“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opens in theaters this December, but you don’t have to wait until then to get up close and personal with one of the movie’s new characters. Thanks to robot maker Sphero, fans can buy their very own version of BB-8, one of the astromech droids from the movie.
I got my hands one of the new BB-8 robots, and after taking it for a test drive I wanted to find what makes it work as well as what makes it different from Sphero’s other rolling robots.
For a complete walkthrough of the teardown, including a video of the process, check out my article, Sphero BB-8 teardown reveals the robot tech inside this rolling ‘Star Wars’ droid.
Inside the box, is the BB-8 unit (spherical body and detachable head piece), special Star Wars-branded charging station (with cable), and product documentation.
The BB-8 measures 2.9-inches in diameter, stands 4.5-inches tall and weighs about 7 ounces.
Although the BB-8 has a fancy droid paint job and head piece, it’s very similar to the Sphero (shown in white) and Sphero 2 (clear SPRK Edition shown here).
Sphero SPRK Edition’s clear shell gives us an idea of what’s likely inside the Sphero BB-8’s body. To find out for sure, we’ll need to crack it open.
Magnets inside the head piece hold it to the body, while the tiny wheels allow it to roll across the spherical body.
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.
