In a recent article from Control, Paul Studebaker explores the similarities between IIoT and BB-8. Here is an excerpt from the article.
Most folks who see video of Star Wars VII's new droid, BB-8, rolling around with its seemingly independent robot head atop its ball-shaped body assume it's a trick of computer-generated imagery (CGI). How else could its head float above the surface of its body as the sphere rolls across gritty sand dunes, through verdant forests and up metal ramps into sundry amazing spacecraft?
But I heard BB-8 really exists, that people had seen it, it's not just CGI. People suggest that the propmakers essentially put a remote-controlled Segway inside a sphere, like a hamster in a hollow ball. The head is on a set of rollers and stays on the ball with a magnetic coupling to an articulated post (replacing the handlebar on a conventional Segway).
Like BB-8, the IIoT seems futuristic and fantastic, while it's largely just a mashup of existing technologies in an innovative wrapper. But while it breaks little new ground, the areas IIoT does advance are important and potentially amazing: standards for communication across devices and platforms, and use cases that demonstrate ROI.
Watch this video to learn how the BB-8 Sphero toy works.
Watch an ingenious fan make his own BB-8.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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