On the Ball

OK, then:

A new type of robot balances on a ball rather than relying on legs or wheels.

The Ballbot, as it is called, can move in tight spots, making it potentially more useful than other designs for some uses.

Carnegie Mellon University robotics Professor and inventor Ralph Hollis first started fiddling with the thing at home. Then he got funding from the National Science Foundation.

"We wanted to create a robot that can maneuver easily and is tall enough to look you in the eye," Hollis said. "Ballbot is tall and skinny, with a much higher center of gravity than traditional wheeled robots. Because it is omnidirectional, it can move easily in any direction without having to turn first."

An onboard computer reads balance information from its internal sensors, activating rollers that mobilize the urethane-coated metal sphere on which it moves. At rest, Ballbot stands on three retractable legs.

Leaving aside for the moment the amusement to be had in the name "Ballbot," that's nothing. When I was in physical therapy last winter, there were patients there who could do a remarkable number of physiologically improbable things while balanced on balls (now cut that out). They had these giant, rubber orbs (there, that's less suggestive) that you had to balance on to regain some kind of muscular strength (I'm unclear on what the point of any physical therapy is, since I don't actually have muscles, but rather move my limbs via an intricate network of water-inflatable bladders--call it an evolutionary fluke like my prehensile tail). I had wanted to work out on the giant rubber orbs, but it was hard to figure out how you would exercise a shoulder on them, although I was keen to give it a go. As it is, my daily workout--which involves 900 situps and the regular hoisting of a live salmon--also involves balancing on a variety of geometric solids. I'm pretty good at maneuvering across the room while balanced on a dodecahedron. It doesn't have the consummate beauty of the sphere, but there's something cool about the word "dodecahedron."

Let's see a robot try that.