Star Wars VII Soccer Ball Droid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs

If you look at that quick shot at 1:09 where Boyega and Ridley are running rapidly towards the camera, with BB-8 in tow, it seems that there is definitely some CG going on with BB at this speed. I could be wrong but that's how it looks to me. Either way, I think that's a totally legitimate use of CGI. I'm so impressed by the prop, and if it takes a bit of CGI here and there for certain shots to make it happen, at least you can bet that the effects will be top notch.
 
Amazing. It takes a lot to impress me these days with modern practical effects but this put a huge smile on my face.
 
Edwardowan said:
it is. the head is remote controlled on the main ball portion. most likely there are magnets in a circumference that limit the range so the head doesn't roll off. word on the street is all tech info will be revealed after the film is released.
Click to expand...

I admittedly have not read the earlier pages of this thread, so it may have been proposed already, but I would expect instead of magnets it might be something more like a gyroscope inside the head that measure the head's rotation and angle from vertical, and then a control program that limits its position to stay under a certain angle (say 30 degrees off vertical?). That might be a more precise/reliable especially if the drive unit on the inside of the ball were to go past a "safe" angle for the head and cause it to fall off (I think you are saying the magnets would be attached to the drive unit inside the ball?)
 
Here's my guess as to how the practical prop works, after some spitballing from some friends. https://twitter.com/tankgrrl/status/588915585750302720
(updated link - added additional degree of motion to stalk)

We talked about ballbot too, but that high center of gravity on a sphere would be hell on the head. The head must be very light. Otherwise starts and stops would have mass/acceleration and a ton of angular momentum to overcome. Keep the weight and center-of-gravity low and it can move very fast without worry.
 
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JHVanOphem said:
If it is anything like existing ball bots, the ball is empty, all of it is driven by the head.

Wikipedia page
Click to expand...

This has been said before in this thread, but the thing with ballbots is they can never sit still. They always fidget to keep balance. They also don't allow for independent head/ball movement as smooth as we see.

Really its the fluidity of it thats mostnamazing.

They credit someone with "finding" the tech to make it work, so it has to be out there. And presumably terrestrial and declassified.
 
WOW! I stand corrected! I woulda' sworn that it was a manually operated puppet that they painted out the rods in post.
I guess Disney was willing to pony up the cash to make a really cool robot design function. I'm especially impressed with the head motion.
 
Awesome! But I still stand to my opiniok that the droid in the first trailer is cgi or at least enhanced. the head of the droid in the image on page 1 of this thread sits a lot higher than on the practical droid, for example.
 
Mara Jade's Father said:
Does anyone know if the BB-8 in the first trailer is practical, CGI. or a little of both? It is amazing piece of technology but I have a hard time believing the head can really bounce around like it did in the first trailer or even move that fast.
Click to expand...
I also doubt that this droid prop we saw from Celebration was the same as in the first teaser.

Kevin Smith had mentioned that he had seen a droid with rods. My (and others') theory is that this droid was built like a wheelbarrow with the ball as the wheel and the head on a stick on the other side of the ball. Such a prop could be rolled fast.
 
I would guess this is how it works (same principle)

http://hacknmod.com/hack/incredible-robot-balances-perfectly-on-a-ball/

Omniwheels inside the ball for movement and same under the Head, held with magnets.

Added a quick & dirty sketch:

Foto 17.04.15 12 06 20.jpg
 
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Has anyone been able to figure out BB8's hight yet? I can tell it's shorter then R2, but all the photos I have seen with them together has has R2 in 3 leg mode and the hight number I have four for R2 are in 2 leg, upright mode.
 
Okay, so after watching the newest trailer and the Nerdist podcast introducing the real prop BB-8 droid, it looks like there's a lot going on in that little ball.

I'm revising my original idea to include a 3-axis arm that can rotate and move in x and y directions but along the inside of the sphere which magnetically holds the head on the top. The head looks to have a webcam inside but I don't think there's any mechanics in there as it would make it too heavy to operate smoothly (like we see on the stage video).

Also, given the movement on the stage and his ease of start-stop it has to be assumed that there's a mega sphero inside to give that kind of motion and not an R/C car (wouldn't be able to turn or stop the same way). I should point out for those thinking that a large sphero wouldn't be able to move smoothly that putting a large weight in the very bottom of the ball (like a lead-acid battery hung between the wheels) would provide a lot of stability for the ball without an active gyro-accelerometer making it look twitchy.

This is back on my project table now but I need to resize all of my dimensions and find a good acrylic sphere for the bottom portion...

R2 is going to be jealous before this is over.:p
 
If you watch the video closely, you will see that sometimes the body rotates while it is standing in one place. You can see this at 1:05 and 1:36.

I think that that movement is most likely could be the opposite action of a two-wheeler RC car inside the wheel. With an omniwheel car inside, you would probably not get that effect because it would not have to turn to change direction. A swing-weight ball robot wouldn't be able to turn on the spot at all.
The head is most likely an omniwheel robot, though. Notice how fast the robot rotates its head - that would be all omniwheels rotating in the same direction.

Edit: You could spot glare on the wheels at 2:07. From where those are located, I would say that there are four omniwheels of which one is at the "front" of the head, under the eye.
 
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I wasn't going to get in to this conversation, mostly because I have no interest in building a BB-8. These are the thing I picked up from the celebration reveal.


  1. The head movement was totally separate from the body movement. which tells me that the head movement is on a completely separate controller possibly being manned by a second puppeteer.
  2. The Dome/Head/Hat-Holder has both rotational and movement in the X-Y Plane
  3. No mater where the head moved, a portion of the Dome/Head/Hat-Holder always covered the peak. For the sake of counter-weighting, the magnet in the ball is static and the movement controls are in the Dome/Head/Hat-Holder.
  4. The magnets that hold the Dome/Head/Hat-Holder could be as small as 1/2" diameter. But are probably closer to 1" diameter.
I'll leave the Ball motions to others... :ninja
 
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