Abstract
At present, mobile robotic manipulators have been greatly developed. However, these further promotions are limited by a low load capacity and short operation time. The above problems can be improved by using a hydraulic drive mode and increasing the system energy efficiency. In this paper, a novel energy-efficient wobble plate hydraulic joint is presented, which has the characteristics of having a small size, lightweight, large load capacity, and high energy efficiency. Based on the efficiency analysis in traditional robotic manipulators, this paper presents a novel hydraulic joint with a multi-chamber drive structure. Kinematics model and dynamics model are both established for the analysis of the mechanical characteristics, and the functional relationship between the input and output is depicted by numerical simulation. Based on the structural characteristics and control principle, the load matching controller is designed and specific control processes are formulated. Combined with a strategy of load matching, the servo control system is established and the energy-saving effect is verified by simulation. The result shows that the wobble plate hydraulic joint can change connections between a high-pressure circuit and different working chambers, which realizes the match between the output torque and load torque. With the load matching controller, the energy consumption of the wobble plate joint is greatly reduced, which contributes to a considerably improved energy efficiency. The research in this paper not only lays a theoretical foundation for the development of a wobble plate hydraulic joint, but also provides guidance for the improvement of the hydraulic system energy efficiency in mobile robotic manipulators.
Highlights
In recent years, the performance of mobile robotic manipulators have improved rapidly, and research on mobile manipulators has become a hot topic today
Can be seen that the energy supplied by the power source is much more than the energy required, which indicates that the energy efficiency is very low and a large amount of energy is wasted
According to the change of load torque, the wobble plate hydraulic joint can select the best position combination of the reversing valves, which can realize the match between the output torque and load torque
Summary
The performance of mobile robotic manipulators have improved rapidly, and research on mobile manipulators has become a hot topic today. The manipulator is usually installed with a lower quality transmission device, which reduces the arm quality and improves the drive capability [9] Another effective method is to use a high power density system (such as a hydraulic system), which can improve the efficiency of the robotic system [10,11,12,13]. The development of a hydraulic joint with a small size, lightweight, large load capacity, and high energy efficiency has become a key technique to improve the mobile robotic manipulator [23,24,25]. The new joint has characteristics of having a lightweight and large load capacity, but it can match the output torque with the requirements, which largely improves the energy efficiency of the whole system. A matching control simulation is carried out, which is used to verify the energy-saving of the novel joint
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