Stair Climbing Robot (Msrox)

GOGTE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BELGAUM
STAIR CLIMBING ROBOT ( MSRox )
Presented by:-
Raman Merwade(Industial prodn.)
Ashwini Chobari (Electronics & comm..)

 ABSTRACT:
. MSRox is a wheeled mobile robot with two actuated

degrees of freedom which enables it to have smooth motion on flat surfaces. It
has the capability of climbing stairs and traversing obstacles, and adaptability
toward uphill, downhill and slope surfaces. MSRox with 82 cm in length, 54 cm in
width and 29 cm in height has been designed to climb stairs of 10 cm in height
and 15 cm in width; nevertheless, it has the capability of climbing stairs up to
about 17 cm in height and unlimited width.
In this paper, the motion systems and the capabilities of MSRox are described.
 Contents:
 Introduction
 Keywords
 MSRox design & discussion of locomotion concepts
 Control system of MSRox
 Star-wheel design
 Stability of MSRox
 Adaptibility of MSRox
 Performance os MSRox
 Similarity of star-wheels and human legs
 Conclusion
 References
 INTRODUCTION:
Today, due to technological advances in robotic applications in

human life, it is necessary to overcome natural and virtual obstacles such as
stairs which are the most known obstacles to the motion of such robots. Many
researches have been conducted towards the design of stair climbing and
obstacle traversing robots during the past decade. However, a few robots have
been built for climbing stairs and traversing obstacles, such as quadrupeds and
hexapod robots. Although these robots can climb stairs and traverse obstacles,
they do not have smooth motion on flat surfaces, which is due to the motion of
their legs. Buelher built a hexapod robot(Rhex) which could ascend and descend
stairs dynamically. He has also built a quadruped robot which could climb just
one stair. Furthermore, a few wheeled and leg wheeled robots have been
proposed that either can climb only one stair or can not climb stairs individually
and need to be supported by a person. Therefore, they are not good enough to
be used practically. Dalvand designed a wheeled mobile robot that has the
capability of climbing stairs, traversing obstacles and is adapted to uphill,
downhill and slope surfaces.
Stair climbing robot(MSRox)
KEYWORDS: Mobile robot, stair climber, smart wheels.

 Star-wheel design:
Deriving the Star-Wheel parameters depends on the

position of Star-Wheel on stairs where it depends on two parameters, the
distance between the edge of wheel on lower stair and the face of next stair (L1),
and the distance between the edge of wheel on topper stair and the face of next
stair (L2). By comparing these parameters, three states may occur.
(A) (B)
(A) L1 <L2
In this case, after each stair climbing, L2 becomes greater and after several
climbing it will be equal or greater than b (L2 ≥b). In this case, the wheel is at the
corner of the stair and the robot will fall down to lower stair and a slippage will be
occurred.
It should be noted that after each slippage, the robot will continue its smooth
motion until next slippage.
(B) L1 >L2
In this case, after each stair climbing, L2 becomes smaller until the wheel hits the
corner of the stair and the robot will encounter difficulties in climbing stairs. It
should be noted that his slippage will continue in all stair climbing, but doesn’t
stop robot motion.
 MSRox Control System :
The MSRox control system is a microcontroller based system that includes
actuators, a sensor and a keypad.
 MSRox’s Sensor :
MSRox can recognize stairs and obstacles with the help of a photoelectric
sensor which is connected to the microcontroller board and sends signals to it
when its rays hit the stairs or obstacles.
 MSRox’s Actuators:
This wheeled mobile robot has two degrees of freedom in mobile

mechanism. One degree of freedom is for the 12 regular wheels and the other is
for the Star-Wheels and each of them is driven by a 24 V DC motor. Total
required power in MSRox in comparison to RHex and PackBot is very low. RHex
with 7.247 kg in weight has six 20 W DC brushed motors with 1:33 gear ratio and
the maximum output torque per leg is 3.614 Nm. The difference between MSRox
and RHex power consumption is due to the wheel-based motion of MSRox and
leg-based motion of Rhex.
 MSRox stability:
A question may come to mind that what if the input
power of MSRox is cut while climbing stairs? Will MSRox fall down from stairs?
To answer this question it must be said that if such an accident occurs, MSRox
will only go back smoothly to the latest stair which it has been climbing it and will
not happen to fall .
 Algorithm of Climbing Standard Stairs :

