Watch This Strange Robot Beachball Try To Figure Out Its Own Existence

April 10, 2012, 12:40pm

That’s my impression, anyway, while watching this vaguely grotesque robot-thing scuttle-slash-roll around on the floor — that it’s trying to figure itself out, like a less-slimey newborn animal. Said newborn creature here is called the MorpHex and it’s an entry into the 2012 Boca Bearings Innovation Competition. There’s a Q&A on its entry page that explains a little, courtesy of its designer/father Kåre halvorsen. You can also vote for it to win if you think it’s worthy of victory in the 2012 Boca Bearings Innovation Competition.

Does your project help to solve a problem? If so what problem?

MorpHex demonstrate the challenge of transformation in real world. In almost every science fiction movie computer graphics are used to animate transforming robots. This project solves this problem for real!

What makes your idea unique?

A robot that is able to walk with legs and transform into a perfect sphere shape and roll like a ball is very unique. There has been made a lot of walking robots and remotely operated balls but not a robot that combines these two features (as far as I know).