MCL211

Design of Machines
Final Submission
Roboclimber
An Innovative Wall Scaling Robot

Course Coordinator: Prof. Jitendra P. Khatait

Contents:
● Names and Responsibilities
● Literature Review
● Mechanisms
● Technical Requirements
● CAD Models of Different Components
● Force Analysis of Mechanical Components
● Stress Analysis of Mechanical Components
● Final Dimensions and Material Selection
● Final CAD
● Suction Cup FloXpress
● SimulationXpress of bolts and rack container
● Gantt Chart
● References

Contributors

Shivang Rampriyan Dwivedi 2016ME10679

Navneet Goyal 2016ME10676
Aditya Singla 2016ME10685
Vinod Kumar 2016ME10712
Work Distribution
1. Project discussion and idea generation: ​Shivang, Navneet, Aditya, Vinod.
2. Literature Review: ​Aditya, Vinod.
3. Mechanisms Formulation: ​Shivang, Aditya, Navneet, Vinod.
4. CAD models (component wise): ​Navneet, Shivang.
5. Identification of Technical Requirements: ​Navneet, Vinod.
6. Force analysis of each component: ​Aditya, Navneet.
7. Stress Analysis of each component: ​Aditya, Shivang.
8. Detailing of Design: ​Shivang, Vinod, Navneet
9. Final Dimensions and Material Selection: ​Navneet, Aditya.

10. FloXpress and SimulationXpress: Shivaang, Navneet

11. Finalised CAD Model: ​Shivang, Vinod.

Literature Review
We started by thinking of some possible designs which could solving some problems around us.
One interesting idea we came up with was a wall climbing robot as it could have a lot of
applications such as ​glass cleaning of huge buildings, rescue by fire brigades(or in general),
military surveillance​​ and so on. Such robots exist which use principles of propulsion, but are not
that efficient and properly designed. Why did we arrive at this conclusion? The reasons being that
these robots could be used only for scaling small walls and the gyroscopic stabilizers can’t provide
enough stability for high power propellers.
 A Wall climbing robot using propellers

​ hese videos better illustrate the idea:

T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps06qU9-Dpc​ ​ ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23X5-L5qlyM

Some research has also been done on these which can be found below:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780444822505500451
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/240633/

So, we moved forward and thought of how creatures such as spiders and lizards climb
walls. The soles of their feet have microscopic epidermal lamellae with fluid secretory
glands which help in sticking to the wall. This gave us the idea of​ suctions​​!

We searched for such robots and such robots usually have 4 to 8 arms. The motion of
all the arms is controlled simultaneously by the controller and this robot uses a lot of
electronics. We thought of coming up with a new design which would involve more
mechanical components which is discussed next.

Bringing Suctions Into use

The spider and lizard robots are shown below:

Read more about use of suctions here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228789074_Wall_climbing_robot_Mechanical
_design_and_implementation

We simplified the idea by producing motion of driver and legs alternatively, that is when
the legs would be attached via suction, the driver would move and when the driver
would get attached, the legs would move. But how? We thought of using of ​soft robots
for this instead of using any controller for the legs.
First, we thought that the driver would be made to move via ​piston​​ but using ​wheels

seemed a better idea. So, given below is how our design looked at this stage.

Details about soft robots: ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_robotics​ ​An analog

of Piston Climber is shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFekE6fIuRM

Soft robots as legs​ ​Piston driven robot having suction at legs

 Modification- To use wheels Motion using wheel and suctions Instead of piston​ ​ ​But this
was not feasible due to following problems:

Problems:
1. Soft legs of such flexibility not available and may not help in giving proper
direction.
2. Movement of whole driver perpendicular to the plane of wall- very difficult to
produce.
3. Inefficient design in terms economics.

Towards Final Design…. Thinking of Solutions!

Soft legs were ultimately removed due to first problem and we thought of implementing
some more concepts which reduced many of our problems and also used less power
than before- the use of gears and lifting mechanisms! For lifting mechanism, we use
gear- gear coupling. For driver motion, we thought of using rack and pinion movement
whose complete mechanism is illustrated below. Suctions would move using lifting
mechanisms thus eliminating the need to have perpendicular motion of driver. The
movement was now more simple as well as smooth!

Components and Mechansims

Moving Mechanism

Movement of the system is based on rack and pinion mechanism.

 ​ ove on a straight path, as
If the pinion rotates about a fixed axis, the rack will translate; ​i.e.,m
shown by the arrow AB in the figure.

