A human-size robot balancing on a ball that acts as a spherical wheel can push wheelchairs as smoothly as a human assistant 鈥� and may carry out this caregiving task better than many humanoid robot helpers that walk on two legs.
The so-called ballbot was by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania in 2004. In its latest form, it has the capability to manoeuvre a wheelchair indoors with minimal bumpiness for the wheelchair user. As such, it shows how robots could someday help some of the many people who may require a wheelchair 鈥� which might include about according to the WHO.
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鈥淚t has smooth motions that are energy efficient, and the fact that it can balance allows it to exert more force to push a heavy system and manoeuvre [with] more agility,鈥� says at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dai and his colleagues developed control software that enables the robot to maintain its ball-balancing act while its arms help to automatically adjust the force required to move around a wheelchair and wheelchair user with a combined weight of up to 79 kilograms.
Their testing also showed how the ballbot can automatically move to an assigned location at speeds of about half a metre per second 鈥� all while avoiding obstacles such as 鈥渨et floor鈥� signs and large boxes, as long as it has already been programmed with information about the location of those obstacles.
In the future, the researchers think they could produce a version of the ballbot that automatically senses and avoids potential collisions. But even in its current form, the robot adapt its movements to dampen the effects of small collisions while using its arms to steady the wheelchair, says team member , also at Carnegie Mellon University.
The ballbot鈥檚 compact base makes it more practical than other robotic assistants. Some wheelchair users could benefit from such technology, says at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the study. But Bleakney and his colleagues have developed an alternative. Taking partial inspiration from the original ballbot design, they have created a wheelchair prototype that replaces the standard wheelchair wheels with a ballbot-like ball. The technology, , is controlled by small body movements, like a Segway, offering hands-free control.
The wheelchair prototype鈥檚 compact form factor is smaller than standard or powered wheelchair designs, says , also at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 鈥淥ur device seeks to increase independence for individuals who are daily wheelchair users and have mobility impairments,鈥� says Bleakney.
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