How this Robot Climbs up Stairs

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I found various robots on KZbin that can go upstairs, of course including Boston Dynamics Spot Mini. My openDog project isn’t really ready for that though, even though it can walk over lumps of wood. I also have these bends in my stairs which means there’s limited turning space in two places, so it’s going to need to be something much smaller.
I came across a few tracked robots and robots with multiple wheels on pivots so they can just drive up stairs. These look good on test steps, but they’d need upscaling significantly to get up actual stairs which tend to be larger and quite steep.
Then I found a stair cleaning robot which splits itself into three vertical sliding sections to lift itself up on each step. The middle section has four wheels to hold it stable, and it also looks like it has omni-wheels so it can slide sideways to clean each step as it goes.
This seems like quite a good design, although the stairs it’s climbing are fairly deep so all three sections can fit on one step. My stairs are a lot shallower than that which means the robot would need to be much thinner, and the middle section would be much less stable when it lifts the back or front up.
So I’m going to adapt this design with an extending section that will allow it to span three steps at once to keep it stable.
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[@jamesbruton]

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[@boonjabby]

You could make the weight shift automatically depending on which linear motor you enable? I.e. moves forward before moving rear wheels etc.

[@RossBobby]

Camera bot doing a great job holding the camera!

[@danielf3623]

Got a little seasick at the end, maybe need a bit more damping.

[@kittguy]

It does a good job, however needs more damping indeed. Switching point of interest instead of accurately following it is what's needed. And personally I'm used to a signature steady wide open shot with a lot of machinery in the frame. Change is not always good. A lot of videos today are dynamic and shot from a handheld cam. James style stands apart and that is good IMO.

[@victoriage]

@@danielf3623 Same, at the end it was a bit too much haha

[@daftbence]

@@kittguy And another bunch of videos are filmed on a tripod, with wide shots. James' style wasn't special at all, in fact a robot filming him IS a special style he needs. Just needs some tuning, that's all.

[@kittguy]

@@daftbence Solid point actually, I haven't thought of it this way. 👍

[@Nobe_Oddy]

It's a VERY good machine to carry a quite massive load and for keeping it level and stable. But for it carry you a beer while you're feeling lazy... well I think it would be warm by the time it got there lol. You did mention that it was overly complicated, and I agree... for SIMPLE tasks. But it really is the perfect design for what it was based on (cleaning the stairs)

[@DrWhom]

brits drink their beer warm anyway

[@TetraTimboman]

If I were to do this project, I would cheat and mount a track on the wall that the robot could attach to and drive itself up the wall like one of those stair-lift-chair things. Or attach and detach itself to an installed winch or crane. That would only help for a home use that's planned ahead of time like that - not really as robust as a solution as this robot that could go up many different types of stairs. EDIT 12:32 in the video he has the same idea haha I wrote this comment before finishing the vid

[@esnevip]

He's English, warm beer is the go.

[@davidgustavsson4000]

If anything, there's a risk he'll have to drink his ale cold.

[@omnianti0]

instead of 3d printed part for ads it was more struddy to use only aluminum parts and make a mini fridge as counter mass

[@christianfrandfors6258]

Brilliant! As a proof of concept you've created a lift for elderly or handicapped that doesn't need rails and is portable. Truly brilliant!

[@DavidMeggers]

That worked so much better than I was anticipating. Excellent results

[@sbiecoproductions6062]

CAMERABOT is doing a great job man. i think you're the only one i know off on youtube to have that. brilliant

[@theolane5400]

The new camera rig seems like it's working out great, but with this project, because you've already added the 2kg weight shifting element, why not just use two sets of balancing wheels and a single actuator between them?

[@segue2ant395]

Funny - I had the opposite thought - since it's using 6 wheels, why have a shifting mass when you could just add a static mass to the middle section? :P

[@DJ-kx4en]

i think a servo with a stability plate at each set of wheels would assist in this if needed

[@benjidaniel5595]

Amazing. I’d love to see an autonomous version of this that can go up and down. But also excited to see the Roomba stairlift!

[@oldestnerd]

Besides being educational, your videos are always fun to watch. The music for this one was perfect.

[@rorywilson7013]

not going to lie but I use Onshape and it is pretty good for most applications including 3D printing

[@willierants5880]

So very cool, well done James and thanks for what you do for the Robotics community and STEM learning in general.

[@CorvanEssen]

Gotta love the camera work 👍

[@rudyplayz20]

Love the multiple different types of pullies and different engineering designs in this. On a quick note you should try to use mecanum wheels, they give lots of control when used right and you can go in almost any direction you want!

