Comments on: rolling bot

rolling bot

marvin — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:56:55 -0800

wheely wheely clevver

By: hama7

hama7 — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:59:17 -0800

Deformable! Next: nerf cars!

By: marvin

marvin — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:01:30 -0800

so those very early Disney 'toons weren't so far off after all.

By: marvin

marvin — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:03:45 -0800

Evidently they can even leap twice their own height by flattening out, then springing back into a circular shape. (Mikes List)

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:07:39 -0800

And the say that the next step is to make them 3-d. ... which is worrying. ...

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:11:15 -0800

By: jjj606

jjj606 — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:14:24 -0800

It's a real-life version of sodaplay.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 18:11:23 -0800

unreal... stunning find!

By: PigAlien

PigAlien — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 18:32:08 -0800

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:30:55 -0800

Why didn't nature evolve something like this 60 million years ago?

By: tss

tss — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:35:56 -0800

And the say that the next step is to make them 3-d. Has already been done, in large part, by the JPL and the Robotics Institute at CMU with the Inflatable Rover program. The idea is to form robot parts or even entire robots out of inflatable balloons---they're small and light for launch and then inflate to form a full-size rover on the target planet. One rover uses three inflatable balls as tricycle wheels. Another rover, "Tumbleweed", looks like the ball in Seanyboy's picture---it's a big inflatable sphere with an electronics package in the center. While it lacks any propulsion of its own, it's able to sense the wind---when it blows in the right direction, the robot will inflate and roll along toward its destination. Challenges include preventing punctures and rips, the complicated physics of driving on such big, sqishy wheels, and figuring out where to put the sensors.

By: tss

tss — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:41:00 -0800

Maybe I jumped the gun... The inflatable robots don't have fine control over the surface geometry of the ball, so I guess they can't do the complicated rolling and jumping maneuvers done by these Japanese robots. I suppose Tumbleweed could at least roll on its own, though, if it were made of a collection of separately inflatable chambers.

By: euphorb

euphorb — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 13:57:55 -0800

Why didn't nature evolve something like this 60 million years ago? Not to burst your bubble, but it did. They're called legs and feet. It turns out that you only need two spokes (legs) and the bit of the rim in contact with the ground (feet) to move. The rest of the wheel is superfluous. And as a bonus you can even move over uneven ground. Passive walkers are fun!