If you are one of the millions eagerly anticipating the release of “Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” then you may have seen BB-8, a rolling robot that is set to make its first film appearance in the Star Wars® movie franchise. While robots have appeared in prior Star Wars movies, BB-8 is believed to be the first actually portrayed by a real remote-controlled robot, rather than by an actor or a puppet or by using special effects, such as CGI. You may ask, how is this possible? Well, the answer may lie – at least in part – in a patent identified by several Star Wars super fans from Spain. BB-8 is described as an astromech droid. It has a ball-shaped body with a free-moving domed head that does not fall off the body but actually lets the ball-shaped body move freely below it. The ball-shaped body of BB-8 appears to be formed in a manner similar to the Sphero® ball, a self-contained robot that can run in any direction developed by Sphero (previously known as Orbotix), one of ten start-up companies funded by Disney’s first technology accelerator program in 2014. The story goes that the Sphero staff had a private meeting with Disney CEO Bob Iger, who showed them photos from “Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” as well as images of BB-8. Using the Sphero technology, the ball-shaped body of BB-8 is believed to have come to life, utilizing a gyroscope to determine which way is down and having wheels to move the body internally. A base plate acts as a counterweight to keep the wheels acting against the lower half of the body.

So that explains development of the ball-shaped body of BB-8 but what about the free-moving head? The free-moving head of BB-8 is clearly not attached to the ball-shaped body but it holds onto the ball-shaped body in some manner. One theory involves magnets that would allow the head to float about a millimeter off the body, but this still does not appear to explain how the head stays on top of the body. However, several super fans in Spain believe that there is a patent that essentially shows how it works.

As described on the website “How BB-8 Works” (http://www.howbb8works.com/), a Disney®-owned patent provides a good description of how the smart droid could be made as a real robot. U.S. Patent No. 8,269,447, entitled Magnetic Spherical Balancing Robot Drive, was filed by Disney’s Imagineering R&D group back in 2010. Interestingly, this patent was filed before Disney even acquired Lucasfilm® (2012) and before Disney had invested in Sphero (2014). The patent describes a drive system that can control rotation of a sphere. The system facilitates holonomic motion of the drive with respect to the sphere, meaning that each of the degrees of freedom can be controlled, and this allows the drive to maintain a relative position with respect to the sphere. The patent further describes sensors that can determine position and dynamics, and it also describes how the robot drive can be controlled remotely. The Spanish super fans describe it as operating similar to a miniature Segway – it has a mast and a control system that can keep everything in balance, making sure that the mast is always in a vertical position.

Clearly, BB-8 is not just a figment of CGI imagination. It is an actual robot, and there is technology, patent protection, as well as a live demonstration onstage with director J.J. Abrams at the Star Wars Celebration convention held earlier this year to prove it.

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