Robot plus ball equals a sphere-ly good time…

Aren’t balls great?! They’re good for throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing and navigating over difficult terrain…

Wait… what?

In most cases I would immediately retract such an absurd and poorly judged comment and retreat into shameful silence, but not this time. This time, balls actually are good for navigating over rocks, steps and such – and here’s the proof:

Imagine a particularly angry and energetic hamster frantically running around in a plastic ball. Now replace that hamster with a few gyroscopes and some wire, and you’re not too far off the marvellous Gyrosphere Robot. This incredible feat of engineering is the new creation of the almost appropriately named Greg Schroll. A graduate from Colorado State University in the US, Schroll plundered parts from radio-controlled helicopters and cars before encasing his creation in an 18-inch gumball-machine sphere. This spherical mobile robot can literally go anywhere, possessing the resourceful ability to navigate both steep and rugged terrain, even from a dead stop.

After being nominated for Popular Mechanic’s Breakthrough Awards 2009, Schroll has already expressed his desire to enhance his robotic sphere for the purpose of planetary exploration. “One of my fantasy ideas is to build it with enough suspension to allow it to be airdropped,” he says. “I imagine a cargo plane dumping 1000 of these spherical robots. They wouldn’t need any landing equipment. They’d bounce and start collecting information.”

Although Schroll’s Gyrosphere Robot looks suitably fantastic, I can safely say that nothing beats the thrill of trying Sphereing for yourself. If you want to know what it would feel like to travel inside Schroll’s robotic sphere then why not try our Harness Sphereing experience. Strapped to the inside of an inflatable ball and pushed down a slopping hill, you’ll experience the extreme ‘washing machine effect’, being thrown this way and that as you tumble at top speeds. So, get over to Buyagift and check out all our fantastic Sphereing packages, at a location near to you. Alternatively, click here.

Via: Hackaday