, for example from shoulder to hand.
A control stick (master arm) with eight degrees of freedom is required, but in this case it is difficult to control each joint at will without overly constraining the operator's arms.
Among them, there is a device that penetrates the groove ring of the wrist to make it semi-fixed for maneuvering (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 54-90072), but there is still room for improvement in these. left behind.

In addition, there are more degrees of freedom than in the above example, such as bending in two directions, twisting while maintaining the bent state at the tip, and even opening and closing the finger equivalent part with one hand. There were no culms.
The problem here is particularly with respect to a manipulator that has a force sensation called a bilateral servo manipulator.

The present invention was made in view of such circumstances,
The purpose is to provide a manipulator control stick device that allows an operator to freely operate a multi-joint manipulator without being constrained except for the hands.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a grip part that is rotatable around axes perpendicular to each other with the operator's hand as an intersection point when held by an operator, and a drive shaft connected to each rotation center axis. three driving machines that respectively drive each rotation center axis to generate a reaction force on the gripping section; a shoulder joint that horizontally rotates around a vertical axis; and a mechanism between the shoulder joint and the gripping section. Rotating around an axis perpendicular to a vertical plane including a line connecting the rotation center axis of the shoulder joint and a line connecting the rotation center axis of the shoulder joint provided on the outside of the operator's arm, or in a direction along the vertical plane. It consists of an elbow joint that can move forward and backward, and the vertical plane is moved only by the movement of the shoulder joint.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an operator is operating a control stick according to the present invention. The device is comprised of a section 5, a base section 6, a foot-operated operation section 7, and the like.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the control stick, and in this control stick, the operating axis for bending and rotating (twisting) the wrist in two directions is at a point 11, and the point 11 and the shoulder horizontal rotation axis 31 are connected to each other. The vertical plane AB including the straight line connecting the two is configured such that it does not change depending on the operation of the elbow joints 2 and 25. That is, this vertical plane AB moves only by the pivoting of the shoulder 3. Possible ways to achieve this are as follows.

(1) The joint of elbow 2 is aligned with the horizontal axis perpendicular to plane AB.
It should be structured so that it rotates around the CD (swinging up and down).

(2) The joint of the elbow 2 should be configured to expand and contract in parallel to the vertical plane AB.

In this embodiment, method (2) above is adopted, and as shown in the figure, parallel links 251, 252, 25
3,254 are provided, and these are connected to gears 255, 256.
It is linked in In addition, linear expansion and contraction may be realized by cylinder driving.

If the joint of the elbow part 2 is on the vertical plane AB, it may be used as a torsion joint, but it is not allowed to overlap with the operator's arm 81, so the elbow part 2 should be separated from the vertical plane AB as shown in the figure. It must be placed in the correct position. Therefore, if a torsion joint is used in this case, the point 11 will be displaced from the vertical plane AB due to the twist, and the torsion joint cannot be used after all.

In Figure 2, the right arm control stick faces forward (upward in the figure), and the stroke of the extendable part of the elbow 2 is E _R
On the other hand, that of the extendable part of the elbow part 2' of the left arm control stick, which is constructed symmetrically with the right arm control stick, is
E _L , the shoulder 3' pivots by an angle θ ₁ , the handle 1' is bent by an angle θ ₂ , and the center of rotation 11' is located in the vertical plane containing the straight line A'B'. are doing.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the handle of this manipulator;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the driven manipulator operated by this manipulator.

In Fig. 3, 101 is a square bar-shaped handle;
Reference numerals 2 and 103 indicate switches for related operations such as opening and closing the finger portions, 104 and 105 indicate holes into which the operator inserts his/her fingers, and 106 indicates a ring for supporting the handle 101, respectively.

The outer periphery of the end of the ring 106 is geared as shown in FIG.
11. The handle 101 is configured to be able to generate rotational force by a driving machine 112. As a result, a reaction force is generated against the twisting of the wrist of the operator who is gripping the handle 101, and a torque for force return control is generated.

An annular ring 106 of the handle 101 is received by a frame 108 via a bearing 107. And frame 1
A gear 114 is fixed around a vertical shaft 113 of 08, and the frame 108 and handle 101 are configured to rotate integrally about the vertical shaft FG by a drive machine 116 and gear 115 fixed to a frame 117 that receives the vertical shaft 113. The center of this rotational axis also passes through point 11.

Further, a frame 117 is supported by a shaft 122 so as to be rotatable around an axis HJ forming an angle β with respect to the vertical axis FG, and a bevel gear 118 rotatable around the shaft 122 is fixed to the frame 117.

The frame 117 is rotated by a drive machine 121 fixed to the frame 123 via gears 120 and 118.

The above mechanism has a twistable handle inside the gimbal mechanism, and its three axes intersect at one point.
In this respect, it can be said that the device is configured so that the operator can hold it in his/her hand.

