Date: 29/09/2009

Physically active but shy girl-robot from Murata

Murata has developed a unicycle-riding robot called MURATAGIRL. Murata describes personality of this robot as 'physically active but shy'.

The features of this robot are,

Can go around a curve (with a 75cm diameter)
Can ride over a balance beam (2cm wide)
Can ride at 15cm/sec (5cm/sec for the '08 model)
Can come to a stop without falling
Can go forward or backward
Can maintain a set distance from the palm (tailgating ride)

This robot uses Murata made slant detection gyro sensors to detect the slant angle. MURATA GIRL maintains her balance by arbitrarily controlling rotation of the wheel for front-to-back direction, and rotation of the fly-wheel built into her chest for side-to-side direction, controlled by signals from the gyro sensor.

The gyro sensor is used for detection- direction when riding around a curve. Ultrasonic sensor are for detecting obstacles (transmitter and receiver are paired)

The distance to the obstacle is determined by measuring the duration of time between transmission of ultrasonic and reception of ultrasonic bounced back from the obstacle.

THe Bluetooth communication module interfaces with PCs over the 2.45GHz band.

Murata said, in view of Japanese children's declining interest in science, Murata has been using MURATAGIRL to actively create educational opportunities at schools under the corporate theme of "promoting science education as a part of Murata's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities, to demonstrate to children just how much fun science can be. Our efforts have been especially well received by children and educators.

For more details visit www.murta.com