Sphero

A white ball with a logo on it like a blue circle with two eyes next to a smartphone displaying controls.
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
Features
What is Sphero? Video: Orbotix

More videos

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Did you know?

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

Four balls in a row glow yellow, blue, green and pink. Each has a logo on it like a blue circle with two eyes.
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
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