You may want to consider adding another coating on top of the latex as unvulcanized latex tends to go sticky after a relatively short time (even if you coat it with talc). A great clear top coating for natural latex I've used in the past is Polyurethane Rood Sealant. It's very thinks and one coat will set in about 12 hours. You may have to add some baby oil to it just once to reduce the tac.
This is wicked! I love seeing the process, too, never mind the actual robot. I have to laugh (please... nobody take offense) at how everyone is suggesting how to build it differently. BABY STEPS, PEOPLE!!! Do you honestly think the movie makers built the first one perfectly on the first try? Let's see YOU do it! LOL Anyway, James, can't wait to see the rest of this build. Great work!
Simply amazing. I actually thought about it sometimes, and tried to imagine how to do practical replica that could work the way we see it in the trailers...and you found the ingenious solution for that, how awesome! Also, nice work on R6 head! Can't wait to see the video for that! Keep on!
James, Couldn't you 3d print a piece that acts like a "skirt" that mounts to the orange bit and goes up, out, and over the wheels just above the large balls surface? Sort of like an inverted plate with no center? As well this could be what the dome actually sits on.
One question though... wouldn't it be easier to have the four wheels fixed inside a frame with enough room to fit a small ball that will actually drive over the larger ball? That way you don't have to deal with friction issues of sideways driving wheels? Of course getting it to balance well might be (more) difficult. Even when the same principles apply with gyro + accelerometer combo. Cool build though, looking forward to progress!
***** Yes, that was the initial thought, but perhaps more than one ball would be easier. It's perhaps not as easy as your current approach though and would require way more motors. It's maybe not such a good idea after all. I do get your point of it making balancing the thing very very hard. But I am curious to see how sliding sideways will work with your current approach.
Excellent video. Thanks for all your work to build the robot and to share your build ideas with us. I'll be really excited to see and hear how you proceed next.
Really smart, you figured out how this robot works just from the teaser trailer a few months ago. Seeing it move in the new video though, seems to me like it has a seperate robot driving around inside of the ball but perhaps that is not necessary.
A ball bearing on the inside of the ball and a magnet on the base of the head could add additional stability down force and less slipping when the ball hits a bump or sudden stops.
This made me really want to build one. I think if I was to build a working droid like this, for sake of simplicity, I'd avoid the balancing issue and make the driving portion inside the ball. This way, majority of the weight is inside and wants to right itself after accelerating or decelerating. Then I'd maybe put a lighter portion on top, held in line with the bottom with a strong magnet and rolls on the top with wheels or old mouse balls. Then the top portion would be motorized for twisting/looking only. This would allow it to have one joystick for moving and one joystick for twisting of the head. I'm probably missing some sort of problematic aspect to this setup, but that makes sense in my head and reduces need for the accelerometer electronics.
How are you going to manage breaks on this machine...? It's not just about moving the droid forward, but being able to come to a controlled stop and the way that the machine works, it will to tip forward as it moves. Slowing down would no longer be an option, because the ball would have to push the heavier head slightly upwards, which it won't have the inertia to do, unlike your arm. My argument is to make a bottom heavy robot inside of the ball that, although it will still make some pendulum swings after stopping, at least the top won't immediately fly off. I don't know how you'd have to configure the magnets to maintain a tight enough fit without the magnets eroding the ball from the inside.
Hi james, love the idea but I don't think it's gonna be completely effective, please think about making another unit inside the ball taking care of movement at the base and keeping him stable in place, while the upper unit will only need to stand on position and twist and loop to make expressions. Anyway I'm pumped out on how you are gonna make this, so I'm hooked.
MICROmor Yes, that is how a Sphero is designed. Here is a person that did this with just a Sphero (baseball sized) ball. hackaday.com/2015/04/19/mini-bb-8-droid-made-from-a-sphero/
Interesting. To me it seems that it's a remote control ball and the head a self leveling platform with perhaps another motor to spin the dome independent of the self leveling platform. Look forward to seeing how yours turns out tho!
you could actually lower the dome just a tad and then make the mount completely down to cover the wheels, if that's understandable. Personally I'd add some sort of brushes around the edges of the head that would brush the ball, just to keep little dirty things away from the wheels and motors. Just an idea though :)
BB8 looks to be a large Sphero with the added "floating head". In the sphero the motors are inside the sphere. But with your design you may still need weights to keep the orientation. Order a sphero or I think there are photos or movies of disassembled spheros.
just wondering. are you going to change the design since at the star wars celebration the head moved around the top half of the body without the body moving or are you going to continue with your original concept?
