Sunday, November 25, 2007

Ye Future Messenger?

Murata Boy Small

Created by the Japanese company Murata Manufacturing, Murata Boy is a 5kg, 20” (50cm) high robot whose sense of balance is so acute that he can even come to a complete standstill on his bike without even putting a foot down.

Developed to showcase the capabilities and achievements in current technology concerning balance (balance is a notoriously difficult concept to realise in robotics) Murata Boy can not only come to a complete standstill whilst remaining perfectly balanced he can even ride his bicycle backwards as well as forwards (at up to 30” per second) whilst navigating obstacles.

Murata Boy Sensors Diagram

Murata Boy’s means of balancing comes courtesy of two gyro sensors – one which detects position, the other detecting slant angle – as well as an ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles. Further shock sensors detect the surface roughness. All of these sensors transmit their data to a computer that then offers the continuous stream of necessary control inputs to keep Murata Boy balanced regardless of whether he is moving or not.

To view Murata Boy in action you can either click on the image below to stream or click the download link to save to your own computer.

Murata Boy - The Bike Riding Robot
Click Picture to Play

You can gain a wealth of further information from Murata Boy’s official website which you can access via this link.

As well as further videos the site also a PDF down load of a papercraft kit that will enable you to to make your own Murata Boy model - just don’t expect it to perform quite as impressively as the real thing.

Article taken from nexus404.com/blog.

So what are the IFBMA rules regarding robot messenger entries to trackstand and backwards circles events? A blanket ban on internal gyroscopes? Yet that could be described by some as specist(this word shall be in the dictionary soon). I think this debate will rage...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'll have him any day...

...I hope he can't go no handed!