Puneet Varma (Editor)

Murata Boy and Murata Girl

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Manufacturer
  
Murata Manufacturing

Price
  
$ 500,000 (each)

Country
  
Japan

Website
  
Official website

Murata Boy and Murata Girl

Year of creation
  
2005 (Murata Boy) 2008 (Murata Girl)

Purpose
  
Technology demonstrator

Murata Boy and Murata Girl are two self-balancing robots developed by Murata Manufacturing, a Japanese electronic components company. The company developed the robots to showcase a range of their products and generate publicity. The robots are designed to be as energy-efficient as possible, both in their basic technological components and through features like automatic sleep mode.

Contents

Murata Boy

Murata Boy is a bicycle-riding robot which, standing 50 cm tall and weighing 5 kg, can travel at a speed up to 2 km per hour. It can balance on the bike moving forwards, backwards, and when remaining still (without planting his feet on the ground). The robot is equipped with:

  • gyro sensors (for stability and redressing)
  • a shock sensor (for impact detection)
  • an angular velocity sensor
  • a temperature monitor
  • a CCD camera
  • an ultrasonic sensor (for obstacle detection)
  • an infrared sensor (for detecting human movement)
  • an EMI filter (to reduce electronic interference)
  • wi-fi and energy-efficient close-distance bluetooth modules (for interaction)

    • Murata Boy was listed on TIME magazine's list of Best Inventions of 2006.

    Murata Girl

    Murata Girl is a unicycle-riding robot released in 2008, standing 50 cm tall and weighing 6 kg that can travel at a speed of 5 cm per second and can ride along a balance beam. She is equipped with the following:

  • gyro sensors (for stability and redressing)
  • a shock sensor (for impact detection)
  • a temperature monitor
  • a CCD camera
  • an ultrasonic sensor (for obstacle detection)
  • an infrared sensor (for detecting human movement)
  • wi-fi and energy-efficient close-distance bluetooth modules

    • References

    Murata Boy and Murata Girl Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA