Core77

Unique Form Factor for a Security Robot: Rollo's Monowheel 'Bot

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To some, the monowheel BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens seemed absurd when it first came out.

Now, a little over a decade later, Estonian startup Rollo Robotics has created something quite similar. Their 1Rollo is a monowheel robot designed not for entertainment, nor as an homage to the Star Wars character, but for a security role.

The company says that having only one wheel reduces production costs by cutting mechanical complexity, and that the lower rolling resistance (versus having multiple wheels) extends battery life. Security was chosen as the application because the 'bot's narrow footprint makes it ideal for patrolling corridors. They say the 'bot can support cameras, thermal cameras, night vision systems and speakers/microphones for communication.

Of course, it doesn't look like the thing can deal with stairs, so the dog-bot form factor might win out there.

The 1Rollo will be production-ready next year. Here it is in action:

Gazelle's Quick-Assemble Hub Tents

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Gazelle, a Wisconsin-based outdoor gear brand, makes these quick-assemble Hub Tents.

They're so named because each facet of the tent features a hub, into which are (permanently) inserted fiberglass poles. These quickly go from folded to deployed, rather like an umbrella. The tents can thus be assembled in just 60 or 90 seconds, depending on the model:

They offer 3-, 4- and 8-person designs, with prices ranging from $280 to $1,400.

A Transparent CD Player

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Syitren, a Chinese audio brand, makes funky-looking portable CD players targeting Gen Z.

Their latest design, the RM1, is a tabletop or wall-mounted model meant to double as display art:

The frame is acrylic. If you're wondering how you get the CD in and out, you don't; while it looks like it's sandwiched inside, instead the hub protrudes through the front face, so you just pop CDs on and off.

This design, by eliminating a hinge mechanism, keeps the production cost down. Thus the units are going for just $89 on Kickstarter, where it's been successfully funded with a month left to go at press time.

Core77 Weekly Roundup (7-27-26 to 7-31-26)

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Here's what we looked at this week:

Flatbike's accessories let you fold your bike flat for storage.

A gate with an elegant integrated latch.

The Dutch community where people live on strips of land in a lake.

Luxury furniture, or ID student project? A lounge chair inspired by a seed.

Chinese autonomous buses are spreading around the world. Just not in America.

Sonic's focus on the UX of pencil cases.

Unitree's impressive Super Athlete AS2-W, an off-road dog-bot/pack mule

Architect Priyanka Narula combines computational design with wicker.

Roof racks that automatically lift and lower the load for you.

The U.S. Government has banned foreign-made robots.

Modhaus' wireless phone charger with a concrete base.

Improvised transport on abandoned infrastructure: Colombia's ingenious motorcycle-railroad adapters.

Second White's sleek folding electric scooter.

Manufactura's space-saving retractable spiral staircases.

A Space-Saving Retractable Spiral Staircase

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French company Manufactura designs and builds custom-fit retractable spiral staircases:

"Our staircase allows you to access all the living spaces that your accommodation offers, even the most cramped ones such as a basement apartment, a rooftop or an attic. It unfolds and retracts in seconds. Offers a substantial space saving. Allows you to clear your stairwell to move furniture through."

The company, which holds a patent on the design, customizes each staircase to the specifics of the space.

Second White's Sleek Folding Electric Scooter

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This strange-looking suitcase…

…is actually a piece of portable mobility.

"It is a lightweight 3-stage folding electric kickboard that can be easily carried with one hand," writes South Korean design firm Second White.

"The folio-style cover prevents contamination of the user's clothes when folded, and it is recognized as a fashion item."

"The aesthetic perfection and compact size encourage users to naturally move it into indoor spaces, and this solves the problem of electric scooters being left outdoors."

It appears to be just a prototype/concept, with no production plans announced.

Improvised Transport on Abandoned Infrastructure: Colombia's Ingenious Motorcycle-Railroad Adapters

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Colombia started building railroads in the mid-19th century, and they boomed up until the mid-20th. But by the 1990s, as roads and cars proliferated, the national rail company was liquidated. Rural communities lost service.

The tracks, however, remained. So rural communities improvised these ingenious motobalineras, improvised wooden platforms for motorcycles or even bicycles. The bikes ride on a single rail and provide the propulsion, while the platform can be adapted to haul passengers or cargo.

