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Design and motion control of an under-actuated snake arm maintainer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2021

Guodong Qin Open the ORCID record for Guodong Qin [Opens in a new window] ,
Aihong Ji ,
Yong Cheng ,
Wenlong Zhao ,
Hongtao Pan ,
Shanshuang Shi  and
Yuntao Song
Guodong Qin
Affiliation:
Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Aihong Ji*
Affiliation:
Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Yong Cheng
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, China
Wenlong Zhao
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, China
Hongtao Pan
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, China
Shanshuang Shi
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, China
Yuntao Song
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: meeahji@nuaa.edu.cn
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Abstract

This study presents an under-actuated snake arm maintainer (SAM) for complex and extreme environments such as nuclear power plants. The structure adopts the layered cable drive principle, whereby a single drive layer drives multiple joints. This design significantly reduces the complexity of the control system while increasing the spatial curvature. The traction of multiple wire ropes with a composite capstan drives the synchronous angular motion of several adjacent joints. By changing the number of joints in the single driver layer of the snake arm, the arm can be adapted to various complex environments. The trajectory planning and trajectory tracking motion control methods of the under-actuated SAM are established based on the improved backbone method and the variable rod length algorithm. Finally, a 10-joint prototype with an arm length of 2300 mm is designed for nuclear reactor maintenance. Trajectory experiments confirmed the rationality of the under-actuated SAM, the correctness of the inverse kinematics, and the effectiveness of the motion control methods.

Keywords

snake arm maintainerlayered drivemotion controlspecial environment application
Type
Research Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 40 , Issue 6 , June 2022 , pp. 1763 - 1782
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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