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Researchers at Tohoku Gakuin University in Japan have developed a robot that stays balanced on a ball, even when it's pushed or heavy loads are placed on top.
Three independent rotors spin to keep the robot's balance atop the ball, and it can move in any direction, using an "omniwheel" akin to the one under Honda's U3-X.[...]
Dynamically stable robots like this one are better than static bots, which use three or more wheels, researchers say.
They can have smaller bases, allowing them to navigate tight corners. And their omnidirectional abilities allow them to quickly go in any direction without having to turn around.
via Popular Science
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I for all, welcome our new balsy robots overlords!
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Very neat!
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Inch by inch, electronic cirquit by new bit and bite and new algorithm we get closer to autonomous robots that cruise our world...
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put four of these together and youve got I Robot style vehicles like the Audi RSQ
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Demonstrating something we kind of knew all along - Segways are rubbish. I'd much rather scoot around sitting on top of a ball with my robot buddy keeping my coffee from spilling.
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