A Project Report

On

ECONOMICAL ELECTRIC STAIR CLIMBING CART WITH AUTO

LIFTING MECHANISM
BY

Prakash Kumar

STUDENT ID

Under the supervision of

MENTOR NAME

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF

PHY F266/F376/367/376: STUDY/LAB/Design PROJECT

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE PILANI (RAJASTHAN)

HYDERABAD CAMPUS

(MONTH YEAR)

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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 ABSTRACT

The cart is a trolley fitted with rotating wheels or tracks so that it can be pushed, pulled up and down
and stepped on stairways. The cart can be used to hold trunks securely strapped.This project explores
the transformation of basic wheel designs over the last 50 years, highlighting advancements that
enable carts to navigate diverse terrains comfortably. The focus of the report is on the product design
process leading to the development of an economically viable stair climbing cart with multiple
wheels, designed to minimize human effort not only in movement but also in loading.

The report delves into the process of the product design, detailing how the team addressed various
challenges, especially in adapting the cart to the architectural complexities of modern environments.
Emphasis is placed on functionality derived from customer needs identified through surveys. The
document outlines the conceptualization of different facets of the cart, including lifting and stair
climbing mechanisms, as well as modes of mobility.Methodology is employed to assess the viability
of generated concepts, leading to the selection of a final design. Finally, the design process
incorporates considerations of manufacturability, assembly ease, and environmental impact, ensuring
a holistic approach to the development of a cart that not only meets functional needs but also aligns
with sustainability principles. The goal of this project is to reduce the pain point while transporting
heavy luggage while changing hostels in BITS- Pilani campus.

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 CONTENTS
Title page………………………………………………………………1

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………..2

Abstract………………………………………………………………....3

1.Introduction……………………………………………….…………....6

2.Methodology………………………………………………………...8

2.1 Customer Requirements

2.2 Establishing Product Functionality

2.3 Establishing Product Functionality

2.4 Product Teardown

2.5 Benchmarking

2.6 Product Architecture

2.7 Concept Generation

2.8 Concept Selection

2.9 Concept Embodiment

2.10 Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

2.11 Design for Environment

References……………………………………………………………………..18

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 INTRODUCTION

The most basic purpose of the cart is to reduce human effort required to move any kind of load
(example : suitcase, equipment, etc ) from one place to another. If we consider the wheel it is one of
the most important innovations humanity has ever achieved. The wheel was invented sometime
around 3500 BCE. This innovation gave rise to everything, let it be transportation or the machinery
we use today. Another most important addition to this innovation is the axle when combined with a
wheel it opens a new array of possibilities. At early ages it was a huge achievement that anything can
be transported on a road or patch of land easily because of wheels connected with axles having a
platform on top of it to load goods. Comfort was second thought, the primary goal is to move the
goods from one place to another. It doesn't matter how uncomfortable the journey is. We live in a
time of abundance, it is the 21st century now, unlike our ancestors we are not fighting wild animals or
famine for survival. Unlike our predecessors we have the time to think how to make more out of
things we have, how to make it better. Better in the sense of how it can help us be more comfortable
and easy to do something. This mindset has led us to develop wheels with an axle into mobile devices
that help us in different aspects of our life.One such aspect we are going to discuss in this paper
whose job is to move load from one place to another with little human effort possible.

In the last 50 years through research and development we have upgraded the concept of basic
doughnut shaped wheels. Wheels that can function on various terrains and be comfortable to travel or
carry load. In this report we will discuss the process of product design to develop a cart that can help
us humans to carry load around the developed architecture around us, not only flat surfaces.This
report will give us insights about how we reach to our final product a economical stair climbing cart
with multiple wheel that can even reduce human effort not only to move the load but also to lift and
place it on the cart itself.We will dwell on detail what are the different functionalities the product has
on the basis of customer needs that is collected during survey. This paper will deal with what are the
different concepts that are generated for various facets of the cart such as lifting mechanism, the stair
climbing mechanism and the mode of mobility. This paper will have methodology to discuss the
viability of the different concepts generated and how we reached the concluding concept.We will also
discuss what could be shortcomings of the product using methods available to critique. Finally we
will design the product taking into consideration how easy it is to manufacture and assemble in
reality ,we will also consider the environmental impact it will have while doing design.

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 2.METHODOLOGY
The product design of economical six wheel stair climbing cart with auto lifting mechanism will
consist of structured design process and methods. We will go through these different steps that will be
mentioned in next sections so that we can come to the conclusion that the product can be feasible and
brought to market and with what functionality or specifications.

The various methods are as follow:

2.1 CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS

The first step in designing a product is what are the requirements that a product needs to fulfill
without this there is no product. The needs cannot be decided among designers. The requirements or
needs must be collected from the people who this product will be sold to or the people who will buy
the product.

Taking our problem statement into consideration, to reduce human effort while lifting and
transporting the luggage while shifting hostel rooms we conducted a customer survey in BITS-Pilani
campus.From the responses we got from our potential customers using google sheet we identified the
needs and rated it by giving rationing from 1-5.

The needs and ratings that are gathered from customers are presented in tabular form below.

By taking the needs of customers in a priority order we moved on to describe the functionality of the
stair climbing cart that can do electric lifting of luggages.

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2.2 ESTABLISHING PRODUCT FUNCTION
After collection of the customer needs we moved on to establish many product functions that will
satisfy those needs. These product functions will define what different aspects of these products will
perform.In this step we will define a main function of the product then define sub functions i.e. the
overall function can be divided into various subtasks which combine to satisfy the overall function of
the product.

To define the overall objective of the project i.e Reduce human effort to move/lift luggage we will
perform function analysis system technique (FAST). It is a top down approach.

FAST will help us define, analyze and understand the product function like the project objective to
reduce human effort , one time function of being a portable system and all time function of being
comfortable as well as move loads with an aesthetic appeal. It will also define the higher order
function of lifting and moving of the luggage which will be satisfied by basic functions to carry
luggage. The basic function of carrying luggage will be satisfied by fulfilling the secondary function
of generating torque and supplying power which can be achieved by the assumed function of
providing electricity.

The below figure is a diagrammatic representation of FAST. Where the functions are defined in
simple verb and noun structure.

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2.3 ESTABLISHING SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY
In the previous step we only try to reveal product functionality.In this step we will overcome the
limitation of the previous step. In this step we are going to use black box, function structure &
hierarchical decomposition.

Black box : This method gives us an overall picture of a product that is represented as a functional
system where we give certain inputs such as energy, material and information to get output as
energy, material and information. These flows define the technical system of the product.

In our case, we input human effort or electricity as energy; material as luggage/cart and information
as lift,move,climb for function i.e lift/move luggage. We get output for energy as kinetic
energy,sound,friction ; material as luggage,cart and information as mobile secured luggage.

Below is the diagrammatic representation Black box:

Function structure : Overall objective of the design cannot be described properly until and unless
we clearly state the functional relationship that is required to fulfill the task or objective at hand. The
meaningful relationship and compatible combination of sub functions into the overall function of the
product is called function structure.

Below is the diagrammatic representation of function structure:

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Hierarchical decomposition : As the name suggests it is a hierarchical representation of the main
function and what are the sub functions required to satisfy the main objective.Similarly what are the
functions required to satisfy respective sub functions. For our case our main function is to move and
lift luggage to satisfy it. We have sub functions such as supplying power so that torque can be
generated, work manually to support manual transmission, carrying of luggage, applying of torque to
generate motion for mobility and feel comfortable for ease of use.

Below is a diagrammatic representation of hierarchical decomposition :

2.4 PRODUCT TEARDOWN

Teardown as the name suggests is systematic breakdown of an assembled product and studying its
functionality. We use this process to understand the competitors' stair climbing cart, what was the
thought process behind making of this product , what demographic they are trying to focus on,
etc.There are several methods to do teardown of product we went with subtract and operate
procedure.

Subtract and operate procedure : In this process we disassemble each and every part of the product
in our case a stair climbing cart and try to answer what is the functionality of the part and what's the
effect if we remove it.That way we conclude if we need the part or not.Below is tabular
representation of S&OP.

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2.5 BENCHMARKING
In this step we find what all competitors are there in the market, we collect information about their
offerings and compare our offering with theirs.Benchmarking involves various steps first we need to
list the design issues for us it is lifting mechanism, driving mechanism and ease of maneuvering .
This will help us in reducing the wastage of resources and time. Then the second step is to identify
competitors who have these design issues and collect data about their sales outlet and try to identify
their preferred market segment.The information search for the product must be done from industry
trusted sources for our case we used online marketplace such as amazon, flipkart, aliexpress and
alibaba for information search.Finally used different tools available to benchmark the functionality of
available competitor with our product.

Below is a flow chart of the benchmarking process.

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As mentioned above there are various benchmarking tools available for benchmarking.we went
with two such tools.

Benchmarking by function : In this method we collect data about their product and break it down
to isolate each and every feature they provide and what's the specification. In our case we chose two
competitors available in the internet marketplace that are Stanley and Black+Decker.

Below is a tabular representation of benchmarking by function.

House of Quality : It is a matrix in a structure of house where we identify the customers' both
internal and external needs, we then need to translate the needs into what are their requirements.The
next step is to prioritize the need on a scale in our case the ratings are from 1-5. Then we translate
these needs into engineering specifications that can satisfy these needs.We use the matrix to draw a
relationship between the customer need and the technical specification that we came with. We made
sure that each technical specification has a strong relationship with one of the customer needs, if not
that technical specification is replaced with a new one which has a strong relationship. Then we went
for a competition’s product and benchmarked it, for us it was Stanley and Black+Decker.Then gave
their product a rating from 1-5 based on how they satisfy customers needs.Then we correlated the
technical relationship to determine interrelationships of design requirementsWe assigned different
symbols based on high .positive correlation, positive correlation, high negative correlation and
negative correlation.Looking at the matrix we determine which area to work on.

