

A Robot That Balances on a Ball - eguizzo
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/042910-a-robot-that-balances-on-a-ball

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grk
You can make your own quite cheaply - with LEGO Mindstorms. I bought a set for
my dad last christmas and he's been playing with inverse pendulum ever since.
:)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jxGsg3p0Y> this is a lego robot balancing on
a ball.

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idoh
How long did it take your dad to build it? What type of expertise is needed?

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grk
The vid I linked to is not my dad's. I think he got a segway-style 2 wheel
robot to work. Took him about two months, but he doesn't have much spare time.
The biggest problem was adjusting for inaccuracies in the measuring equipment.

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ttol
Prerequisite before usage: Extremely smooth hard surface with close to zero
defects.

Warning: Use on soft surface may result in the machine dislodging itself from
the ball. Also, any obstructions, such as holes or other obstacles, may result
in machine failure.

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evlapix
Typically the 3 omni-directional wheels makes direct contact with the ground.
Even then, holes and obstacles are a concern.

I didn't read the article, but judging by the video I see this more as a proof
of concept. The balancing doesn't so much impress me. I liked what I saw of
them being used together. If you scale the design up by any amount and
increase the friction/traction between the omni-directional wheels and the
ball (possibly by using a hard rubber surface that has some give to it) you
would have a hard time finding a more capable form of omni-directional
locomotion.

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anigbrowl

      Laugh now, puny humans - but you won't be laughing when 
      >crash<

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ivankirigin
When I started at CMU's Robotics Institute about 6 years ago, the ballbot
project just got started: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KPOOUsNRe4>

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jdrock
I wonder if this would make bi-pedal movement obsolete, or at least less
important to innovate. There would still be need to move up and down steps,
but this form factor seems much more compact than current bi-pedal robots.

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blhack
Absolutely not. Can you imagine this thing trying to make it over a pile of
sticks? Or a curb? Or really _any_ obstruction of any kind?

I don't think this is meant to be innovating in the "this is going to change
the world" sense, but more "look at this cool robot I made!".

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abecedarius
Make a fancier version that can hop. (When this robot was sketched out in the
"Inventions of Daedalus" column in Nature a few decades ago, he went into the
how-to-hop issue too, though I don't remember any details.)

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davi
more on omniwheels, which I did not previously know about:
<http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_omni_wheel.shtml>

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elblanco
I was quite enjoying the music on the video on that site.

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jellisjapan
Circus elephants and bears finally have some new competition.

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teejae
Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell:Standalone Complex robots.

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sketerpot
Except that they had more than one ball to balance on; they just used the
balls as omnidirectional wheels. (And they were awesome.)

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ars
A bit cheating to use such a heavy ball, but cool anyway.

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frankus
Omnidirectional Segway, anyone?

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noisedom
Japan is about to have the most awesome grocery carts.

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albertcardona
For a moment I saw "Dalecs" without the armor.

