Jalopnik Provides a Thorough Breakdown of the ‘Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens’ Rolling Spherical Droid

One of the more memorable aspects of the recently released teaser for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is the rolling spherical astromech droid. Little is known about the droid beyond the short clip of it rolling on what appears to be the planet of Tatooine, but Jalopnik associate editor Jason Torchinsky has put together an impressive breakdown of how the droid may work and how it fits into the Star Wars universe.

The question now is exactly how does this setup work? I think there’s basically two ways it could go, and the trailer doesn’t really give us enough information to see which one it is at this point. The head and sphere are either connected via a central spinal shaft though a divided sphere acting as two hemispherical wheels, or the head and sphere have no physical connection, and rely on some sort of magnetic/sciencemagical connecting force and a wireless method of data and communication transfer.

The droid can be seen rolling at the 29-second mark in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser.