How this Robot Climbs up Stairs
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- čas přidán 8. 01. 2023
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I found various robots on CZcams that can go upstairs, of course including Boston Dynamics Spot Mini. My openDog project isn’t really ready for that though, even though it can walk over lumps of wood. I also have these bends in my stairs which means there’s limited turning space in two places, so it’s going to need to be something much smaller.
I came across a few tracked robots and robots with multiple wheels on pivots so they can just drive up stairs. These look good on test steps, but they’d need upscaling significantly to get up actual stairs which tend to be larger and quite steep.
Then I found a stair cleaning robot which splits itself into three vertical sliding sections to lift itself up on each step. The middle section has four wheels to hold it stable, and it also looks like it has omni-wheels so it can slide sideways to clean each step as it goes.
This seems like quite a good design, although the stairs it’s climbing are fairly deep so all three sections can fit on one step. My stairs are a lot shallower than that which means the robot would need to be much thinner, and the middle section would be much less stable when it lifts the back or front up.
So I’m going to adapt this design with an extending section that will allow it to span three steps at once to keep it stable.
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You could make the weight shift automatically depending on which linear motor you enable? I.e. moves forward before moving rear wheels etc.
Camera bot doing a great job holding the camera!
Got a little seasick at the end, maybe need a bit more damping.
It does a good job, however needs more damping indeed. Switching point of interest instead of accurately following it is what's needed.
And personally I'm used to a signature steady wide open shot with a lot of machinery in the frame. Change is not always good.
A lot of videos today are dynamic and shot from a handheld cam. James style stands apart and that is good IMO.
@@danielf3623 Same, at the end it was a bit too much haha
@@kittguy And another bunch of videos are filmed on a tripod, with wide shots. James' style wasn't special at all, in fact a robot filming him IS a special style he needs. Just needs some tuning, that's all.
@@daftbence Solid point actually, I haven't thought of it this way. 👍
It's a VERY good machine to carry a quite massive load and for keeping it level and stable. But for it carry you a beer while you're feeling lazy... well I think it would be warm by the time it got there lol. You did mention that it was overly complicated, and I agree... for SIMPLE tasks. But it really is the perfect design for what it was based on (cleaning the stairs)
brits drink their beer warm anyway
If I were to do this project, I would cheat and mount a track on the wall that the robot could attach to and drive itself up the wall like one of those stair-lift-chair things.
Or attach and detach itself to an installed winch or crane.
That would only help for a home use that's planned ahead of time like that - not really as robust as a solution as this robot that could go up many different types of stairs.
EDIT 12:32 in the video he has the same idea haha I wrote this comment before finishing the vid
He's English, warm beer is the go.
If anything, there's a risk he'll have to drink his ale cold.
instead of 3d printed part for ads it was more struddy to use only aluminum parts and make a mini fridge as counter mass
The new camera rig seems like it's working out great, but with this project, because you've already added the 2kg weight shifting element, why not just use two sets of balancing wheels and a single actuator between them?
Funny - I had the opposite thought - since it's using 6 wheels, why have a shifting mass when you could just add a static mass to the middle section? :P
i think a servo with a stability plate at each set of wheels would assist in this if needed
That worked so much better than I was anticipating. Excellent results
This is what I imagine a stair climbing Dalek would look like. Pretty interesting design though.
Gotta love the camera work 👍
So very cool, well done James and thanks for what you do for the Robotics community and STEM learning in general.
What would be super cool is if someone could make like a rail system around a house that bots can attach to and ride around. For the stairs the rail could go up a wall and then across the ceiling out the way.
New camera guy is really putting in the work
Instead of sensor, limit switch for hitting side of the stairs is probably easier to implement.
Maybe some problem though with that fuzzy carpet
@@bluemamba5317 Maybe a limit switch with a bigger bumper?
I'm pretty sure sensors were limit switches when I was learning robotics back in the 80s. There were infra-red sensors too, but there's nothing wrong with an, *ahem* _simple touch sensor_ AKA limit switch. :)
CAMERABOT is doing a great job man. i think you're the only one i know off on youtube to have that. brilliant
Besides being educational, your videos are always fun to watch. The music for this one was perfect.
Amazing. I’d love to see an autonomous version of this that can go up and down. But also excited to see the Roomba stairlift!
But can you make stairs that climb robots?
Next joke?
Brilliant!
As a proof of concept you've created a lift for elderly or handicapped that doesn't need rails and is portable. Truly brilliant!
Love the multiple different types of pullies and different engineering designs in this. On a quick note you should try to use mecanum wheels, they give lots of control when used right and you can go in almost any direction you want!
Could you make the counter weight automatically balance the robot to remove a few steps from the climbing sequence?
Hey Jim, I'm still loving the autonomous camera man 😉
Fantastic, thank you!
I love it.... Glad were back to awesome robots..
Awsome! Great build!