If the rack is fixed and the pinion is carried in bearings on a table guided on tracks parallel to the
rack, rotation of the pinion shaft will move the table parallel to the rack as shown by the arrow
CD in the Figure.
See the video here: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hI85qZ5zKA&feature=youtu.be
In our case rectangular cross sectioned bars will behave as ​rack ​. Pinions will be connected to
biaxial motor​​. Pinions are fixed on biaxial motor. For vertical motion biaxial motor is fixed on
two horizontal bars and for horizontal motion biaxial motor is fixed on two vertical bars.(as shown
in the diagram below)

For the vertical motion, initially horizontal bars will be fixed by suction and vertical bars will be
free to move upwards or downwards. So now motion will be same as rack and pinion
mechanism. Vertical part will move upwards and will stop after moving certain distance and now
suction on the vertical bars will turned on in order to fix vertical bars and suction on horizontal
bars will be turned off and motor will be turned on again this time instead of vertical bars,
horizontal bars will move upwards.
Rack Container
The problem we faced is that how to contain the racks and the motors. To solve this
problem we think of a rack container which will hold racks and both biaxial motors.

CAD model of Rack container

 Suction Cups
​We moved forward and thought of how creatures such as spiders and lizards climb walls. The
soles of their feet have microscopic epidermal lamellae with fluid secretory glands which help in
sticking to the wall. This gave us the idea of suctions​!

Mechanism to lift suction cups:

As shown in the diagram below two rods are connected on the gear and these rods are
fixed on the gear such that these rods can’t rotate relatively gear. And other ends of
these rods are connected on the hollow pipe which has suction cup.
Now according to this setup whenever gear will rotate, the leg which contain suction cup
will also rotate. For the setup shown the diagram when gear rotates anticlockwise then
the leg will lift up from the wall and when the gear rotates clockwise the leg will come in
the contact with the wall.
Technical Requirements:
Component Lists:

Component Requirements Materials Specifications

Rack and Pinion 4 sets Aluminium(1060 Module (m)=1.5

Alloy) No.of teeths in pinion=40

Biaxial Motors 2 -------------- Operating Voltage: 24V

DC Motors 4 -------------- Operating Voltage: 24V

Suction-Cup 2*4 = 8 Soft Rubber Around 6 kPa Pressure

Spur Gears 2*4 = 8 Aluminium(1060 Module (m)=1.5 No.of

Alloy) teeths=40

Links 2*8 = 16 Acrylic ----------------

Bolts and 18 ASTM A36 Steel Diameter: 5 mm

Fasteners
​​Free Body Diagram (FBD) :
FBD of Rack- Pinion:
FBD of Motor (Shaft):
Force and Stress Analysis:
Final Dimensions:
Selections of Materials:
Suction cup FloXpress (Inlet vacuum):

Suction cup FloXpress(Outlet ambient)

SimulationXpress of bolts

the von Mises stress conditions on bolts parallel to ground at

n=2 in a simplified pure bending analysis

the von Mises stress conditions on bolts perpendicular to ground at

n=2 in a simplified pure axial loading analysis
SimulationXpress of rack container

This simulation of the rack container is based on the von Mises/octahedral distortion theory.
Notice that we chose n=2 and the model lies well within the acceptable safe zone.
Final Solidworks Model:
Gantt Chart
This is how we have planned to proceed towards the completion of our project:

Task Start End Duration

Idea generation 16/08/18 16/08/18 1 day(in lab)

Idea Discussion 17/08/18 29/08/18 13 days(including

Minors)

Basic Design 30/08/18 30/08/18 1 day(in lab)

Modifications 30/08/18 09/09/18 11 days

CAD(Components) 06/09/18 13/09/18 8 days

Identification of technical 12/09/18 15/09/18 3 days

Requirements

Submission 1 15/09/18 15/09/18 1 day

Linking Mechanisms 16/09/18 24/09/18 9 days

15 days (including Minor

Approximate CAD 22/09/18 07/10/18 2)

12 days (Including mid

Force and Stress Analysis 06/10/18 18/10/18 Semester Break)

4 days (including mid

Material Selection 18/10/18 22/10/18 Semester Break)

Optimization of CAD 15/10/18 27/10/18 12 days( including mid

semester break)

Submission 2 24/10/18 24/10/18 1 day

Final Draft 31/10/18 31/10/18 ----

References:
1. Richard J. Budynas ; J. Keith Nisbett, “​Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design”,​ ninth

edition , McGraw, ​2010

2. Yu Yoshida; Shugen Ma; “​Design of a wall-climbing robot with passive suction cups”,​ 2010

3. Jagtap, A.; “​Skyscraper’s Glass Cleaning Automated Robot”,​ ​2013

4. Mahajan R.; Patil S.M, “​Development of wall Climbing Robot for cleaning

Application”,​2013
5. Wile, G.; Aslam, Dean, “​Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Miniature Wall

Climbing Robot Using Smart Robotic Feet”