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Piezoelectric inertial robot for operating in small pipelines based on stick-slip mechanism: modeling and experiment

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Abstract

Small pipes exist in industrial and biomedical fields, and require microrobots with high operational precision and large load capacity to inspect or perform functional tasks. A piezoelectric inertial pipeline robot using a “stick-slip” mechanism was proposed to address this requirement. In this study, the driving principle of the proposed robot was analyzed, and the strategy of the design scheme was presented. A dynamics model of the stick-slip system was established by combining the dynamics model of the driving foot system and the LuGre friction model, and the simulation analysis of the effect of system parameters on the operating trajectory was performed. An experimental system was established to examine the output characteristics of the proposed robot. Experimental results show that the proposed pipeline robot with inertial stick-slip mechanism has a great load capacity of carrying 4.6 times (70 g) its own mass and high positioning accuracy. The speed of the pipeline robot can reach up to 3.5 mm/s (3 mm/s) in the forward (backward) direction, with a minimum step distance of 4 µm. Its potential application for fine operation in the pipe is exhibited by a demonstration of contactless transport.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross section area of the piezoelectric stack

c 2, c 3 :

Equivalent dam** of the flexure hinge and the driving foot, respectively

d 33 :

Piezoelectric coefficient

f 1 :

Friction between the driving foot and pipe wall

f 2 :

Friction between the support foot and pipe wall

F 1, F ′1 :

Acting force and reacting force between the driving foot and the pipe wall, respectively

F 12, F ′12 :

Acting force and reacting force between the piezoelectric stack and the flexure hinge, respectively

F C :

Coulomb friction force

F p :

Output force of the piezoelectric stack

F S :

Static friction force

g(v):

Function describing the Stribeck effect

k 1, k 2, k 3 :

Equivalent stiffness of the piezoelectric stack, the flexure hinge, and the driving foot, respectively

l :

Length from the rotation center to the top of flexure hinge

l 1 :

Distance from the center of rotation of the hinge to the point of action with the piezoelectric stack

l 2 :

Vertical distance from the top of the flexure hinge to the center of rotation under the rotation θ1

l 3 :

Vertical distance between the top of the hinge and the initial position after rotation θ1

l 4 :

Length of the driving foot

L p :

Length of the piezoelectric stack

m 1, m 2, m 3, m 4 :

Equivalent mass of the piezoelectric stack, the flexure hinge, the driving foot, and the pipe, respectively

n :

Number of the piezoelectric sheets in the piezoelectric stack

s 33 :

Elastic compliance constant of the piezoelectric stack

T :

Period of the drive signal

U :

Output voltage of the drive signal

v :

Relative velocity of two friction surfaces

v s :

Stribeck velocity

V max :

Peak voltage of the drive signal

x 1 :

Output displacement of the piezoelectric stack

x 2, ẋ 2, ẍ 2 :

Displacement, velocity, and the acceleration of the flexure hinge, respectively

x 4, ẋ 4, ẍ 4 :

Displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the pipe, respectively

y 3, ẏ 3, ÿ 3 :

Displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the driving foot, respectively

z:

Average deformation of bristles

θ 1, θ 2 :

Rotation angle of flexure hinge and driving foot, respectively

Δx :

Step distance of the pipeline robot and the slider

σ0 :

Bristle stiffness

σ1 :

Bristle dam** of the bristle

σ2 :

Viscous dam** coefficient

μ :

Friction coefficient between the driving foot and the pipe

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System (HIT), China (Grant No. SKLRS-2022-KF-09). The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Jichun **ng & Chao Ning

  2. State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Yingxiang Liu

  3. School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, 6001, Australia

    Ian Howard

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  1. Jichun **ng
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Correspondence to Jichun **ng or Yingxiang Liu.

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**ng, J., Ning, C., Liu, Y. et al. Piezoelectric inertial robot for operating in small pipelines based on stick-slip mechanism: modeling and experiment. Front. Mech. Eng. 17, 41 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-022-0697-z

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