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.
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XROBOTS
Former toy designer, current RUclips maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.
XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available.