Testing Ball-Shaped Wheels on an Omni-Directional Robot

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This is part 2 of testing out omni-ball wheels. This time I've completed the robot chassis with radio control so we can give it a test on various surfaces and over various obstacles.
A few years ago, Goodyear produced a concept for a tyre, which was a ball. But are ball shaped wheels practical, and can we make a vehicle or robot with ball shapes omni-wheels? I found a video about research carried out at Osaka University, where an omni-ball wheel is made in two halves and seems to work well. But is there more to it?
Part1: • Are Ball Shaped Wheels...
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XROBOTS
Former toy designer, current KZbin maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.
XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available.

[@thyduck7542]

Wow you have a dish/floor washer combo.

[@mkb5170]

probably why he made this robot. he'll attach a mop to it lol

[@fsdfghwaihjfkdasjfka]

😁 Never put regular soap in dishwashers. Also dishwashers are not watertight.

[@Scott_C]

Ignore that fake James Bruton post, that's not him. Please report it as spam.

[@ingusmant]

Thats so dumb.......note to self: patent that

[@PolyStylized]

XD

[@DynoRC]

8:00 let's discuss our definitions about fine, JAMES

[@connorbailey308]

Maybe take a break from engineering robots and engineer a new gasket for that dish washer. lol

[@WLxMusic]

@@connorbailey308 or just use dishwasher soap, instead of regular detergent. Dishwasher soap doesn't foam up like that

[@BramLastname]

Eh mine uses a cable and buckle wrapped around it to stay closed And a wooden platform to align the door and frame.

[@georgplaz]

@@WLxMusic what? you are saying if I stop using shampoo, i won't have to mop the floor every day?

[@Nullzero98]

This guy does more projects in a month than I have done over my lifetime.

[@svenjaspers5668]

*have done=will do

[@AoashiXNaruto]

He has his passion as well as 💲💰💰💵

[@kristhetimetraveller3120]

Amazing what happens when KZbin gives you enough money to self-survive and you can just explore science

[@Stevenpwalsh]

He really does do an impressive amount. However I've also noticed that he seems to only finish about 80% of the project. In real life, the last 20 percent of the project takes 80% of the time. At 80% done, you have something that is mostly functional, and mostly there. Good enough for a video, not really good enough to ship.

[@JoshWansitler]

James, are you putting dish detergent for the sink in your dish washer? Made that mistake once

[@kwerk2011]

Is your dishwasher OK, James? We're all very concerned.

[@JohnDoe-cj6uk]

I don’t think it’s feeling well

[@karapuzo1]

“The cobbler's children are the worst shod.”

[@GameReality]

Yes. What is going on there !!!!!

[@GameReality]

@Robo Cop Humor you know.....

[@mufinman1987]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was concerned. I kept waiting for him to mention it but nothing so I came straight to the comments to check.

[@GunGryphon]

Ah, this will make a perfect office chair for an evil genius.

[@fematrailer]

Or a better electric wheelchair.

[@darkforcesjedi]

I was imagining it as a camera mount that would lock on to something and move freely while always focused on the subject.

[@darrenfalconer3267]

But my office chair can already move in any direction...

[@luc9367]

I was imagine too,.. This wheels for the caddie in mall😀

[@DanBowkley]

This is what the Hoveround wanted to be when it grew up.

[@DaveD_223]

It is amazing how chaotic the omni-directional wheels look when they are all in motion but the movement of the robot is so smooth.

[@chrispycryptic]

Definitely seems like it has some complicated kinetics in comparison to regular wheels...

[@jhunphillip123]

lmao "my dishwasher is fine thanks"

[@nicnic303p6]

Man builds robots for a living you’d think he’d know how to fix his dishwasher 😂😂

[@Stevenpwalsh]

It doesn't look fine

[@Scott_C]

He's just using the wrong soap. Real dishwasher soap doesn't foam. Real dishwasher soap is a type of acid that just dissolves the food. (so is clothes washing soap)

[@punkdigerati]

@@Scott_C uhh..pretty sure they're both alkaline. True though that he's using the wrong kind.

[@Scott_C]

@@punkdigerati You're probably right. I don't know enough.

[@Skyentific]

Only three symmetrical wheels, this is an incredibly great design!

[@zerakielvmark]

"What is my purpose?" "You carry my kitchen bin"

[@NateTDOM]

“Oh my god”

[@freedomhasacost6661]

Welcome to the club pal .

[@qbalsdon]

I think the dishwasher is jealous - look at it - it's DROOLING!