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2.6 PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE
In this step we create an effective layout of components and subsystems. As our stair climbing cart
consists of different modules that are assembled into one product, we will go for modular design.In this
section we will define the function of different modules and cluster them together to form the final
product.Finally we will draw a rough geometric layout describing the product geometric structure and
where all these different modules are situated and how they interact with each other.

Component hierarchy : In this we define our products in different chunks or modules such as lifting
system, frame and the driving system. Then we describe what are the functional components present in
the modules to perform the modules individual function.

Cluster Function Structure : It defines the subfunctions and the relationship they have between them
to perform the overall function. In this we diagrammatically defined the various modules and chunks
and what are the relationships using arrows by giving input what output they produce.

Rough geometric layout : It is a rough geometric visual representation of the stair climbing cart, what
are the elements or modules attached to it and how we interact with it using input and output.

Product Architecture : Component hierarchy

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Product architecture : Rough geometric layout

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2.7 CONCEPT GENERATION
There are various methods to generate concepts for our product stair climbing cart. We went with
traditional brainstorming and memory mind maps. The product was divided into three chunks: lifting
mechanism, climbing mechanism and driving mechanism. Among our team we went through what all
means are available that we can use for all these mechanisms.What are the different options available to
satisfy the function of the mechanism. Then we made a mind map for each module.Finally we put all the
different possibilities in a tabular matrix form to bird eye view.

Below is mind maps for all the mechanisms:

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2.8 CONCEPT SELECTION
We used Pugh chart where we took each module that we thought of in concept generation and selected
the competitor product as datum. Then we selected several criteria to judge the competitor concept as
well as the concept we have generated by taking the competitor as starting point or a base rating of ‘S’
and comparing it with the concept that we generated and rated + or - based on which idea is the better
one. Finally we did algebraic operations of the positives and negatives and the one with the highest
rating, we chose that concept.

Below is the Pugh chart for each module that is generated in concept generation.

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2.9 CONCEPT EMBODIMENT
This step is perhaps the most identified with engineers in the product development process.In this
process we focused on what will be the choice of component, the geometry, the tolerance,the
shape,etc.This is the first step we implement the concepts we have generated.In this step we went with
(FMEA) failure mode effect analysis. This is an analytical technique used by the product design team
where they contemplate failure mode, failure reason and failure effect of every part in the product. They
try to rate the severity, occurrence and detection of failure within a range 1-10. Then compute a number
by multiplying all the three mentioned parameters, this number is called risk priority number. Where 1
means unlikely to fail and 1000 means definitely fail.

severity, S —--> 1 means no effect ; 5 means moderate ; 10 means very hazardous.

detecting, D —-> 1 =Almost certain annoyed; 5 = most customer annoyed; 10 = very remote

occurrence, O —-> 1 = no effect; 5 = occasional failure; 10 = failure is almost inevitable

2.10 DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING & ASSEMBLY

While designing the product the most important criteria is to keep in mind that it should be easy to
manufacture and assemble the product.This step will help us achieve that goal.There are various
guidelines that help us achieve this goal. Some of them are as follows: try to minimize parts counts,try
to incorporate different functions into a single part, follow standardization, eliminate fasteners etc. There
are various methods to check ease of assembly, in our case we went with Xerox Producibility Analysis.

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This method we draw an assembly tree which we use to rate the ease of assembly using the XPI score
sheet.The rating is based on how easy it is to assemble for example snap fit using top approach is rated
100 where as to weld from bottom approach is given a score of zero as it is difficult.Using this we
developed an assembly tree and XPI assembly analysis matrix.

Below is the assembly tree and the XPI assembly analysis.

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2.11 DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT
Our planet is suffering from global warming, pollution. The main cause for this is no one other than
humans itself and their practices. These practices can also be found when designing a product. There are
different guidelines in our case. We followed Lagerstedth’s 10 guidelines to make our stair climbing cart
design for the environment.

Below are the 10 Guidelines of Lagerstedth’s and the alternative we will choose for our product.

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 REFERENCES

Product Design: Techniques in Reverse Engineering and New Product

[1]
Development by Kevin Otto and Kristin Wood
Design Optimization of Stair Climbing Cart for Developing Countries by
[2]
Md Zahid Hasan, Moshiur Rashid, Md. Samiul Rahat, Limon Saha and
Souvik Roy
[3] Power-assisted Three-wheel Carrier Cart With Stair-climbing Ability by
Isaku Nagai, Daisuke KijihanaC and Keigo Watanabe

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