UA Balance Ball Robot Design Team

The Ballbot shall:

Be self-balancing on a ball

Not harm users or its environment

Be light weight

Have a compact size

Communicate wirelessly

Have an easy to use controller

Be able to maneuver over multiple terrains

Be able to operate in multiple working modes

Be able to operate for extended periods of time

MEET THE TEAM!

Left to Right:

Justin Bolitho, Software Lead, EE

Andrew Balfour, Hardware Lead, EE

Jerrod Mertz, Archivist, EE

Hello Tumblr!

We are Design Team 07 for this semester's Senior Design Project at The University of Akron. Our project revolves around designing and creating a self-balancing ball robot. The most notable mode of land driven transportation requires a wheel of some sort. But what about using a ball? With a ball comes the distinct advantage of being omni-directional, meaning you’re able to traverse in any direction. However, using a ball requires a sophisticated control system aided by accurate sensors in order to keep the robot on top of the ball and stable at all times.

That is where the design for our balance ballbot comes in. It will use four DC driven motors in a square configuration with specialized wheels – omni-wheels – and an array of sensors that are used to measure the systems positional data to keep the system balanced. The robot will operate autonomously or via a user provided wireless control, all under the instruction of a microcontroller.

The mechanical design of the ballbot is finalized and the electrical hardware design is ready to be implemented. However, without the mechanical structure achieved, the software design remains preliminary until proper physical testing can be conducted.

Features

Balance on a rubber-coated ball

Balance autonomously or through a wireless controller

Omnidirectional

Able to traverse over various terrains and around obstacles

This blog's purpose is for our team to constantly be in the loop of who is working on what, what the status of these tasks are, any videos or articles that we feel will help with our project, etc. 

Do not hesitate to leave a question or comment in our ask box!

Let's get this ball balancing!