Hasta La Gadget!

There have been robots that can balance themselves and even objects and people on top of them (think Segway and the Honda U3-X)–but the robot that can balance on top of a ball is a rarer species. Now there’s one that can do this and, adding a new wrinkle, rotate around its vertical axis.

Like a toy dog in a circus, BallIP (short for Ball Inverted Pendulum) can roll along atop a rubber-coated ball without falling over. It can even balance objects on top of itself while balancing on the ball–a trick even the circus dogs can’t duplicate.

According to a post on the IEEESpectrum blog, the robot is the brainchild of Dr. Masaaki Kumagai, director of the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory at Tohoku Gakuin University, in Tagajo City, Japan. He began building what’s known as “inverted pendulum” robots back in 2004 with the goal of creating a single ball-balancing bot. BalllP works to keep its inclination at zero degrees and to keep the rolling ball under it in the same spot.

What makes BalllP a standout is its ability to roll with the ball in virtually any direction. This is thanks to the three sets of omnidirectional rollers that drive the ball’s stability and direction from above. It can also manage to stay upright even if pushed.

[Image is from a video of a 2008 BalllP prototype]

Continue reading BallP bowling ball ‘bot puts your sense of balance to shame (video)

BallP bowling ball ‘bot puts your sense of balance to shame (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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He’s a spaceman of many talents. Yesterday Disney gave us a peek at one of its new tie-in toys for the much anticipated “Toy Story 3”: U Command Buzz comes with a wireless remote and can perform nearly 1,000 action sequences, including this rather romantic tango. Fittingly, he also speaks Spanish.

At $79.99 list, this new Buzz is priced well below last year’s Ultimate Buzz Lightyear robotic toy, which made it onto our list of the 14 Top Tech Toys of 2009; look for U Command Buzz to ship in May.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal Recharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle is, well, quite a mouthful. It’s also the first submarine that can run a sizable percentage of forever without requiring a charge. When the 183-pound buoy dives, cooler water temperature causes a liquid wax-like substance inside to solidify, squeezing out oil that drives a hydraulic generator; when it surfaces, the wax softens once again, ready for another round. Every dive produces 1.7 watt-hours of electricity, enough to power all the instruments, GPS and buoyancy-control pump on board. It’s like a drinking bird that never runs out of water. Designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Scripps researchers, the thermal engine is envisioned as an oceanography tool… but since the US Navy also has a finger in the pie, don’t be surprised if it plays a minor role in the coming robot apocalypse as well.

NASA’s robot submarine achieves perpetual motion, of a sort originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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