In order to improve the stability and the rapid movement ability of the wheeled robot, a novel magnetorheological device with variable damping and variable inertance (MRD-VDVI) was proposed. It is consisted of a MR valve, a MR brake, a cylinder, two piston rods and a hydraulic motor. The MR valve and MR brake are full of MR fluid. With the movement of the piston rods, the MR fluid flows through MR valve and the hydraulic oil flows through the hydraulic motor simultaneously. The MR valve in cylinder is controlled by the coil to produce controllable damping. The hydraulic motor rotates with the oil flow. The driving part of MR brake connects with the hydraulic motor directly. The rotational speed of driven part is determined by the velocity of driving part and controllable torque. The controllable torque is generated by controlling the yield stress of MR fluid in MR brake. In other words, the inertance can be controlled by turning the current of MR brake. To insure the controllability of MRD-VDVI, the finite element method was used to calculate the magnetic flux intensity. The mathematical model of the MRD-VDVI was established to evaluate the damping force and inertance. Based on the model, the structural parameters of MRD-VDVI were optimized and designed. The force characteristics were experimentally tested on MTS system. Results show that the proposed MRD-VDVI has the ability to provide controllable damping and inertance.
 

magnetorheological, variable inertance, variable damping, valve, brake