Robotics

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Lockheed Martin showcases air, water and underwater unmanned vehicles

August 21, 2006 Lockheed Martin telegraphed its intention to become a significant supplier of unmanned systems technology during a press briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. this week. In showcasing its latest developments in unmanned systems technology and its progress into the future net-enabled environment, it discussed a broad range of unmanned and autonomous technologies, from the recently introduced Polecat and other unmanned aerial systems, to surface vessels such as the Protector (covered earlier this week here) and subsurface prowlers, such as the Sea Talon. During the conference Lockheed VP Frank Murno acknowledged that the company was considering a hybrid version of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter – where it could be operated with or without a human pilot as required. Read More

The next Robosapien – fully programmable RS Media

By Mike Hanlon

August 16, 2006 We loved Robosapien V1 and V2 but longed to be able to do just that much more. Now it’s all possible and more asRobosapien has had a serious hardware upgrade! The new RS Media provides the user with a complete multimedia experience: music, photos, films, games and much more! He even includes software to add your own applications and create a unique RS Media personality – he’s completely customisable! RS Media is the first WowWee robot to combine the revolutionary technology used in Robosapien V2 with advanced multimedia features that further enhance both direct and autonomous interaction with his owner and environment. RS Media comes with PC software that allows you to edit his system so you can easily switch between one of the four existing personalities including Service Bot 3000 and Billy Joe Sapien, or create a unique one of your own using the USB port interface and SD card slot! Each one of RS Media’s personalities is characterised by a diverse set of unique animations and expressions. The personality editor software allows you to edit his movements, sound files and video files, and even some of his programming, so you can assign specific voice files or choreograph a routine to a favourite dance track. Read More

New robot balances and moves on a ball instead of legs or wheels

By Mike Hanlon

August 13, 2006 Contrasting with the bipedal humanoid robot portrayed in science fiction, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball. “Ballbot” is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere. It weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person. Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, it has the potential to function better than current robots can in environments with people. Papers can be downloaded here and here. Read More

The extremely robust 4WD Spybot with flapper wheels

By Mike Hanlon

July 14, 2006 The recent biannual European Land Robot Trials (ELROB) at the Hammelburg Army Base in Germany saw some pretty remarkable ground robots unveiled to the assembled, military, and none was more impressive than the new Spybot 4WD from MacroSwiss. The new Spyrobot is an evolution of the Spybot Mk II, with higher payload and 4WD terrain handling capabilities. Though the unit is quite small and weighs just 6 kg, its cross-country mobility is extraordinary due to its patent-pending flexible Flapper Wheels. The wheels, which function somewhere between riverboat paddle wheels and motocross knobby tyres combine with a robust, fully-sealed construction to enable it to navigate waterways, descend stairs, climb slippery 45 degree slopes, or survive being tossed up to 10 metres. The ingenious wheel design enables them to act as shock absorber, suspension, stabilizer and get enough traction to handle extreme obstacles, such as the “potato field” obstacle course at ELROB where the little feller severely embarassed robots several factors more expensive. Read More

Motorsport without the driver

By Mike Hanlon

July 12, 2006 DARPA might have started something huge when it held the first Grand Challenge as a fledgling new sport has taken root - motorsport without the driver. That first race where the best vehicle only managed a few miles has now spawned the first race for robots, appropriately to be held at one of the birthplaces of American motorsport and the mountain that inspired Katharine Lee Bates famous poem, “America the Beautiful” – Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak has a 14,700 ft high summit with a 12.4 mile long access road rising 4710 feet through 156 corners, and annual races have been held there since 1916. Now the first Annual Autonomous Robot Race to the top of Pikes Peak will be held September 23, 2006. So far ten competitors have entered, most of whom will be recognised from their previous outings at DARPA GC I & II, though all comers are welcome. Team Axion made the trip to the 2006 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb (with drivers) last week and on the day after the race Spirit, Axion Racing’s autonomous Jeep Grand Cherokee, became the first unmanned vehicle to drive itself to the summit of Pikes Peak without human interaction or remote control. Spirit’s time of 47 minutes and 10.3 seconds was almost five times that of Kiwi Rod Millen’s record but as Axion Racing’s Team Leader Bill Kehaly explained, “we would have reached the top quicker, but Spirit kept having to apply brakes to stay back from slower human controlled vehicles.” “Our top speed is presently 25 miles per hour and we think we can break 30 minutes at this September’s inaugural Pikes Peak Robot Hill Climb.” Read More

