Sunflower Robots Need No Water

Various robotic creations produced highly diverse Japanese people. Not only a robot with a particular function, had they also created a robot to a satisfaction in the field of art.

Recently, a robot named Rob square exhibition in Fukuoka, Japan showed a unique robot named Himawari which in Japanese means sunflower.

As the name implies, this robot shaped like a sunflower and works by mimicking the motion heliotropes plants that always follow the direction of sunlight. But of course, robots are not plants need water and sunlight to turn.

“The difference, this robot does not respond to the direction of the sun, but follow the movements of the hands of someone who stimulates,” said the designer of robots, Akira Nakayasu from Kyushu University.

At the head of the flower, there is a camera catching the light emitted by the infrared LED. The light is then reflected the movement of the hand nearest to the robot. Part of the robot controller unit will then process the data and ordered that the robot immediately following the hand movements.

Nakayasu admitted Himawari interested in making robots inspired by the beauty of this because the sunflower crop. According to him, if observed, the beauty of the movement that followed the sunflower sunlight as indicating a nature of communication messages

“I also then created the robot with the shape and nature of flowers that mimic the sun. The beauty of slow motion Himawari created a robot to interact with human motion, the same thing also happened on the original plant which appears as if communicating with the sun”.