Japanese Firm Develops Cheerleader Robots That Balance on Balls
Posted on September 26, 2014
Murata Manufacturing has launched a line of cheerleader robots. The robots use a ball for movement. They wear red dresses and have blue eyes and thick black hair. They also have movable arms with pom-poms with LED lights that light up. Murata says these are the world's first cheerleader robots.
Murata's technology for the cheerbots includes three gyro sensors that enable to robots to balance on the balls. The robots can also move around without colliding with each other. The cheerleader robots contain ultrasonic microphones, infrared sensors and communication modules. They share data to a central control system over a wireless network. Each cheerleader's location is recorded in real time.
The robots are 36 centimeters tall (14 inches) and weigh 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds). They move at speeds up to 30 centimeters per second. Murata says the robots could cheer continuously for about an hour. The synchronized robots perform an organized dance on a table in this video from Murata. The theme song in the video was written and composed by Yakushimaru Etsuko (aka Tika).
The group control technology used to synchronize the cheerleader bots could potentially also be used in transportation systems involving much larger vehicles to reduce congestion and collisions.
You can find out more about the cheerleaders here on Murata's website.