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Rotundus Groundbot Robotic Spherical Guardian Video
The Rotundus GroundBot is a unique spherical surveillance robot. GroundBot weighs just 25 kilograms and rolls easily on its special polycarbonate shell. They've done a lot of work on it since its first appearance four years ago.
(Rotundus GroundBot mobile robot platform)
GroundBot can be operated by hand or it can be programmed to navigate by GPS. It sends back high quality video streams in MPEG-4 from its two pan-tilt-zoom cameras, providing a 360 degree field of vision. GroundBot can move along at up to 10 km/hr and operates for 8-16 hours on its internal batteries, depending on the mission profile.
GroundBot's propulsion system is simple and foolproof - gravity. An internal controlled pendulum is used to alter its center of gravity, causing it to roll in the selected direction. To learn more about it, see this earlier article on the Rotundus spherical robot.
GroundBot is sealed, so it can operate where many robots cannot. It can be used around - or even in - water, and is safe for use in areas where there might be gas leaks.
It appears that the operator can watch what amounts to an augmented reality view, so you can see exactly how the robot is oriented relative to the field of view.
(Rotundus Groundbot field of view)
The following video shows how GroundBot rolls along to protect your airport, warehouse or yard (yes, that's right - this robot is perfect for home defense).
(Rotundus GroundBot video)
Science fiction fans of course find spherical robot guardians familiar; take a look at the pictures of the Rover (from The Prisoner) and the Zeroids (from The Terrahawks) in the earlier article Rotundus And Rover: Robotic And Fictional Guardians.
Update 04-Jun-2025: Compare this item with the 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.
From Rotundus.
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