The Cubli: a cube that can jump up, balance, and 'walk'

the cube Lee takes its name from a combination of the English word cube and the Swiss German diminutive Li indicating something of small size with a side length of 15 centimeters it mainly consists of three reaction wheels each attached to a brushless DC motor motor controllers inertial sensors and embedded processor and batteries inertial sensor measurements are fused to get an estimate of the tilt and angular velocity of the cube Lee and the Hall sensors provide the angular velocity of the reaction wheels based on these estimates a nonlinear controller is used to balance the cube Li on its corner while the angular velocity of the reaction wheels is kept close to zero although this method of using reaction torques is similar to the one that is used to stabilize satellites in space due to gravity the algorithms used here are very different with this setup the raqudie can robustly balance around its corner while rejecting disturbances rotate while balancing and balance on its edge in addition the momentum wheels can rotate at very high angular velocities and build up sufficient angular momentum a rapid braking of the wheel allows it to transfer the angular momentum to the cube lease body this allows the cube Li to jump up from a resting position to a balancing position without external support balancing on a corner is achieved through two subsequent jump up maneuvers the first maneuver raises a cube Li from one of its faces so that a balance is along one of its edges on the second raises it from its edge to one of its corners in addition to balancing the motor torque can be used to achieve a controlled fall such that the QP can be commanded to fall in a specific direction combining these three abilities jumping up balancing and controlled falling allows the QB to walk across a surface some researchers hope to use this method of locomotion for planetary exploration while others are using it for self assembling robots but for us it is just a cool little cube I can jump up balance and walk

Channel: Gajamohan Mohanarajah

Views: 11,755,566

Rating: 4.9166803 out of 5

Keywords: 3D Inverted Pendulum, reaction wheels, Internal actuation, Control Theory (Field Of Study), Balancing Cube, You

Id: n_6p-1J551Y

Length: 2min 37sec (157 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/GrimResistance]

I wonder if this could be scaled down to fit inside a cube the size of, say, dice.

[u/Bigfoot_I]

https://youtu.be/qRNRu_Isw_k?t=5s

[u/_Throwgali_]

I once saw a Cube that could walk, jump, act and rap.

[u/floodcontrol]

Anyone read William Gibson's "the peripheral"? There's a weaponized version of this thing in that book.

[u/mynameisalso]

I'd like two that look like dice

[u/wthat]

"Self assembling robots"

[u/GenitalFurbies]

Cubli! This is a great example of nonlinear controls. They published a paper on it that I studied in college.

[u/keepitsalty]

Can you buy this?

[u/Truesday]

This is one of those harmless innocent videos of technology we'll look at in the future with despair and regret. This is what brings mankind to the brink of extinction...

BWONGGGGGGUGHHHHHHH!!!!!