Novel Drive Wheel System Based On Spinning Sphere

An anonymous reader writes "A Bradley University student has built a mobile robot that uses a hemispherical omnidirectional gimbaled, or HOG, drive wheel. It consists of a black rubber hemisphere that rotates like a spinning top, with servos that can tilt it left and right and forwards and backwards. The HOG system delivers an amount of torque directly proportional to the tilt of the hemisphere, allowing the robot to move incredibly fast nearly instantaneously."

Re:Thats looks great

[wagnerrp]

Would you paint them blue, with a big pod on the back for a person to ride in?

Re:gimbaledl ???

[maxwell demon]

A gimbaledl is a pivotedled supportedl that allows the rotationedl of an objectedl about a single axisedl. Isn't that obviousedl? :-)

Re:Needs a hard floor.

[Urkki]

It's a cute idea. It assumes a single point of contact with the ground, and thus requires a flat, hard floor. This is limiting.

Fortunately, there's a solution [thepavedearth.com]: one world, one people, one slab of asphalt!

Re:Not Novel

[robot_love]

Wait, so you're telling me he just re-invented the wheel?