Ballbot studying to push a wheelchair
Courtesy Carnegie Mellon College
A human-size robotic balancing on a ball that acts as a spherical wheel can push wheelchairs as easily as a human assistant – and should perform this caregiving job higher than many humanoid robotic helpers that stroll on two legs.
The so-called ballbot was first developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon College in Pennsylvania in 2004. In its newest type, it has the potential to manoeuvre a wheelchair indoors with minimal bumpiness for the wheelchair consumer. As such, it exhibits how robots might sometime…