[@darkbright2100]

You mean frothing 😎

[@godzillaridergamer7595]

Atonomy of the comment section 90% talking about his floor- sorry, dish washer 10% genuine comments on the robot

[@justinberdell7517]

Last video I mentioned what an inspiration this channel has been for me. Since I think you liked it, more specifically, I had no clue it was possible to print so many large parts and fit them together into complex mechanisms. My imagination couldn't even conceive of it I guess. But after seeing your work, and starting working on exos at grad school, I've almost completed an entire wearable exo arm with an entirely new intended motion pickup system. That's actually what my thesis is. I would have almost certainly never had the confidence to do this without your videos. I'm genuinely grateful

[@Phoboskomboa]

The center of mass is a bit high. An improvement that would require a ground-up redesign would be to widen the vertical space between the two parallel beams between the wheels and put the motors there. Also, with a small cylindrical gap in the base between the wheels, there would be a great place to keep the electronics and batteries that would make it basically impossible to tip over.

[@Shoothebird]

Why did KZbin algorithm take so long to recommend me the robot master's channel? This is awesome.

[@sundjinnkari]

If you do design a robot body for this, might I suggest Rosie from "The Jetsons". That would be amazing to see.

[@reg2590]

I truly like this idea - drape it with a Rosie body.

[@roostertechchan]

He can borrow the head from this project kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnSraHVsr9qkd80

[@DavidPerez-mr5dw]

don't use dish soap in a dish washer, use dishwasher detergent, dish soap is meant for handwashing and creates a lot of foam.

[@ReplicateReality]

The only reason I know that is because I did it once

[@thomaslevy2119]

Looks like James ran out of dishwasher soap and tried using dish soap instead. He now has a bubble making machine!

[@pedrolmlkzk]

And fill up both cartiges

[@neizanmendez6317]

"my dishwasher is fine thanks" Your dishwasher is having a stroke and dying

[@charlesbarker9615]

Really impressive combination of mathematics, design, building and overall creativity. Well done!

[@Tarex_]

A stool with 3 feet never wobbles, but falls over in a hurry, the higher you build it i think acceleration and deceleration will need to be limited

[@squelchstuff]

I too noticed that it suffered from the trike instability when stopping. Five spokes/wheels as used on (better) office chairs would help, especially with a high CoG, and may even help with obstacle climbing by having more driven wheels in contact with the "flat" surface. Control is complicated somewhat however.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Gyroscope.

[@thebatman6201]

Wider base..

[@PiPArtemis]

or you have to make the base increasingly wider to compensate

[@Tarex_]

@@PiPArtemis i would go for 5, you have basically no edge to fall off because there's always a wheel in the way, they don't have to be as large as the three, there's a reason office chairs have 5 double wheels

[@LeiterDerAnstalt]

Would casting the outer part of the wheel out of silicone be a feasable solution for getting more traction? Or even just stretching an air balloon over the print? This whole "print more sections out of TPU" / "print with dual extruder" seems a bit to overcomplicated.

[@AltName7]

Might as well make use of the free material from the sponsor.

[@cptairwolf]

God forbid your home ever caught fire. Nobody would understand what they'd see when they walked into the mess of melted plastic 🤣

[@cavemaneca]

This is probably one of the best use cases for such a wheel, and it seems like it can excel at this task! What it loses in having a complex wheel design with many parts, it makes up for with it's simplicity in driving and it's overall capabilities in a home environment.

[@rorkijon]

Brilliant platform for developing a robot upper. But James, go fix your dishwasher!

[@dh2032]

I feel, in the force, the there with be a video about dishwasher/washing machine maintenance coming up soon! :-)

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

Dude, you literally invented a thing. I watch a lot of "maker" content creators but rarely do they actually invent a unique thing. Absolutely amazing mate

[@22Tech]

I really really love the way this robot looks when moving. So mesmerizing. Great video! That was really cool

[@georgeilling568]

omg what is going on with that dish washer ahahahaha Omni directional wheel platform seems like it has alot of promising future applications

[@wmlye1]

In university (25+ years ago) I spent an inordinate amount of time messing around with mobile robots. At several conferences, I saw a lot of RWI's robots, and was severely impressed. This robot platform reminds me more than a little bit of their robot base, but the team that developed those were larger than your one-man-band and the mechanics required to drive their wheels and achieve the non-holonomic drive like you are getting here were several orders of magnitude more complicated, and likely required a long time with a mill to create. Major respect.