[@matthewray6008]

Your robot camera man is still killing it. Good job James, you're the best evil scientist on KZbin.

[@jamesbruton]

Thanks, although opinions are mixed ;-)

[@Gunbudder]

robot cameraman john is legitimately really good. its a good handcam feel. John has been replaced!

[@dumbtex6107]

I gotta say I switched to Onshape about a year and a half ago when I switched to Linux and coming from fusion I gotta say I love it and I love to see them sponsoring you

[@redheadsg1]

Instead of sensor, limit switch for hitting side of the stairs is probably easier to implement.

[@bluemamba5317]

Maybe some problem though with that fuzzy carpet

[@MatthewHoworko]

@@bluemamba5317 Maybe a limit switch with a bigger bumper?

[@eekee6034]

I'm pretty sure sensors were limit switches when I was learning robotics back in the 80s. There were infra-red sensors too, but there's nothing wrong with an, *ahem* _simple touch sensor_ AKA limit switch. :)

[@actualRocketScientist]

You make it look so easy. You must have a ton of experience. Wish I could learn from you in person

[@cursed_cats5710]

A few weeks ago I was thinking about the same idea, designing a segmented stair climbing robot. Nice to see someone doing it.

[@ReneVaeli]

Yeees! The stair roomba is coming! Thank you!

[@ryanengle9725]

I know for a FACT you used your camera bot and damnnnnnnn that lil homie was build by a pro cause it didn’t miss a shot. Love the video have a great day!!

[@MaxBrainDevices]

Love the robot camera Is doing a great job

[@dadgood9729]

This is what I imagine a stair climbing Dalek would look like. Pretty interesting design though.

[@lordofthe6string]

What would be super cool is if someone could make like a rail system around a house that bots can attach to and ride around. For the stairs the rail could go up a wall and then across the ceiling out the way.

[@blue_leader_5756]

New camera guy is really putting in the work

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Onshape is about 3x the prices of FUSION 360. Why would I switch?

[@electronic7979]

Excellent project 👍

[@MatchaMakesThings]

Honestly thought James had hired a camera man for a bit. Then I remembered the last video! Great work James!

[@Madpegasusmax]

nice automatism . You can also try triangular wheels (one wheel on each vertices), all three powered by a central sprocket , and the triangle turns and grips . Like a powered climbing stairs cart

[@shazam6274]

Impressive! James does in weeks what industry does in many months and universities take years to accomplish.

[@fatso8437]

🤣 You think a university would only take "years"? 😂😂 An academic would sit on a problem like for his/her/its entire career. And in that time he/she/it would build a medium size research group, obtain squillions in taxpayer funded grants to fund said group, reach full professor relatively early compared to a more esoteric academic colleague and then spend the rest of his/her/its career dining out on his/her/its one pony trick without any of his/her/its sponsors ever really achieving a commercially viable product. Even more sadly he/she/it will successfully supervise higher degrees and they too will follow in his/her/its path at his/her/its institue or some other. And so and so on and so on. 🤣😂🤣

[@sgsax]

Always enjoy seeing your solution to hese problems. Adding a payload area seems like it might get dicey. You're already fighting balance issues. Seems like figuring out additional weight distribution could be a challenge. Thanks for sharing!

[@RupertBruce]

Objective achieved. Nice.

[@liamkelly3583]

Aargh! he always finishes projects that I am working on before I do

[@withered_dragon_head]

Loved the new vid, cam bot is working great! I miss the old 3d print music though.:(

[@MalcySP]

Could you make the counter weight automatically balance the robot to remove a few steps from the climbing sequence?

[@ExplainingComputers]

Fantastic as always. I thought that seven minutes to get up the stairs was quite impressive. :) A few weeks back I thought that your motion camera rig was another amazing project. However, when you use it now, there are parts of the video (like the closing section here) where I have to look away as they make me fill quite ill very quickly -- the mimicking of a drifting hand-held camera with no stabilization is too good! :) But this may be just me.

[@garagemonkeysan]

Cool video. Looks like you got the robot camera rig working. Nice! Mahalo for sharing! : )

[@boonjabby]

Hey Jim, I'm still loving the autonomous camera man 😉

[@UbuntuBirdyMovies]

I love your soundtrack!

[@siyuanng8348]

i appreicate the background music during the build montage!

[@SprocketN]

Really good explanation of the problem and your solution 👍

[@ajeethsuryash5123]

Awesome job man. One suggestion. Instead of shifting weight, you can use flywheels. You can control their speed and direction to adjust the angular momentum. I think it will be comparatively simple and compact.

[@VJspoonbender]

I was hoping no one would solve this problem, I always imagined that if the robot overlords came after me I would just go upstairs.

[@patprop74]

Quite the accomplishment James.

[@deeiks12]

I see you use your camera robot for filming now. Thats pretty awesome that you get something really useful out of your inventions as well from time to time.

[@AvivMakesRobots]

It's not the robotics I'm impressed by, it's the time to finish that is amazing.

[@TheRealStructurer]

Cool build but guess the beer will not be cold once it arrives 😉 Thanks for sharing 👍🏼

[@oml81mm]

If you can find it have a look at the British Army's "wheelbarrow" from the 1980s. It is an EOD robot that carries tools and can negotiate stairs no problem. It uses tracks and has a hull that slides fore and aft for centre of gravity control. Well done on this design...

[@DorifutoRabbit]

Your builds were already impressive with the BB8 but this is very cool.

[@ethansimmons82]

Love the dynamic camera!! Also, your content is pretty dope

[@oogalook]

In engineering this is what we call the "brute force" approach. Normally when somebody says "Just add more actuators!" you know a dumpster fire is in your future.

[@PhG1961]

Really cool video and what an amazing 3D printers ! Mouth watering...

[@3ne2nr4life]

This is an awesome build...

[@ZenHulk]

I love it.... Glad were back to awesome robots..

[@ZenMountain]

Fantastic, thank you!

[@danielleohallisey4218]

Bold choice on the new music!

[@boonjabby]

Imagine getting your morning coffee from this.

[@abdujemal1872]

you are underrated engineer. woow I m bafed

[@bengelman2600]

I keep forgetting you're using the robot camera operator. Awesome.

[@easyBob100]

At least, I think you can automate the stair climb with 1 sonar sensor on the front: You still have control of the driving of course. You can drive it up to a step, and hit a button that will start the stair climbing (maybe with the same button to stop the auto-climb so you can take over too). The program will first make sure it's close enough to the step, maybe even bumping into the step. It will then raise the front section until the sensor doesn't detect a close object. It then drives forward a set distance, stopping if the sensor gets too close to the next step (if there is one). I'm not going to write out the whole thing, but I think you can get the idea for the algo from this. Just one sensor needed! :)

[@bananas401k]

the camera work is pretty spicy in this video, very nice

[@jamesbruton]

That's the camera robot?

[@gabrielhacecosas]

When the camera moved I got scared, in this channel the camera is always fixed, then I remembered your robot. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@vaisakh_km]

enitre video i was thinking of doing this to a rumba, and then you said it.... can't wait for that one... :)

[@lynnwilliam]

I would love to see more Robot Dog stuff, I think you can keep pushing it

[@richardbloemenkamp8532]

Really a great job. It is not easy to make a robot that can climb such stairs. Now maybe you can use it as a platform, add more automation etc.

[@aaalll2513]

Awsome! Great build!

[@edwinsilvestrequitianrodri8742]

Excelente work... Greetings from colombia.🎉

[@georgeindestructible]

If the compartment of the battery can move to accommodate for the change of weight in the direction needed, that's a huge win for efficiency. Now imagine being able to do this with more than one battery separately for even more control and capacity.

[@AwesomeBrixx]

Great video! I had a thought though, and I'm not sure if I'm missing something (in which case, please correct me), but if you have the moving mass that can change where it balances, why couldn't it be just two segments? Like, it puts one segment up one step, shifts weight onto that one, lifts the back segment up, transfers weight onto that one, etc.

[@bentsprockettech]

Mr. Bruton, I am very upset with you. LOL After watching ED 209 of Robocop fame, I thought I would be safe from all terminators and such by taking the stairs. Now, I see there is no escape. ROFL Thanks for sharing this one with us! As always, I love the detail you put into all of your creations. 🙂

[@ecophreak1]

No wonder the daleks just settled on levitation as the easy solution to stairs

[@Aliasnode]

One of these days we're going to see you make a 3D printed full mech/Gundam suit.

[@gucu]

In order to automate, can you simply detect the first stair, input the length and height of each tred and then let it run?

[@daniellclary]

Interesting concept, but if I want something, I just going down the stairs to get it myself. Now if you were able to get a robo flying drone that can carry a load, that could bring things up fast.