Stairs with 10 cm in height and 15 cm in width are
standard stairs for MSRox that MSRox climbs each of them in 0.75 s. Before
manufacturing MSRox, different stages of climbing standard stairs were
simulated as in figure.
 MSRox motion adaptibility:
While the robot moves on flat, uphill,downhill and slope

surfaces, the star wheels can rotate freely around their axes, that causes the
robot to adapt to itself with respect to the curvature of the path.It keeps all 8
regular wheels in contact to the ground and prevents the separation of the
regular wheels and the ground.This capability increases the motion adaptability
of the robot. It should be noted that this behavior is due to the gravity force of the
robot itself and there is no need for an extra component to get this property.
According to Fig., Star-Wheels can rotate freely around
their axes in practice and allow MSRox to adapt itself toward curved surfaces.
For example if MSRox didn’t have such a capability, front wheels of front Star-
Wheels had to rise from ground in stage 3, but all wheels of Star-Wheels kept on
the ground while traversing this terrain.
 MSRox performance to step size:
The MSRox speed and the number of slippages during the

motion depend on five parameters which are friction force, step size (height and
width), Star-Wheels size (the distance between the centers of regular wheels),
Star-Wheels speed and the distance between the centers of front and rear Star-
Wheels. The MSRox has been designed for 10 ×15 steps size and the number of
slippages while climbing this step is zero.
Dotted cells in above tables indicate that MSRox can’t climb those stairs due to
the high slope of the stair.
 Obstacles traversing:
The MSRox can traverse any terrain that has obstacles with
maximumheight17cm.
 Similarity of star wheels and human legs:
While traversing stairs or obstacles, the angle of the

regular wheels with respect to the robot body, is constant. This phenomenon is
the most important ability in MSRox which is vital for the successful climbing.
This feature has been inspired from the human legs where the angle of toes with
respect to the human body while traversing stairs is fixed. This similarity causes
the stability of wheels position on the stairs. This also prevents the wheels to
rotate in their position freely at the time of climbing and prevents the robot from
falling off at the time of descending .
 Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the MSRox mechanism works prop-
erly and can be used for traversing stairs and obstacles and passing over any
uneven terrain.
Moreover, the robot can be used for applications such as
Wheel-Chairs to carry disabled people or for remote Space explorations or battle
field identifications to run on rough and unknown terrain.
Comparing simulations and actual tests results, it can be
verified that the derivations of Star-Wheels parameters and simulations of
MSRox movement on flat or uphill, downhill and slope surfaces, and on stairs
and obstacles are perfect and all of the equations have been derived correctly
and can be trusted them for other researches on the MSRox behavior.
They also can be used to design Star-Wheels for any other
special application or for intelligent and larger-scale Star-Wheels in MSRox II that
can ascend and descend stairs and obstacles independent to their size and
shape and it even traverse curved stairs.
 References:
http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/tasks/tmr/movies/Air10FPS240x180.mov
http://robots.spawar.navy.mil/home.asp?item=showrpasset
wikipedia.com
google.co.in

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GOGTE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BELGAUM

STAIR CLIMBING ROBOT ( MSRox )

Raman Merwade(Industial prodn.)

Ashwini Chobari (Electronics & comm..)

. MSRox is a wheeled mobile robot with two actuated

Today, due to technological advances in robotic applications in

Stair climbing robot(MSRox)

KEYWORDS: Mobile robot, stair climber, smart wheels.

Deriving the Star-Wheel parameters depends on the

This wheeled mobile robot has two degrees of freedom in mobile

 Algorithm of Climbing Standard Stairs :

While the robot moves on flat, uphill,downhill and slope

The MSRox speed and the number of slippages during the

 Similarity of star wheels and human legs:

While traversing stairs or obstacles, the angle of the

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