The frame 123 shown in FIG. 3 is a rod fixing hole 124.
, which is connected to the elbow part 2 by a rod 100 shown in FIG.

Next, we will discuss the weight balance, which is important for this type of control stick.

The balance with respect to the vertical axis FG can be maintained by making the gear 111 cup-shaped and positioning the center of gravity including the drive unit 112 on the FG line, as shown in FIG.

In addition, the balance around the HJ axis is the moment of the gear 111 and the driver 112 around the HJ axis, and the balance of the gears 114, 115, the driver 116, the frame 117, etc.
This can be maintained by matching the moment around the HJ axis, but this balance can be adjusted by attaching a balance weight 119 shown in Figure 3. These own weights and the joint frame 123 and the second
The moment about the CD axis shown in the figure is balanced by a balance weight 21.

The fact that the balance weight is small in this way,
This is effective in making the control stick small, lightweight, and easy to handle.

With the above configuration, the operator can perform dexterous operations simply by grasping the handle 101, as will be explained below.

First, auxiliary operations such as opening and closing the fingers of the manipulator are performed by operating the switches 102 and 103. In addition, these switches 102, 10
3 may be relocated to an appropriate position on the handle 101 so that the fingertips can easily reach it.

By twisting the handle 101 about an axis that passes through point 11 in FIG. 3 and is perpendicular to the plane of the paper, a twist equivalent to the twist of a human wrist or more can be achieved. Note that the reaction force is generated by the drive machine 112.

Bending the wrist in two directions is achieved by rotating the FG axis and the HJ axis with point 11 as the intersection point.

Also, the operation of the handle 101 in the vertical direction is as shown in Figure 2 CD.
This is possible by twisting about the shaft, and the movement of the handle 101 along line AB in FIG. Furthermore, the movement of the handle 101 to the left in FIG. 2 is made possible by the rotation of the horizontal pivot shaft 3 of the shoulder.

As described above, the handle 101 can be operated in any direction.

Although the driving mechanism for the elbow and shoulder was not explained in the above explanation, since automatic balancing of the elbow and shoulder joints is not required in the present invention, the driving mechanism of the required size can be set as shown in Fig. 2. It may be incorporated into parts 2, 26, and 3.

Further, an angle detector or a torque sensor can be attached to the driving machine near the driving machine to perform bilateral servo control.

The mounting portion indicated by 4 in FIG. 2 can be provided with a mechanism for adjusting the angle within the horizontal plane, if necessary. 5
The mechanism for adjusting the height according to the height of the operator shown in can be a known mechanism. Pedals such as other moving mechanisms shown at 7 may be provided as appropriate.

Furthermore, in the above description and FIGS. 3 and 4, axis 1
Gears 114 and 11 are used to drive gears 13 and 122.
5, 118, 120 are used, but this is to make it easier to balance the gravity of the driving machines 116, 121 as close to the center point 11 as possible, and the shafts 113, 122 are used without using gears. It is also possible to connect the shafts of the drive machines 116, 121 to.

The control stick of the manipulator according to the present invention described above is used by being incorporated into the driven side manipulator shown in FIG. 5, for example. In the manipulator shown in FIG. 5, two sets of parallelogram links 01 and 02 are connected by one common link 03, and each link rotates around a vertical axis.
A multi-joint arm 05 which includes at least a telescoping arm 04 which is rotatable synchronously so as to extend and contract on a straight line in a horizontal plane and is connected to be rotatable only around a vertical axis, and a distal end portion of the multi-joint arm 05. This manipulator is characterized by comprising a working hand mechanism 06 which is rotatably mounted around a horizontal axis.

The manipulator control stick of the present invention has the advantage of extremely good maneuverability in operating such a manipulator, etc., and increased work efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an operator is operating the control stick according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, Fig. 3 is a plan view of the handle, and Fig. 4 is Fig. 3- The line sectional view and FIG. 5 are perspective views of the driven side manipulator. In the drawing, 1,101 is a handle part, 2 is an elbow part, 3 is a shoulder part, 21,119 is a balance weight, 31 is a shoulder horizontal rotation axis, 102, 103 is a switch, 10
6 is a circular ring, 110, 111, 114, 115, 1
18, 120 are gears, and 112, 116, 121 are drive machines.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A gripping part that is freely rotatable around axes perpendicular to each other with the operator's hand as an intersection point when held by an operator, and a drive shaft is connected to each rotational center axis and drives each rotational center axis to drive the above-mentioned three driving machines that generate a reaction force on the gripping part; a shoulder joint that horizontally rotates around a vertical axis; and a part on the outside of the operator's arm between the shoulder joint and the gripping part. an elbow joint that is rotatable around an axis perpendicular to a vertical plane including a line connecting the intersection of the rotational center axis and the rotational center axis of the shoulder joint, or that is freely movable forward and backward in a direction along the vertical plane; A control stick device for a manipulator, characterized in that a vertical plane is moved only by the movement of the shoulder joint.