Design And Experimental Study Of A Variable Width Robot Based On Origami Principle

The origami structure is obtained by folding the two-dimensional panel in order at the predetermined crease,which has the advantages of simple design concept,less assembly,light weight and strong deformation ability.These advantages make origami structure show great application potential in the field of deformable robot.However,the existing origami robots mainly focus on the variation of origami wheel diameter,the variation of origami wheel width and the variation of origami wheel contact area,and so on,which are less studied,and it is difficult to meet the adaptability and trafficability of origami robots to unstructured complex environment.Based on this,this paper designs a new type of origami variable width wheel and origami variable width robot based on the traditional Miura origami structure.Taking its two-dimensional crease distribution map and width deformation characteristics as the breakthrough point,combined with spatial geometry analysis and experimental research,parametric analysis and functional application of origami variable width robot design are discussed.The main research work is as follows:(1)The design and preparation method of a new origami variable width wheel based on Miura origami structure is proposed.Firstly,based on the rigid folding principle,the explicit functional relationship between the geometric parameters of the two-dimensional crease diagram of the origami variable width wheel structure and the wheel diameter and maximum width of the three-dimensional origami wheel is derived through spatial geometric analysis,and the experimental values of the wheel diameter and maximum width are obtained by combining with the experimental test.Secondly,the wheel diameter and the maximum width of origami wheel are obtained through the experimental test.It is found that the relative error between the theoretical value and the experimental value is less than ±0.5%,which verifies the correctness of the theoretical solution of spatial geometric relationship.Finally,the origami variable width wheel is fabricated by a method combined rigid material with flexible material.(2)The origami variable width robot prototype is designed and manufactured,and the experiment of variable width clearance is carried out.Based on the origami variable width wheel,the origami variable width robot prototype is designed and manufactured.The origami variable width robot of the experiment of variable width clearance is carried out.It is found that the origami variable width robot has strong trafficability to narrow gap,and can pass through the gap 1.4 times smaller than its maximum width.(3)The motion and climbing experiments of origami variable width robot in sand environment are carried out.Firstly,the origami variable width robot is tested to walk and climb in soft sand environment with sand digging steering and sand pushing steering respectively.It is found that the origami variable width robot has stronger adaptability in sand pushing steering than sand digging steering in soft sand environment.Secondly,the passing ability of sand subsidence and sand slope of the origami variable width robot with different wheel width are studied.It is found that the variation from the minimum width to the maximum width leads to the increase of the contact area of origami variable width wheel,which significantly improves the passing ability of origami variable width robot to sand subsidence and sand slope.