It'll be interesting to see if this works. Looking at the behavior of the droid they had on stage, the drive appears to be inside the ball. The head looked extremely light to me. A powerful magnet inside the ball and on the underside of the head keeps it from sliding off. Put the magnet in the ball at the top of a stiff posable arm and you can rotate and tilt that head... The rather shaky movement of the head (as the arm bounces one way and the other) suggests they did exactly that.
Probably the cleanest approach to doing this. There's something about how their BB-8 can move the head around on top of the ball without moving the body along to compensate that makes me suspect it's probably a internal locomotion instead (similar to the "Sphero" remote controlled spheres). I would say it probably has a servo actuated hinge that's kept central and then just keeping the head alligned with a magnet and some ball bearings to counteract the friction in order to allow for the head pupetering they showed off. Would love to have a try at implementing something of the sort, but I sadly don't have too much free time. Can't wait to see your progress on this approach though :D
What about magnetic force holding head, which has non magnetic ball type wheel, inside that body? Also another wheel inside the body for moving around?
Great episode. When I saw the trailer I immediately thought about a big magnet at the base of the "torso" ball and a co-responding electronic magnet at the center of the head, getting polarity information and distribute forces according to it. but I love your mechanical idea, can't wait to see it drive. Did you consider using water (or any kind of liquid) inside the ball to drive it and distribute weight?
I'm guessing you've seen it, but during the Star Wars celebration at Anaheim yesterday they showed the actual prototype of BB8 on stage, working exactly like you'd expect it to. You should take a look at it, if you haven't yet
Good day sir, sir where did you bought the styro for the body? Can you give me the link please? Is there a 25cm in diameter available just like that, a beach ball size, thanks 😊
***** just a free standing magnet inside the ball and one on the bottom of the robot so that they can attract together keeping them together and because the magnet on the inside is free standing, it will move with the magnet on the bottom of the robot? Just so they stay together better?
***** What friction? If the head is on wheel like you have on your model (but not engine) and the magnets are inside the head and the body, there would not be any consequent friction.
fafase Well the link down below in the comments www.slashfilm.com/bb-8-tech/ that explains it the way I thought it would and just proves the vid is plain wrong...
wouldn't it have been easier to put the omniwheels inside the ball and have some sort of reinforced cage along with it, magnetically adhering the head on top with some bearings?
Where did you find the ball? And I'm thinking of making a version of this with the omni "car" inside the ball. How do I connect an omnidirectional car to a remote control?
Hello, I'd love to follow these instructions to do this project, but there are a few things I'd like to know first. #1: how much did this whole project cost? #2: Anything else a beginner to this stuff would need to know?
Looks really good but I think you missed the way it really operates. The head seems to defy gravity as it rotates around the access of the ball. In fact your approach unless the wheels are velcro would tip over and fall off the ball. What I believe is going on is a 2 piece approach. One the gyro you have goes on the inside of the ball with a set of magnets that when charged can move the upper head. Almost there. but not quite
Looking great. But I have one observation... the only movement allowed with the wheel configuration would be in circles. If the two opposite wheels are moving in the same direction then the other two wheels would be dragging. So there must be a different configuration of wheels. I almost have the feeling that there is another ball mech going on. Just imagine the old mouse ball. but instead of the rollers picking up your movement the rollers would be moving the ball. If that makes sense.
The company who actually made BB8 for the movie is Sphero, and this company already made a robot ball you can buy. I think it's the same robot but bigger and with a magnet in the head, and that's why BB8 can move its head without moving the body. (Sorry for my english)
Just priced up your parts on this, you spent a few quid here, surprised you didn't design and print the wheels yourself in a combo of ninjaflex and abs, tempted to try and and have a go myself
Nice way to make a simplified version of the BB-8. I would like to see you make a version close to the original practical effects version shown at the Star Wars Celebration.
