CN112008706B

CN112008706B - Lifting type rope-driven flexible charging robot

Info

Publication number: CN112008706B
Application number: CN202010903019.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐文福; 尤开灵; 黄健; 杨太玮; 袁晗; 梁斌
Original assignee: Shenzhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology
Current assignee: Shenzhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology
Priority date: 2020-08-31
Filing date: 2020-08-31
Publication date: 2022-02-11
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-31
Also published as: CN112008706A

Abstract

The invention relates to a lifting type rope-driven flexible charging robot which comprises a rope-driven flexible arm, a tail end charging device and a lifter. The rope drives the flexible arm to complete track motion of a charging task, the tail end charging device completes tasks of detecting a charging interface, inserting the charging interface and extracting the charging interface, and the elevator completes tasks of driving the rope to drive the flexible arm and the tail end charging device to move up and down. Whole robot can place completely in the underground when out of work, and when needs accomplished the task of charging, the lift rises to certain height, rises above ground with flexible arm of rope drive and terminal charging device, and the flexible arm of rope drive drives terminal charging device and accomplishes the task of charging. The terminal charging device is provided with a camera, a force sensor and the like, so that target detection, charging insertion and extraction force detection and the like can be realized, and the charging robot can be ensured to smoothly and safely complete a charging task.

Description

Lifting type rope-driven flexible charging robot

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the field of robots, in particular to the field of flexible robots. The invention relates to a charger robot, in particular to a lifting type rope-driven flexible charger robot.

Background

The application of the charging robots is more and more extensive, the charging robots are frequently used in the scenes of charging of household electric vehicles, charging of dock unloading vehicles and the like, the types of the charging robots are more, the most common charging robots at the present stage are all of a type that a charging head is additionally arranged at the tail end of an articulated rigid arm, a few of the charging robots are of a type that a rope-driven mechanical arm is additionally provided with a charging head, most of the charging robots are fixed in one place, and a few of the charging robots are placed on a mobile platform. The charging robot is large in size due to the fact that the load of the tail end of the mechanical arm is large, if other devices such as a protection cover of the robot are added, the whole robot occupies a large space, and meanwhile potential safety hazards exist when the robot is placed in a space where people exist.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a lifting rope-driven flexible charging robot, which aims to at least solve one of the technical problems in the prior art.

The invention provides a lifting rope-driven flexible charging robot, which comprises: the terminal charging device is provided with a charging connector which is butted with an external charging interface; a rope-driven flexible arm that maintains a state of a first direction when in a storage position; the lifter is used for supporting the rope to drive the flexible arm to perform lifting movement; wherein, the tail end of the flexible arm driven by the rope is fixedly connected with the tail end charging device; wherein, the lift include: a first-stage base fixed to a peripheral wall in the housing space in a first direction: the primary guide rail is arranged on the primary base along a first direction; a secondary base extending lengthwise in a first direction and having an interior cavity, said secondary base slidably engaging said primary track at the bottom to allow said secondary base to move linearly in a first direction; a secondary guide rail arranged along a first direction and arranged on the secondary base; a flexible arm mount having a support plane perpendicular to the first direction and fixed to the bottom of the cable-driven flexible arm, the flexible arm mount slidably engaging the secondary guide rail to allow a second linear movement of the flexible arm mount in the first direction; a drive mechanism associated with said primary and secondary bases for causing said first and second linear movements.

Further, the transmission mechanism comprises: the primary rack is fixed on the primary base and arranged along a first direction; a secondary rack fixed to the flexible arm fixing base and arranged along a first direction; and the primary gear and the secondary gear are arranged on the side part of the secondary base, wherein the primary gear is close to the bottom edge of the elongated secondary base, the secondary gear is close to the top edge of the elongated secondary base, the tooth-shaped parts of the primary rack and the secondary rack which are parallel to each other face each other, the distance between the primary rack and the secondary rack is larger than the diameter of the primary gear and the secondary gear, and the primary gear and the secondary gear are respectively kept meshed with the primary rack and the secondary rack.

Further, the transmission mechanism comprises a lifting motor arranged in the inner cavity of the secondary base, wherein the lifting motor is connected with one of the primary gear and the secondary gear, and the lifting motor is connected with the other of the primary gear and the secondary gear through a belt and a belt wheel in a transmission way.

