Stair climbing vehilce

HAs anyone made a vehicle with these tracks that is able to climb stairs?

I don’t think so but I am sure it is possible with the right geometry. Check out the Allan Vangaurd police robot for geometry ideas. It is a fair bit bigger than the lynxmotion tracks though. :smiley:

Hum, maybe you could use pneumatics or even hyudraulics, some long cylinders to raise first 1/3’d of the vehicle above the ground and above the step in front of it, and then continue with raising the middle part of the vehicle, and then continue with the last piece of the car.

Uhm, I guess I was thinking more like a 6 wheel car now as a alternative to the tracked vehicle. Not that I have too much of a clue.

Stair climbing requires a long “trackbase”, and a center of gravity that is low to the ground in relation to that length, if you plan to climb the stairs by simply driving up them like a hill. I can’t recall exactly at the moment, but I believe that I read somewhere that you want to have enough supported track in contact with the ground to span three stair treads while keeping the center of mass within the “contact patch” when it’s tilted at the angle of the stairs’ pitch. Put a little more simply, you want to be able to climb a hill that matches your stairs’ pitch, with a footprint that’s at least long enough to keep two stairs in contact with the supported area of the treads at once. There are other factors in play, but in general, a low CG and long base are your friends.

Look at police and military EOD robots, which are designed to handle curbs and stairwells. The Packbot has a variable tread geometry that allows it to extend arms and make itself longer, in order to span stair treads. It doesn’t have to be super-long because it is a very low-slung design, and the CG is well within its footprint, even at very steep angles.

A number of bomb disposal bot designs also use a variable tread geometry that allows them to spread out to support their taller superstructures and keep it within the footprint, and convert to a shorter treadbase when they get to landings, to allow them to turn around and go up the next flight.

There are other ways to tackle stairs, including climbing or mounting each step individually, but in terms of mechanical complexity, perhaps the most straightforward approach is to design a mobility base that can simply drive up the stairs, possibly lowering or shifting the CG in order to compensate for what is essentially a very steep, very bumpy hill.

I’ve seen wheel chairs made to climb stairs. You should find some gizmos doing google searches or patent searches.

Have a look at this one: youtube.com/watch?v=s-3Jv6J-0Ek
Looks like a pretty standard robot, except for those other leg things.
The guy that posted the video has more videos about that robot.

that robot is real cool but i think those stairs are longer that standard, they looked like they bguilt them, so im not sure how well it would go on standard stairs, elso, it would have some trouble going down stairs

youtube.com/watch?v=lyUm7kvI … ed&search=

There’s one, but its rather big though.

youtube.com/watch?v=bpmqPK4N … ed&search=

There’s another one. :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: youtube.com/watch?v=H3IAyLhI … ed&search=

Lego verson. :open_mouth:

I like the LEgo version :open_mouth:

Aye, me too, but its way to high. Should be made like a fork lift or something to reduce the hight. :stuck_out_tongue: