Professor Ralph Hollis from Carnegie Mellon University was invited by Professor Liz Hsiao-Wecksler as the seminar speaker to share his insights and research on Ballbots during the weekly MechSE Seminar on September 13th at 4 pm in 4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building. Professor Ralph Hollis received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Kansas State University, Manhattan, in 1964 and 1965, and the Ph.D. degree in solid state physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1975. He is also considered the father of Ballbots, which inspired our work on developing PURE wheelchair project. During his talk, he overviewed the development and principles of the Ballbots and its application in the everyday human environment in conjunction with navigation through LIDAR and visual localization. He also introduced a novel closed-loop spherical motor used for a mobile robot that has only a body and a ball and a new ballot ‘SHmoobot’, which is promising for research in motion planning, control and human-robot interaction.

He also visited HDCL during his stay in Illinois, and our lab members gave hin a walk in the HDCL and shared our progress on the PURE wheelchair project.