Horizontal Climbing Wall Assist Mechanism
Problem statement
Glenn Stephens Elementary School has an indoor rock wall in its gym. The wall is L-shaped, approximately 44 ft long and 8 ft tall that consists of two walls. One wall is 28 ft long and the other is 16 ft long with a 90-degree angle in between them. The students can climb vertically in 4 feet wide sections or try to traverse the entire wall horizontally. Every student has a different body type and strength, so there are some students who need help climbing the wall. Climbing is a challenging activity and it takes a lot of practice and training to enjoy it. The Beta Breakers have been tasked to create an assist mechanism that will help the students who are struggling to climb on their own. This mechanism will contain a rail and trolley system above and along the length of the climbing wall. The rail will be bolted into the gym wall about 3 feet above the top of the rock wall and it is for the assisting trolley system to traverse along the entire wall. A large obstacle for this project is trying to figure out how to have a constant upward force on the student while they are traversing the wall horizontally. Our team shares a passion for rock climbing and it is our goal to build a product that will help these young students to develop a passion for rock climbing too. We want this assisting mechanism to act as a progress tracker for the students. They will know that they are getting stronger and better at climbing when they need less assistance and seeing this progress will hopefully make their passion for climbing stronger. Another ideal outcome of this project’s success is for many more elementary schools to implement the team’s horizontal climbing wall assist mechanism.
Team members
Cameron McCrary – leader
Ethan Schaper – communicator
Conor Gallivan – accountant
Dylan Stowers – admin
Client
Brent Huggins, Glenn Stephens Elementary School