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Sphero Robot Ball Is Smartphone-Controlled
The $129 Sphero robot from Orbotix provides hours of remote-control fun. Developers are invited to use Sphero APIs to design smartphone games.
(Sphero robot video)
It’s called the Sphero, and when it’s not charging in its coaster-shaped station, it’s rolling around on any flat surface, weaving through obstacles and people like it’s self-possessed. Actually, there are several ways to send the Sphero into action. Using an Orbotix-developed UI, any Android or iOS device can use a standard joystick interface, but more interesting is the “drawing” capability, where you essentially draw out a pattern with your finger and the Sphero will then emulate it a couple of seconds later.
I can't resist spherical robots; SF fans (as well as fans of supermarionation) remember the early 1980's series The Terrahawks, which had spherical robots called Zeroids were used to fight the evil witch-like alien Zelda.
(Sargeant Major Zero and Zeroid 18)
Update 04-Jun-2025: Compare this item with the spherical Ruum robot from The Ruum by Arthur Porges.
Jim Irwin had once worked with mercury, and for a second it seemed to him that a half-filled leather sack of the liquid metal had rolled into the clearing. For the quasi-spherical object moved with just such a weighty, fluid motion. But it was not leather; and what appeared at first a disgusting wartiness, turned out on closer scrutiny to be more like the functional projections of some outlandish mechanism. Whatever the thing was, he had little time to study it, for after the spheroid had whipped out and retracted a number of metal rods with bulbous, lens-like structures at their tips, it rolled towards him at a speed of about five miles an hour.
End update.
More spherical robots! And science-fictional robot references:
- Jollbot Robot Ball Jumps, Bounces And Rolls
Take a look at this Jollbot video for a better look at its unique rolling jumping gait. - Inflatable Spherical Robots May Explore Mars
The proposed devices would have a soccer ball-style surface, with hexagonal solar panels gathering energy. - Spherical Robot Lego Mindstorms NXT-Based
A pretty cool DIY project by Nils Völker done with a Lego Mindstorms NXT robot kit. - Spherical Soft Robots Use Shape Memory Alloys
...we employ soft actuators to controllably deform a robot body, enabling it to crawl and jump on rough terrain. - OrbSwarm Autonomous Spherical Robotics
Take a look as OrbSwarm bots roll around. - Rotundus Groundbot Robotic Spherical Guardian Video
GroundBot weighs just 25 kilograms and rolls easily on its special polycarbonate shell.
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