Ok this is a bizzare way of doing this, i think the general consensus is that the drive mech goes in the ball with all the weight in tye lower area, the head is just a dumb box with some lights, wheels and magnets, and is controlled from inside the ball via some moving magnets on an arm
ah ok.....but still, i get your explanation of the physics, but im not sure those particular physics apply in this case, surely this is just going to drive off the top of the ball if any motion other than stationary is intended, im sure others have pointed you to this image but this guy designed this well before BB-8 but its pretty definitly the way its done, imgs.xkcd.com/comics/new_pet.png, your work is always impressive so i shall prepare to be proven wrong
I understand you were working on this long before they revealed the actual physical droid at star wars celebration. So I understand why you are doing yours as a pure balance droid and I very much appreciate you sharing this project with us. That said, knowing what you now know about how the head can move independently of balance and movement functions, how would you go about making it more like the movie? Would you: 1) make essentially two robots, one a hamster ball bot the just drives around and the second a robot that rolls on the top but also counters any movements made by the base ball. Or 2) make a hamster ball robot with an arm inside with strong magnets that can move about inside and pull a dummy lightweight head around? 1 would be a lot of programming and extra sensors for that head bot, and 2 would require a very thin but strong shell to allow magnets to pull the head around.
Nice Project. I'm looking forward to see it's moving. I suggest using more expensive motors with encoders. I had a lot of trouble with controlling DC-Motors in the right way at my robot arm project. The first version only had encoders to measure the position of the arm, and it was very hard to control. The second one has now tow encoders for every joint on absolute and one relative on the motor shaft and it's moving way better.
Like others have commented here, I think you might need something inside of the big ball and at the bottom, to have a natural balance. Another set of wheels and some extra weight might do the trick. Or, i don't know, maybe some marbles or metal balls. But the problem with that would be making the robot stop and stay still instead of wobble a bit in place. I am eager to see what else you did in the next episode. The hard drive disk as a gyro is a fantastic idea, by the way.
I see what you mean... But the unicycle rider has to be constantly moving back and forth to keep himself from falling. Shouldn't the gyro be inside the ball then, somehow? Or a second gyro, one for the dome, another for the ball.
***** It'll balance fine on top of the ball, but you won't be able to get the range of head motion you see with the actual BB-8. If you put several pounds of rice or lentils in the big ball to give BB8 some inertia, you'll be able to achieve the trick, but you are right, it will limit speed and manoeuvrability.
I dont think just doing a remote control on the head will be enough. I think it needs to be in conjunction with the remote control ball at the bottom. Like those little Spheros.
***** thats a point. I'm just wondering if the total diameter of your weels will produce to much grip onto the surface of the styro ball and then the "dome" will get instable. from whatching the BB-8 video at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim it looks like there is some kind of drive or stabilisation in the Body. I'm really excited to see the next episodes! great work on all your projects mate!
***** thats a point. I'm just wondering if the total diameter of your weels will produce to much grip onto the surface of the styro ball and then the "dome" will get instable. from whatching the BB-8 video at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim it looks like there is some kind of drive or stabilisation in the Body. I'm really excited to see the next episodes! great work on all your projects mate!
***** sorry my english is bad :P Of cause it has to produce a lot of grip, just wondering if it is to concentrated to a spot on the Body. But after thinking about it a bit longer, I found the mistake in my considerations. The weel are not moving in the same direction. My bad, sorry :P
wow this was a really nice surprise, it looks really good. Looking at the BB-8 droid itself, im wondering if the main drive is not inside the large ball which could have lots of weight and then the head might be similar to yours so it could drive around independently allowing it to look around without the body moving. Im also thinking the head could be held on by powerful magnets from inside the large ball connected to another moving mechanism that's smaller than the main movement mechanism. Basically imagine a remote controlled car inside the large ball driving it with a devive attached to the roof of the car that reaches the top of the ball and can move a magnet around thats attracting the head.
Very cool project!!!! You are always amazing James! I hope you post your work to the R2Builders group. I know everyone wants to see one of these droids really work!
