Watch This Freaky Gyro Cube Balance Perfectly, Defying Gravity

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All Google wants for Christmas is a bunch of scary ass robots. Clearly, the big ticket items under the tree are Big Dog and the rest of the Boston Dynamics nightmare menagerie. But if Larry and Sergey are still looking for a stocking stuffer, this freaky balancing cube might be just the thing.

Cubli, a project out of the Dynamic Systems and Control lab at the Swiss engineering school ETH Zurich, is a 6 inch by 6 inch metal block that employs three spinning wheels to perform a variety of tricks. Its creators humbly tout its ability to “walk,” using angular momentum to flip itself from face to face. This feat was kinda cute when MIT’s diminutive M-Blocks were doing it. Here it’s a little more unsettling.



Even more unsettling, though (and more impressive), are Cubli’s preternatural powers of balance. “Once the Cubli has almost reached the corner stand up position, controlled motor torques are applied to make it balance on its corner,” we’re told. You can change the angle of the surface it’s on, give the balancing wonder a gentle push to the side, or send it spinning like a top, and still, the devil cube retains its balletic poise.

The stabilization comes courtesy of the precise choreography of the internal spinning wheels–a system the researchers point out is similar to the one that keeps satellites oriented in space. Now, the team says they’re developing algorithms that allow Cubli to “automatically learn” and respond dynamically to changes in inertia, weight, or its surface. Presumably after that comes the algorithm that lets it tumble out of its lab in Zurich and lurch into your bedroom at night.

I don't think vector compensation is exactly defying gravity but gyroscopes are neat and this thing is totally bitchin.

"self-assembling robots" that sounds scary

Gravity defying ... no
Incredibly cool ... yes
Budget defying ... yes ... sadly

reply to post by OccamsRazor04

Gravity defying ... no

Welllllllll...............kinda? It didn't fall over!!

reply to post by Phage


I want one!!! Just to poke every now and then to get my kicks!

Phage
I don't think vector compensation is exactly defying gravity but gyroscopes are neat and this thing is totally bitchin.

This might seem neat, but when you think about it, it's pretty stupid.

Why bother having a cube balance on its corners or edges, stopping and starting to flip itself from one edge to another, 'as a means of locomotion', when all that's required is to dispense with the edge flipping and the rest of it, and build the thing into a sphere instead.

A sphere will move in a fluid and smooth way, has the benefit of using gained momentum and rolling to conserve energy and cover greater distances much faster...a cube, however neat looking it is, wont.

Building this into a sphere directly or inserting this cube into a spherical shell, would make much more sense if efficient movement is the goal.

CaptainBeno
reply to post by OccamsRazor04

 

Gravity defying ... no

Welllllllll...............kinda? It didn't fall over!!

It also didn't float. It balanced itself. It used gravity to stay upright.

MysterX

Phage
I don't think vector compensation is exactly defying gravity but gyroscopes are neat and this thing is totally bitchin.

This might seem neat, but when you think about it, it's pretty stupid.

Why bother having a cube balance on its corners or edges, stopping and starting to flip itself from one edge to another, 'as a means of locomotion', when all that's required is to dispense with the edge flipping and the rest of it, and build the thing into a sphere instead.

A sphere will move in a fluid and smooth way, has the benefit of using gained momentum and rolling to conserve energy and cover greater distances much faster...a cube, however neat looking it is, wont.

Building this into a sphere directly or inserting this cube into a spherical shell, would make much more sense if efficient movement is the goal.

It's a neat gadget to get people to part with their money...not a power generator. A ball with some sand in it would achieve pretty much the same thing...but that would be boring.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Pretty hard to remotely steer a ball of sand and get it to do any useful tasks though isn't it.



Adding a spherical shell to this gyro combo, would effectively transform it into a controllable, or autonomous rolling robot.

Using two or three of such spheres to the underside of a larger body, acting in concert, would do the actions of feet or wheels and move the larger body efficiently.

A ball of sand wont do that anymore than a cube will either.

AAAAhhhhhh, suddenly it all becomes clear.

The ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM has nothing to do with astronomy its a FREAKY GYRO CUBE..built by a bored Greek seamen some 2000 years ago..

reply to post by CaptainBeno


This sort of thing will be a novelty today and make the rounds with a few videos like this, then disappear from the limelight.

and in 30 years when something useful is made with it, people will proclaim "ALIENS!!! HOW ELSE!" and then "you know, if they have this now, imagine what they had 30 years ago in the military!!11"

I do like it. I can't really see a purpose for it, but there is one. Like a sculpture inside a boulder, waiting to be extracted, the uses for this sort of thing is waiting to be found.

or not...

winofiend
reply to post by CaptainBeno

 

I do like it. I can't really see a purpose for it, but there is one. Like a sculpture inside a boulder, waiting to be extracted, the uses for this sort of thing is waiting to be found.

or not...

It's purpose is near instaneous corrections to stay "upright". Skip to 30 seconds in especially if you choose.

MysterX

Phage
I don't think vector compensation is exactly defying gravity but gyroscopes are neat and this thing is totally bitchin.

This might seem neat, but when you think about it, it's pretty stupid.

Why bother having a cube balance on its corners or edges, stopping and starting to flip itself from one edge to another, 'as a means of locomotion', when all that's required is to dispense with the edge flipping and the rest of it, and build the thing into a sphere instead.

Because it looks like the purpose of this is for use in Cubesats aka Phonesats?

Some high school kids made one that's in orbit right now.



These things are a standard shape and size for a reason.

There is a plan to make mini space telescopes which would just look at one star each with them.

Note the "reaction wheels" in the diagram below and re-read the OP.



Precision pointing is important in astronomy and gyros are used on space telescopes.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04


I'm not so sure anthropomorphic robots are the best design to choose when building or designing them.

Unless we assume Humans are the best design, most efficient there is in nature of course...but i'm not so sure we are.

Do robots work better with only two legs and arms?

There must be a reason other than the vanity of copying the Human shape to build robots that look like us that goes beyond or ignores limitations with the design.

reply to post by JadeStar


Incorrect. The technology is similar, but this is not for use in space. They are developing the technology used in sats to be used for differet purposes here on Earth.

Phage
I don't think vector compensation is exactly defying gravity but gyroscopes are neat and this thing is totally bitchin.

I wouldn't be to sure about that phage, you know what they say in Science expect the unexpected

reply to post by JadeStar


Thanks.

Interesting that schoolkids are building these small cubesats.

Perhaps this is the smarter way to go when we're talking about space exploration and observations..many small scopes, reporting what they image to one or more larger satellites that in turn relay the data back to Earth.

I'd imagine a few hundred of these sized scopes (or rolling rover type planetary probes) working in concert and relaying their fairly short range comms in a daisy-chain method until the larger satellites can recieve it would be a cheaper and more effective option than one or two large telescopes or rovers.

Sounds like I've heard of this invention already. Isn't it called the wheel ?

reply to post by CaptainBeno


It's things like this I come to ATS for. Look at that go. Now for the real-world (or off-world) applications.