Vertical no more
Written by Brian Beckley on Sunday, March 28th, 2010
It’s no secret that one critical factor in the 2009 competition success of LaserMotive came from extensive testing of the climber at the team’s facility on the specially designed vertical treadmill, which allows the team the opportunity to collect real time data on Otis’s performance, as well as seeing how the machine performs over a full kilometer test without having to leave the office.
Like a car taking practice laps on a racetrack, the treadmill allows the team a chance to test new ideas and combinations to find out what works the best before the actual race begins.
And with a bigger, better goal and prize on the line for Phase 2, it was time for a better treadmill.
Back in January, the entire team took a quick break from working on their individual systems to help topple the 18-foot treadmill, tipping it on to its side to begin work. It is the first time in a year that the giant piece of machinery came down, leaving something of an empty space in the back corner of the team’s shop.
The formerly vertical treadmill. Watch your head!
The plan is to retrofit the treadmill to include a motor-driven wheel that will allow the team to measure the output of the climbing vehicle’s motor, effectively turning the treadmill into a dynamometer.
In addition, the bicycle wheels that guide the cable around the treadmill are being replaced with double-walled wheels to cut down on vibrations created when the cable passes over the spots where the spokes connect to the rims. Such vibrations may not seem like something that could cause such a major difference, but the more accurate the data you can gather, the better your vehicle will be. One of the wheels is also being put on a moving axis to allow the team to control the tension on the cable, which despite being metal can stretch, changing the conditions on the treadmill. Because the cable is a fixed length, the addition of the fifth wheel requires the top of the treadmill to also be lowered some to accommodate the new, wider path of the cable.
It’s a lot of work, but the ability of the team to test and retest the climber in conditions that simulate the real world challenge and make the adjustments based on test results instead of theories is one of the things that helped LaserMotive claim the Level 1 prize in November.
Now the hope is the new and improved treadmill can help get Otis into tip-top shape when the team goes after the Level 2 prize later this year!