zeronome
04-22-2008, 12:01 AM
http://xkcd.com/413/
who wants to see this made???
dosbomber
04-22-2008, 12:33 AM
That's weird.. I've been building a similar 'bot for awhile now, although mine's not in a hamster ball, but a 12" decoration-sphere-thing (Link (http://www.barnardltd.com/product.jsp?prodId=8127&catId=703)) , and with counterweight-drive and direction control instead of omni-wheels. By pushing the weight of its own electronics (mostly battery) around against an internally-mounted shaft, it shifts its CG around and provides locomotion.
It doesn't have a soul though.. it mostly just drives the dog nuts.
I do like the idea of the magnetically-connected external camera, though. In "SphereBot v1.0", everything's internal. Pretty much has to be because the sphere is basically the single "tire".
Oh, and unfortunately mine doesn't have much in terms of AI "brains", it's controlled via a network of PIC microcontrollers which communicates via wireless serial link to a PC.