Design of a Robust Stair Climbing Compliant Modular Robot to Tackle Overhang on Stairs

TL;DR

This paper presents a robust, modular stair-climbing robot designed to handle stairs with overhangs, using geometric modifications and the Grey-based Taguchi Method for optimal parameter design, validated through prototype testing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design approach for stair-climbing robots with overhang handling capabilities and employs a robust parameter optimization method.

Findings

Successfully scaled stairs with overhangs of varying dimensions

Optimized design parameters reduced performance variation

Prototype demonstrated effective overhang traversal

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept and parameter design of a Robust Stair Climbing Compliant Modular Robot, capable of tackling stairs with overhangs. Modifying the geometry of the periphery of the wheels of our robot helps in tackling overhangs. Along with establishing a concept design, robust design parameters are set to minimize performance variation. The Grey-based Taguchi Method is adopted for providing an optimal setting for the design parameters of the robot. The robot prototype is shown to have successfully scaled stairs of varying dimensions, with overhang, thus corroborating the analysis performed.