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Minor Project Report

on Staircase Climber

Submitted by:

Submitted to:

Konal Pahwa 00515603613

Mr. Neeraj Kumar Head of

Department

Aakash Sachdeva 01315603613

Hemant Kumar 01815603613
Shirish Gandhi 02315603613
Section F7

Mr. Imran Siraj Project Coordinator

Department Mechanical &
Automation Engg.

Branch MAE (1st Shift)

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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DECLARATION
We, Konal Pahwa, Aakash Sachdeva, Hemant Kumar &
Shirish Gandhi, students of MAE 1st Shift, studying at
Northern India Engineering College, hereby declare that
the minor project report on Staircase Climber, submitted
to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, in partial
fulfillment of Bachelors Degree in Mechanical and
Automation Engineering, is the original work conducted
by us.

The information and data given in the report is authentic

to the best of our knowledge. This report is not being
submitted to any other University for award of any other
Degree, Diploma and Fellowship.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Mr. Imran Siraj

Mr.Neeraj Kumar
Dr.G.P.Govil

(Project Coordinator, MAE Dept)

(Director)

Northern India Engineering College

(HOD, MAE Dept)

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank various people, who directly or
indirectly contributed in the development of this work and
who influenced our thinking, behavior, and acts during
the course of study.

We would like to thank our project guide, Mr. Imran

Siraj, & all our teachers for their help & guidance. This
project wouldnt have been possible without their
support.

We are also grateful to the HOD of MAE Department, Mr.

Neeraj Kumar, & the Director, Dr. G.P.Govil, for
constantly inspiring us & motivating us to think out of the
box.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.No

Topic

Page No.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Need of Staircase Climber

Prelude
Our Design
Design Objectives
Geometric & Force Analysis
Material Considerations
Torque, Speed & Power Calculations

4
5
7
8
9
14
16

8.

Stress-Strain Analysis

17

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Electronic Components - Motor

Electronic Components Power Source
Electronic Components Charger
Applications
Cost Analysis of Staircase Climber
Conclusion
References & Bibliography

18
20
21
21
22
23
24

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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NEED OF STAIRCASE
CLIMBER

Lifting heavy objects or lifting patients to upper stories of a building

from the ground is a seemingly impossible job, especially where there
are no lifting facilities (like elevators, escalators etc.) available.
Moreover, most buildings do not have these facilities because they are

structurally congested.
The need of such a

system

is

obvious

from

the

day-to-day

requirements of our society. Devices such as hand carts are used to

relieve the stress of lifting while on flat ground, however, these devices
usually fail when it becomes necessary to negotiate a short flight of
stairs. Package deliverymen, for example, often find it very difficult to
drag loaded hand carts up short flights of stairs. The geometry of the
hand cart makes it nearly impossible to negotiate the stairs.
Considerable strain is placed on the back muscles and the risk of
operator injury is very high. The pulling up of a standard hand cart up
the stairs results in a bumpy and jarring motion. This motion may
damage the items loaded on the hand cart or cause them to fall of
entirely.

These

factors

defeat

the

entire

purpose

of

using

conventional hand cart which is to decrease the efort involved in

having to lift and carry heavy objects around.

In the light of this, the project attempts to design a staircase climber
which can carry heavy objects up the stairs with little or no efort of the
operator. It also endeavors to study the commercial viability and
importance of such a product. Several designs were conceived that
would allow a climber to travel over stairs or curbs while putting
minimal strain on the user. One strategy, a tri-star wheel design, was
selected & a solid model was created for further development &

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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analysis. The designing was done with an objective of lifting a load of

50 kg, which includes the weight of the climber itself along with the
object.