Spaceward Foundation and NASA create US$250,000 Telerobotic Challenge

By Mike Hanlon

June 16, 2006 Following the success of the 2005 Space Elevator competition held at NASA’s Ames Research Center, the Spaceward Foundation today announced the Telerobotic Construction Challenge, a new competition with $250,000 in prize purses that has the potential to significantly impact the nation’s space exploration program by developing technologies enabling semiautonomous robots to perform complex construction tasks with minimal human intervention. Read More

Vector P UAV demonstrates live fire monitoring

By Mike Hanlon

June 13, 2006 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will find their way into many peacetime roles over the coming decade, and the role of monitoring forest fires is almost certain to be one of them. Last week a group of 70 government observers gathered to observe and assess the capabilities of UAVs in a live fire monitoring application at the USDA Forest Service/NASA UAV Demo at Fort Hunter Liggett Army Garrison in California. The UAV designated to strut its stuff was an IntelliTech Vector P and the results were excellent. Carrying both standard and thermal infrared video cameras, the Vector P autonomously sought out fires set at locations five miles from the airport and transmitted the video back to the crowd of observers. In all, the Vector P successfully completed four day and night missions over controlled fires set at distant locations on the grounds of the 165,000 acre garrison. Read More

High-resolution touch sensor for robots

By Mike Hanlon

June 12, 2006 One of the trickiest decisions facing a cancer surgeon today is where to stop cutting. The surgeon doesn't want to stop too soon and leave cancer cells in the patient's body, but he or she also doesn't want to take too many cells and do unnecessary damage to organs. That decision could soon be made much easier, though, thanks to a high-resolution touch sensor developed by chemical engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that may allow surgeons to tell at the level of a single layer of cells whether or not they have excised a tumor in its entirety. Ravi F. Saraf, and his doctoral student, Vivek Maheshwari, report in the June 9 issue of Science, the international weekly journal of science, that they have developed a self-assembling nanoparticle device that has touch sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger, a capability far beyond any mechanical devices now available. Read More

The Protector unmanned integrated naval combat system

By Mike Hanlon

May 25, 2006 The world of robotics is developing remarkably quickly, mainly due to the keen interest of the United States Government in wishing to ensure its military personnel are shielded from harm’s way. Robots can't get killed. Any damage sustained can be repaired. The seeming necessity to fight a war on terror has accelerated development to dizzying urgency and has precipitated the twice run DARPA Grand Challenge and an Urban Grand Challenge planned for next year. The knowledge gained in conducting these machine olympiads has been fast-tracked into prototypes, the first of which we have just seen, the awesomely powerful Crusher UGV. Other species of UGV have developed ranging from SWORDS, the the world’s first robotic combat soldier, through the six-wheeled R-GATOR to the quadruped robotic mule. Funding is flowing for the development of dozens of military-application UAV systems from man-packable size to massive intelligent jet-powered uber-birds that can identify a human target and take it out in one quite literal fell swoop. We’re also seeing unmanned underwater vehicles developed for exploration, mine-clearance, underwater patrol, inspection, maintenance ad infinitum. And as imagination runs rife in the area, new categories of UAV are emerging such as the omnipotent Cormorant MPUAV and the carbon fibre and Kevlar Snark, the meanest and leanest VTOL UAV on the planet. One area that has been notably lean in unmanned vehicle development is surface craft, so a new vehicle, jointly developed by BAE Systems, RAFAEL and Lockheed Martin is worthy of some attention. The Protector is an unmanned integrated naval combat system with a stabilized gun and the ability to conduct a wide spectrum of critical missions while eliminating unnecessary risk to personnel and capital assets. It’s stealthy, fast and highly manoeuvrable, identifies its targets through an electro-optical system and has day and night strike capabilities. Highly autonomous and remotely controlled, the Protector can successfully operate with general guidance from a commander and operator. Read More

ScanEagle UAV demonstrates maritime capabilities

By Mike Hanlon

May 18, 2006 Last year we wrote about the ScanEagle UAV and its success in supplying U.S. Marines in Iraq with critical real-time tactical battlefield imagery. This time, we’re writing about the adaptation of the ScanEagle as a low-cost intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for amphibious operations. Currently being trialled for its maritime capabilities by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in "Trial Vigilant Viper" off the coast of Scotland, the ScanEagle completed ten autonomous flights with full launch and recovery from a Type 23 Frigate in rough sea conditions. A small UAV such as the ScanEagle can significantly increase the capability of a boat, and the missions conducted during the trial illustrate this enormous potential for land and sea surveillance, beach reconnaissance, force protection, maritime interdiction and naval gunfire support. Read More

Lego announces Open Source firmware, Developer Kits for Mindstorms NXT

By Mike Hanlon

May 3, 2006 We suspect the announcement by LEGO that it will release as open source the firmware of the LEGO MINDSTORMS microprocessor (the new NXT brick – the core component of its next generation robotics toolset) will have a considerable impact on the fledgling robotics home hobby marketplace and potentially on general robotic knowledge. LEGO will also release Software, Hardware and Bluetooth Developer Kits to its growing global audience of robotics enthusiasts. The firmware code and three developer kits will be available in August 2006 to conincide with retail availability of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. Read More

DARPA Grand Challenge III – the urban UGV

By Mike Hanlon

May 3, 2006 We’re very excited this week about the prospects for Unmanned Ground Vehicles given the unveiling of Crusher and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announcing plans to hold its third Grand Challenge competition on November 3, 2007. The DARPA Urban Challenge will feature autonomous ground vehicles executing simulated military supply missions safely and effectively in a mock urban area. Safe operation in traffic is essential to U.S. military plans to use autonomous ground vehicles to conduct important missions. So rapidly have UGVs developed in the last few years thanks to Grand Challenges I & II, we suddenly see the prospect of unmanned vehicles being used in civilian occupations – a driver that never sleeps, obeys all the laws, costs a fraction of a human being’s time. Delivery robots make sense and within a few years our bet is that the technology will be in place. The winner gets far more than just US$2 million, as the leading contenders have found in previous events – the world will beat a path to your door if you can win Grand Challenge III. To win, you’ll need to have your UGV complete a 60-mile course through urban traffic under six hours. The UGV will need to be able to merge with traffic, read traffic signs, navigate roundabouts, busy intersections, avoid running over errant pedestrians, avoid obstacles – just like a normal automobile driver. Read More

Crusher - futuristic Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle

By Mike Hanlon

May 2, 2006 Safeguarding the soldier is the key aim of the Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle – giving soldiers enhanced stand-off capability was the reason DARPA funded the Grand Challenge and backed up again two years later with the second challenge and is now holding the challenge in an urban area – such contests dramatically accelerated research into autonomous navigation and identified the most capable people to for the military to work with. The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) is part of the Robotics Institute in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, unveiled Crusher last week. Carnegie Mellon vehicles finished a close second and third in the Grand Challenge though everyone knew they were at the bleeding edge of robotics knowledge, the Challenge just confirming it. Crusher demonstrates just what we can expect to see on the battlefield a decade from now. In what might well be seen as an offspring of the Grand Challenge, “Crusher” is a new breed of UGV – an NREC-designed, six-wheeled, all-wheel drive, hybrid electric, skid-steered, unmanned ground vehicle. The bohemoth weighs 14,000 pounds fully fueled, and is designed to carry a 3,000-pound payload – at this 17,000 pound total weight, two Crusher vehicles can be carried by a single C-130H aircraft and dropped into any region in the world. Once on the ground, Crusher can carry up to 8,000 pounds of payload without compromising its mobility – read that as 8000 pounds of smart stuff – any combination of cargo, armour, armaments, or surveillance equipment. Crusher is also designed to withstand extreme terrain, with the ability to take in its stride regular impacts with trees, boulders, fences, tree stumps and ditches at high speed. With six wheel independent drive, Crusher can go up and over almost anything, and if in the process it should get upside down, it moves its wheels to the other side of the vehicle and starts all over again. Crusher's hybrid electric system is silent, using a high-performance SAFT-built lithium ion battery module which delivers power to the six, in-wheel UQM traction motors located in the hub drive system of each wheel. Much, much, more … interesting stuff! Read More