The design was revealed, all of the mechanics are held in the lower ball with the head held on magnetically. The gyroscope and wheels in the big ball and is moved that way, from sphero
Nice work, I just saw the video of the real BB-8, and I was thinking that the ball is made of an light weight metal and they use your idea plus some strong magnets. But that's my guess how it doesn't tip over. Cant wait to next episode
***** heavy weight on the bottom ball right? Because I'm talking about the bot on top of the ball. It goes over to the side of the ball with out it falling off,
Somehow in this video it seams like you are not looking directly into the camera, somehow weird... did you change anything in your setup? :) BTW: An Arduino Based quadcopter Flight controller would be perfect for your task! you could use the multiwii SE as a base, or the APM 2.6, which would give you all the sensors you need on a board together with the Atmega chip and FTDI :)
muh1h1 Yeah, the MultiWii Pro could work very well, but I suppose choosing your own gyros and accelerometers has it's advantages. You could even get away using the regular quad copter program. Plenty of room to get some custom coding in there though because it's Arduino based. :)
***** i have no doubt that you will get this working perfectly fine the way you started it, just thought it would be a cool idea to try and use a flightcontroller for something else :) looking forward to see the progress! :)
muh1h1 could be reading a script he sets up for himself... I know i find it a lot easier to do any sort of planned video when I have notes or a script to read off of
spysee fan Im sure it would require an enormously heavy top bot.. But hey, it would be awesome! Heck I even want to see one of these bots with all the electronics on the inside. Just a giant remote controlled ball.. Although I guess doing it that way you dont get the nice stable platform to put a camera on
I think you will need a 2nd wheeled robot with some nice weight inside the large ball sitting on the bottom. This will be the "drive" section to roll and steer the whole thing. (Picture a hamster inside a hamster ball) Then the head just concentrates on staying upright as well as moving itself around for head gestures. I'm almost positive the BB-8 at the Star Wars Convention would need two people to operate. One driving the whole thing, and another controlling the head gestures/rotation, and probably sounds.
why not get a harder ball, and putt the robot indside the ball with some magnets keeping the head in place on top ? :O
GexpGaminG Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe use an inductive coil to transfer power to the "head".
GexpGaminG Exactly my thoughts.
Tess Flynn the only thing in the head would be a battery for the lights. It doesn't need inductive coils.
I was thinking it would need at least one motor so the head could rotate without spinning the ball. Sepatate batteries would work too.
gyroscope.
Wow dude, you have some serious talent. I hope you are doing this type of work for a living.
I'm in love with the new BB-8 and I love that you're recreating the prop.
I was thinking about half way through, "Blimey, he's doing a one day build!" :)
I cannot wrap my head around how the hell you do all this stuff. Great work!
Was just watching a different bb8 video, and I saw your with holonomic drive and it all made sense. Perfect idea.
This has been the project that I've been waiting for !
This droid for the film is a practical effect, if they can do it so can you! Keen to keep watching
You are the "Barnes Wallis" of the 21st century !!
Looks promising!
I am not even worthy of posting on this video. You sir are an amazing engineer. Good luck with the rest of the project!
You may want to consider adding another coating on top of the latex as unvulcanized latex tends to go sticky after a relatively short time (even if you coat it with talc). A great clear top coating for natural latex I've used in the past is Polyurethane Rood Sealant. It's very thinks and one coat will set in about 12 hours. You may have to add some baby oil to it just once to reduce the tac.
This is wicked! I love seeing the process, too, never mind the actual robot. I have to laugh (please... nobody take offense) at how everyone is suggesting how to build it differently. BABY STEPS, PEOPLE!!! Do you honestly think the movie makers built the first one perfectly on the first try? Let's see YOU do it! LOL
Anyway, James, can't wait to see the rest of this build. Great work!
Simply amazing.
I actually thought about it sometimes, and tried to imagine how to do practical replica that could work the way we see it in the trailers...and you found the ingenious solution for that, how awesome!
Also, nice work on R6 head! Can't wait to see the video for that!
Keep on!
loved the balancing the pen part
BB-8 is love BB-8 is life.
I really think you are my favorite channel to watch! keep up the great work!!
James, Couldn't you 3d print a piece that acts like a "skirt" that mounts to the orange bit and goes up, out, and over the wheels just above the large balls surface? Sort of like an inverted plate with no center?
As well this could be what the dome actually sits on.
I live in Florida, USA. I love your videos!!
Very, very cool project! Very much looking forward to the next episode and seeing the little guy move around. :)
One question though... wouldn't it be easier to have the four wheels fixed inside a frame with enough room to fit a small ball that will actually drive over the larger ball? That way you don't have to deal with friction issues of sideways driving wheels? Of course getting it to balance well might be (more) difficult. Even when the same principles apply with gyro + accelerometer combo.
