Design And Optimization Of Double Articulated Tracked Robot

The use of robotics technology for nuclear fuel transportation,key equipment maintenance,radioactive waste management,and nuclear accident emergency response in nuclear power plants can not only significantly improve the operational efficiency and maintenance level of nuclear power plants,but also improve the radiation exposure and labor intensity of workers.Developing nuclear power plant robots with strong adaptability to the environment and tasks,superior performance,and high reliability to meet the needs of special environment monitoring,early warning,and abnormal disposal in the nuclear field has been a goal pursued by the nuclear industry.Therefore,this paper designs a double-hinged tracked robot with variable posture,and conducts in-depth research on the robot’s center of mass kinematics,obstacle crossing motion planning,dynamics modeling,and multibody dynamics simulation..(1)Based on the application scenario and performance requirements,a thorough investigation was conducted on the characteristics and advantages of existing mobile mechanisms.A double articulated track mobile chassis structure composed of a front swing arm and a rear vehicle body was designed,combining the superior obstacle-surmounting ability of the variable posture track mobile mechanism and the load-bearing capacity improvement through the four-track structure.A center of gravity adjustment platform was designed to adjust the position of the center of gravity and improve obstacle-surmounting performance.The 3D modeling software Solid Works was used to draw the models of each component of the robot and the assembly diagram of the entire machine.(2)A centroid kinematics model was established based on the coupling of the centroid coordinate equation and the robot kinematics.The relationship between the robot centroid position and obstacle crossing performance was studied,and the maximum height of vertical convex obstacle crossing was obtained as a function of the centroid position.By reasonable obstacle crossing motion planning,the robot’s centroid position was adjusted to improve its obstacle-crossing performance.The robot’s stability during basic and obstacle-crossing motion was analyzed using the motion process of the robot passing through typical obstacles.Static and dynamic stability criteria were given for the robot.(3)A virtual prototype model of the robot was constructed using Recur Dyn software,and four simulation environments including flat ground,slopes,bosses,and trenches were configured to simulate the obstacle crossing process of the robot.The simulation data were compared with the theoretical calculations,and the results showed that the theoretical calculations of the robot’s tracked mobile chassis met the design requirements,verifying the rationality of the design and the correctness of the analysis.(4)A physical prototype of the double articulated tracked robot was manufactured and assembled according to the design specifications.Corresponding experimental environments were set up to verify the performance indicators of the robot.The results showed that the double articulated tracked robot designed in this study met the design requirements of smooth motion,strong obstacle-crossing ability,and high stability.