

The Ballbot Balances Itself On One Ball


By David Ponce

Never underestimate the power of untapped potential. While the Ballbot might not look like it’s doing much (balancing itself on one ball and rolling back and forth, willy-nilly) we are confident that the robot is simply the first few steps in what may be a whole new way for the bots to interact with us. Matter of fact, this is the main reason it was developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, and as such might be considered exploratory research in robotic locomotion, rather than commercial prototype.

The research was prompted by the realization that no matter how complex today’s robots are getting, they still usually move like a drunkard on acid. They compensate for their lack of stability by widening their base, which makes them less practical in a human environment. The Ballbot is at the very least the potential preliminary answer to this problem.

For a video demonstration of the bot being pushed around, come right inside.

[The Ballbot Page] VIA [TechEBlog]

  • Kris

    That is amazing. Where still along ways from world peace.

  • Thomas Paine

    I’ll give you that the ball is much cooler than a wheel, but it’s still nothing terribly new. Robots have been rolling around (R2D2) since their inception and this solution still doesn’t solve the basic problem with wheeled robots: terrain. Sure it works on a hardwood floor, but add some rocks, stairs, carpet or even a slope and the robot starts too look like a 2-year old.

  • Kevin

    This makes me think of the car from I-Robot. I am sure that there are many more practical uses for something like this besides robots……I keep picturing Rosie from the Jetsons though.

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