Unmanned Underwater Vehicle to operate from the torpedo tubes of U.S. Navy Submarines

By Mike Hanlon

April 6, 2006 We’ve all held our breath in the movies as the submarine with the good guys in it slides between the mines, touching a chain here and there to heighten the drama. In the future, that scenario will need to be rewritten as it’s likely that an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) will be fired from the torpedo tubes well in advance of a minefield and scope out exactly where the mines are. Make that the not-too-distant future because Boeing is already into a second round of at-sea tests of its Long-term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS). The LMRS is a 20-foot UUV designed to be launched, torpedo-style, from Los Angeles- and Virginia-class submarines and can survey the murky waters ahead for up to 60 hours. Originally planned for use in detecting tethered and bottom mines, the vehicle is designed to gather data and, upon completion, to home and dock to the submarine's 60-foot robotic arm for recovery back through the torpedo launch tube, enabling operators to retrieve data collected and prepare the vehicle for another launch. The vehicle's intelligence gathering capabilities have been sequentially tested and validated. Read More

Robosapien to get much smarter very soon

By Mike Hanlon

March 23, 2006 To say we think WowWee Robotics has played a pioneering role in the first wave of the consumer robotics revolution is an understatement. Twenty five years from now when the consumer robotics industry is expected to rival the automotive industry in size, Wowwee’s diminutive Robosapien will be seen in the same light as the Model T Ford and the company’s high tech Geppetto, Mark Tilden (pictured with two roboraptors), could well be held in even higher esteem. The price of the company’s “toy” robots belie their capabilities and Robosapien V1 and V2, Roboraptor et al have functionality for which the company could legitimately ask ten times the price – the bargain pricing though has resulted in millions of Wowwee robots being the first to invade the home. The big news is that overnight Evolution Robotics and WowWee announced a strategic alliance to integrate Evolution's ViPR and Northstar technologies into WowWee products. ViPR (Visual Pattern Recognition) provides reliable and fast recognition of patterns, objects, and locations in realistic environments. Northstar, known as "Indoor GPS," is the world's lowest-cost solution for position-awareness for consumer robots, and enables robots to navigate autonomously and intelligently. Read More

Raven UAV achieves milestones and wins the Commando Olympics

By Mike Hanlon

March 15, 2006 After the incredible response to yesterday’s story on weaponised micro unmanned aerial vehicles, it is interesting to note AeroVironment’s significant production milestone of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) systems that was announced today. The Raven (RQ-11A), a manpackable SUAV used by the U.S. Army and Special Forces since 2002, has surpassed the 3,000th air vehicle mark for production. The Raven is a 4.2 pound, hand-launched sensor platform that provides day and night, near-real-time video imagery for "over the hill" intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of a ground commander. Made of Kevlar and costing US$25,000, it has a range of 80 minutes at up to 90 km/h and can venture up to 15 kilometres from its controller. No greater praise can be given than by those who use the Raven and this can be evidenced at the always excellent military website StrategyPage which reports that the Raven is winning what it terms the unofficial “Commando Olympics.” StrategyPage reports that in addition to the cooperation between the commando units of over a dozen countries assembled to pursue Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, there’s a lot of comparing notes – and the most envied high tech gadget of them all is the Raven. Read More

Robotic bartender understands verbal orders and tells jokes

By Mike Hanlon

March 12, 2006 If there was a list of professions least likely to see humans replaced by machines, the barkeeper would logically be on that list. But students in the final year of a computational linguistics and phonetics course at the University of Saarland in Germany have created a robotic bartender to demonstrate how digital language technologies can be combined with robotics. The robotic Barkeeper understands natural language and hence takes orders in exactly the same way as a normal bartender. It has a database of cocktail recipes, and will propose drinks to the customer at the beginning of the conversation. The user can then choose any cocktail by spoken commands, or create their own cocktail by choosing the ingredients. Then while it is making the drinks, it keeps the customers entertained by telling jokes. The Barkeeper has an extensive jokes database, with additional specific jokes about each cocktail and each ingredient.When it serves the drink, it also explains to the customer exactly what the alcoholic content is. Read More

