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   Spherical robot provides rolling security cover

   * 15:37 28 January 2005
   * NewScientist.com news service
   * Will Knight

The rolling robot carves a path through fresh snow 
<http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/99996932F1.JPG>
Enlarge image 
<http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/99996932F1.JPG>
The rolling robot carves a path through fresh snow

A spherical roving robot designed to detect and report intruders has 
been developed by a Swedish start-up company.

The design was first developed with planetary exploration in mind, at 
the Ångström Space Technology Center, part of Uppsala University, 
Sweden. But Rotundus, formed in December 2004 plan to market the 
ball-shaped bot as an automated security guard.

"We knew it would have applications on Earth," says company CEO Nils 
Hulth. "It is very robust when compared to robots that use wheels or 
tracks and can travel through mud or even snow."

A short video <http://www.rotundus.se/rotundus_robot_in_snow_vcd.mpeg> 
(14.5MB mpeg) on the company's website demonstrates the robot's ability 
to navigate through snow.

It is propelled by a pendulum suspended from an axis inside the casing, 
controlled by a motor. Moving the pendulum forwards causes the robot 
roll along, but the pendulum can also swing from side to side, giving 
the robot the ability to steer left and right. An animation 
<http://rotundus.se/animation.mpg> also available on the Rotundus 
website illustrates the locomotion mechanism in action.


         Patrol route

The finished version of the robot will follow a patrol route using an 
internal GPS sensor, Hulth says. Wide angle cameras fitted to the sides 
of the robot should allow it to record and transmit video footage back 
to a controller. And the next version will also have enough power to 
propel itself up slopes, he says.

Ultimately, the company hopes to make the robot virtually autonomous. It 
is currently developing a radar sensor to allow it to navigate around 
obstacles and motion-sensing software to automatically detect an 
intruder. "It will sound the alarm, allowing a remote controller to take 
over and get even better pictures," Hulth says.

Tony Hirst, a roboticist with the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, 
told *New Scientist* the robot's spherical design could make it more 
nimble than other robots in certain situations. It would be less prone 
to getting stuck in corner, for example. Hirst also notes that some US 
companies already offer indoor security robots that can autonomously 
patrol a factory floor.

Hulth concedes that the robot is not well suited to navigating inside a 
building, where it would face steps, stairs and other obstacles.


         Scrambling legs

Other robots being developed could be much better suited to indoor 
tasks, however. For example, researchers at Case Western University in 
Cleveland, US, are working on insect-inspired bots that can overcome 
irregular surfaces and steps.

These robots use a combination of wheels and legs to scramble over 
terrain and are therefore dubbed "whegs". A video 
<http://biorobots.cwru.edu/Projects/whegs/ICRAminiwhegs_web.mpg> (35MB 
mpeg) of various whegs in action reveals a form of locomotion akin to 
that of a large insect.

"Three spoked appendages, called wheel-legs, combine the speed and 
simplicity of wheels with the high mobility of legs," the researchers 
write on the project's website. "The robot can surmount obstacles 
significantly greater than the radius of the wheel-legs - a difficult 
feat for wheeled vehicles."

The latest Mini Whegs have also been given a mechanism that allows them 
to leap up a small step, as another video 
<http://biorobots.cwru.edu/Projects/whegs/jumpingminiwhegs.mov> (0.7MB 
mov) made by the team shows.


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