Really good explanation of the problem and your solution 👍
Yeees! The stair roomba is coming! Thank you!
A few weeks ago I was thinking about the same idea, designing a segmented stair climbing robot. Nice to see someone doing it.
Always enjoy seeing your solution to hese problems. Adding a payload area seems like it might get dicey. You're already fighting balance issues. Seems like figuring out additional weight distribution could be a challenge. Thanks for sharing!
I look forward to your post amazing job again. Thanks
I love your soundtrack!
This is an awesome build...
Really cool video and what an amazing 3D printers ! Mouth watering...
Excellent project 👍
Excelente work... Greetings from colombia.🎉
I gotta say I switched to Onshape about a year and a half ago when I switched to Linux and coming from fusion I gotta say I love it and I love to see them sponsoring you
Love the dynamic camera!! Also, your content is pretty dope
You make it look so easy. You must have a ton of experience. Wish I could learn from you in person
Quite the accomplishment James.
Bold choice on the new music!
Love the robot camera Is doing a great job
i appreicate the background music during the build montage!
Excellent!
Great video thanks
One of these days we're going to see you make a 3D printed full mech/Gundam suit.
Cool video. Looks like you got the robot camera rig working. Nice! Mahalo for sharing! : )
In order to automate, can you simply detect the first stair, input the length and height of each tred and then let it run?
Impressive! James does in weeks what industry does in many months and universities take years to accomplish.
🤣 You think a university would only take "years"? 😂😂 An academic would sit on a problem like for his/her/its entire career. And in that time he/she/it would build a medium size research group, obtain squillions in taxpayer funded grants to fund said group, reach full professor relatively early compared to a more esoteric academic colleague and then spend the rest of his/her/its career dining out on his/her/its one pony trick without any of his/her/its sponsors ever really achieving a commercially viable product. Even more sadly he/she/it will successfully supervise higher degrees and they too will follow in his/her/its path at his/her/its institue or some other. And so and so on and so on. 🤣😂🤣
Aargh! he always finishes projects that I am working on before I do
Loved the new vid, cam bot is working great! I miss the old 3d print music though.:(
nice automatism . You can also try triangular wheels (one wheel on each vertices), all three powered by a central sprocket , and the triangle turns and grips . Like a powered climbing stairs cart
enitre video i was thinking of doing this to a rumba, and then you said it.... can't wait for that one... :)
you are underrated engineer. woow I m bafed
Love the content.
My first thought on stabilization was legs/pylons to extend forward or back (similar to a light crane or boom lift), which would maybe be more complicated but less tipsy...
Props - this channel is an inspiration.
No wonder the daleks just settled on levitation as the easy solution to stairs
Your robot camera man is still killing it. Good job James, you're the best evil scientist on CZcams.
Thanks, although opinions are mixed ;-)
smart design !
not going to lie but I use Onshape and it is pretty good for most applications including 3D printing
I see you use your camera robot for filming now. Thats pretty awesome that you get something really useful out of your inventions as well from time to time.
Great video! I had a thought though, and I'm not sure if I'm missing something (in which case, please correct me), but if you have the moving mass that can change where it balances, why couldn't it be just two segments? Like, it puts one segment up one step, shifts weight onto that one, lifts the back segment up, transfers weight onto that one, etc.
I would love to see more Robot Dog stuff, I think you can keep pushing it
robot cameraman john is legitimately really good. its a good handcam feel. John has been replaced!
It's not the robotics I'm impressed by, it's the time to finish that is amazing.
Objective achieved. Nice.
Hi Jim! Love your creations! The plastic they're made out of remind me of my 90s childhood for some reason. 1:54am in NY here, cheers!
Awesome.
Nicely made as always! I think with mechanical switches tho, you could double the motor use, rather than simply using the main motors one at a time
Fantastic! 🤖
👏👏👏 que gran proyecto
Awesome job man. One suggestion. Instead of shifting weight, you can use flywheels. You can control their speed and direction to adjust the angular momentum. I think it will be comparatively simple and compact.
I keep forgetting you're using the robot camera operator. Awesome.
If the compartment of the battery can move to accommodate for the change of weight in the direction needed, that's a huge win for efficiency.
Now imagine being able to do this with more than one battery separately for even more control and capacity.
I think it only needs to drive the front pair of wheels when the middle pair is at the same level as those front pair. This means you could simplify by having a simple gear or friction drive that takes the drive off the middle pair and supplies it to the front pair when they are at the same level?
If you can find it have a look at the British Army's "wheelbarrow" from the 1980s. It is an EOD robot that carries tools and can negotiate stairs no problem. It uses tracks and has a hull that slides fore and aft for centre of gravity control. Well done on this design...
Not bad for a first step... I'll see myself out now.
In all seriousness though, it reminds me of the way a baby climbs stairs.
Functional, effective, but very slow.
Very interested to see what else comes out.
