BallP bowling ball 'bot puts your sense of balance to shame (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 30th 2010 9:57AM
posted April 30th 2010 9:57AM
We've seen robots play Soccer, Tennis, and Battle Ball, and now Dr. Masaaki Kumagai, director of Tohoku Gakuin University's Robot Development Engineering Laboratory, brings us BallP (or Ball Inverted Pendulum): a 20-inch, 16.5-pound robot that derives its name from the bowling ball that it balances on. Using three omni-directional wheels, the robot can stand still, move in any direction, and pivot along its vertical axis. A combination of motors, micro-step controllers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers allows the thing to carry equipment -- either on its own, or with the help of a human operator (sort of like a high-tech wheel barrow). If anything, it's a lot less intrusive than CMU's Ballbot -- our previous favorite robot butler (yes, in the end it all comes down to who can get us a cold one the fastest). Video after the break.
ROBOTS WILL BALANCE ON EARTH!!! DOOOM!
@metaesapuet
i just wanna see him sit on it.
That robot sure has some cojones
@The T in teapot
"That robot sure has A cojone"
There, fixed that for you.
@OverZealous Lol.... and a big one (that sounded gay)
@OverZealous
Your name is aptly self-appointed, sir
They are nice. I could see several of these preforming at once it reminds me of something from a movie.
This is pretty sweet.
The same premise can be used down the road for ball-driven cars a la the Audi RSQ.
Speaking of which, I love how Audi built the R8 to look like a current-day version of the I-ROBOT RSQ concept.
@Bryant Its the other way around. R8 predates RSQ
STRRRIIIKEEEEEEEE! put this on your balls while bowling
@Bryant well they built the iRobot one too so it does make sense.
The robot has blue ball.
That's really impressive!
Please don't let Apple patent it!
@SlimSpaceman yeah, they might actually get it to market!!!!! lol
@SlimSpaceman
Might make the iPad less of a hassle to carry around...
The high-tech create-friction hold-down weight fits well.
I want one so bad!!
This is pretty insane, I must admit!
I'm moving next month, can I borrow like 9 of those?
Eh, ball or a cube?
http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/Cube
I, for one, welcome our ball-balancing, future Overlords.
Just give it to Dyson and it'll be vacuuming faster than a Roomba.
I reckon new Dyson Segway in the offing?
i dont think its really balancing if he's gotta hold onto it to keep it from falling over?
This would not be very difficult to engineer. The math is not too complex, nor would the programming be. The mechanics would be a bit tricky, but with a bit of tinkering, not a huge issue. One knowledgeable engineer could probably build something like this in about 2 months, IMHO.
The U.S. military has stuff far more advanced than this.
@Reality Check
Actually, the math is fairly complicated. You would need at least one semester of control systems/theory to do something like that.
@Reality Check
Ok, If it's trivial to design and build, then lets see yours.
@Vaughanabe13
...or a textbook and the time to digest the required math. A class is not necessarily needed to do something like this.
The biggest issue is getting all the moving pieces in the right places with mechanical precision. But if everything could be gotten off the shelf without custom tooling, that would not be a gigantic barrier either. But you need to be able to assemble the mechanics painstakingly.
@rduran
I have neither the time nor the resources. But if I did, i.e. if someone paid me big bucks so I could devote 12 hours a day for 3 months on it, I could likely do it.
Get a dose of your own name please. Nobody like that type of person..
@Reality Check
You're worse than internet tough guy... seriously.
wow this is a good step to the futuristic world :P
It'll soon learn some manners on the master's sail barge.
Fit him with a retaining bolt...
@stridermt2k Enough with the Star Wars references, already! :D
could revolutionise stuff like hospital beds or heavy crate moving :O brilliant
The problem lies with distribution of the load. If you put heavy things on top of a cart with that type of drive system you would have very small points of contact. Drive something like that up and down the hallways shown in the video and over a short period of time, the small surface contact point of the ball will start tearing up the floors.
@BuzzKill Thats why you would use a rubber ball, obviously. And you add more of them to reduce load per unit. You could couple 4 of them and place them inside a rectangle perhaps.
Like these SPMT, just with balls instead of wheels.
http://www.bateman.co.za/globe74/jpeg/Gl%2074%20p4%20mid%20rht.jpg
Can it pick up a spare?
I wonder if something like this could recreate the cars from I Robot.
You story about Ballbot was from 2006.
BallP at least superficially seems very similar.
I wonder what Ballbot is up to today?
woow great video! One of the best and most useful balancing robots I've seen
Now figure out how to get it up a flight of stairs.
A wheel barrow?
I'd like to see it balance itself over my overgrown garden lawn!
Seemingly more functional than legs.
Well, aside from not being able to use stairs, which is a good thing, so they can't 'get to you' while you sleep.
@manIK
Unless you bring it to the same level as you're sleeping?
they're probably using a bowling ball for weight. If you've got to make it heavy i wonder if it's possible to use some kind of induction power system or something so the robot can store it's batteries in the ball.
It would make them easy to change out too.
Goodbye wheel, hello ball!
in the words of Dr. Horrible...
Balls!
Think of the possibilities for a vehicle. Instead of wheels, it's just got a ball -- ingenious!
This could be the next generation of Honda's UX-3: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/07/engadget-rides-the-honda-u3-x-personal-mobility-device-video/