Cool build though, looking forward to progress!
***** Yes, that was the initial thought, but perhaps more than one ball would be easier. It's perhaps not as easy as your current approach though and would require way more motors. It's maybe not such a good idea after all. I do get your point of it making balancing the thing very very hard.
But I am curious to see how sliding sideways will work with your current approach.
Excellent video. Thanks for all your work to build the robot and to share your build ideas with us. I'll be really excited to see and hear how you proceed next.
Really smart, you figured out how this robot works just from the teaser trailer a few months ago. Seeing it move in the new video though, seems to me like it has a seperate robot driving around inside of the ball but perhaps that is not necessary.
Brilliant, I can`t wait for more..
This is amazing. So excited for the movie. You have real talent!
A ball bearing on the inside of the ball and a magnet on the base of the head could add additional stability down force and less slipping when the ball hits a bump or sudden stops.
This looks like a really cool project. got to say. im loving this channel!
You could 3d print a cowl that attaches to the bottom side of the perspex to cover the wheels.
Saw a post about this on the R2 Builder's Group on Yahoo, had no idea it was you. Good Luck. Can't wait.
You could put a strong magnet on a "dolly" or similar inside, to provide a holding force from inside.
This made me really want to build one. I think if I was to build a working droid like this, for sake of simplicity, I'd avoid the balancing issue and make the driving portion inside the ball. This way, majority of the weight is inside and wants to right itself after accelerating or decelerating. Then I'd maybe put a lighter portion on top, held in line with the bottom with a strong magnet and rolls on the top with wheels or old mouse balls. Then the top portion would be motorized for twisting/looking only. This would allow it to have one joystick for moving and one joystick for twisting of the head.
I'm probably missing some sort of problematic aspect to this setup, but that makes sense in my head and reduces need for the accelerometer electronics.
Are u going to put magnets in the dome so the head can stay on and move and make the same position as in the trailer
You deserve a million more subscibers
How are you going to manage breaks on this machine...? It's not just about moving the droid forward, but being able to come to a controlled stop and the way that the machine works, it will to tip forward as it moves. Slowing down would no longer be an option, because the ball would have to push the heavier head slightly upwards, which it won't have the inertia to do, unlike your arm.
My argument is to make a bottom heavy robot inside of the ball that, although it will still make some pendulum swings after stopping, at least the top won't immediately fly off. I don't know how you'd have to configure the magnets to maintain a tight enough fit without the magnets eroding the ball from the inside.
Can't wait for part 2
Nice! This will be a very cool project!
Hi james, love the idea but I don't think it's gonna be completely effective, please think about making another unit inside the ball taking care of movement at the base and keeping him stable in place, while the upper unit will only need to stand on position and twist and loop to make expressions.
Anyway I'm pumped out on how you are gonna make this, so I'm hooked.
MICROmor according to the patient I have to agree and it's also how I thought it worked too.
MICROmor Yes, that is how a Sphero is designed. Here is a person that did this with just a Sphero (baseball sized) ball. hackaday.com/2015/04/19/mini-bb-8-droid-made-from-a-sphero/
Just subscribed
thanks!
Ambitious and very cool!
Interesting. To me it seems that it's a remote control ball and the head a self leveling platform with perhaps another motor to spin the dome independent of the self leveling platform. Look forward to seeing how yours turns out tho!
you could actually lower the dome just a tad and then make the mount completely down to cover the wheels, if that's understandable. Personally I'd add some sort of brushes around the edges of the head that would brush the ball, just to keep little dirty things away from the wheels and motors. Just an idea though :)
BB8 looks to be a large Sphero with the added "floating head". In the sphero the motors are inside the sphere. But with your design you may still need weights to keep the orientation. Order a sphero or I think there are photos or movies of disassembled spheros.
just wondering. are you going to change the design since at the star wars celebration the head moved around the top half of the body without the body moving
or are you going to continue with your original concept?
It'll be interesting to see if this works.
Looking at the behavior of the droid they had on stage, the drive appears to be inside the ball. The head looked extremely light to me. A powerful magnet inside the ball and on the underside of the head keeps it from sliding off.
Put the magnet in the ball at the top of a stiff posable arm and you can rotate and tilt that head... The rather shaky movement of the head (as the arm bounces one way and the other) suggests they did exactly that.
Best project yet
I would use a Naze32 quadcopter "flight controller" to balance the droid. Naze32 is an amazing mini controller, truly amazing and so cheap!
where did you get the Plexiglas dome? I've been looking for one about that size for quite a while for an astronaut costume
Hi James, just wondering if you have a schematic for the electronics up to part 2.
This would be really useful.
Thanks
Probably the cleanest approach to doing this.
There's something about how their BB-8 can move the head around on top of the ball without moving the body along to compensate that makes me suspect it's probably a internal locomotion instead (similar to the "Sphero" remote controlled spheres).
I would say it probably has a servo actuated hinge that's kept central and then just keeping the head alligned with a magnet and some ball bearings to counteract the friction in order to allow for the head pupetering they showed off.
Would love to have a try at implementing something of the sort, but I sadly don't have too much free time.
Can't wait to see your progress on this approach though :D
What about magnetic force holding head, which has non magnetic ball type wheel, inside that body? Also another wheel inside the body for moving around?
Sorry I know this video is old, but how do you mount the Mounter Mounts to the corner mounts? What size axle/bolt do you use?
Awesome work James! Looking great and excellent theory explanation. Keep up the great work!
Great episode.
When I saw the trailer I immediately thought about a big magnet at the base of the "torso" ball and a co-responding electronic magnet at the center of the head, getting polarity information and distribute forces according to it. but I love your mechanical idea, can't wait to see it drive.
Did you consider using water (or any kind of liquid) inside the ball to drive it and distribute weight?
Would it not be better to have the motors and everything in the ball and the head attached by magnets?
There are two independant moving system for head and body, otherwise the head could not move around the body sphere without induce shifting of it.
I'm guessing you've seen it, but during the Star Wars celebration at Anaheim yesterday they showed the actual prototype of BB8 on stage, working exactly like you'd expect it to.
You should take a look at it, if you haven't yet
Very good project. I am enjoying the development of this droid. Any ideas as to how it could grow useful or perhaps commercial robot?
Good day sir, sir where did you bought the styro for the body? Can you give me the link please? Is there a 25cm in diameter available just like that, a beach ball size, thanks 😊
Could you not put a magnet inside and another magnet on the robot in order to keep them together better?
***** just a free standing magnet inside the ball and one on the bottom of the robot so that they can attract together keeping them together and because the magnet on the inside is free standing, it will move with the magnet on the bottom of the robot? Just so they stay together better?
Fair enough, just wondering :) I look forward to the coming videos on this! Lots of progress already
Toamastar15 right, a robot, with a magnet inside it, that wont mess up the electrical currents needed to give it functionality, good luck with that.
***** What friction? If the head is on wheel like you have on your model (but not engine) and the magnets are inside the head and the body, there would not be any consequent friction.
fafase Well the link down below in the comments www.slashfilm.com/bb-8-tech/ that explains it the way I thought it would and just proves the vid is plain wrong...
If you have seen one of the panels BB-8 is a working puppet prop, they had it on stage with R2
So the ball must be "open-bead" polystyrene or else the aliphatic resin glue wouldn't work, but how does it dry in order to cure?
wouldn't it have been easier to put the omniwheels inside the ball and have some sort of reinforced cage along with it, magnetically adhering the head on top with some bearings?
Where did you find the ball? And I'm thinking of making a version of this with the omni "car" inside the ball. How do I connect an omnidirectional car to a remote control?
Hello, I'd love to follow these instructions to do this project, but there are a few things I'd like to know first. #1: how much did this whole project cost?
#2: Anything else a beginner to this stuff would need to know?
Looks really good but I think you missed the way it really operates. The head seems to defy gravity as it rotates around the access of the ball. In fact your approach unless the wheels are velcro would tip over and fall off the ball. What I believe is going on is a 2 piece approach. One the gyro you have goes on the inside of the ball with a set of magnets that when charged can move the upper head. Almost there. but not quite
Looking great. But I have one observation... the only movement allowed with the wheel configuration would be in circles. If the two opposite wheels are moving in the same direction then the other two wheels would be dragging. So there must be a different configuration of wheels. I almost have the feeling that there is another ball mech going on. Just imagine the old mouse ball. but instead of the rollers picking up your movement the rollers would be moving the ball. If that makes sense.
