Okay, the Cubli is definitely the Christmas gift that you didn’t get yesterday, but you probably can’t buy it now.

I put a video of the Cubli here because it is just very cool. Developed by researchers at ETH Zurich’s Institute Systems and Control, it has three spinning motors that will spin in order to gain some kind of angular momentum for balance. I believe that there is some kind of physics involved, which is probably the torque and stuff. It kind of reminds me of physics experiments I did in college. As it can balance on an edge, corner, and it can move in that manner.

I probably would have majored in physics if I would have seen this Cubli. In case you are curious, the name comes from “Cube” and “Li”. “Li” is apparently a word for small thing, like “ette” in English.

Man, just watch the video if you haven’t already, because something like this is pretty fricking awesome. In case you are wondering what it can be used for, I believe it can be used for rovers on other planets. Personally, I like the idea of self-assembling machines.

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