BB-Gr8

How we made BB-8

This BB-8 robot design integrates mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software components to create a fully navigatable spherical robot. This robot can be controlled via a virtual joystick, and commands are sent from the joystick to the robot in real time for navigating in 2D.

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Electrical

An Arduino controls all of the electrical components on BB-8. The Arduino is connected to various other components,...

Mechanical

The main mechanical function of our BB-8 was to get a small robot to drive within a sphere. We built a bottom heavy...

Software

The software, written in Python, creates a clean interface for sending commands to BB-8, converting a joystick input to...

Firmware

The Arduino’s firmware is all written in Arduino C and allows BB-8 to receive commands from a laptop and output...

Low Cost

This project could be replicated with a $250 budget, as our team was resourceful in its use of materials to create an...

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Our Team

We are a team of 5 engineers at Olin College who set out to create BB-8 as part of the Principles of Integrated Engineering class.

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