CMU Ballbot
December 23rd, 2006 by The Head RotorFor the new year, The Rotor thinks it’s a great time for us to resuscitate NASA’s “Cool Robot of the Week” page which, sadly, has been defunct for something like 5 years. Whaddaya all think?
Towards that end, we’ve been sneakily motoring around some of the academic robot research labs. CMU (that’s Car-NAY-gie Mellon University in Pittsburgh) is one of the foremost in the area, and they certainly don’t disappoint with this baby:
Which goes by the catchy moniker Dynamically-Stable Mobile Robot. However we suspect they call it “Ballbot” because of the name on the picture file. “Ballbot” is pretty good name because it does what it looks like it’s doing: dynamically balancing on its bowling-ball-like base. As usual the videos (at the bottom of the page) are worth checking out, and show the bot resisting a shove and navigating point to point.
Physics Tip of the Day: Why is Ballbot so tall? Well, it’s actually easier to balance tall things. Think of balancing a broom endwise on the palm of your hand. Much easier than a shorty whiskbroom, right? The reason: tall things take longer to fall, so you have more time to correct by moving the base underneath. The same principle holds with tall bikes, bots, stilts, and (I’m told by those who know) unicycles. News you can use courtesy SuicideBots.
December 26th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Also, I’ll bet the bottom of the ‘bot looks like a bowling ball because it is! base-heavy, long things are way easier to balance than short, light things.
This is why it is way more impressive to see a guy in a dive bar somewhere balance a dollar bill on his nose than it is to see another guy on Letterman balance a canoe on his chin. The canoe’s a piece of cake, the dollar bill is freakin’ hard (*you* try it).
The buck’s especially hard if you’ve been taking advantage of the bar’s 2-for-1 special on pitchers of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Mmm, science.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
I read in another article somewhere about this guy that the ball is in fact hollow and rubberized - they want a nice low inertia ball so the base can move more quickly to get under the top of the thing when it’s out of balance.
December 27th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Good point - We’ll have to look for that article, or maybe someone in Venerable Pittsburgh can give us the 411?