Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/12/a-cube-balancing-on-one-corner.html
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So (gormless gnome asks) why all the electronics (“motherboard”) and linear control mechanisms and even three gyroscopic wheels when one constantly driven ‘stupid’ balance wheel might do? My theory is that it’s all in the dance: the cube can rotate on any point as well as just remain stable to compensate for changes in mass and side forces without precession …i think. Oh and there’s blinky lights besides. Quite beautiful construction in anycase!
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… for a humming top. Not for balancing across all three axisopodes and being able to move and correct for uneven loads and external forces.
Granted, this is very much like the reaction wheels on satellites, and boffins like at JPL have made small miracles happen with one reaction wheel left over after the others had failed.
Anyway, this is really, really neat!
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Almost as wonderful as an air fryer.
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I wonder if the cube could be designed with enough power to go from laying flat, to balancing on one edge, to balancing on its corner, just by ramping up the flywheels.
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As beautiful as this creation is, it has been outdone by this gorgeous word:
Seriously though, that’s some good-looking engineering.
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The Cubli can, by accelerating and hard braking.
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He makes it look so easy
He looks so clean
He moves like God’s
Immaculate machine
He makes me think about
All of these extra movements I make
And all of this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day
One-trick cube
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Steady on.
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