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Vertigo III
Vertigo III is a 3rd generation NXT design capable of climbing up and down windows or mirrors. Previous attempts (projects Vertigo and Vertigo II) fell (pun intended) short of fully meeting this objective. This latest design incorporates a stronger vacuum system and uses Lego pneumatic parts:

2 – Pneumatic Cylinders
2 – Pneumatic Tanks
3 – Pneumatic Switches
9 – Pneumatic T-Pieces
6 – Pneumatic One Way Valves

This robot incorporates suction cup feet and a movable center rail system with worm gears as a rack and pinion type drive to climb up (move forward) and down (move backwards). Two suction cup feet (port and starboard or P and S) support the main body or chassis and another pair of suction cup feet are located on the movable rail (fore and aft or F and A feet).

The action sequence is to apply a vacuum to P and S and move the rail either up or down. Then the vacuum is released (on P and S) and is applied to the rail feet (F and A). The main body is then free to climb up or down the rail. This sequence is repeated until the Touch Sensor mounted on the front of the chassis is bumped Three NXT motors are used to drive the center rail, vacuum pumps and pneumatic switches.

Two pneumatic cylinders, each with 2 inlets/outlets, are offset driven off the same motor gear (Port C Motor) and along with some one way pneumatic valves produce vacuum build-up during each stroke of the pistons moving inside their respective cylinders. For every rotation of the common gear, there are two inlet strokes and the vacuum that gets created is saved in the dual pneumatic tanks. The alternative outlet strokes (compressions) are fed to the ambient air via the network of one way valves.

One of the pneumatic switches controls the vacuum distribution to two pair of feet (P and S or F and A). A second pneumatic switch applies a vacuum or releases the vacuum to the P and S feet, while a third switch applies the same control to the F and A suction cups. The three switches are driven in tandem (Port A Motor) and the action sequences of the climbing center rail (Port B Motor) and other motors are controlled by the NXT programming.

A major challenge was to overcome Vertigo’s total weight (2.1 pounds or 966 grams in the final design). In order to lift this weight on vertical glass surfaces, the vacuum differential pressure needed to be at least four times higher than what was achievable with the air bellows design used in the Vertigo and Vertigo II projects.

Also, mitigation of the total weight problem might have been easier using some Energizer E2 Lithium batteries in place of the Lithium Rechargeable Battery (option from Lego), but this has yet to be tried.

Finally, during the development of Vertigo III a belay line was an important addition that prevented many trial and error failures from becoming disasters. If it where not for some very excellent comments and suggestions from other Mindstroms’ members, this project would never have gotten off the ground (again, pun intended).

Posted by:

 TrilogyGlenIvy

Created:

 22 March 2007

Rate:

 

Tags:(?):

 vertigo, pneumatic, pump, vacuum, suctioncups, climb, glass, window, walker

Comments

10 most recent comments out of 46  [VIEW ALL]

  • minifig2222

  • where do you get lego pneumatics?

  • Posted 976 days and 21 hours ago


  • Awesomen1

  • please post a video. Also, you're idea is really awesome and I think the robot looks cool too.

  • Posted 863 days and 19 hours ago


  • josbod

  • wow

  • Posted 862 days and 23 hours ago


  • fadofrosch

  • Please post a Video! (Delete one picture and load a video up!)

  • Posted 862 days and 21 hours ago


  • vannerthehammer

  • fantastic job! and great idea!

  • Posted 860 days and 21 hours ago


  • jkelleyrtp101

  • Go to the bottom of this page and click 'under "educators", click Lego Education Products. Then you can search all the parts, and I mean all of them, that you want. Great project, very impressive. Can wait to see more projects, keep up the great work!

  • Posted 858 days and 17 hours ago


  • smartypants880

  • you can get those pneumatic lego parts from many technic sets. Or you can search Lego.com or you could simply order them off of lego digital designer. Totally cool robot!

  • Posted 856 days and 18 hours ago



  • itri45

  • you can also buy them off legoeducation i have bought many different things of there including tank treads and sprockets. if you are looking for a specific part like pneumatics or tank treads check legoeducation. btw great job on the project. great idea. i have never seen a window climbing robot. 10 out of 10

  • Posted 853 days and 13 hours ago


  • davedelong

  • What sort of suction cups are you using, how did you hook them up to the pneumatic system, and where can I get some?

  • Posted 501 days and 9 hours ago


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