Spherical Evolution- How Cool Is This!!!

[Mithion]

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2012/09/08/wheels-evolve-into-balls-with-spherical-drive-system/


Reminds me of the cars from the iRobot movie.

[Brammofan]

(insert obligatory "it would take balls to ride that thing" joke here.)

[Richard230]

I'm not seeing much traction with those balls.   

[protomech]

The spherical wheels are constructed of carbon fiber and fiberglass with an industrial rubber coating and are friction driven by three electric motors mounted slightly off center on top of the ball. Because of the three motor arrangement, the balls can rotate or spin in any direction which makes for a rather unstable platform on which to base a motorcycle, but the students plan to address this issue with a computer control system using a gyro-accelerometer combination to determine the necessary movements needed to maintain balance and move in the proper direction.

Between the triple motor friction drive system and the limited traction, this seems like either a very low speed human vehicle (say 25 mph) or an autonomously-operated vehicle.

[Richard230]

Here is another report on this concept electric motorcycle, including a short video:

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/19/spherical-drive-motorcycle-being-developed-by-engineering-studen/