I know for a FACT you used your camera bot and damnnnnnnn that lil homie was build by a pro cause it didn’t miss a shot. Love the video have a great day!!
It might take a while, but you'll really enjoy that Pepsi from 1982
interesting project
well for starters how about acceleromter(?) in the middle so it can calculate tip forwards and backwards for balance, simple switches in front on both side for step placement.
Great video. And I can totally see why you went with this style of stair climbing. It is simple and realitvley stable. But with your previous work with balancing robots I wondered if you had considered a design based on Dean Kamen's I-bot?
Imagine getting your morning coffee from this.
ultrasound worth a try for the automation problem? you could have lots of transducers everywhere measuring everything. it might go really fast
Your builds were already impressive with the BB8 but this is very cool.
Fantastic as always. I thought that seven minutes to get up the stairs was quite impressive. :)
A few weeks back I thought that your motion camera rig was another amazing project. However, when you use it now, there are parts of the video (like the closing section here) where I have to look away as they make me fill quite ill very quickly -- the mimicking of a drifting hand-held camera with no stabilization is too good! :) But this may be just me.
Cool build but guess the beer will not be cold once it arrives 😉 Thanks for sharing 👍🏼
Bring back the old printing moment music :'( (awsome as always)
Would there be a room in the robot to mount a cleaning equipment (like vacuum or detergents spray with towel) ?
Thank you for your video, as I also need to make a 'scooter' that can go up stairs, and I am thinking of using a segway type device that has large diameter wheels and you can shift your weight forward. It needs to go faster than you can do it yourself with your legs or it won't be useful....It would be great if you could figure this out. The track system might work if it has large diameter more like a wheel. Cheers, Jack
btw, a simpler method is to fire a hooked cable to the top of the stairs and just winch yourself up, doesn't need anything but a single winch and some wheels. Can go back down too. And very quickly too if you don't mind some bouncing.
For a "proof of concept" or version 0 it's amazing!
At least, I think you can automate the stair climb with 1 sonar sensor on the front:
You still have control of the driving of course. You can drive it up to a step, and hit a button that will start the stair climbing (maybe with the same button to stop the auto-climb so you can take over too).
The program will first make sure it's close enough to the step, maybe even bumping into the step.
It will then raise the front section until the sensor doesn't detect a close object.
It then drives forward a set distance, stopping if the sensor gets too close to the next step (if there is one).
I'm not going to write out the whole thing, but I think you can get the idea for the algo from this. Just one sensor needed! :)
When the camera moved I got scared, in this channel the camera is always fixed, then I remembered your robot. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Your cold snack will be a warm snack by the time it gets to the top of the stairs.
haha new printing music is great :P
Great ! You should add this mass moving system on your useful robot so he can actually lift heavier objects without balancing problems.
a couple rails with a section of teeth in the middle would make it easier for a small robot to quickly climb the stairs. depending on size you could get it to corner on the rail and even a weak, slow climb would still probably be faster than all the stop and go with this bot. this robot is amazing in its own way and if it was only a step or two it would be fine but 7 min is a while and then you need a good bit of sensors to keep it from just driving off the edge.
Such a cool concept! Well executed too. I'm curious if you think it can make it down the stairs in its current form?
Also a stair-lift robot that can interface with other robots would be amazing. Retrieval / delivery robots on each floor plus the stair lift robot to take a mass from one level to another. What an awesome home-automation system you'll have soon!
I was thinking you could mount a rail To the wall just have it extended out and enter so and have the robot be able to connect to that and drive up the rail… who knows if that would work though. And in theory that should be able to make it down the stairs it just goes in reverse
Rather than sensors for detecting the distance to the next step couldn't you use switches on each side (front left and front right) and let the robot bump into the stair like the early roombas did to detect the stair and then orient itself correctly (straighten out and then move to the correct distance for ascending)?
Couldn't you also automate the ascent process rather than having to control it all manually with a remote? It seems like it's a fairly repetitive task that would be easy to set up macros for each of the different movements and their timings
the camera work is pretty spicy in this video, very nice
That's the camera robot?
Honestly thought James had hired a camera man for a bit. Then I remembered the last video! Great work James!
Granted I'm only half way through - but the horizontal expand function seems like it might make wheels redundant - i.e. inchworm style movement up the stairs rather than rolling?
I'd like to see a Treadwell type droid go up and down stairs. Using the arms to help start going up. Then tilting the tread bed at the base of the body so the body remains upright.
Could a tumbling robot that kind of rolls up the stairs work? it would just need to have a stabilized basket in the middle to hold soda. Or a hexapod with long lanky, lifting legs. Same idea as what you have here but it doesn't use wheels, and different gaits can be tested against your particular steps for best stability.
this is very cool and i love the solution but i think it needs to go FASTER!!! i hope next episode is a faster version. you make cool stuff 😊
awesome work!!! The way down is difficult - take Lego Train much easy...