Design and Kinematics Modeling of Snake-Arm Robot with Highly Flexible Workspace

Nuclear power and chemical industry are important industries in today's society. Regular inspection and maintenance of equipment in nuclear power plants and chemical plants are essential for the stability of the industry. In view of the complex and restricted space that is difficult to inspect and maintain in the equipment of nuclear power plants and chemical plants, this paper introduces a bionic snake-arm robot with long and short links, telescopic joints and movable base. The structural design of the snake-arm robot is introduced as a whole, and the design concept of important components is introduced. The multi-level motion mapping relationship of the snake arm robot manipulator is analyzed, and an iterative solution method of cable length considering the clearance between the cable and the threading hole is proposed. Based on the motion mapping relationship, the workspace of the snake-arm robot is simulated and analyzed by Monte Carlo method. Finally, the iterative solution method of cable length considering the clearance between cable and threading hole is simulated and analyzed, and the convergence of the proposed method is verified. In terms of calculation speed, while ensuring calculation accuracy, the iterative solution method can randomly calculate the cable length 100 times within 2 seconds, which can meet most real-time control requirements.