If someone said they had created a “Stair Bear,” I would think it would be brown and furry (or possibly dangerous). This one is neither, but I would have a hard time resisting such a great rhyme to name this four-wheeled (or is it 12-legged) contraption that is able to climb stairs.
The first video is initially humorous, initially talking about the contest that this ‘bot was made for. The climber makes an appearance at around 1:10, and looks quite well-made using quite a few parts from Servocity, an Arduino, and two safety switches that look really “boss.” Everything is linked together so that one motor can be used to power it, and a Bluetooth shield allows for control from a phone.
The fact that the wheels are linked together keeps the “spokes” turning at the same rate. From the climbing demonstrations in the second video, it looks like that helps it climb well. The 3-spoke wheels are made out of foam board with rubber “feet” which seem to have no problem supporting this robot. This might be a good material to consider for a project in the future. The ‘bot weighs in at under 10 pounds, including a rather large battery originally intended for a “bag phone.”
This second video, a sequence of this ‘bot climbing stair after stair to the Rocky theme, is quite entertaining, even though the explanation of how it works is in the video above.
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