Douglas Butler wrote:
>
> The few sketches I have seen don't show any large gyros (reaction
> wheels), just small sensing gyros.  I think the only hefty motors are
> the ones driving the traction wheels.
>
> Ginger would be a neat platform for building a home robot on.  But most
> home robot builders would rather start from closer to scratch.


Whoops!! Please forgive my ignorance. My knowledge
of the Ginger vehicle is limited to the few minutes
of fairly impressive looking footage I saw on the
TV news, showing it standing stable and being
"ridden" with no hands by tilting it etc.

Hmm. Now i'm even less impressed. Being an old
gyroscope enthusiast I assumed it had used a larger
flywheel to stand upright and gryoscopic precession
to convert tilt into forward motion.

So it's just two DC motors and a control system??
I wonder why was there no hunting when the machine
is standing unattended? Possibly the hunting was
too small or too high a freq to be visible in the
footage I saw. Surely that would take more energy
than an efficient gyroscope.

And what happens when you park it outside a shop
and the wind blows it??

I think maybe some innovative technology like the
"third wheel" or the "side-stand" would improve
this vehicle. <cheeky> ;o)

I wonder if anyone has built a one-wheeled robot
using a gyroscope or contra-rotating gyroscopes...
-Roman

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