What are the driving modes of mobile robots?

Generally, there are electric drive, hydraulic drive and pneumatic drive. Small micro-robots are electrically driven. Industrial robots are generally driven by electronically controlled hydraulic or electronically controlled pneumatic.

Hydraulic drive system: Because hydraulic technology is a mature technology. It has the characteristics of high power, large inertia ratio of force (or moment), high rapid response and easy direct drive. It is suitable for these robots with large bearing capacity, large inertia and working in welding-proof environment. But the hydraulic system needs energy conversion (electric energy is converted into hydraulic energy). In most cases, the speed control adopts throttle speed regulation, which is lower than that of electric drive system. The discharge of liquid sludge from the hydraulic system will pollute the environment and make great noise. Because of these weaknesses, in recent years, robots with loads below 100 khz are often replaced by electric systems.

Pneumatic drive system: it has the characteristics of high speed, simple system structure, convenient maintenance and low price. Suitable for robots with medium and small loads. However, due to the difficulty of servo control, it is mostly used for program-controlled robots, such as loading and unloading and stamping robots.

Electric drive system: Due to the wide application of AC and DC servo motors with low inertia and large torque and their supporting servo drivers (AC inverter and DC pulse width modulator), this drive system is widely used in robots. This system does not need energy conversion, and it is convenient to use and flexible to control. Most motors need to be equipped with precise transmission mechanisms behind them. DC brush motor can not be directly used in explosion-proof environment, and its cost is higher than the above two driving systems. However, this kind of driving system is widely used in robots because of its outstanding advantages.