Cable-strut combination driven parallel robotic palletizer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10246276-B2
Application number	US-201515122774-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2015
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

A combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot, comprises a chassis, wherein, a base driving mechanism is arranged on the chassis, a torque transfer mechanism is mounted on the base driving mechanism, a top gearbox is mounted on the top of the torque transfer mechanism, a gib arm is movably connected to the top gearbox, and a mechanical arm end tool is arranged on the movable end of the gib arm to operate a work object; the robot further comprises three steel wire rope drivers and three corresponding steel wire ropes, the three steel wire rope drivers are located on the chassis and evenly distributed around the base driving mechanism. In the present invention, the top gearbox and the torque transfer mechanism are driven by a rope to execute two-freedom spatial movement, so as to do palletizing work in a bigger work space.

First claim

We claim:

1. A combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot, comprising:
a base driving mechanism arranged on a chassis, the base mechanism comprising a base-driving internal torque structure and a base-driving external torque structure, wherein the base-driving internal torque structure and a base-driving external torque structure are driven by a plurality driving motors to generate torque internally and externally respectively;
a torque transfer mechanism mounted on the base driving mechanism, the torque transfer mechanism comprising an external torque transfer mechanism and an internal torque transfer mechanism,
the external torque transfer mechanism, including six steel transfer wire ropes, transferring a first torque from a base torque output disk to a top gearbox mounted on the top of the torque transfer mechanism;
an internal torque transfer mechanism transferring a second torque from a base internal torque transfer shaft affixed to the torque transfer mechanism to the a gearbox on a gib arm; wherein the first and second torque is converted by the top gearbox to drive the gib arm to rotate and lift;
the gib arm, movably connected to the top gearbox, comprising
a forearm mounted on the lower part of a top gearbox lower torque output shaft extending from the top gearbox;
a movable end comprising a mechanical arm end tool arranged on the movable end of the gib arm and configured to operate a work object;
three steel wire rope drivers located on the chassis and arranged evenly around the base driving mechanism, with three steel outer wire ropes corresponding to each of the three steel wire rope drivers;
wherein when the robot is driven such that the combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot performs handling and palletizing actions.

2. The combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot according to claim 1 , wherein, the base driving mechanism further comprising:
a base internal torque output shaft arranged above a base, mounted with a first gear thereon and is operably connected to a first driving motor,
a second gear arranged on the output shaft of the first driving motor such that the second gear is engaged with the first gear, wherein the first driving motor drives the base internal torque output shaft via the second gear and the first gear; and
a base external torque transfer shaft, arranged below the base, including an upper part of the base external torque transfer shaft being fixed in the base and further including with a third gear mounted thereon operably coupled to a second driving motor mounted on one side of the base,
a base torque output disk fixedly mounted below the base external torque transfer shaft;
a fourth gear arranged on the output shaft of the second driving motor such that the fourth gear is engaged with the third gear, wherein the second driving motor drives the base external torque output shaft via the fourth gear and the third gear, and the base external torque transfer shaft in turn drives the base torque output disk mounted below;
wherein a lower part of the base internal torque output shaft is fixed to the base external torque transfer shaft; and the base internal torque output shaft and the base external torque output shaft rotate coaxially and independently without interference between them;
wherein the angle between the axes of the base internal torque output shaft and the base external torque output shaft of the base driving mechanism and horizontal plane are 45°, so as to maximize the utilization of the work space according to the working environment for conventional handling and palletizing work.

3. The combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot according to claim 2 , wherein, six steel wire rope knuckle bearings in a first group and a second group-are mounted evenly on the base torque output disk and the gearbox torque input disk respectively; and
wherein the first group of steel wire rope knuckle bearings are fixed to the base torque output disk via knuckle bearing end caps, the knuckle bearing end caps are fixed by bearing end cap fixing screws;
wherein a steel wire rope connection clamp are arranged in the first group of steel wire rope knuckle bearing, the steel wire rope connection clamp is tapered and configured to use deformation to clamp a torque transfer steel wire rope automatically;
wherein the torque transfer steel wire rope are mounted to a steel wire rope end knuckle bearing via the steel wire rope connection clamp;
wherein the mounting way of the second group of steel wire rope knuckle bearings on the gearbox torque input disk and the internal setting of the second group of steel wire rope knuckle bearings are the same as those of the first group of steel wire rope knuckle bearings;
wherein the two ends of six torque transfer steel wire ropes are mounted into the first and second groups of steel wire rope knuckle bearings respectively;
wherein when the base torque output disk is driven by the driving motor to rotate, the torque transfer steel wire rope rotates along with the base torque output disk, so as to accomplish upward transfer of the external torque.

4. The combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot according to claim 3 , wherein a center of a sphere in each of the first and second groups of steel wire rope knuckle bearings is located in the same plane and each sphere is configured to keep the torque transfer steel wire rope in vertical state; and
wherein the center points of the first universal coupling and the second universal coupling are in the same plane as the centers of spheres of the first and second groups of steel wire rope knuckle bearings respectively, to meet the geometric requirements of the movement of the mechanism.

5. The combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot according to claim 1 , wherein, the torque transfer mechanism further comprising:
an intermediate shaft with two universal couplings, a first universal coupling and a second universal coupling, each with two ends, the first and second universal couplings being arranged at one end on the lower part and upper part of the intermediate shaft respectively;
wherein the other end of the lower, first universal coupling is connected to the base internal torque transfer shaft;
wherein the other end of the upper, second universal coupling is connected to a torque input shaft of the top gearbox configured to transfer the internal torque of the base internal torque transfer shaft upwards along the intermediate shaft.

6. The combined rope-rod-driven parallel palletizing robot according to claim 1 , wherein, the top gearbox further comprises
a gearbox casing;
a gearbox torque input mechanism arranged in the gearbox casing, further including a gearbox torque input shaft fixed in a gearbox torque input disk;
the gearbox torque input disk arranged with a bronze wear ring and a spacing ring limiting the bronze wear ring to the gearbox torque input disk, wherein the bronze wear ring is fixedly connected the gearbox casing leaving only one degree of freedom for the bronze wear ring to rotate around the axis of the gearbox torque input disk;
a gearbox lower torque output mechanism comprises a gearbox lower torque output shaft including two through-holes are drilled in a lower part of the gearbox lower torque output shaft to mount a forearm and an ancillary forearm;
a gearbox upper torque output mechanism comprises a gearbox upper torque output shaft, which is arranged with a steel wire reel thereon;
a first bevel gear is mounted on the top gearbox lower torque output shaft,
a second bevel gear mounted on the gearbox upper torque output shaft;
a third bevel gear mounted on the gearbox torque input shaft and engaged with the second bevel gear, wherein the torque on the gearbox torque input shaft i

Assignees

• Univ Hefei Technology

Inventors

• Zi Bin
• Wang Bingyao
• Yin Guangcai
• Liu Hao

Classifications

• B25J9/04

  by rotating at least one arm, excluding the head movement itself, e.g. cylindrical coordinate type or polar coordinate type · CPC title

• B25J9/1065

  with parallelograms · CPC title

• B25J9/0078

  actuated by cables · CPC title

• B65G2201/0223

  Heavy · CPC title

• B25J9/1615

  characterised by special kind of manipulator, e.g. planar, scara, gantry, cantilever, space, closed chain, passive/active joints and tendon driven manipulators · CPC title