Further, the first direction is a vertical direction; the accommodating space is positioned underground; the top of the secondary base is provided with a cover plate, so that when the lifter lowers the rope driving flexible arm to a complete storage position, the cover plate is level to the ground; when the elevator lifts the cord-driven flexible arm to an extended position, an open window is provided between the peripheral wall in the receiving space and the cover plate to allow the cord-driven flexible arm to extend from the open window.

Further, first direction be vertical direction, the lift still include self-locking mechanism, self-locking mechanism includes: a first wedge surface formed in a structure of the primary base supporting the primary guide rail; the second wedge surface is arranged at the bottom of the secondary base; and the friction wedge block is arranged between the first wedge surface and the second wedge surface, and can keep frictional contact with the first wedge surface and the second wedge surface simultaneously under the self gravity, wherein the included angle between the first wedge surface and the second wedge surface is an acute angle.

Further, the self-locking mechanism further comprises:

a chock cable attached to an upper surface of said friction chock;

and the rope winding and unwinding motor is arranged above the friction wedge and is used for winding the wedge rope.

Further, the first wedge surface, the second wedge surface and the surfaces in contact with the first wedge surface and the second wedge surface are surfaces processed by glue surfaces.

Further, the flexible arm of rope drive include drive control case and armed lever subassembly, the armed lever subassembly includes a plurality of modularization joints based on the cross universal joint is connected, drive control case integration drive control board and motion conversion module, wherein the motion conversion module includes motor and lead screw nut mechanism for convert the output linear motion of nut mechanism into the linear motion of drive rope, and then drive the end of the flexible arm of rope drive carry out spatial motion.

Further, the terminal charging device further includes: a pressure sensor associated with the charging head; the shooting direction of the camera is along the plugging direction of the charging head; a terminal charging device motor, wherein, when the terminal charging device motor drives the charging head to charge through the intermediate transmission element, the pressure sensor detects the pressure on the charging head in real time, and the camera is configured to detect the target position and detect the charging process.

Further, the camera is configured to detect geometric features in the external charging interface, the geometric features including at least one of the following features: linear features, circular arc features.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

the lifting type rope-driven flexible charging robot provided by the invention is compact in structure, saves space, can be placed in an underground storage space when a rope-driven flexible arm and a tail end charging device do not work, reduces the occupied space of the robot, and avoids potential safety hazards caused by contact between the robot and a charging user.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a general schematic diagram of an elevating flexible robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a detailed view of an elevator of the elevating flexible robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a detailed view of a self-locking mechanism of the lifting flexible robot according to the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a detailed view of an end charging device of the elevating flexible robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a charging interface to which the lifting flexible robot is to be docked according to the embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The conception, the specific structure and the technical effects of the present invention will be clearly and completely described in conjunction with the embodiments and the accompanying drawings to fully understand the objects, the schemes and the effects of the present invention. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

It should be noted that, unless otherwise specified, when a feature is referred to as being "fixed" or "connected" to another feature, it may be directly fixed or connected to the other feature or indirectly fixed or connected to the other feature. Furthermore, the descriptions of upper, lower, left, right, top, bottom, etc. used in the present invention are only relative to the positional relationship of the components of the present invention with respect to each other in the drawings.

Furthermore, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used in the description herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any combination of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element of the same type from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 1, in some embodiments, an elevating cord-driven flexible charging robot according to the present invention includes an end charging device 100, a cord-driven flexible arm 200, and an elevator 300. The charging robot may be in a stowed position and a raised position. In the storage position, or in the case where the fully raised position is not reached, the terminal charging device 100 and the rope-driven flexible arm 200 are maintained in the state of the first direction, which is the longitudinal direction of the storage space.

In some embodiments, the cable drives the tracked motion of the flexible arm 200 to the end charging device 100 during the charging task; the terminal charging device 100 realizes the tasks of detecting a charging interface, inserting the charging interface and pulling out the charging interface; the elevator 300 performs the task of driving the cable to drive the flexible arm and the terminal charging device 100 to move up and down. The terminal charging device 100 can perform the tasks of detecting the charging interface, inserting the charging interface, and removing the charging interface.

The charger robot according to the present invention can be used in various storage environments, such as in a storage body that can be stored in the ground, a side wall, a ceiling, etc., and thus the first direction may be vertical, horizontal, oblique, etc. In a preferred application scenario of underground storage, the first direction is a vertical direction. For convenience of explaining the technical solution of the present invention, the following embodiments mainly describe examples of underground storage.

For example, the entire robot may be placed completely underground when not in operation, and when it is desired to complete the charging task, the elevator 300 is raised to a height that raises the cable driven flexible arm 200 and the terminal charging device 100 above the ground. The rope drives the flexible arm 200 to drive the terminal charging device 100 to be docked with an external charging interface for a charging task.

