In order to improve the environmental adaptability and interaction stability of industrial robotic arms, a flexible joint with variable damping and stiffness based on magnetorheological (MR) technology was proposed. The mechanical models for variable stiffness and damping of MR flexible joint were established, and the relationship between cam surface and variable stiffness element was derived based on the energy method. Subsequently, the variation patterns of equivalent stiffness and damping of the prototype under different excitations were experimentally tested, and the test results show that its mechanical properties meet the design requirements. To further verify the performance of the MR flexible joint on the robotic arm, we setup a collision buffering test system and investigated the buffering performance of the system under different working conditions. The buffering test results indicate that when the current of variable stiffness element is 2.0 A, the peak collision acceleration of the system after installing the MR flexible joint decreases by about 40.19% compare with the rigid collision.

中文翻译：

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工业机器人凸轮工作面磁流变变刚度阻尼柔性关节

为了提高工业机械臂的环境适应性和交互稳定性，提出了一种基于磁流变（MR）技术的变阻尼和变刚度柔性关节。建立了磁流变柔性关节变刚度和阻尼的力学模型，并基于能量法推导了凸轮表面与变刚度单元之间的关系。随后，对样机在不同激励下的等效刚度和阻尼变化规律进行了实验测试，测试结果表明其力学性能满足设计要求。为了进一步验证机械臂上MR柔性关节的性能，我们搭建了碰撞缓冲测试系统，并研究了系统在不同工作条件下的缓冲性能。缓冲测试结果表明，当变刚度元件电流为2.0 A时，安装MR柔性关节后系统的峰值碰撞加速度较刚性碰撞降低约40.19%。