Designer - Microdynamic Systems Laboratory
Home page - msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/ballbot
youtube.com/@cmuballbot5858
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Designer - Microdynamic Systems Laboratory
Home page - msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/ballbot
youtube.com/@cmuballbot5858
https://youtu.be/39zeZwlVaN0
The ballbot - December, 2008
Uploaded on Sep 23, 2011
Quote:
The ballbot is a dynamically stable mobile robot that balances on a single ball. It was built by Prof. Ralph Hollis at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. To the best of our knowledge, it the first of its kind ever built. Recently, many other groups have started building such robots.
I work on the control and planning for the ballbot and this video demonstrates its robustness and balancing capabilities.
https://youtu.be/k1KdIoQ17YA
Ballbot Exhibit in RoboWorld - Carnegie Science Center
Uploaded on Jan 13, 2012
Quote:
This video on the ballbot is exhibited in RoboWorld, a permanent robotics exhibition at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, 2009
https://youtu.be/8BtDuzu2WeI
Ballbot : A single-wheeled balancing robot
Published on Sep 9, 2015
Quote:
Features Ralph Hollis, George Kantor, Umashankar Nagarajan and Michael Shomin explaining how Ballbot might be able to help people and why it stands out as a better alternative to robots with heavy, bulky multi-wheeled bases.
"Simple robot roams around using just a ball motor"
It's the only moving part in SIMbot besides the robot itself.
by Jon Fingas
October 4, 2016
https://youtu.be/i99qddBHmgE
Ballbot: Balancing Mobile Robot on a single-wheel
Nov 15, 2020
Quote:
The video narrates that the Ballbot is designed to be a Mobile Robot that balances itself on one spherical wheel. Invented by Ralph Hollis in 2004, this collective project by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University is a 75 kilogram machine created to be tall, slender and person-sized with mechanical arms. Despite its weight, it can still be easily pushed around and moved with little effort like a push of a finger.
The Ballbot moves in an agile omnidirectional motion by applying torque between the body and the ball. George Kantor elaborates that its wheel is driven by an orthogonal set of rollers working like an inverted mouse ball drive. It works by continuously accelerating the ball in the opposite direction of the lean angle, and reverses direction once the desired lean angle is achieved. Umashankar Nagarajan describes this movement as a set of dynamic constraints which control the dynamics of the ball and the body through motion mapping. Arm manipulation is balanced in a way that when the arm moves, the Ballbot leans in the opposite side so that their effects cancel each other out.
The Ballbot has numerous potential applications in society such as interacting with people and operating in normal home and workplace environments. Michael Shomin explains that it can function in hospitals and elder care facilities by assisting people in a sit-to-stand maneuver. It can help in cooperative carrying by fetching and transporting heavy everyday objects. The balancing robot has various uses in Navigation, such as helping elderly people who rely on holding someone’s elbow for support and stability, and leading visually impaired people in an unfamiliar environment. It can even create maps of a building, and program specific location names to navigate and assist people who need to go to a certain room.
https://youtu.be/6DmeSe4HqPY
Ballbot balancing cups of water
Aug 31, 2021
Quote:
The CMU ballbot is controlling its entire body to maintain balance on top of its ball while also balancing a red cup with water on the right hand while tracking a circular motion and an empty water bottle on the left hand.
https://youtu.be/P1KXYxAo2-k
Lifting heavy payload
Feb 1, 2022
Quote:
The CMU ballbot is controlling its entire body to maintain balance on top of its ball while carrying a heavy payload. The ballbot is actively compensating for the additional payload weight.
Graduate Student: Roberto Shu