The cable driven flexible arm 200 may include a drive control box and an arm bar assembly. The arm rod assembly is composed of modularized joints based on the cross universal joint, and can be spliced into different lengths as required, so that different charging task requirements are met. The drive control box integrates a drive control board and a motion conversion module, the motion conversion module converts linear motion of a motor into linear motion of a rope, each sub-module of the motion conversion module is in a modular design, and positions for installing other measuring elements in the future are reserved.

Details of the charger robot elevator 300 and the terminal charging device 100 according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 2 to 4 in some embodiments.

Referring to fig. 2, the lifter 300 includes a primary base 301, a primary rack 302, a primary gear 303, a secondary base 304, a secondary rack 305, a secondary gear 306, a secondary guide 307, a flexible arm fixing base 308, a lifting motor 309, and a primary guide 310. Wherein, one-level base 301 and one-level rack 302 link firmly, and one-level base 301 and one-level guide rail 310 link firmly, and elevator motor 309 sets up in the inner chamber of second grade base 304 and links firmly with second grade base 304, and flexible arm fixing base 308 and second grade rack 305 link firmly. The above-mentioned guide rail and rack are arranged parallel to each other in the vertical direction.

With continued reference to fig. 2, the primary base 301 may be fixed to a wall within the receiving space and arranged vertically. The secondary base 304 is an elongated structure in the vertical direction and has an inner cavity, and the secondary base 304 may be fixed at the bottom with a slide block on the primary guide rail 310, so as to realize a sliding fit with the guide rail, so as to allow the secondary base 304 to move linearly in the vertical direction. The flexible arm mount 308 has a support plane that is perpendicular to the vertical direction and is fixed to the bottom of the cable driven flexible arm 200. The flexible arm holder 308 may be fixed to a slide block on the secondary guide rail 307, so as to achieve a sliding fit with the guide rail, so as to allow the flexible arm holder 308 to move linearly in the vertical direction.

The primary gear 303 and the secondary gear 306 are both mounted on the same side of the secondary base 304. Preferably, the primary gear 303 is near the bottom edge of the elongated secondary base 304 and the secondary gear 306 is near the top edge of the elongated secondary base 304 to achieve as much lift travel as possible with the elongated structure of the secondary base 304. The toothed portions of the primary rack 302 and said secondary rack 305, which are parallel to each other, face each other. The primary rack 302 meshes with the primary gear 303, and the secondary rack 305 meshes with the secondary gear 306. The distance between the primary rack 302 and the secondary rack 305 is larger (generally slightly larger) than the diameters of the primary gear 303 and the secondary gear 306, so that the interference between the gear of one stage and the racks of other stages is avoided.

The lifting motor 309 can directly drive the primary gear 303 to rotate. In the inner cavity of the secondary base 304, the output shaft of the lifting motor 309 can be coaxially connected with a primary synchronous pulley in a multiple connection manner, the secondary rack 305 is also coaxially connected with a secondary synchronous pulley, wherein two synchronous pulleys are driven by a synchronous belt, and therefore the primary gear 303 can drive the secondary gear 306 to rotate together. In a work project, the lifting motor 309 is electrified to drive the first-stage gear 303 to rotate, the first-stage gear 303 rotates to drive the second-stage gear 306 to rotate through the synchronous belt wheel, after the first-stage gear 303 rotates, the first-stage rack 302 is fixed on the first-stage base 301 and cannot move, so that the reaction force of the first-stage gear 303 drives the second-stage base 304 to move, the second-stage gear 306 rotates to drive the second-stage rack 305 to do translational motion, the second-stage rack 305 drives the flexible arm fixing seat 308 to do translational motion, and thus the lifting motor 309 realizes two-stage lifting travel.

The top of the secondary base 304 is provided with a cover plate so that when the lift 300 lowers the cable driven flexible arm 200 to the fully stowed position, the cover plate is level with the ground. When the lifter 300 raises the cord-driven flexible arm 200 to the extended position, an open window is provided between the peripheral wall of the receiving space and the cover plate to allow the cord-driven flexible arm 200 to extend from the open window. This can achieve the function of installing the robot below the ground but charging above the ground.