[@LLJW4]

haha new printing music is great :P

[@LoneWolf0648]

a couple rails with a section of teeth in the middle would make it easier for a small robot to quickly climb the stairs. depending on size you could get it to corner on the rail and even a weak, slow climb would still probably be faster than all the stop and go with this bot. this robot is amazing in its own way and if it was only a step or two it would be fine but 7 min is a while and then you need a good bit of sensors to keep it from just driving off the edge.

[@andiralosh2173]

Nicely made as always! I think with mechanical switches tho, you could double the motor use, rather than simply using the main motors one at a time

[@murraymadness4674]

Thank you for your video, as I also need to make a 'scooter' that can go up stairs, and I am thinking of using a segway type device that has large diameter wheels and you can shift your weight forward. It needs to go faster than you can do it yourself with your legs or it won't be useful....It would be great if you could figure this out. The track system might work if it has large diameter more like a wheel. Cheers, Jack btw, a simpler method is to fire a hooked cable to the top of the stairs and just winch yourself up, doesn't need anything but a single winch and some wheels. Can go back down too. And very quickly too if you don't mind some bouncing.

[@jacquesb5248]

interesting project well for starters how about acceleromter(?) in the middle so it can calculate tip forwards and backwards for balance, simple switches in front on both side for step placement.

[@p838sfan]

I look forward to your post amazing job again. Thanks

[@Will_Huff]

Excellent!

[@maxtorque2277]

I think it only needs to drive the front pair of wheels when the middle pair is at the same level as those front pair. This means you could simplify by having a simple gear or friction drive that takes the drive off the middle pair and supplies it to the front pair when they are at the same level?

[@Warrigt]

It might take a while, but you'll really enjoy that Pepsi from 1982

[@patricklepoutre]

Great ! You should add this mass moving system on your useful robot so he can actually lift heavier objects without balancing problems.

[@dongningprc]

This is an AMAZING project! Can the robot go downstairs? I think it can, just reverse the steps should work

[@TFlorian]

smart design !

[@qwicy]

Love the content. My first thought on stabilization was legs/pylons to extend forward or back (similar to a light crane or boom lift), which would maybe be more complicated but less tipsy... Props - this channel is an inspiration.

[@Unmannedair]

Not bad for a first step... I'll see myself out now. In all seriousness though, it reminds me of the way a baby climbs stairs. Functional, effective, but very slow. Very interested to see what else comes out.

[@patrickhurley7029]

Hi Jim! Love your creations! The plastic they're made out of remind me of my 90s childhood for some reason. 1:54am in NY here, cheers!

[@chrisk8208]

Help. I'm stuck on the 40th floor of a 47 story steel frame building that's experiencing office fires. It may collapse any moment. :) Luckily, James has a robot that will be here in......ten odd hours.

[@Kaamszz]

Bring back the old printing moment music :'( (awsome as always)

[@KylePapili]

Such a cool concept! Well executed too. I'm curious if you think it can make it down the stairs in its current form? Also a stair-lift robot that can interface with other robots would be amazing. Retrieval / delivery robots on each floor plus the stair lift robot to take a mass from one level to another. What an awesome home-automation system you'll have soon!

[@neb_setabed]

I was thinking you could mount a rail To the wall just have it extended out and enter so and have the robot be able to connect to that and drive up the rail… who knows if that would work though. And in theory that should be able to make it down the stairs it just goes in reverse

[@jaimeeoww]

this is very cool and i love the solution but i think it needs to go FASTER!!! i hope next episode is a faster version. you make cool stuff 😊

[@inh415]

How about a hopping / pogo stick robot that can hop up the steps? Would need some kind of active damping on the beer carrying arm though. Sounds right up your alley with some reaction wheals and or gyro's for stability and inducing forward motion and rotation etc

[@fatso8437]

Wouldn't you simply drink the beer before climbing the stairs? And what is so important at the top of the stairs anyway? Tell her to come down, you're too busy watching the cricket

[@PanoptesDreams]

For a "proof of concept" or version 0 it's amazing!

[@paulmeynell8866]

Great video thanks

[@amihaiba]

What about 3 vertically sliding links with each having a track so when the first link encounter the stair the track will pull it up while the rest will press it to the stair so that it has traction, and once its goes up the next one climb etc.

[@hueyiroquois3839]

The next time anyone asks why animals didn't evolve wheels, show them this video.

[@SteffDev]

so... depending on how many stairs you got, you can expect your drink to arrive in, anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes xD

[@kevinmcnamara7897]

Fantastic! 🤖