Pole Lifter - Winch

[Aren Siekmeier]

You'll need to decide a couple things. First, how will you hold yourself once you've lifted? Friction? The platform? What will keep the robot from back driving the hinge? Will it lean into the tower, or will you use a winch? Second, a single CIM provides about 1.2 N-m or [edit].88[/edit] ftlbs, times whatever gearing you are using. This torque divided by the length of your arm must be at least the weight of your robot, preferably more, or you will not be able to lift. Play around with arm lengths and gear ratios until something works out. Remember, if you're relying on friction to hold you on, the arm length affects the normal force at the grip. For the gripper, mock up some prototypes and try to find a simple way to do it that hopefully doesn't require any extra actuation. Our team didn't build like this, but we were thinking about it for a while. It definitely has its advantages, specifically the flexibility of hanging from any zone (and it can be very fast).