ARDUINO CONTROLLED
TRANSFORMABLE WHEEL
This project was aimed to design a wheel structure that enables the car to transform into two forms and accomplish the task of going up stairs and running smoothly in the sandy ground. The prototype was an electromechanical system programmed and controlled by an Arduino board.
May. - Aug. 2018
Key Words:
3D Modeling, CAD, Arduino
Problem Statement
Normal wheels have limit abilities of going up stairs, as well as running on the sandy and snowy terrain.
Task Simulation
We set up a track to simulate the situations that may occur in the real life. The track had 6 cm height sandy terrain. It tested the vehicle's abilities of going up the stair and preventing slip. The tunnel is 10 cm high. The vehicle should shrink wheels and reduce its height before going through the tunnel.
Design & Modeling
The car was designed to have a wheel-leg structure. Each wheel has six “legs”. As the car went near the stair, wheels expanded with doubled diameter. One of six legs stepped on the stair and lifted the car to move upward. Wheels shrank before the car went into 10 cm height tunnel.
.jpg)
Motion Analysis
The steering engine drove the transformation of the wheel. As the steering engine rotated, slider 4 translated and caused “legs” (rod 5 and 6) to expand and shrink.
Programming
The program language was Adruino. Follwing is the programming logic.
Performance
Our product successfully accomplished all the tasks. However, there were some aspects need to be improved.
-
It slipped when running primary because the wheel was made of 3D printing materials. Rubber could be used to increase the friction.
-
The motors were too heavy and large. It might cause difficulty on going up the stair.
My Role
I was the team leader of this project. I was in charged of the structure design of the wheel. I 3D modeled and printed the struture to ensure the usability. I also envolved in Adruino programming and testing.
Members:
Yuheng Xie / Linzao Hou / Chengyang Huang / Fengyu Zhu
