Final Prototype

The final prototype was base on the straight-line beam eight bar mechanism from the book of Design of machinery 8th edition. The original mechanism can be seen in:

Based on this mechanism, a new design was made that could make the required movement for the robot to be able to climb. The design of the final mechanism can be seen in:

Two of these mechanisms would be used for each side of the robot and the input crank shafts would be offset by 180 degrees from each other. This means that while one claw is engaged with the rope, the other mechanism is resetting to the top to re-engage the rope. Additionally, a copy of these two mechanisms would be reflected across the line of the rope so that two claws are engaging the rope at a time to provide better attachment to the rope. A top view of one half of the robot can be seen below:

Also shown in the above picture are the sprockets and gears used to transfer the energy from the motor to the output claws. There is a 3:1 gear reduction from the motor and all sprockets were 1:1 to transfer energy and keep all cranks rotating at a fixed ratio.

The assembly of both halves together can be seen below:

The photo of the final assembly helps to display the four total claw mechanisms with their respective phase offsets from each other. The sprockets that transfer energy from the motor output to the claws can be seen in the above photo and the way chain is connected to allow the energy transfer can be clearly seen in the below image: