Rotundus GroundBot Is Rotund
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 21 of May , 2009 at 1:59 am
This pudgy robot is called the Rotundus GroundBot. Isn’t that adorable? It’s a security bot that’s designed to patrol large, mostly flat areas, although it’s apparently capable of all sorts of off-road fun including deep snow, mud, sand… And it floats. If such robustness seems like overkill, it’s because the original concept was developed as the European Space Agency was looking for an exploration vehicle to send to Mercury. Anyway, You might think that something like this might be hard to drive, but it’s not. It’s kinda like a video game, except that you get either a 2D or 3D view of up to 360 degrees that operators say “makes you feel you are actually there, sitting in GroundBot, looking out.” You can also set GPS waypoints to have it navigate autonomously.
GroundBot is about 2 feet in diameter and can carry 5 pounds payload (i.e. cameras and sensors) at speeds of up to 6 mph. Onboard batteries can keep it going for up to 16 hours. It’s hard to tell what’s going on inside the bot, but my guess is that it uses the same basic design as the orbs of Orbswarm: a steerable mass that changes the center of gravity of the sphere. Ooo, wouldn’t it be awesome to see some kind of orb on orb battle? Having been nearly run over by orbs a bunch of times, I’ll be putting my money on Orbswarm.
[ Rotundus ]
Comments (3)
Category: Security
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Comment by Alex
Made Thursday, 21 of May , 2009 at 10:47 am
I like how it wobbles as it rolls along :)
Pretty cool that it can just go into grassy fields like that, too.
Comment by DC
Made Thursday, 21 of May , 2009 at 12:32 pm
This so belongs in “Prisoner”
Comment by The tribble
Made Friday, 22 of May , 2009 at 6:19 am
Haha I just built one very similar only mine is smaller.