The toy version of the BB-8 droid from the upcoming Star Wars movie The Force Awakens has been taken apart by techies to see how it works. The little droid uses a magnet and a gyroscope to keep his balance.
Since the BB-8 is not meant to be opened by users, the folks at UBreakIFix had to use a small circular saw to tackle the droid’s ball. What remains is a skeleton that can be retrieved from the ball. At the bottom, the droid has two wheels for propulsion, and a weight so that those wheels always have grip. At the top, on a stem is a magnet. This ensures that the ‘head’ of the droid can never sink too far down the ball.
In the middle of the skeleton is the electronics that UBreakIFix did not touch. The droid is thus able to receive commands from a smartphone app. Users can control the droid, make it gesture like ‘yes’ and ‘no’, and it can project a message, just like R2-D2 did in A New Hope. However, the projection can only be seen on the screen of your smartphone, which makes it an augmented reality trick rather than a real projection.
The BB-8 can be found on the website of the maker, Sphero. The company charges $149.99 for it and $25 shipping. Including VAT, this amounts to 190 euros converted at the time of this writing. The droid is very popular and Sphero expects to be able to deliver it only in October.
In The Force Awakens, which premieres in December, the filmmakers use a real droid for BB-8. Initially the plan was to just use CGI, but since it had to be technically possible to build such a droid, and it is easier for the actors, Disney has chosen to build a ‘real’ BB-8. Two Star Wars fans from Spain have set up a website with their best theory about how the real BB-8 works on the set of the film.