PRELUDE

A Geared Wheel was designed in 1967 by Robert and John Forsyth of

the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was first developed as a model for
the Lockheed Terrastar, a commercially unsuccessful amphibious
military vehicle. A geared wheel functions as an ordinary wheel on flat
ground, but has the ability to climb automatically when an impediment
to rolling is encountered. This wheel design consists of three tires, each
mounted to a separate shaft. These shafts are located at the vertices
of an equilateral triangle. The three shafts are geared to a fourth,
central shaft (to which a motor may be attached). When geared in this
quasi-planetary fashion, these triangular sets of wheels can negotiate
many types of terrain, including sand and mud; they can also allow a
vehicle to climb over small obstructions such as rocks, holes, and
stairs. The wheel assembly is gear-driven, with two wheels in rolling
contact with the ground. The third wheel idles at the top until the lower
front wheel hits an obstruction. The obstruction prevents the lower
front wheel from moving forward but does not afect the motion of the
driving axle. This causes the top wheel to roll forward into position as
the new front wheel. This wheel usually lands on top of the obstruction
and allows the rest of the assembly to vault over the obstruction. This
design allows a relatively smooth ascension of stairs. The assembly
functions in a similar fashion to a large wheel with several chunks
missing. In most cases, the gearing allows the mechanism to interact

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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only with the horizontal and vertical stair surfaces, avoiding the points
and wrapping around each stair. Its weight and cost make the geared
wheel system an overkill for a simple consumer-grade product.

Triple Bended Cross Wheel Design

Geared Wheel Design

There were various designs available, such as the TRIPLE BENDED

CROSS WHEEL and GEARED WHEEL, but these designs proved to
be inefficient and required complex calculations for designing the
profile of lobes (in case of triple bended cross wheel) & obtaining the
gear ratios for specific speed torque conditions (in case of geared
wheel).

Geared
Wheel

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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OUR DESIGN

To overcome all these drawbacks, a new TRI-STAR WHEEL DESIGN

was created in which 3 rollers are placed at the vertices of an
equilateral triangle & a 4th roller in the middle & these are joined with
2 Y-shaped bars.2 such tri-star wheels are taken & the load is placed

between them.
As circular rollers have been used, complex calculations for lobe profile
are avoided.
And no gears have been used, except in the motor, so complex

calculations of gear ratios are also not needed.

Moreover, the simplicity of the design reduces its cost & increases its
ease of manufacture.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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DESIGN OBJECTIVES
The functional requirements which were kept in mind while designing the
staircase climber are:

The device should be able to provide most or all of the upward force

necessary to ascend a flight of stairs.

The device should be able to lift a load of 50 kg (which includes the

weight of the device itself along with the object) up a flight of stairs.
The device should be able to balance the load without a risk of it

toppling down the stairs.

The constriction & manufacture of the device sould be easy.
The cost of the device should be low.
The device should be ergonomic & aesthetically appealing.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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GEOMETRIC & FORCE

ANALYSIS

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

Aluminium 3003 Alloy was chosen over cast iron, steel etc. to manufacture

all the components of our climber due to its numerous advantages.

P a Cu,
g e Fe,
| 15
It consists of 96.8-99% Al, with rest of the composition made up by
Mn, Si, Zn.

ADVANTAGES:
It has a very good strength to weight ratio.
It is light weight with a low density of only 2700kg/m3.
Our climber (excluding the motors, battery) would weigh only 3kg.
Had we used steel (specifically EN8 Steel), it would have weighed about
7kg.
It has a good compressive strength (of 135MPa).
It has a good workability & machinability.
It has excellent weldability. Mainly TIG & MIG welding are used.
It is corrosion resistant.
It is easily available

Tri-Star Wheel & its Dimensions

MATERIAL
CONSIDERATIONS

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

P a g e | 16

DISADVANTAGES:
Al 3003 costs Rs.300/kg. So cost of climber = Rs.300/kg x 3kg = Rs.900
EN8 Steel costs Rs.75/kg. So cost of climber = Rs.75/kg x 7kg = Rs.525
Although Al 3003 is a bit expensive, it was chosen over EN8 Steel because
of its numerous advantages already stated above.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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TORQUE, SPEED & POWER

CALCULATION

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

P a g e | 18

STRESS-STRAIN ANALYSIS

Equivalent (von- Mises) Stress

Equivalent (von- Mises) Strain

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
MOTOR
DC Series Motor vs DC Shunt Motor

It is impractical to plug the climber into an AC Power Source because it

would hamper its portability. So, the obvious choice was a DC Power

Source like a battery.

We had to choose between a DC Series Motor & a DC Shunt Motor.
DC Series Motor gives a high starting torque.
But if the motor is started at No Load Condition, then the speed will be too
high which will burn out the motor.
Also, there is a huge variation in the speed with variation in torque

required, which is undesirable.

