A year ago, Carl Seguin woke up with the intriguing idea of turning the game of billiards on its head. So in the subsequent months, he put his idea into motion, literally, and developed the BilliardBots, precision-built, remote-controlled mobile robots that replace cue sticks normally used to pocket pool balls.

So what functionality do these little three-inch gamers offer? “They can either hit the balls backward with the arc shaped bumper,” Seguin (previously featured in Design Engineering for his innovative variable volume hydraulic reservoir) explains, “or, for accurate moves, they can grab the ball by their front opening to push them to the pockets.” The player controls the force of the hit simply by altering the ’bot’s variable speed  (between zero and 3.5 m/sec).

The rules are simple: once the balls are dispersed after breaking the triangle (with a cue stick or a robot), the players decide who will take the solid-coloured balls and who will get the striped ones. “What makes this game so much fun?” he asks. Well, he answers, unlike regular billiard matches, players in this version simultaneously rush to pocket their designated balls, “thus it’s very competitive and fast.”

Not unlike for a video game, quick fingers are a necessity, and in order to keep tight reigns on the movement and direction of the mechatronic ball handlers, Seguin adapted a pair of Playstation controllers. Once all the balls of one type have been eliminated, the successful player will pocket the 8 ball to win the game, similar to regular billiard rules. “It requires dexterity like a video game,” he adds.

This isn’t Seguin’s first kick at the can at this kind of engineering. Previously to this, he had developed a robotic soccer game (more on Page 3) by designing a series of robots pushing a golf ball.
» Engineering details and internal photos on next page

 

As for the engineering, the BilliardBots are designed simply but effectively, using a 3-by-3-by-3-inch frame made from one piece solid machined aluminum with a plastic cover for the electronic board, two precision motors with position encoders, and rechargeable-battery-packs access. Each motor has a pinion gear that drives an inner gear inside each two-inch-diameter wheel, and each wheel is independently controlled (central two-wheel differential steering) thus giving full controllability like central axis rotation and linear movement (forward and backward).

They can reach speeds of 3.5 m/sec and a Bluetooth wireless communication protocol. Its commands come from a Logitech wireless controller with single or double joystick selectable control (the other buttons are not used). Its parameters are software programmable, such as maximum acceleration rate, maximum speed, maximum rotation speed, or one or two joystick control.

“Since this game is unique, I have applied for a patent on the concept,” he says. “It is addressed to kids teens and adults. Kids and teens relates to these type of controllers, so it brings interest, and the dexterity, most of [those kids] have it since it requires a videogame controller.”

This concept, he continues, could be installed or used at various arcades, billiard rooms, amusement parks, private corporate rental functions, fares and festivals.

“The concept design might need to be reviewed for less expensive components/manufacturing techniques to make it more affordable if it’s sold to regular consumers,” he adds. » More about his larger-scale hockey robots on next page

 

The BilliardBots, however, are on a much smaller scale than Seguin’s previous project involving robotic hockey-playing robots aptly called HockeyBots. “A lot of engineering went into these robots since they move fast and collide with each other (up to 28-km/hr hits) and must survive repetitive hits all day.”

The HockeyBots website explains the rules, and they are very similar to hockey. Each participant controls the robots with of a joystick; moving at a speed of 14 km/h, the user can control launching the disc (instead of a puck) toward the goal. If it’s an accurate goal, a sensitive sensor confirms detects the disk and activates a strobe light and alarm.
www.carldesign.ca
www.impactrobotik.com