Referring to fig. 3, to prevent the reverse of the elevator 300, the elevator 300 of the present invention preferably includes a wedge self-locking mechanism. The self-locking mechanism comprises a rope retraction motor 311, a wedge rope 312, a first wedge surface 313 (a first-stage base wedge surface) 313, a friction wedge 314 and a second wedge surface 315 (a second-stage base wedge surface) 315. Wherein the contact surfaces of first wedge surface 313, second wedge surface 315, friction wedge 314 and associated components are all treated with a glue surface. The first wedge surface 313 and the second wedge surface 315 form an acute angle, preferably an acute angle of not more than 45 degrees.

In this embodiment, in a specific self-locking operation process, the rope retracting motor 311 loosens the wedge rope 312, so that the friction wedge 314 is in a contact state with both the second wedge surface 315 and the first wedge surface 313 due to the action of gravity, the lifting motor 309 moves, the secondary base 304 moves upward along the primary guide rail 310 relative to the primary base 301, after the lifting motor 309 stops, the secondary base 304 has a tendency to move downward along the primary guide rail 310 relative to the primary base 301 due to the gravity of the flexible robot, but the secondary base 304 and the primary base 301 cannot slide relatively due to the action of the friction wedge 314, which plays a self-locking role. When the elevator 300 needs to perform a descending motion, the rope retraction motor 311 pulls the wedge rope 312, so that the friction wedge 314, the second wedge surface 315, and the first wedge surface 313 are all in a disengaged state, thereby releasing the self-locking of the mechanism and enabling the base of the elevator 300 to descend smoothly.

Referring to fig. 4, in one embodiment, the terminal charging device 100 includes a charging head 101, a pressure sensor 102, a camera 103, and a terminal charging device motor 104. When the terminal charging device motor 104 drives the charging head 101 to charge through the intermediate transmission element, the pressure sensor 102 detects the pressure applied to the charging head 101 in real time, and the camera 103 is used for detecting a target position and detecting a charging process. Specifically, the end charging device motor 104 implements two motions of the charging hand grip of the end charging device 100 through a lead screw nut spring mechanism, the first motion being a linear motion of the charging hand grip, and the second motion being an arc motion of the charging hand grip. The terminal charging device 100 is further integrated with a pressure sensor 102 and a camera 103, the pressure sensor 102 can detect the pressure between the terminal charging device 100 and a charging port in the charging process in real time, and the camera 103 can judge the position and the posture of the charging port through image recognition and feed back information to a central controller in real time to provide feedback information for the motion control of the robot.

Fig. 5 is a diagram of a charging interface, and main geometric features of the charging interface comprise a straight line feature 105, a circular feature 106 and a circular arc feature 107. In a specific single-camera recognition process, when the robot is just sent out of the ground by the elevator 300, the tail end of the mechanical arm drives the camera 103 to scan the whole space according to a set track, and when a charging port characteristic target is recognized, the robot stops, and then specific position and posture measurement recognition is carried out. In the scanning identification process, the camera 103 shoots images at the rate of 20 frames per minute, the circular arc feature 107 and the circular feature 106 in the images are extracted and compared with the circular arc feature 107 and the circular feature 106 of the charging head 101 pre-existing in the robot control system, and when the features are overlapped, the position of the charging port is scanned. In the process of measuring and identifying the position and the posture, after the camera 103 scans the approximate position of the charging port, the length information of a linear feature 105 of the charging port, the size pointing information of a circular feature 106 and the pointing information of an arc feature 107 in an image are extracted; then, image calculation is carried out on the information and the relevant information of the charging port which is already stored locally, so that the position and the posture information of the charging port can be obtained. The rest of the processing engineering also needs filtering, image enhancement, space coordinate transformation and the like.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure should be included in the scope of the present disclosure as long as the technical effects of the present invention are achieved by the same means. Are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention. The invention is capable of other modifications and variations in its technical solution and/or its implementation, within the scope of protection of the invention.

Claims

1. A lift type rope-driven flexible charging robot is characterized by comprising:

a terminal charging device (100) having a charging head (101) that interfaces with an external charging interface;

a rope-driven flexible arm (200), the rope-driven flexible arm (200) maintaining a state of a first direction when in a storage position;

a lift (300) for supporting said cable driven flexible arm (200) for lifting movement;

wherein the tail end of the rope driving flexible arm (200) is fixedly connected with the tail end charging device (100);

wherein the elevator (300) comprises:

a primary base (301) fixed to the peripheral wall of the housing space in the first direction;

a primary guide rail (310) disposed on the primary base (301) and arranged in a first direction;

a secondary base (304) elongated in a first direction and having an interior cavity, said secondary base (304) slidably engaging said primary track (310) at a bottom portion thereof to allow a first linear movement of said secondary base (304) in said first direction;

a secondary guide rail (307) arranged in a first direction provided on the secondary base (304);

a flexible arm mount (308) having a support plane perpendicular to the first direction and fixed to the bottom of the cable-driven flexible arm (200), the flexible arm mount (308) slidably engaging the secondary guide (307) to allow a second linear movement of the flexible arm mount (308) in the first direction;

a drive mechanism associated with said primary base (301) and said secondary base (304) for causing said first linear movement and said second linear movement;

wherein, lift (300) still include self-locking mechanism, self-locking mechanism includes:

a first wedge surface (313) formed in a structure of the primary base (301) that supports the primary guide rail (310);

a second wedge surface (315) disposed at the bottom of the secondary base (304); and

a friction wedge (314) disposed between said first (313) and second (315) wedge surfaces, the friction wedge (314) being capable of maintaining simultaneous frictional contact with the first (313) and second (315) wedge surfaces under its own weight,

the included angle between the first wedge surface (313) and the second wedge surface (315) is an acute angle.

2. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot of claim 1, wherein the transmission mechanism comprises:

a primary rack (302) fixed on the primary base (301) and arranged along a first direction;

a secondary rack (305) fixed to the flexible arm mount (308) and arranged in a first direction;

a primary gear (303) and a secondary gear (306) disposed on the sides of the secondary base (304), wherein the primary gear (303) is proximate the bottom edge of the elongated secondary base (304) and the secondary gear (306) is proximate the top edge of the elongated secondary base (304),

wherein the tooth-shaped parts of the primary rack (302) and the secondary rack (305) which are parallel to each other face each other, the space between the primary rack (302) and the secondary rack (305) is larger than the diameters of the primary gear (303) and the secondary gear (306), and the primary gear (303) and the secondary gear (306) are respectively kept meshed with the primary rack (302) and the secondary rack (305).

3. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot of claim 2, wherein the transmission mechanism comprises a hoist motor (309) disposed in the interior cavity of the secondary base (304), and wherein the hoist motor is disposed within the interior cavity of the secondary base (304)

The lifting motor (309) is connected with one of the primary gear (303) and the secondary gear (306), and

the lifting motor (309) is in transmission connection with the other gear of the primary gear (303) and the secondary gear (306) through a belt and a belt wheel.

4. The lift cord driven flexible charging robot of claim 1, wherein:

the first direction is a vertical direction;

the accommodating space is positioned underground;

the top of the secondary base (304) is provided with a cover plate, so that when the lifter (300) descends the rope-driven flexible arm (200) to the full storage position, the cover plate is flush with the ground;

when the elevator (300) raises the cord-driven flexible arm (200) to an extended position, an open window is provided between the peripheral wall of the receiving space and the cover plate to allow the cord-driven flexible arm (200) to extend from the open window.

5. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot of claim 1, wherein the self-locking mechanism further comprises:

a chock cable (312) attached to an upper surface of said friction chock (314);

and a rope winding and unwinding motor (311) arranged above the friction wedge (314) and used for winding the wedge rope (312).

6. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot of claim 1,

the first wedge surface (313), the second wedge surface (315) and the surfaces in contact with the first wedge surface (313) and the second wedge surface (315) are surfaces subjected to glue surface treatment.

7. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rope driven flexible arm (200) includes a drive control box and an arm lever assembly,

the arm bar assembly includes a plurality of modular joints based on a cross-universal joint connection,

the drive control box integrates a drive control board and a motion conversion module, wherein the motion conversion module comprises a motor and a screw-nut mechanism and is used for converting output linear motion of the nut mechanism into linear motion of a drive rope, and further driving the tail end of the rope drive flexible arm (200) to perform spatial motion.

8. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein said tip charging means (100) further comprises:

a pressure sensor (102) associated with said charging head (101);

the camera (103), the shooting direction of the camera (103) is along the plugging direction of the charging head (101);

an end charging device motor (104),

when a motor (104) of the terminal charging device drives a charging head (101) to charge through an intermediate transmission element, a pressure sensor (102) detects the pressure borne by the charging head (101) in real time, and a camera (103) is configured to detect a target position and detect a charging process.

9. The hoist rope driven flexible charging robot of claim 8, wherein the camera (103) is configured to detect geometric features in the external charging interface, the geometric features including at least one of: a straight line feature (105), a circular feature (106), a circular arc feature (107).