Analysis on the Characteristics with Biological Variable Stiffness of the Bionic-body Driven by Pneumatic Muscle Fibers

doi:10.3901/JME.2022.21.038

Abstract

Abstract: The bionic bodies of quadruped robots mostly adopt rigid or single-DOF body structure, which limits the mobility and flexibility of quadruped robots. Based on the analysis of the anatomical structure of the quadruped creature and the dynamic bending principle, a kind of rigid-flexible coupled bionic body driven by pneumatic muscle fibers is designed, which can realize lateral bending with variable stiffness. According to the structural of the bionic body, the stiffness of the main components of the bionic intervertebral disc, bionic ligament and bionic muscle is analyzed, respectively. Then a kind of series-parallel stiffness model of the bionic body is proposed, and the relationship between the bionic body's stiffness and the input pressure of the pneumatic muscle fiber is derived. The local and overall variable stiffness characteristics of the bionic body under different driving modes is studied. The bionic body experimental platform is conducted for testing the variable stiffness characteristic, and the dynamic bending experiment of the partial and whole bionic body is performed, respectively. The active variable stiffness characteristics is analyzed. The experimental results show that the designed bionic body can achieve dynamic bending by changing the arrangement of the pneumatic muscle fibers and the inflation pressure, which has the biological characteristics with partial or whole variable stiffness. The innovative study on the structure and driving mode of the bionic body will provide a reference for improving the mobility of the quadruped robot.

Key words: pneumatic muscle fiber, bionic body, dynamic bending, series and parallel stiffness, biological variable stiffness

CLC Number:

TG156

LEI Jingtao, ZHANG Yuewen. Analysis on the Characteristics with Biological Variable Stiffness of the Bionic-body Driven by Pneumatic Muscle Fibers[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2022, 58(21): 38-49.

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