TMCnet News
JAPANESE ROBOT VENTURE ZMP DEVELOPS AUTONOMOUS VEHICLETOKYO, Jun 10, 2009 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- Japanese robot development venture ZMP Inc. unveiled on Tuesday an autonomous vehicle that it plans to begin marketing later this month for R&D applications. The RoboCar is one-tenth the size of an ordinary car and equipped with a CCD camera and an infrared laser system to recognize the outlines of obstacles and calculate their distance. Using this technology, the autonomous vehicle can travel in a lane while avoiding obstacles in its path. It can run for up to one hour on its nickel metal hydride battery. The RoboCar can be controlled by remote, and pairs of robots can intercommunicate. ZMP will market the unadorned bare-bones machine for 598,000 yen (US$6138) and a version with a stylized body for 1.29 million yen. It hopes to sell 200 units in the first year. (Nikkei) |