Juggling robot facts for kids
A juggling robot is a special kind of robot built to juggle! These amazing machines can perform different types of juggling, like bouncing balls or throwing them in the air. Scientists and engineers create juggling robots to learn more about how humans move, how juggling works, and to make robots even smarter.
Some juggling robots use special sensors to guide their arms and hands. Others use clever physical designs, like tracks or funnels, to help guide the objects they're juggling. It's important to remember that true juggling means using more objects than you have hands. So, some robots that are called "juggling robots" might not be doing "true" juggling by that definition, but they are still very impressive!
Robots That Bounce Juggle
Bounce juggling is when you keep objects in the air by bouncing them off a surface, like the ground or a table. Robots have become quite good at this!
In the early 1990s, a scientist named Claude Shannon built a robot that could bounce-juggle three balls. It was a big step forward! Later, Christopher G. Atkeson and Stefan K. Schaal from the Georgia Institute of Technology built a similar robot that could bounce-juggle five balls. This robot was even decorated and named after a famous juggler, W. C. Fields! Shannon's machine used special grooved (meaning it had channels or tracks) cups instead of sensors to guide the balls. Shannon also came up with a "juggling theorem," which is like a mathematical rule for juggling.
In 1989, Martin Bühler and Daniel E. Koditschek created a different kind of juggler. It had one spinning bar that moved back and forth. This bar could bounce two objects in a continuous "fountain" pattern, keeping them going for a very long time!
Robots That Toss Juggle
Toss juggling is probably what you usually think of when you hear "juggling"—throwing objects into the air and catching them. Robots are learning to do this too!
In the early 1990s, researchers like Sakaguchi and Miyazaki built robots with one arm that could toss-juggle two balls in a "fountain" pattern. Their robot had a hand shaped like a funnel to help catch the balls. More recently, in 2012, Kizaki and Namiki developed a robot with fingers that could do the same thing.
By 2011, students at the Czech Technical University in Prague built an amazing robot that could toss-juggle five balls in a "cascade" pattern. This robot's arms could move both up and down, and side to side. Its hands were shaped like rings, and it even had a basket to help it start juggling and to catch any balls that were dropped!
Disney Research is also working on a robot that can do "pass juggling." This is when two or more jugglers throw objects to each other. Disney's goal is to create robots that can interact more physically with visitors, making the experience even more fun and realistic!
Robots That Contact Juggle
Contact juggling is a unique style where the juggler keeps objects in constant contact with their body, rolling them around without throwing them into the air. It's less common to see robots doing contact juggling, just like it's less common for people compared to toss juggling.
However, in 2010, students at Northwestern University developed a robot that could contact juggle. This robot could roll a special grooved disk from the center, over the edge, and back to the center of the other side of a figure-eight shaped track. The track itself could also rotate, adding to the challenge!
