Search and Reconnaissance using Spherical Robots

Prof. Leena Vacchani

Spherical robot has a ball shaped outer body that houses entire electronics inside it. The robot be controlled in autonomous and manual modes. The camera mounted on the robot provides visual feedback which is then transmitted to the operator thereby enabling better control of the robot’s movement. Theinexpensive and throwable robot can be used for autonomous applications such as indoor mapping, detection of sound and fire sources, etc. The current prototypes have the facility to view 360 panorama in real time. Prototypes in two sizes (1. football size and 2. palm size ) have been fabricated and tested.

The tele-operated robot may be deployed at hazardous, difficult and enemy intruded areas and controlled from a safe region. The structure of the spherical robot has many advantages over conventional mobile vehicles or humanoids. The ball shape of a spherical robot enables rolling in any direction on planar surfaces. Sensors and other electronics are completely inside the shell. It is robust to the collisions and can manoeuvre in any direction. The camera mounted on the robot provides a real- time panoramic 360 visual feedback that provides awareness to the situation. The visual feedback transmitted to the operator also enables him/her to control

the robot’s movement. A manually operated spherical robot has been designed that provides visual feedback for reconnaissance and search. The design of the robot can be easily modified to add sensors for collecting application specific information to the operator.

Specifications Football-size Palm-size Throwable Spherical Robot
Diameter
20 cm
10 cm
10.5 cm
50cm/sec
20 cm/sec
20 cm/sec
20 cm/sec
Endurance
1 Hour
40 mins
1Hr
Pendulum weight
200 gms
50 gms
50cm/sec
Vision
Monocular camera


H-FoV 62.2 degree

V-FoV 48.8 degree
Fish-eye camera 200-degree


FoV
Vision 2MP Camera
Processing board
Rpi Zero W which has 1GHz


single-core ARMv6 CPU

Broadcom (BCM2835)
Rpi Zero W which has 1GHz single-core


ARMv6 CPU Broadcom (BCM2835
Rpi Zero W which has 1GHz single-core


ARMv6 CPU Broadcom (BCM2835
Orientation sensors
Present
Present
Present
Wifi communication


with Android App
Broadcom BCM43438, the processor


board also supports 2.4GHz 802.11n

wireless LAN, Bluetooth Low Energy,

and Bluetooth 4.1 Classic.
Broadcom BCM43438, the processor


board also supports 2.4GHz 802.11n

wireless LAN, Bluetooth Low Energy,

and Bluetooth 4.1 Classic.
one to one wifi connection for receiver and transmitter using wifi adapter