Rosie the Robot

[Adam Y.]

I thought people might find this interesting. A robot that uses a ball to move and balance instead of wheels. Is this similar to what I saw before on this website or is it different?
http://www.msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/ballbot/

[Elgin Clock]

Looks like the drive system for the cars in I, Robot movie but with the coolness factor of 3 less points of contact on the ground.

[Jon K.]

It reminds me of a mix from TechnoKats ball drive from 03' mixed with the Segway.

[John Gutmann]

I had an idea of something like that, but it would be to ride on and I deemed it impracticle because there would be no good way to balance, get on or off, and a few other things. This seems like a much more practical use of the idea.

[KathieK]

I read about this the other day and thought, "Keep this away from the Game Design Committee!"

[Joe Johnson]

I love the videos.

One thing I noticed is that they don't seem to have control over the orientation of the robot.

I think they'd need to replace the rollers that provide XY motion with omni-wheels and then add a 3rd powered axis (also driven by an omni wheel) to rotate the robot about its long axis.

Very cool idea.

Joe J.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by KathieK

I read about this the other day and thought, "Keep this away from the Game Design Committee!"

I could see it now...

<R103> You may only use ONE spherical ball to control the propulsion and balancing of your robot. No other parts of your robot may touch the floor at any time during the game.

[wendymom]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

I could see it now...

<R103> You may only use ONE spherical ball to control the propulsion and balancing of your robot. No other parts of your robot may touch the floor at any time during the game.

SHHHH dont give them any ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cody Carey]

I just read about this in PopSCI and was wondering about any videos, Thanks for the link

[Lil' Lavery]

There are videos attached at the bottom of the page.

[Joohoo]

The only thing is that it looks as if it can't stop swaying on demand w/o falling

[DanDon]

Originally Posted by Joohoo

The only thing is that it looks as if it can't stop swaying on demand w/o falling

Why stop? Swaying is awesome.