Are Ball Shaped Wheels Practical?

The original concept for this wheel was based on a project from Osaka University. The wheel is an omni directional wheel, normally these have smaller wheels around the circumference of a bigger wheel, and I’ve done quite a few omni-wheel projects in my channel. In this case though, it’s a ball. The wheel is split into two hemispheres which can rotate freely and independently, this allows the wheel to be driven actively in one axis and passively in the other. There’s only one small issue though, which is what happens with the active axis is driven so the peak of the hemisphere touches the ground, because the hemisphere can no longer rotate. For that reason, there’s a little wheel in the top of the hemispheres. This does limit ground clearance when the wheel is in this position, but this is no worse than a standard omni wheel with little wheels around its circumference. The probability of driving on the little wheel for any length of time is also pretty small, so we’ll live with that part of the design for now.