Indoor Rock Climbing Machine

San Francisco State University

ENGR 464-01 / Spring 2020

Date: 5/12/2020

Instructor: Dr. Shirmohamadi

Team: Lifesavers

Arshdeep Khaira - Gaspara Lim - James Swartz - Jad Habash - Thanh Nguyen

Climb on!...

There are many types of in-home workout equipment and systems for those who seek an active lifestyle without leaving their house. Yet, these systems are boring and target only certain muscle groups. We have designed an in-home rock climbing simulation machine so people can enjoy working out again! We wanted to create an experience for the user where every time they climb a new experience could be had. We made the holds interchangeable and the incline angle of the treadmill can be varied to the users choice.

The coaster hub on our system is similar to a bicycle braking mechanism. In a bicycle if you spin the pedals the backwards braking system activates. This is how our system’s speed is controlled, via a harness connecting the climber to a control rod which actuates the coaster hub. The figure to the left is a coaster hub for a bicycle and a variant of this will be used on our system.

Our team was tasked with picking a mechanical system to perform a full design process: creating a design, deciding the knowns and unknowns, assumptions and decisions, conducting supportive calculations, and design modeling. As a result, our team chose to design and assemble an indoor mountain climbing machine which would simulate outdoor/gym rock climbing.

The system was designed to be able to carry a human of up to 200 lbs while ensuring a factor of safety of 1.67 or greater (minimum factor of safety was found to be 5.5). The wall is capable of angular repositioning up to -30° through a gear system located on the frame with an attached wheel to make it easy to adjust and a lock and pin system in order to hold the gear in place. The dimensions of the official design (in feet) are 7.65 width x 5.24 depth x 9.65 height, and the weight of the system is 2,060 lbs, which was within our design criteria and allows the machine to fit into a garage. We performed various force and stress calculations on all load-bearing parts to confirm that they would be able to support the maximum load while also maintaining the required factor of safety greater than 1.67. In addition, our calculations verify that the system will last 10 years at the least, assuming the machine is used 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, totaling 2,600 hours of use. Lastly, our design resulted in a total material cost of $8,570, being less than our initial criteria of $10,000 which was set to be competitive with similar products.

Team LifeSavers Acknowledgements Arshdeep KhairaGaspara Lim San Francisco State UniversityJames Swartz School of EngineeringJad Habash Dr. Manucher ShirmohamadiThanh Nguyen SolidWorks | Microsoft | SFSU Science Building

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