The invention relates generally to locomotion of spherical devices. In particular, the invention relates to spherical mobile platforms using tractor operation for propulsion and steering.
Propelling and steering a ball from inside constitutes a technical challenge that has motivated attention, and led to various innovations. One such effort involved conceptualizing spherical platforms designed for ferrying persons into hostile close-quarter areas for reconnaissance, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,350 called a spherical armored mobile platform (SAMP), and for remote-control infrared sensing, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,768,548 called a spherical infrared robotic vehicle (SIRV). These solutions involve lower and upper internal carriages equipped with wheels that rotate along an outer shell of the platform to induce vehicle translation along an external surface. Other autonomous robots with spherical shells have been developed, including self-propelled machines designed for locomotion along horizontal and uneven surfaces.
Also, currently deployed robotic reconnaissance vehicles are designed to patrol areas in which hostile response to military presence may be suspected but difficult to identify by location, such as sniper attacks from high windows in an urban setting. Such vehicles may be constrained by considerations of speed (e.g., external tracks), obstacle traversal (e.g., wheels) and/or maneuverability. In addition, the use of visual cameras may be of marginal utility for night-time or other conditions of low-visibility surveillance.