The world's most advanced quadruped robot

By Mike Hanlon

March 4, 2006 Boston Dynamics has released images and details of BigDog, which it is billing as the most advanced quadruped robot on earth. If that seems like a tall claim, check out this video of BigDog (Caution 27MB WMV) doing its thing by walking over uneven ground, up slopes, over piles of rocks, snow, through water etcetera – though clearly still in development, BigDog is incredibly impressive and we challenge anybody to view the movie and not see BigDog’s future potential as a perfectly-mannered mechanical pony for children, as an all-terrain four-legged “wheelchair” that can take a 90-year-old for a walk over an orienteering course or a mechanical mule to carry all your camping gear into the middle of the wilderness or … much, much more. In short, BigDog is a quadruped robot the size of a small horse, and could equally have been called a robotic mule, because its skill sets are pre-destined to see it pressed into military service as a mule-like carrier companion for soldiers where conventional vehicles cannot go. Initially developed with funding from DARPA, BigDog’s raison d’etre is to carry ammunition, food and supplies into battle. BigDog can walk, run at speeds up to 3.3 mph, climb over rough terrain or up slopes up to 35 degrees and carry heavy loads – currently up to 120 pounds, but as development goes on, that figure might be significantly increased. BigDog is currently annoyingly noisy thanks to power being delivered by a gasoline engine that in turn drives the hydraulic actuation system for its legs. BigDog is much more than a dumb mule however - it is a pointer to the future - a wonderful example of humanity learning from the biomechanics and energetics of animal movement to build better robots that will serve humanity in many endeavours. Go on, check out the video - we promise you'll show all your friends. Check out the article's images gallery to see clips from the video and schematics. Read More

EU project develops inexpensive robots for small and medium-sized companies

By Mike Hanlon

February 14, 2006 Almost a million industrial robots are in service worldwide, and their numbers are steadily growing. However, most of them are found in the factories of major enterprises. An EU project aims to develop new, inexpensive versions for small and medium-sized firms. The European Union’s SMErobot project – the name is derived from “small and medium sized enterprises”, – include leading research institutes, universities and the top five European robot manufacturers. Its participants have set out to make robots attractive beyond the confines of large-scale industry. “For this to happen, the metal helpers must be completely redeveloped to a certain extent,” asserts Martin Hagele of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, who is coordinating the project. Read More

The first gun-toting robotic combat soldiers set to be deployed

By Mike Hanlon

January 28, 2006 Meet the world’s first robotic combat soldier – also known as the Special Weapons Observation Remote Direct-Action System (SWORDS). The diminutive remote-controlled US$230,000 SWORDS machine shares the same base as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Talon robots which have been deployed in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Unlike many of it’s flying robotic (UAV) brethren, the weaponised Talon is not autonomous, being under the direct control of a soldier watching from up to a mile away through an array of cameras which can include both night and thermal vision. SWORDS is completely silent, can keep pace with a running soldier (5mph), climb stairs, right itself, negotiate rock piles, overcome concertina wire, and plow through sand, snow and surf. Most importantly, it can shoot with astounding accuracy and thanks to its universal weapon-mounting device, can carry and fire your choice of an M-16, M-2, M-240 or M-249 machine gun, or the M-202A1 with a 66mm rocket launcher. SWORDS will be deployed to Iraq and see combat for the first time in the next few weeks, beginning a new era of ground warfare. Read More

Global Hawk UAV gets bigger and more capable

By Mike Hanlon

November 11, 2005 The Global Hawk UAV was still in its development stages when the needs of the war in Afghanistan saw it pressed into service. Since then, Global Hawk has successfully completed more than 225 missions through three deployments and more than 4,900 combat flight hours. Now the aircraft has been redesigned to carry 50% more payload, so the Air Force can install additional sensors, enhancing its ability to simultaneously collect imagery, signals intelligence and infrared and radar information, and transfer it to the warfighting machine in near-real time. Global Hawk flies autonomously at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet, above inclement weather and prevailing winds, for 35+ hours at a time. During a single mission, it can provide detailed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information in near-real time over 40,000 square miles - approximately the size of Illinois. Read More

