Design and Dynamic Modelling of Chain Telescopic Robot

Abstract

The demands of continuum robots, which can achieve remote operations or pushing objects, are immense in armoured vehicles, submarines and space stations. A novel class of continuum robots named chain telescopic robots (CT-Robots), which consist of many rigid links, can be stored in a constrained space or form a telescopic arm with higher stiffness and arbitrary length. The design methodology of a CT-Robot is systematically presented concerning link connection, drive unit and chain box. However, current studies on CT-Robots lacks evidence on the comparative performance of different dynamic models for the vibration responses of telescopic arms. The mass-spring-damping model (MSD-model) of the telescopic arm is derived and compared with the cantilever beam model (CB-model). We test the models on the CT-Robot with friction wheels by extending the telescopic arm under two conditions. Our results suggest that the MSD-model more accurately describes the real dynamic responses (lateral displacement, velocity, acceleration) of the telescopic arm. In particular, the Euclidean distance dy,m between the results of the MSD-model and vibration experiments declines by 57.93% and 41.54% compared with that of the CB-model.