Conclusions/Recommendations

Conclusion

The final design of our robot was able to display the interesting kinematic motion that was described in our initial goal of climbing a ladder. Unfortunately, the power delivered by our motor was not capable of supplying the torque required to lift the robot. This was mainly due to the selection of our motor which we believed would have enough power based on our approximations of weight, size, arm length, and other design parameters. After assembling the robot, we found that the combined weight was more than we had expected. We also had many gears, bearings, and sliders that are capable of introducing some inefficiency in the form of friction. As shown in the horizontal ladder setup, the monkey was able to climb the ladder when his weight was not acting against his direction of motion. For this reason, the next step in bringing our vertically challenged robot into a more functional state would involve replacing the current motor with a much more powerful actuator.

Recommendations

The most important recommendation from our design process is the suggestion to start early. We were able to complete the robot and have it ready to present. However, if we had finished our project more than a few days before the presentation, we might have had the flexibility to change the motors out. Every group seemed to have some issue that was giving them trouble that could have been corrected with just a few extra days of work. Most of the technical recommendations relevant to the design process are included in the lessons learned section, which is a good page to read through.