MakerS as innovaTors Chapter 1 Have a Ball W ould you like to meet one of the most incredible robots available today On its own it doesn’t look like much more than a plastic ball But when you connect it to a smartphone or tablet it comes alive with light and movement This little ball is capable of sensing and responding to its own acceleration and direction It can react to collisions and falling It even knows the temperature Sphero is easy to program and control using a tablet computer 44
It is complex enough to challenge master programmers and simple enough to be a tool for elementary school students Meet Sphero the little ball that does it all Sphero is an app-controlled robotic ball It uses wireless Bluetooth signals to connect to apps on tab lets and smartphones and becomes a working part of the app There are dozens of Sphero apps Within them Sphero takes on many different roles Sphero can be driven around like a remote-controlled car used as the joystick for a game you are playing fol low a path you draw on your tablet or react to being grabbed as part of a multiplayer game At its most sophisticated Sphero can run a complex program you have coded yourself Sphero’s abilities will grow along with your programming skills and your imagination How It All Began Sphero was invented in 2010 and launched in 2011 by engineers Adam Wilson and Ian Bernstein The two men wanted to use their smartphones to control objects in the real world At first they used their phones like remote controls to turn on lights 5 Sphero
MakerS as innovaTors The Sphero Family Orbotix makes five different Sphero robots Be sure to choose the one that suits you best Sphero This is the basic Sphero robot The current model is Sphero 2 0 Sphero is programmable It also works with most Sphero apps that are available for iOS Android Chrome and Kindle SPRK and SPRK The SPRK and SPRK model Spheros are designed for school use They give students the chance to write computer programs and put them into action SPRK models have clear shells so you can see how everything inside works BB-8 This is a special Sphero designed to look and behave like the droid from the film Star Wars The Force Awakens BB-8 Sphero can respond to voices and has a strong personality Force Band This is a Star Wars themed wristband that allows the wearer to control connected robots with hand gestures Ollie This robot is made for racing Ollie is shaped like a tube with a tire on each end It can move at speeds up to 14 miles 22 5 kilometers per hour and start cars But they wanted to take on a bigger challenge and use the technology for something more fun Bernstein was a big fan of robotics He had been inventing robots since he was in middle school Wilson also liked to tinker and make stuff so inventing a robot was the perfect project Wilson and Bernstein attended a Techstars event in 2010 Techstars is a company made up of investors 6
who give promising new companies the funding and guidance they need to make their ideas a reality The two engineers made a big impression Techstars gave them everything they needed to get the ball rolling Sphero was introduced to the world in 2011 A student uses tablet controls to get Sphero rolling 7 Sphero