There's a video of the actual one. It's smaller I think and the head floats with magnetism
Brilliant ! You should team up with Colin furze !
The company who actually made BB8 for the movie is Sphero, and this company already made a robot ball you can buy. I think it's the same robot but bigger and with a magnet in the head, and that's why BB8 can move its head without moving the body. (Sorry for my english)
Really good clear explanation.
Are you still moving forward on this concept, now that we've seen BB-8 on stage and also know that the technology is Sphero ?
Just priced up your parts on this, you spent a few quid here, surprised you didn't design and print the wheels yourself in a combo of ninjaflex and abs, tempted to try and and have a go myself
where do you get everything to build BB-8? Like where would you get the Sphere ball?
Also how do you know that you got the right size of you 3D Printing to build your BB-8 Driod? I really want to build a BB-8
Whoa, pretty impressive, onece again, how you find splutions for stuff i thought were impossible to solve... Good job so far!
Nice way to make a simplified version of the BB-8. I would like to see you make a version close to the original practical effects version shown at the Star Wars Celebration.
Impressive. Very nice.
Ok this is a bizzare way of doing this, i think the general consensus is that the drive mech goes in the ball with all the weight in tye lower area, the head is just a dumb box with some lights, wheels and magnets, and is controlled from inside the ball via some moving magnets on an arm
ah ok.....but still, i get your explanation of the physics, but im not sure those particular physics apply in this case, surely this is just going to drive off the top of the ball if any motion other than stationary is intended, im sure others have pointed you to this image but this guy designed this well before BB-8 but its pretty definitly the way its done, imgs.xkcd.com/comics/new_pet.png, your work is always impressive so i shall prepare to be proven wrong
I understand you were working on this long before they revealed the actual physical droid at star wars celebration. So I understand why you are doing yours as a pure balance droid and I very much appreciate you sharing this project with us.
That said, knowing what you now know about how the head can move independently of balance and movement functions, how would you go about making it more like the movie?
Would you: 1) make essentially two robots, one a hamster ball bot the just drives around and the second a robot that rolls on the top but also counters any movements made by the base ball. Or 2) make a hamster ball robot with an arm inside with strong magnets that can move about inside and pull a dummy lightweight head around?
1 would be a lot of programming and extra sensors for that head bot, and 2 would require a very thin but strong shell to allow magnets to pull the head around.
you make awesome robots!
Nice Project.
I'm looking forward to see it's moving. I suggest using more expensive motors with encoders. I had a lot of trouble with controlling DC-Motors in the right way at my robot arm project. The first version only had encoders to measure the position of the arm, and it was very hard to control. The second one has now tow encoders for every joint on absolute and one relative on the motor shaft and it's moving way better.
On the scale of 1 to 10 how hard do you think it is to make the things you make because I think it is a 10
Like others have commented here, I think you might need something inside of the big ball and at the bottom, to have a natural balance. Another set of wheels and some extra weight might do the trick. Or, i don't know, maybe some marbles or metal balls. But the problem with that would be making the robot stop and stay still instead of wobble a bit in place.
I am eager to see what else you did in the next episode.
The hard drive disk as a gyro is a fantastic idea, by the way.
I see what you mean... But the unicycle rider has to be constantly moving back and forth to keep himself from falling.
Shouldn't the gyro be inside the ball then, somehow? Or a second gyro, one for the dome, another for the ball.
***** Oh, wow... That's very impressive. Quite stable!
***** It'll balance fine on top of the ball, but you won't be able to get the range of head motion you see with the actual BB-8. If you put several pounds of rice or lentils in the big ball to give BB8 some inertia, you'll be able to achieve the trick, but you are right, it will limit speed and manoeuvrability.
That is amazing mate. Thanks for sharing such great knowledge.
really nice and comprehensive!
I dont think just doing a remote control on the head will be enough. I think it needs to be in conjunction with the remote control ball at the bottom. Like those little Spheros.
withouth watching all episodes... wouldn't it be mutch better for stability to place a solid second ball into the styro body to keep it in position?
