A stair-climbing and descending vehicle is disclosed, comprising a frame and a pair of transverse, co-axial, power-driven axles, each rotatably carrying a spider assembly at its outer end. Each spider has at least three wheels, one at each equi-spaced extremity of its radial arms. Each axle drives either the spider or the associated wheels through a differential gearing. When climbing a stairway, the spiders are rotated immediately when the wheels are prevented from rotating by encountering a stair riser. The differential also serves to safety and smoothly descend the stairs. The vehicle is adapted for use as a wheelchair, in which case a chair-shifting device is provided to shift the center of gravity of the vehicle, rearwardly.

Climbing and descending vehicle

The purpose of this paper is to describe the Loper, a multi-purpose robotic platform under development at the University of Minnesota's Center for Distributed Robotics. Leper's unique Tri-lobe wheel design and highly compliant chassis make the platform especially suited for overcoming many of the challenges associated with search operations in urban settings. The mechanically simple design and use of commercially available components make Loper easily maintainable. The platform also features long operational time, onboard sensor processing, dedicated motion control, and four reconfigurable sensor bays.

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Loper: A quadruped-hybrid stair climbing robot

A stair climbing robot and method of operation is described. The robot includes a chassis having powered opposed front wheels and two pairs of rear wheels each pair being rotatably mounted on a beam at opposite ends thereof, and each beam being rotatably mounted on the chassis. A drive motor is provided for driving each pair of wheels in the same direction at a predetermined rotational velocity and a drive means is provided for simultaneously rotating the beams at a predetermined rotational velocity and in a predetermined direction. The method of operation to climb stairs includes the steps of activating the rotation of the beams in a forward direction while causing each pair of rear wheels to rotate in an opposite direction at the same rotational velocity. In this way, forward movement is achieved by action of the front wheels and the rotating beams and the rotational velocity of the rear wheels relative to the terrain will be zero.

Stair climbing robot

A wheelchair is adjustable between a compact configuration, in which the centre of gravity lies in a vertical plane (50), which intersects wheels (16, 116) on a front carrier of the wheelchair and an extended configuration in which the centre of gravity lies in a vertical plane spaced substantially from all wheels of the wheelchair.

Ronald K Brown

Papers

Stair-climbing wheel chair