Here's one in action, shot by Jorge Eliecer Zuleta Anduquia. Note that the platforms are light enough that they can be moved off of the tracks, when there are two-way traffic issues:

Modhaus' Wireless Phone Charger with a Concrete Base

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To prevent sliding around on a tabletop, most wireless chargers have rubber feet or silicone pads under their bases. The folks over at Modhaus, a South Korean product brand, went with a more extreme solution: The base of their Upright charger is cast concrete.

For the phone-facing surface, they went with hardwood, offering both Oak and Walnut.

The $78 charger was Kickstarted within hours. The campaign's done now, but they're still taking pre-orders.

U.S. Government Bans Foreign-Made Robots

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Recently we've covered a number of robots, ranging from creepy to nifty:

UBTECH's U1 companion robots.

Unitree's crazy off-road AS2-W.

Hyundai's parking robots.

AGIBOT's Expedition A3 packing itself away for transport.

The Swiss LEVA cargo-carrying dog-bot.

Unitree's GD-01 mecha-bot.

As of today, they all have one thing in common: They're all banned by the United States government. This week the Federal Communications Commission issued a ban on foreign-made "advanced robotic devices," citing security concerns:

"The networked capabilities of advanced robotic systems create extensive vulnerabilities and vectors for attacks that can manipulate the data and physical operation of the advanced robotic system. Relying on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices presents unacceptable supply chain and cybersecurity vulnerabilities . . . Advanced robotic devices collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots."

They've also banned foreign-made (networked) power inverters, as they could potentially provide a backdoor into the power grid for cyberwarriors.

The ban is effective immediately, but those who already own such components or robots are exempt.

Meet Fusion Forward Competition Juror Michelle Lee, Partner at IDEO San Francisco

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As a Partner and Executive Managing Director at IDEO San Francisco, Michelle Lee leads multidisciplinary teams of researchers, designers, and engineers across sectors ranging from healthcare and workplace culture to responsible digital design and the circular economy. This year, she brings that range to Fusion Forward: Design for Home, Core77's design competition with Autodesk Fusion, where she'll help evaluate entries designed for the domestic environment.

Michelle Lee, Partner & Executive Managing Director, IDEO

It's a natural fit. Lee's sharpest instincts trace back to the toy industry, where she learned to apply the logic of play, its openness to iteration, its tolerance for mess, to problems that look nothing like toys on the surface. Home products, judged on material selection, form, and utility, are exactly the kind of everyday objects that reward that instinct.

"I appreciate friction as the secret sauce that brings meaning, growth, connection, and joy to our lives," Lee says. "Eliminating friction risks removing the elements that make us human."

It's a pointed rebuttal to the current product design directive to smooth everything out and remove every obstacle and extra click. Lee isn't arguing against usability. She's arguing that ease and meaning aren't always the same goal, and that designers who chase one too hard can lose the other.

That same resistance to easy answers runs through what she's watching in the field right now. Asked what excites her most, Lee points not to a tool or a technology but to a moment of reckoning. "This moment of rapid change is introducing new tools and practices that provide an opportunity for us, as designers, to deeply reflect on the role we play, the values we hold, and the outcomes we want to shape," she says. "It's challenging us to approach our work with refreshed purpose and intention."

For entrants preparing their Fusion Forward submissions, Lee's advice goes beyond the standard playbook. She isn't asking for a clean problem-solution story.

"Have a clear point of view that goes beyond just solving a problem," Lee says. "Why is your approach the best path forward? How do your values manifest in your design? Does it resonate at an emotional level that goes beyond pure function?"

It's a fitting standard from someone who co-instructs IDEO U's Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving course and sits on the design team for the Aspen First Movers Fellowship. Lee's throughline, across toy design, healthcare, and circular economy work alike, is that good design asks something of the people who encounter it: a reaction, a value, a point of view. Function gets you in the door. What you believe, and how clearly that belief comes through, is what she's looking for once she opens up an entry.

Fusion Forward: Design for Home is now open for entries. Three categories to choose from, $9,750 in prizes. Deadline for entry September 28.