***** thats a point. I'm just wondering if the total diameter of your weels will produce to much grip onto the surface of the styro ball and then the "dome" will get instable. from whatching the BB-8 video at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim it looks like there is some kind of drive or stabilisation in the Body. I'm really excited to see the next episodes! great work on all your projects mate!
***** thats a point. I'm just wondering if the total diameter of your weels will produce to much grip onto the surface of the styro ball and then the "dome" will get instable. from whatching the BB-8 video at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim it looks like there is some kind of drive or stabilisation in the Body. I'm really excited to see the next episodes! great work on all your projects mate!
***** sorry my english is bad :P Of cause it has to produce a lot of grip, just wondering if it is to concentrated to a spot on the Body. But after thinking about it a bit longer, I found the mistake in my considerations. The weel are not moving in the same direction. My bad, sorry :P
+James Bruton (XRobots) did it occur to use magnets and a gyroscope?
wow this was a really nice surprise, it looks really good. Looking at the BB-8 droid itself, im wondering if the main drive is not inside the large ball which could have lots of weight and then the head might be similar to yours so it could drive around independently allowing it to look around without the body moving.
Im also thinking the head could be held on by powerful magnets from inside the large ball connected to another moving mechanism that's smaller than the main movement mechanism. Basically imagine a remote controlled car inside the large ball driving it with a devive attached to the roof of the car that reaches the top of the ball and can move a magnet around thats attracting the head.
I think a gyroscope would help . the ball would need to be really light. I don't think it will work but im excited to see what you do next!
With that ball you could make a master ball as well.
Very cool project!!!!
You are always amazing James!
I hope you post your work to the R2Builders group.
I know everyone wants to see one of these droids really work!
Really like this prototype! It's definitely not the same as what they used for BB-8 but it does a very good job.
The design was revealed, all of the mechanics are held in the lower ball with the head held on magnetically. The gyroscope and wheels in the big ball and is moved that way, from sphero
Nice work, I just saw the video of the real BB-8, and I was thinking that the ball is made of an light weight metal and they use your idea plus some strong magnets. But that's my guess how it doesn't tip over.
Cant wait to next episode
Ok true, but what's stopping the top robot from tipping over when it tilts over the side like that?
***** heavy weight on the bottom ball right? Because I'm talking about the bot on top of the ball. It goes over to the side of the ball with out it falling off,
"Machines making machines ....! That obscenity"
-C3po
Somehow in this video it seams like you are not looking directly into the camera, somehow weird...
did you change anything in your setup? :)
BTW: An Arduino Based quadcopter Flight controller would be perfect for your task! you could use the multiwii SE as a base, or the APM 2.6, which would give you all the sensors you need on a board together with the Atmega chip and FTDI :)
muh1h1 Yeah, the MultiWii Pro could work very well, but I suppose choosing your own gyros and accelerometers has it's advantages. You could even get away using the regular quad copter program. Plenty of room to get some custom coding in there though because it's Arduino based. :)
PHeMoX Yep, and a PID system would probably not be a bad idea anyway!
muh1h1 It's because a light is reflecting in his glasses and it makes it look like he is looking to the left lol but he's not really.
*****
i have no doubt that you will get this working perfectly fine the way you started it, just thought it would be a cool idea to try and use a flightcontroller for something else :)
looking forward to see the progress! :)
muh1h1 could be reading a script he sets up for himself... I know i find it a lot easier to do any sort of planned video when I have notes or a script to read off of
this could be like a ten episode build!! :D
Cool new project. You should get a clear ball and turn it into a remote controlled fish tank!
spysee fan Im sure it would require an enormously heavy top bot.. But hey, it would be awesome! Heck I even want to see one of these bots with all the electronics on the inside. Just a giant remote controlled ball.. Although I guess doing it that way you dont get the nice stable platform to put a camera on
I think you will need a 2nd wheeled robot with some nice weight inside the large ball sitting on the bottom. This will be the "drive" section to roll and steer the whole thing. (Picture a hamster inside a hamster ball) Then the head just concentrates on staying upright as well as moving itself around for head gestures.
I'm almost positive the BB-8 at the Star Wars Convention would need two people to operate. One driving the whole thing, and another controlling the head gestures/rotation, and probably sounds.
Wonderful stuff!