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This was mostly just a fun project that I wanted to try. I started with a typical hobby servo controller. First I removed the electronics and unnecessary plastic accessories. Then I modified the end gear to accept an axle running through the gear. Then I pinned the axle onto the final gear and attached wide, lightweight urethane foam wheels to the axle and also added a single foam wheel in the rear to stablize the device. Finally, using small, resusable lint-rollers (the kind you can wash under water and re-use, actually a very low durometer silicon rubber) I attached the sticky wheels to the foam wheels in front of the device, and 'the crawler' was born. By virtue of its wide, sticky tires, this vehicle is able to crawl across the floor, up the wall, across the ceiling, and then back down the opposite wall. It performs best on smooth surfaces, but I have met with some success on latex painted walls. After initial testing, I built a special mechanism whereby a very small set of wheels would swing down as the crawler pivoted to crawl across the floor. The mechanism would then engage a gear on the turning axle, and the small wheels would take over the job of driving across the floor, keeping the sticky wheels raised safe from dirt and dust. At the next wall, the mechanism would swing disengage the gear and swing down and out of the way again. I briefly attempted to market this concept, but I haven't found the time to pursue this project lately.
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