Roof Racks That Automatically Lift and Lower the Load For You

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These powered arms eliminate the single biggest hassle of a roof rack: The loading and unloading.

They're made by multiple Chinese manufacturers you've never heard of, like Sionto and Kayjay. Sadly, there's nothing to link to; these companies don't have web presences that I can find. They're the kind of thing you have to order by DM'ing shady Instagram accounts. We're seeing that more and more these days, where the lack of brand longevity and trust means there's no guarantee you'll receive what's shown in the videos.

But it is a nifty and useful mechanism; hopefully a reputable brand will produce something similar.

Combining Computational Design with Wicker

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Wicker story is the name of an initiative by architect Priyanka Narula and her firm, Hyderabad-based Prelab Design Studio.

"The project was a response to a prolonged quest to define the future of design in the Indian context," Narula writes. Additionally, she asked herself: "How do we realize algorithmically complex forms without the industrial infrastructure that computational design typically demands?"

Narula has thus combined computational design with traditional Indian wicker craft:

Our work involves the translation of digital processes for complex designing for easy adaptability to Indian craft and material systems. Wicker story, apart from being an effective tool to realise customized and complex geometries, also transcends scale and geometry and defines new protocols for design.

Wicker is a woven system, like cloth. You can weave wicker for meters and meters.

Our products are 100% sustainable and offer a zero waste production methodology.

We are constantly attempting to create a symbiotic amalgamation of art, architecture, product in the precinct of craft and parametric design methodology and thus celebrating the context of culture, colour, tradition and values in India.

Working with craft goes beyond the design. It creates opportunities for sustainability, local labor and material innovation to evolve together.

Unitree's Impressive Off-Road Dog-Bot/Pack Mule

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It might seem silly to develop a dog robot that can breakdance, as Chinese robotics brand Unitree has done.

However, they've put all that agility to practical use. Here's what the thing can do off-road, and note that the footage is (the company says) playing at actual speed:

That's the company's new Super Athlete AS2-W. Descended from the company's line of industrial inspection and logistics dog-bots, the AS2-W is capable of search and rescue in rugged terrain. It weighs 25kg (55 lbs) with its battery, and can carry a further 16kg (35.3 lbs) of cargo, acting as a robotic pack mule.

This is a weird demonstration image, but the company also says it can support (but apparently not carry on-the-move) some 180kg of weight, which is nearly 400 lbs!

At an asking price of around $37,000, however, that's a pretty darn expensive sawhorse. The pack mule ability looks more like the killer app.

Sonic's Focus on the UX of Pencil Cases

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Here Japanese stationery manufacturer Sonic rethinks the humble pencil case, which is typically a form-follows-function rectangle. Their Kakusta design angles the zipper, so that once open, the case presents the utensils:

Another take on this is their vertically-standing Smart Stand.

When you open the flip-down lid, an unseen magnet holds it against the base.

This creates a very stable standing position, as this very Japanese-style illustration tells you:

The flip-down lid is meant to provide a resting place for your phone.

It seems like whatever time Konstantin Grcic and Erwan Bouroullec spend thinking about furniture, Japanese designers spend thinking about stationery.

Chinese Autonomous Buses are Spreading Around the World

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In the 20th century, the U.S. was the dominant industrial power. We enjoyed conveniences and luxuries not readily available in other parts of the world, from air conditioning to appliances to cutting-edge vehicles.

This century is turning out to be wildly different. In just a few decades, China has gone from industrial backwater to developer of worldbeating technology. Their citizens already enjoy inexpensive EVs that we could never cost-effectively produce in America. And as another case in point, a few years ago Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide launched their self-driving Robobuses in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other Chinese cities.

The Robobus was/is a domestic success, and the firm has spread into overseas markets. Today they're in 40 cities across China, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and even former technological rival Japan.

Also striking is that the Robobus is not some provincially-designed vehicle that caters to local tastes; instead it's a generously-glazed, well-proportioned vehicle that's easy on the eyes.

Given current political realities, it goes without saying that the Robobus will not hit U.S. streets. As an American raised in the 20th century, I'm dealing with a strange sensation: The feeling that, in some ways, our country is getting left behind.

For a video look at the bus, here's one operating in France: