Designing the Rica IV prototype

We are currently in the Rica IV prototype design phase. The goal is to build a functional robot which can climb stairs in normal conditions. For the prototype we don't take into account nuclear requirements. We only work on the crossing system.

We previously made a state of the art "climbing robot " to see what solutions already exist to answer our customer needs. We finally chose a 4 arm robot with tracks like the "chaos robot" architecture :

Regarding our budget, we decided to mechanically synchronise arms, two per two and tracks as well. It allows us to reduce the number of motors from 8 to 4.
Thanks to this cost-reduction, we can make a full scale robot meeting all displacements and crossing requirements.

To design the robot, we based our study on some tools like PBD (Physical Block Diagram) to define in detail each sub-assembly. Then we achieved the CAD and we chose all COTS (components off-the-shelf).

Here is the final architecture of our prototype (sheets components doesn't appears in detail)  :


After several iterations within the team, we validated this architecture. Then we can start CAD and calculate all internal needs (like torque provided by motors, shaft's diameters...).

A prototype in the making

As you dear visitors know, for the past two years we have worked towards developing a new robot called the RICA IV succeeding the RICA III designed by Cyberia.

Three weeks ago, we were asked to create a functional prototype for the system. As we could never create a complete RICA IV by our deadline, we are only working on creating a robot capable of climbing over stairs.

Our deadline is the 19th of June, next monday. On this day, we are supposed to deliver documents and blueprints to create the system, so that the technical team at the school can prepare the next period. During that period we will create the system with the technical team's help and finish with a test of our prototype.

Professors and technicians are currently lending us a hand in designing the prototype and giving advice to prevent trouble during the development process.

As of today we developed the body and selected our electrical motors. We shall communicate on those matters in the next few days.

We thank you for following us on this new project, and hope you like our posts.