This robot is able to balance a ball on its flat surface. The designer, Johan Link, is an 18-year-old Swiss maker, self-taught on electronics and programming. "When I started learning how to use OpenCV, I wanted to put my knowledge into practice, that’s how I started this project," says Johan.
"Three servo motors are used to tilt the plate to compensate the motions of the ball. A USB camera is perched above the platform, and a Python program analyses the images to detect the ball position, then the computer controls the servos via a custom PCB inside the robot."
"I quickly realised that I was not the only one who had the idea of this kind of robot, that’s why I wanted to stand out by making a robot as elegant as possible."
The build instructions are available at: www.instructables.com/id/Ball-Balancing-PID-System/
