Sphero

Drive Sphero with your smartphone. Photo: Orbotix

Sphero is a robotic ball that you control by touching and tilting your smartphone or tablet. You can drive the robot around, play tabletop games with it, or hold it to use it as a gaming controller.

Creator

Sphero

Year

2011

Country

United States 🇺🇸

Categories

Consumer

Features

Did you know?

President Obama drove a Sphero during a visit to Boulder, when he said, "Give me some space to drive my ball!"

Glowing Spheros. Photo: Orbotix

Three teenagers in the background control three white Sphero ball robots from devices. — Sphero racing! Photo: Orbotix

More Images

A smartphone with the Sphero app's controls for movement a a prism of color. — Drive your Sphero and change its color with a simple app. Photo: Orbotix

Hands hold an iPad which show a cartoonish yellow beaver standing up next to an orange construction cone. — This app turns your Sphero into a cupcake-eating beaver. Photo: Orbotix

Three piles of colorful jellybeans, each with a color matching Sphero mini on top, in green, blue, and pink. — Sphero mini vs. jellybeans. Photo: Orbotix

Specs

Overview: Cable-free induction charging cradle. Bluetooth with range of 15 m (50 ft). Compatible with iOS 4.0+ or greater or Android 2.2 or greater.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2011
Website: sphero.com
Width: 7.3 cm
Height: 7.3 cm
Length: 7.3 cm
Weight: 0.15 kg
Speed: 4 km/h
Sensors: Three-axis MEMS accelerometer and three-axis MEMS gyro.
Actuators: Two brushed DC motors with velocity feedback
Materials: POM plastic chassis with polycarbonate shell.
Compute: 72-MHz ARM Cortex-M3. Bluetooth coprocessor for wireless connectivity.
Software: Real-time architecture; custom bootloader for over-the-air firmware updates; full API and SDK for iOS and Android.
Power: Two lithium-polymer batteries, inductively recharged; 1 hour of operation.
Cost: $130