Strange RC sphere idea

[ScatterPlot]

OK, I am taking this from one post from another site to here so if its a little confusing I'm sorry. What if you had a big metal sphere. Inside, you have a pole going the diameter of it. On the ends, you would attach some multidirection wheels to it so it can move around inside of the sphere. In the middle would be a motor and a weight on a stick. When you wanted to move forward and backward, the motor would turn and the weight would swing to one side. When you wanted to change directions, the wheels (with attached motors) would maneuver the pole to a line running parallell to the floor plane, and perpendicular to the direction line you're going in. Then maybe some powerful magnets on solenoids would attach the bar securely to the wall of the sphere. Lastly the weight would do its stuff. It would require the use of both remote controls and another microcontroller to determine the position of the bar and where to put it, and to translate the signals from the receiver into moving the motors around, so you could drive it without much effort. If any opf you understand this or have any ideas, please post. Thanks
Bert

[rhetor22]

that would be cool but the axles and such would need to be very sophisticated. Take a look at the gyro and swash plate of a helicopter. That kind of crap needs to be implemented when screwing around with spinning stuff.

Spinning stuff is not your friend, don't let it fool you.

[nerobro]

this is kinda off topic.... But all you'd need is a small r/c car inside the sphere. if you wanted omnidirectional control, setup a small cart that sits on one ball, and drive that ball like a mouse drives it's sensor wheels.

the problem is having the device have any idea what direction it's pointing it. the spehere is free to rotate about it's axis, and unless the inside knows what direction is outside, it won't be able to maintain direction.

[Vegeta]

Is it just me or does this remid you of that Segway scooter thing?

The RC car would work- or somehting to shifts its wight from the center of the sphere to any outside portion, making it roll, yet requiring constant manipulation to the wieght to keep it going.

Think of a hamster in one of those clear plastic rollign balls.

Ahh i had a hamster once.... I let him roll around my house sometimes in one of those clear balls.. until one day I left the basment door open and he accidentally rolled down it...

Good times.. good times

[ScatterPlot]

I just wanted to up this post cause it was my first one. I was checking my old posts today... wow this is old.

[Crimson_Turkey]

I have one of those in my basement. The thing simply has 3 weights that go in different directions in it and a pair rotating universal joints. I put in in a soccer ball skin once and had lots of fun.

[tjmpaintball06]

they already have those... havent you seen the little weasel remote control things. they roll around on the floor and look like a racoon or weasel is chasing a ball. same thing, you could make it remote control easily by just adding a weight connected to an axle which in turn is rotated by the motor.

[ScatterPlot]

Making weaselballs remote controlled is what would be hard... much easier said than done.

[Magglerock]

The Sharper Image Store

Used to sell remote-control spheres about ten years ago. They already exist.

[J_Hoyt]

Sounds kinda cool but once you hit a hill of any size, you're pretty screwed.