[@birdpump]

Great vids James, love the fact you 3d print EVERYTHING

[@frozeneevee]

The wheels honestly look like something you would see in a sci-fi show/movie.

[@TheMeditron]

Very interesting and impressive as always James. You deserve so many more subs

[@rdyer8764]

I'm amazed how much you get done in one week! Great stuff.

[@somethingknew9152]

It is crazy to me that people can just 3d print actually useful parts now. I remember when people thought it wasn't gonna be useful.

[@MouseGoat]

Most people I know still dont think 3d print is useful ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And peope dont think space is useful, sometimes im just baffled by what people refuse to see value in

[@gusiguess]

This really reminds me of the way in which characters are moved in video games, particularly first person ones. the left joystick translates the character while the right controls pitch and yaw of the viewpoint. it would be interesting to see the robot controlled by only looking through a first person view. i imagine it would be very intuitive.

[@abelrashid5184]

They should use this for the trolley wheels in grocery stores.

[@ChrisCameronPhoto]

Just No. If you've ever used a luggage trolly at Heathrow you'll understand why this is a terrible idea. For some reason they have the only trollies I've ever come across with four swivelling wheels. Makes cornering way more difficult than it needs to be. I'm convinced this is done to entertain the security staff monitoring the cameras.

[@xenontesla122]

@@ChrisCameronPhoto I’ve seen similar carts at IKEA, they’re easy to push but hard to rotate. I wonder if a circular cart would work because rotation wouldn’t matter.🤔

[@AnimilesYT]

I think the 4 swivelling wheels they currently have are almost as good as these, and I'm pretty sure they're easier (and cheaper) to make. It would be really cool, but also very unnecessary :)

[@noahluppe]

@@ChrisCameronPhoto shopping carts here in Germany all have 4 swiveling wheels, hardware stores tend to have fixed wheels at the back for the bigger carts for heavy appliances and materials etc.

[@ChrisCameronPhoto]

@@noahluppe May be ok in your shopping centres, but when you're trying to negotiate heavy luggage around a hard u turn on a steep ramp at Heathrow and there's a security camera on the apex you get the feeling someone has got to be having a laugh.

[@MicRouSn7]

so glad youtube recommended the first episode of this two parter to me. consider me subscribed! good quality content.

[@Midiroms]

Amazing work. Im looking forward to part 3

[@georgemathieson6097]

"My dishwasher is fine thanks" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I love it!!!!

[@padmalayarawal3091]

Super awesome work 💯. SUGGESTION: Instead of the wheel at the end of ball wheel, a freely movable ball will work much better and it will hopefully remove the jerks in the travel of the bot.

[@liamtwentyman7275]

Aka a trackball?

[@dustinbrueggemann1875]

A captive ball might actually impair certain performance. The wheel only exists to cover the edge case of movement exactly along the axle. The wheel is indistinguishable from the rest of the solid surface of the ball in all other cases. If you replace the cap wheel with a captive ball, it could create slip in that part of the travel. I could maybe see a ball working better in an unpowered omniwheel, but that just begs the question of why not just use a captive ball the size of the omniwheel in the first place.

[@meateaw]

It needs to be a wheel, or when you use that ball for movement it will have two periods of zero traction. Remember the drive motor pushes the wheel and rolls along the ball, of it gets to a freewheeling ball then it will slip for the entire duration of that when it is trying to accelerate. The little captive wheels NEED to be wheels, and NEED to be oriented along the axel. It is fundamental to the design.

[@ShopperPlug]

This is really amazing. This robot can really be used for practical applications in automation. Nice work! I hope you build a simple robot like this which can run over curb sidewalks easily.

[@charliekahn4205]

I'd love to see this concept combined with the foot-wheel thing.

[@TheBaconWizard]

Be very cool to see this become an amazing wheelchair design for somebody...

[@mozkitolife5437]

8:05 If you say so, James. You're the engineer afterall 🤔😕

[@alechart462]

This works awesomely, man. I didn't expect such performance out of them while you were building, to be honest.

[@rocketmario9889]

I wonder how tread would work on omni-wheels. Tread on tires usually redirects water in the direction of the wheel rotation, but here there is no given direction of wheel rotation. This is not something I would have thought of without seeing this prototype driving over other objects. Awesome work James!

[@stc.martin822]

8:35 this is what it feels playing with tank controls.

[@gabrielclark1425]

What if, hear me out, you replaced the wheels with more balls?

[@luistroyparaiso5853]

Hmm... So let's say, tracks but with omni wheels?

[@luh2829]

😍😍This is soo amazing. Not just this vid. The whole channel. I am incredibly impressed by all of it.

[@Odinfang]

Ball shaped wheels would be an amazing experiment for a 3-4 wheeler. Their meant for tough terrain so making the wheels omnidirectional would probably be a huge benefit.

[@emberklavins9567]

Looks awesome! I remember looking into that same tech back when I was designing ball drives. Just thought you might find this project I did a while back pretty interesting, I solved a lot of the problems to do with making a drivetrain with actual solid spheres: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGGcga2ji9KtgNk

[@TheSaheasy]

OH, I remember that video vividly. Pretty much sent it to all of my FTC contacts. My favorite ball drive I’ve seen so far is this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3-sc52brap0b7M

[@emberklavins9567]

@@TheSaheasy oh wow that’s quite unique and cool, I’ve not seen that video before! I’m getting a lot of ball balancer vibes from it with the vertical configuration. That’s also by far the best minimally intrusive ball retention system I’ve seen. Thanks for sharing! My design with 4042 was loosely inspired by this one grabcad.com/library/basketball-riding-omnidirectional-robot-drivebase-1

[@TheSaheasy]

@@emberklavins9567 My love of ball drives were also founded by an FRC design. I found this randomly one day on chief Delphi: www.chiefdelphi.com/uploads/default/optimized/3X/0/4/0486456db177cce51fa73dd4fd18917606b57695_2_690x500.jpeg Not too sure on which post I found it on, as it was years ago.

[@PebelWasTaken]

I'd love to see more of this. It's fascinating.

[@McFoofinator4]

Great work, very interesting. Looking forward to more

[@annettemcgreevy1258]

probably the most consistent and creative youtubers out there, good luck

[@thesoupin8or673]

Amazing content! Really excited to see whatever comes next. It really moves incredibly well. Slap some treads on those bad boys, and you'll be all set!

[@snapslakn180x]

love this design its so simple and beautiful

[@sannyassi73]

The math for this is impressive. I've done some similar stuff creating game AI/telling objects where to point/move in 3d space- confusing stuff. Nice work!

[@lugaidster]

Amazing work as usual. Congrats!!

[@_Piers_]

That really does move wonderfully James!

[@davidmattey3065]

This is really cool, James!

[@charlesbarker9615]

So happy I stayed up late enough to be here for the new vid!

[@starblaiz1986]

James @ 10:30 : *Taps the platform* USB Cable: "I ATTAC!" James: *Does not affraids*

[@Magister0817]

Amazing James. Congratulations.

[@Anyone700]

In the veritable sea of youtubers with poor ideas, you channel is a shining beacon of really cool, functional, content!

[@Atlasace]

Amazing! Maybe you could replace those white treds with slanted roller contacts also. Making a "Split sphere Mecanum Wheel" or perhaps an omni wheel design with 3d printed linear TPU barrels. It would reduce a lot of friction and would love to see the batteries using less.

[@TerrellMethvin]

Really amazing, thanks for working so hard to give us ideas and understanding. :):)

[@jamesblake1662]

absolutely smashed this design!

[@artistickhosa4257]

it was my 3 year old project when I got idea from the same good year video but couldn't worked out. But watching it now working and runing like that made me feel happy 😍😍.

[@CorporateZombi]

"Good all-rounder!" Love it!

[@icedragonaftermath]

I would love to see this in a game of some kind. Absolutely lovely.

[@EnderGrimm]

This could make an excellent remote controlled camera mount as it can move in any direction and keep the camera in the correct orientation

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Seems like it might benefit from some kind of differential, suspension and/or gyroscope. 1. Differential do that the wheels can go at different speeds. 2. Suspension to help the robot handle rough terrain. 3. Gyroscope to help prevent the robot from falling over. Also, I think the robot should have a full 6-axis IMU, plus a 3D compass. This way it can more easily self-correct its own movement when something is just slightly miscalibrated.

[@bknesheim]

This was really the best robot part so far. It could really be a practical design with very little change in form, just better materials needed.

[@nathanpiantanida399]

Good work James

[@sasibala8818]

Great work 🔥🔥🔥

[@polyglot84]

I can dig this. Very impressive!

[@zanchesdelamancha]

11:00 the ball joint design would be perfect to eliminate the gap, and also placing and spacing the actuators inside the joint for better and more precise control, and increased traction/torque. A reverse trick that's been in use on computer mouses and trackballs.

