A spherical robot, also known as spherical mobile robot, or ball-shaped robot is a mobile robot with spherical external shape.
A spherical robot is typically made of a spherical shell serving as the body of the robot and an internal driving unit (IDU) that enables the robot to move.
Spherical mobile robots typically move by rolling over surfaces. The rolling motion is commonly performed by changing the robot's center of mass, but there exist some other driving mechanisms.
In a wider sense, however, the term "spherical robot" may also be referred to a stationary robot with two rotary joints and one prismatic joint which forms a spherical coordinate system.
A pendulum-driven spherical mobile robot. (The white arrow is used to determine the position and orientation of the robot via a vision-based algorithm.)
Sphero, Inc. is an American consumer robotics and toy company based in Boulder, Colorado.
An Ollie Darkside with turbo tires on.