On the other hand, DC Shunt Motor has constant speed characteristics.
So, (as long as the load is within the calculated limits), even if the load
kept on the climber increases & the torque requirement increases, the

speed will remain almost constant.

As a result, DC Shunt Motor was chosen.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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Worm Gear Reducer Motor

Speed of the chosen DC Shunt Motor is 7800 rpm, which is very high.
As it has already been discussed, we need to rotate the tri-star wheels
at 20rpm, which is very low.
Therefore, the speed of the motor has to be reduced using gears.
The only gear which can ofer such a high reduction ratio in a compact

size is the worm gear.

So, we decided to use a commercially available motor called HIGH
TORQUE LOW SPEED WORM GEAR REDUCER MOTOR which

integrates a DC Shunt Motor with a worm gear in one unit.

The DC Shunt Motor rotates the screw-like worm which further rotates

the worm wheel that is connected to the output shaft of the motor.
Another advantage of the worm gear is that if suddenly the supply is
cut of due to some reason, then the tri-star wheels will stop rotating
due to the self-locking mechanism of the worm gear, which will
prevent the climber from tumbling down the staircase along with the
load.

Specifications

No. of motors required 2 (one for each tri-star wheel)

Voltage 24 V
Current 250 mA
Gear Reduction Ratio 290 : 1 (7800 rpm : 27 rpm NO LOAD SPEED)
Torque 5 Nm or 50 kgcm

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
POWER SOURCE

It is impractical to plug the climber into an AC Power Source because it

would hamper its portability. So, the obvious choice was a DC Power

Source like a battery.

Lithium Polymer Battery was preferred because it is:
- light weight
- compact
- easily rechargeable
- has a high charge density
We have 24 V motors & 12 V batteries.
So we connected 2 batteries in series with each other with both the
motors in parallel.

SPECIFICATIONS:

No. of batteries required 2

Voltage 12 V
Charge 2200 mAh

Operating time of staircase climber on a single charge

=9

hours

Ckt.
Diagram
Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

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ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
CHARGER
SPECIFICATIONS

Voltage 12 V
Current 1.8 A

Charging time of batteries -

= 2.5 hours

APPLICATIONS
1) As of now, when an elderly person or a person with a physical
disability has to climb stairs, he cant do it with a walker.
By attaching a tri-star wheel to each of the 4 legs of a walker, the
person can easily climb the stairs with a walker by taking its support.
2) As we have already explained in great detail, the climber can be used to
lift heavy loads up the stairs.
3) We can also use the climber to transport heavy loads over small
distances even on flat surfaces.
For this, we will have to stop the rotation of the middle roller and tri-star
wheel & rotate the 3 rollers at the ends about their own axes with the
help of 2 more motors & belts.
While rotating about their own axes, 2 of the rollers at the ends will
remain in constant contact with the ground. This will enable us to use
the climber even on flat surfaces.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

P a g e | 23

COST ANALYSIS OF STAIRCASE

CLIMBER
Component

Cost

Aluminium 3003 Rollers & Y-

Rs.300/kg x 3kg = Rs.900

shaped Bars
2 Motors
2 Batteries
1 Charger
Total
Approx. Estimate

Rs.5,600 x 2 = Rs.11,200
Rs.1,500 x 2 = Rs.3,000
Rs.1,800
Rs.16,900
Rs.20,000

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

P a g e | 24

CONCLUSION
The project attempts to design a staircase climber which
can carry heavy objects up the stairs with little or no
efort of the operator. It also endeavors to study the
commercial viability and importance of such a product.
Several designs were conceived that would allow a
climber to travel over stairs or curbs while putting
minimal strain on the user. One strategy, a tri-star wheel
design, was selected & a solid model was created for
further development & analysis. The designing was done
with an objective of lifting a load of 50 kg, which includes
the weight of the climber itself along with the object.

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.

P a g e | 25

REFERENCES &
BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/stairclimber
www.mit.edu
www.howstufworks.com
A Textbook of Strength of Materials Dr.

R.K.Bansal, Laxmi Publications

A Textbook of Machine Design R.S.Khurmi, S
Chand Publications
http://www.hatchedeggs.com/blog/education/mechan
ical-engineering-project-stair-climbing-robot

Northern India Engineering College

Dept. of Mechanical & Automation Engg.