Accomplishments
Overall, our project was a success. We originally went into our project with the objective of creating a mechanism that could climb parallel walls with a known distance in between them. The ultimate goal was for this mechanism to be expanded upon for climbing uneven walls with varying distances, but for the scope of our project, the focus would be on parallel walls. In terms of the scope of project, we were able to build a robot that was able to traverse parallel walls. However, where we did fall short was creating a robot that was able to climb vertically. Our current robot only has the capability of traversing the parallel walls horizontally as it rolls across the ground using the parallel walls as push-off points. When tested our robot was not able to fight its own weight and climb vertical. Fortunately, this shortcoming is a result of our power source rather than our design. Given that our design encompasses several layers of acrylics, nearly 20 gears, 12 linkage systems, and other parts, we required a strong motor to rotate our mechanism and to fight the force of gravity on our robot. The motor we used while strong especially for its small size was not strong enough to supply a sufficient force to climb vertically. With a strong motor we would be able successful climb vertically as we initially sought out to do. Even though our current robot was not able to climb vertically, our project was still a success because our design can still be used as a strong starting point for a more advanced vertical climbing robot.
Future Work and Improvements
The next steps for our project are improving our ability to climb and adapting our design to be able to climb vertical walls of varying distances. In terms of improving our climbing ability, we have identified increasing our output force. The simplest way to increase output force is to use a strong motor. A stronger motor would transmit more force into our robot which would in turn allow our robot to output more force. Another method would be to reduce the friction within our design so our force efficiency is increased. This could be accomplished by allotting a small clearance between the gears, links and base plates to reduce friction. As a result, the same input force would produce a greater output force. For adapting our design to allow for varying distances, we would need to modify our design to be able to extend to the desired distance. However, this would not be the priority for improve our design. The improvements to our robots climbing ability would be the first step to take our design to the next level.
Lessons Learned
Throughout the course of our project we ran into several hiccups and
Tips for Future Groups
- Start as early as possible because it will most likely take longer than expected and you want to leave time for unanticipated problems.
- Have an honest conversation with your group about strengths and weaknesses, so that way each member can help the group in the best way they can.
- When designing, take into account how hard it will be to manufacture because even if it works in CAD, it will likely be much harder to assemble in real life.
- Ask others for advice because your professor, TA, and other students can give valuable insight on your project.
- While brainstorming ideas, be creative but also realistic. Your idea should be creative, useful, and interesting but also doable within the time frame.
Acknowledgments
This project has been a long but rewarding process that has helped us all grow as engineers, and we would like to thank Professor Symmank, Connor Henning, and Texas Invention Works. Professor Symmank was vital in supplying us with the knowledge we needed to carryout the analysis and design of our robot. Connor Henning, our TA, consistent gave us invaluable advice on how to improve our design which ultimately allowed us to create our working final product. Connor Hennig