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Robot Balances on a Single Spherical Wheel
dalangalma writes "Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have developed a new kind of robot called the Ballbot that balances on a steel ball. Using a mechanism similar to a ball mouse, the Ballbot uses rollers to drive its single, spherical wheel and balance in place or glide around the room. The promise of such dynamically stable robots is that they can be much taller without having to have a wide base, making them much more suitable for working with humans. They are also much more agile, since they can be pushed out of the way easily without falling over. You can read the press release or check out the project's web page when it recovers from traffic."
I vaguely recall there being an alien race in Piers Anthony's Cluster series that balanced and moved on a single large ball. Anyone remember the name of the race? It'd be wonderfully nerdy if the CMU folks renamed their robot after these aliens. I also vaguely recall these aliens having sex by going around and around in a circle rolling continuously over a trail of slime. Maybe the CMU robots can do that too...
In a world that brought us self-cleaning ovens among other gadgets, I would assume that mankind is intelligent enough to build a self-cleaning spherical-wheeled robot. Then again, we all know what happens when you assume things...
Just because it can't be explained doesn't mean it isn't true. Science fits into reality... not the other way around.
"You can read the press release or check out the project's web page when it recovers from traffic."
//before// it was posted to Slashdot?
Wait, so you mean it was slashdotted
Slashdot must be sliding into irrelevance...
That's right: SLASHDOT IS DYING...
They could make it really robust and easier to develop had they used a fuzzy logic controller. But that would be a little too imaginative for American engineers. The Japanese have been doing stuff like this for more than 20 years. Some old American guy rolls a bowling ball across the floor, calls it a "Ballbot", and everyone jumps up and shouts.
Tachiko-maaaa!
My daughter's obsessed w/ Tachikoma, as well. She's buying blue everything, to look like one. Her biggest dilemma right now in life, is whether to die her hair purple, (and thus resemble the Major,) or to die her hair blue (and thus resemble a Tachikoma.)
Preface: My lab has four Segway-RMPs (RMP = robotics mobility platform). I don't work with them directly, but I know quite a bit about the work being done.
:) The current owner of Xavier should throw him in there too; He looks very lonely now as he has been consigned to work on a robotic crane for several years now instead of roaming the halls of Wean or NSH.
The main advantage of the ballbot is that it can be narrower to fit in tight spaces. The footprint of an RMP isn't really any better than the other robots it replaces. The Segway's main advantages are that it is fast, it works outdoors, and it can carry fairly heavly loads. The ballbot looks like a work in progress, and the results in the paper do not indicate that the control is anywhere near as stable as the current Segways.
In the paper they state the inevitable demise of statically balanced robots, though I'm not sure I believe that. Balance controllers are not very friendly when they trip over objects on the floor - they drive faster and faster into the object until the object yields (i.e. breaks) or the robot cannot keep up, and eventually fall one way or the other. An angry Segway is thus not very pleasant. Balanced platforms do react nicely to disturbances at the top end, however. Ballbot will have to have a smooth cover so as not to get hooked on anything, which is another problem. Ultimately, I would not be suprised to eventually see semi-balanced bases: A statically stable robot that can hinge near the bottom for dynamic actions but can come to rest while holding a position.
Regarding the speed issue, I think I'd be happy to race an RMP against the ballbot. Even if directional changes are required for the Segway, it would be hard to beat it over a traversal of any length. Our lab is also at CMU, so a race is actually possible
Finally, it is quite a shame the paper doesn't even seem to acknowledge the existence of RMPs. Yes, they are not the original self-balancing robots, but they are the only one which is commercially available, and famous enough that they likely form the inspiration for this work. We've had the RMPs since 2003 (which the Segway HT obviously pre-dates), and the earliest ballbot paper was 2005.
I think this technology could be adapted to human like motion.
... and realized that we have these big flat things underneath us: our feet. And that we might balance ourselves using our various joints.
Turn the ball on the ground into an ankle. That is, put a foot/pod beneath the ball, and the robot balances itself above the foot/pod.
Then it should be stable enough to take a step with the other foot/pod.
I'm thinking: "The reason you can't put two of these side-by-side, joined at the top, and make it walk up stairs, is because there's such a sudden change in it's weight distribution when it picks up one foot. You need something to be stable."
I started asking myself, "How do people do it?",
If you stack up 3 of these things on top of each other, and synchronize their intelligence, can they stand up on top of one another? That's what I want to know now.
Knowing the folks at the robotics institute it'll be about 2 years before we see the army testing out a prototype robot that balances on a ball .... and then uses the ball to crush infantry while launching missiles.
CMU has a lot of great projects like that. Gladiator, Crusher... I know that most individual robot builders mean well, and I have friends who are anti-war at the RI, but seriously, look at who is actually demanding this technology and where it's being used. It's not being used to house the poor.
-bugg