Valerie the domestic android takes shape

By Mike Hanlon

November 3, 2005 Valerie the domestic android is running well behind her initial delivery date of December 2004 but remains the most promising advanced android in the world with more degrees of freedom than anything comparable. Valerie caused a sensation when we first wrote her up in mid-2004, with hundreds of readers (and the odd Gizmag staffer) concerned we’d been conned and that she was nothing more than a window-dummy and a lot of hot air. Well Valerie’s shapely window-dummy legs are taking shape, and her hands are all but finished (with four degrees of freedom per finger) and we’re thrilled to report that the project remains on our “most promising” list. Valerie will clean your house, change light bulbs, wash the dishes, do the laundry, check the sports scores for you, book plane tickets and call the police if there's an emergency. She speaks English (using the AT&T speech synthesizer for a realistic human-sounding voice) but more importantly, understands English and hence be programmed by non-programmers. Read More

The Snark - the meanest VTOL UAV on the planet

By Mike Hanlon

October 29, 2005 Meet the Snark – an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle of immense capability that demonstrates just how far the breed has come in such a short period of time. Constructed mainly of Carbon Fibre and Kevlar, the Snark is light and fast (280 km/h), quiet (special rotor blades make it extremely quiet ), virtually invisible to radar or infrared detetection (it recycles its exhaust gases and emits little heat) and can carry a payload of 680kg, offering the ability to pack both massive firepower (enough to sink a ship) and surveillance equipment (such as high res infrared cameras with a magnification of 7500). But wait, there’s more, and this is the clincher. The Snark is the first UAV that runs on diesel fuel, which means it can be easily integrated into any military force – current UAVs require their own special fuel supply to be transported with them whereas the entire US Army plans to run on a single one fuel - diesel. Last and probably most importantly, the Snark can stay airborne for 24 hours at a time, offering an unprecedented loiter time for a machine of this capability. Read More

UAVs get smaller: the Micro Air Vehicle nears readiness

By Mike Hanlon

October 26, 2005 As the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have unfolded, one of the new stars in the theatre of battle has been the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). As each new conflict redefines war based on the technologies coming of age at that time, the Iraq campaign has seen the coming of age of the UAV in its many wonderous forms. It is the most-requested capability among combatant commanders and in the last 18 months, UAV numbers in Iraq have jumped from fewer than 100 to more than 400 and there are now nearly 600 UAVs in the Afghanistan and Iraq theatres. Even more interesting is the dizzying array of unmanned aircraft used in traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAV roles. Now we’re set to see UAVs get smaller – much smaller. The United States Future Combat Systems (FCS) program recently passed a significant milestone in its progress toward selecting a Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. The MAV has achieved a technology readiness level 6 and is now ready to begin transitioning the technology to the FCS program as an affordable backpackable systems suitable for dismounted soldier, Marine, and Special Forces missions. It will focus on the development of lift augmented ducted fan MAVs to accomplish unique military missions, particularly the hover and stare capability in restricted (e.g urban) environments to provide real-time combat information. Read More

Murata's Robot Bicyclist

By Mike Hanlon

October 15, 2005 One of the many interesting displays at CEATAC last week was the bicycling robot “Murata Boy” developed by Japanese electronic components manufacturer Murata. Murata Boy was built entirely with standard Murata products such as gyroscopic, ultrasonic, and shock sensors and motion control, battery, imaging, and communication modules and for a little fellow, he certainly packs in the functionality, being capable of speeds up to 60cm/sec (2 km/h), standing upright without falling, obstacle detection, running backwards, running a predetermined course while monitoring his position, receiving instructions wirelessly and capturing and sending images to its PC master wirelessly. Murata is one of the key suppliers of robotics components for the burgeoning Japanese robotics industry and is using the Murata Boy robot to position itself internationally as a robotic components supplier. With the robotics market projected to reach 7.2 trillion yen by 2025 according to the Japan Robot Association, Murata is gearing up to supply the electronic component demand, having established a sophisticated distribution network across Europe, Asia, and North America. Read More

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