Everyone is quite taken with the new-style droid from the forthcoming film Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. It just looks so cool with its little head balancing atop a rolling ball body! Industrial designer Christian Poulsen saw it as a challenge. After seeing a video of the 3D version on stage at Star Wars Celebration, he decided to make one -in only a day.
How did he get the head to stay on while the body rolled around? Magnets. The secret here is that he started with a Sphero ball, which is a robotic ball controlled by phone apps. The device inside is weighed so that it doesn’t roll with the ball.
Poulsen posted a tutorial on the process, in case you want to make your own. But if you are not so technically-inclined, Sphero is teasing the story that it will make a BB-8 to sell. -via the A.V. Club