A team of cheerleading robots made their dancing debut in Tokyo on Thursday as creator Murata Manufacturing demonstrated its cutting-edge sensor technology.<\/p>\n
With curtains pulled back and Japanese pop music pulsing in the background, 10 doll-like robot girls with illuminated pom-poms rolled out onto a stage to perform their choreographed routine.<\/p>\n
The cheerleaders stand just 36 centimetres (10 inches) tall with matching bob hairstyles that hide the complicated machinery inside their heads.<\/p>\n
The team’s advanced gyro sensors, which are usually found in cars and digital cameras, keep them from falling off the balls that they wobble on during their routine, Murata said.<\/p>\n
The cute creations have LED eyes that shine in different colours as they manoeuvre into various formations including a heart shape, diagonal lines and a moving figure of eight.<\/p>\n
“Of course they cannot jump like true cheerleaders,” said Koichi Yoshikawa, a Murata engineer involved developing the technology.<\/p>\n
“But the idea is that they are doing their best to stay stable on their little ball, as if they were telling the team, ‘hang on, do your best’!”<\/p>\n
Group-control technology, developed in collaboration with Kyoto University, makes sure that the robots move in a synchronised way and don’t crash into each other.<\/p>\n
That promise got off to a shaky start, however, as several dolls collided and fell over during the first take in front of assembled media –prompting assistants to remove clumsy members of the squad.<\/p>\n
Despite the hiccup, Murata, a major electronics manufacturer, said the technology has big potential, such as helping cars stabilise on slippery or damaged roads.<\/p>\n
The company currently makes sensors that are used to monitor tyre pressure and in engine control units.<\/p>\n
Its next-generation technology could also be used as an anti-collision device in self-driving cars being developed by companies such as Google and Tesla.<\/p>\n
Also it “could be used in rescue robots that perform group tasks at disaster sites,” said Yoshikawa.<\/p>\n
While Murata is not planning to mass produce the cheerleaders, it’s hoping they’ll help draw kids into the engineering field, he said.<\/p>\n
The pom-pom squad follows on from the firm’s ‘Murata Boy’, a small child-like robot who rides a bicycle, first launched in 1991 and then updated in 2005, as well as unicycle-riding ‘Murata Girl’, released in 2008.<\/p>\n
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