Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #02098



To: "Bruce Robinson" Bruce_Robinson@bc.sympatico.ca,
From: "Nigel Joyce" nigel.joyce@qr.com.au
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 11:12:19 +1000
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: The VoreBall


Thanks Bruce, unfortunately the one that hendrikson is referring to is a
different 1, it's called the voroball. I have seen the miniball before.
I have had some other ideas on the subject.
What if I set up something like the Magbots inside a clear sphere, but
instead of moving a set of wings, it moves the entire component mass towards
the side detecting the most light. The mass may be a bit heavy but I have
found 4 extremely strong and light magnets in a hard disk case. So if I set
the mass suspended in the centre of a sphere by springs, and then have 4
individual magbot circuits set up in a tetrahedron with the magnets mounted
on the outside of the sphere, the side with the strongest light would
"attract" the component mass towards the magnet, effectively rolling the
ball in that direction. The coils would have to be very strong as well.
But yet again, it is just an idea and I have no idea as to what is possible
and what is not yet.
Blue Skies
---Buzz---

> Nigel Joyce wrote:
> >
> > Do you know if there is any info on it on the net? if not can you tell
> > me anything about it?
> >
>
> I'm not sure if hendrickson was referring to this one or not. It's
> called a mini-ball and is essentially a transparent ball with a
> photovore inside it. Somehow the thing finds it's way to brighter areas,
> although the route is apparently pretty eratic. I came across this while
> perusing Solarbotics' product list: http://www.solarbotics.com/ (Sorry,
> I can only get the home page. Find his product list & it's about the
> sixth item down the page. There are a couple of links beside it that
> will take you to an article written by the guy who created the
> original).
>
> Personally I thought the polyhedron idea was interesting -- complex with
> lots of problems to overcome, but isn't overcoming problems what makes
> life exciting?
>
> Anyway, hope this is some use to you.
>
> Regards,
> Bruce


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