[@electronic7979]

Excellent project

[@ReymerzZ]

Just wow sir. That's amazing

[@RND_ADV_X]

A garbage can that follows you is such a great idea for people with big work areas. I half expect you to upscale this and making yourself a rolling throne 😁

[@jamesfrazer4]

That worked better than I thought 😆 nice 1

[@cosmicrider5898]

I love where you are going with this. I invented a way to drive the spherical wheel without interference in engineering class and have had it on the backburner ever since. This was actually before goodyears tire design came out but theirs inspired me to keep innovating my design .I wish to invest in a 3d printer so i can test my hypothesis .

[@user-bf7ir6bk1s]

That looks incredible...

[@wtechboy18]

In addition to replacing the round shaft with a flat plate, you could probably actually widen the gap and put TPU "brushes" lining the edges so that they can spread around the axle as the wheel rolls but also provide decent support and traction in the other axes when the wheel is rolling.

[@captainretro373]

Him: engineer talk Me: “why yes sir I 100% definitely understand everything that you just said, mmmhmm”

[@sddiymakeitworthit7512]

Your creation is another level nothing to say 👍

[@hariprasadjoshi7066]

Genius level video !!!😍

[@dave-j-k]

I think your dishwasher soap dispenser bot has freaked out ;)

[@Alphoric]

That’s honestly so cool

[@williamh1546]

I am on a robotics team and we made a very similar ball drive. To make the ball drive be able to climb over obstacles we printed hemispheres out of flexible filament. I would love to see a version of the ball drive with squishy wheels made by some one with as much expirence as you.

[@AnimilesYT]

For a low speed omnidirectional robot I can see this working really well. But for a car I'm a little sceptical to be honest. Because it is a ball it has a contact area which will probably be terrible for breaking performance. I'm also concerned about the rotation speed (and efficiency) when the wheel is rotating almost on the tips. Also, if a car drives at 100km/h and it rolls towards the tip it will pick up a lot of speed, but then it rolls over the little wheel at the tip and when it rolls even further it has to suddenly rotate in the other direction at its fastest speed. I think this will cause a lot of wear and possibly even accidents. But as I said, for low speed omnidirectional robots these wheels may be perfect :D

[@vexicongaming9144]

I was bored and watched the first video got hooked and just subbed because this vid was cool lol that washer machine

[@samhashemiasl1084]

Keep up the good work

[@glitchedkoala8494]

I think that the gap between the two hemispheres could be removed completely by using three sphere caps instead of two hemispheres and, consequently, a triangle shaped beam going through the center with three branching beams going through the sphere caps and a little wheel on the end of each of them. Geometrically the three caps can be constructed by cutting from a sphere a prism that goes through the center of the sphere and has a regular triangle base which can be inscribed in the circumference of the sphere. The main trasmission mechanism would stay the same, with the pulley acting on the base of the center beam, but there would be an extra rotating part and another wheel in the middle of it, which, as it turned out from your prototype, is acceptable. The nice thing is that the sideways rotation would go along a (ideally) perfect circumference, without any (big) gaps. if you don't understand, sorry for my bad english

[@iiyaman69]

Awesome, Great Job

[@krishamsub.subedichhetri5895]

This is some good stuff!

[@rhadiem]

Sweet project. Looks like you could lower the center of gravity too. Love the innovation.

[@jackenboot]

This is sooo cool!!!

[@AgnesRonan]

8:00 aww it's like he's running around freaking out because he broke the dishwasher and he doesn't know what to do but knows he's gonna get in trouble.

[@kinomora-gaming]

please never change the part in your outro with the dancing robot- it goes so well with the music that it just wouldn't feel the same

[@The-Man-On-The-Mountain]

The dishwasher: "bro is only a leak, I only need a piece of rubber with some glue". Him: "shut up. No time for that".

[@R_o_o_k_i_n_g_t_o_n]

OHHHH I LIKE THE WAY YOU WENT WITH THE AXLE WHEELS!!! i had the idea i suggested on your last omni wheel ball vid that perhaps you could take the same concept as anolog mouse trackin sensors of a ball that you than put into a divit that is a bit more than a half circle with room for the ball to rotate so it cant be pushed out but allows easy rotaion in all directions although the way you went is intresting too of from the little sinppet at the begining im guessing that its a normal wheel but its mount allows it to spin in a 360 degree circle and the premise is when it gets on the axle side the flat of the whell will allow it straighen to the direction it needs to to move