Spherical mobile robots have applications in surveillance, environmental monitoring, patrol, underwater and planetary exploration, rehabilitation, child-development, and entertainment. Spherical robots can be used as amphibious robots viable on land as well as on (or under) water.
The most common drive mechanisms of the spherical robots operate by changing the robot's center of mass. Other driving mechanisms make use of: (1) conservation of angular velocity
by flywheels, (2) environment's wind, (3) distorting the spherical shell, and (4) gyroscopic effect.
Commercial spherical robots are available for sale to the public. Some current commercial products are GroundBot, Roball, and QueBall, as well as Sphero's BB-8, based on the droid character of the same name introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Samsung Ballie is a Spherical Rolling tennis Ball look alike personal robot which was introduced in Samsung CES2020. Sajid Sadi VP of the research team at Samsung is quoted saying that "Ballie’s ability to move around enables it to respond to a person wherever they are. Parents could ask Ballie to check up on kids to make sure they’ve completed their homework, for instance, or monitor the types of television shows and movies they’re watching."
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