Steerable Bowling Ball Is A Cheesy Spherical Robot
A remote-control steerable bowling ball does too count as a spherical robot; a cheesy one, but a spherical robot none the less. Smell the smoke, polyester and naugahyde in the following video:
(Remote-control steerable bowling ball video)
The 900Global RC bowling ball is NiMH powered for environmentally friendly remote-controlled bowling. The manufacturer recommends using a ramp to get the ball going (like some handicapped bowlers use), owing to the difficulty in throwing the ball using the standard finger holes and then grabbing the remote to take control of the ball.
Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...' - Frederik Poh, 1954.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.