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Avatar robot newme from avatarin Inc. detects obstacles using Acconeer’s A1 radar sensor

Located in Tokyo, Japan, avatarin Inc. was established in April 2020 as the spin-out company of ANA Holdings Inc, an airline company. avatarin Inc. provides an instantaneous transportation service and aims to expand humanity’s potential by offering new abilities through avatars.

newme is a communication avatar robot developed by avatarin Inc. which can be operated by using a PC and smartphone. The avatar robot enables people to communicate and collaborate through connecting remote locations, for instance, going on a virtual museum tour, attending a meeting or servicing customers at a shop even when customers are at their home.

Acconeer’s XM132 Entry Module featuring the A111 pulsed coherent radar sensor is built into newme and used for detecting obstacles with a wide field of view

newme is equipped with a lot of advanced technologies such as cameras and sensors. The avatar robot can move up to 6 hours of continuous operation with a single charge and 80% charging can be archived within just 2 hours.

Acconeer’s XM132 Entry Module featuring the A111 pulsed coherent radar has been applied at the front of the avatar robot to detect obstacles with a wide field of view. The A111 pulsed coherent radar sensor was chosen thanks to that it is robust and insensitive to fluctuations and noise from light when used around reflective surfaces or in direct sunlight. Moreover, with the PCR sensor is possible to monitor a larger area with a single sensor. Further, the PCR sensor provides the reflected radio wave’s amplitude along with the distance calculation and it makes it possible to filter out and discard any disturbances caused by small object reflections.

The Evaluation Kit was straightforward, and the Acconeer’s customer support team was very collaborative

The initial evaluation with the robot was implemented using the XM132 development kit. Since the kit was straightforward, avatarin Inc. did not face any difficulties.

However, avatarin Inc. went through a challenging moment when tuning detector setup since the avatar robot can be static or moving when the objects are being detected. The customer support was very good, and it was possible to get the custom detector up and running with very few interaction rounds.

“The collaboration with Acconeer was very good specially to customize the detector setup to support our needs. The engineers were very knowledgeable on their product and its limitation which lead to a very short amount of time when solving the specific problems we had.”

CHARITH FERNANDO, CTO OF AVATARIN INC.

About avatarin Inc.

avatarin Inc. was established as a spin-out of ANA Holdings Inc. on April 1st, 2020 with the mission to expand humanity’s potential by offering new abilities through avatars. The ultimate aim is to establish a next-generation global mobility infrastructure to help solve the world’s remaining challenges. The business model comprises of robots as a service, or RaaS, is an emerging business model that minimizes the costs and commitment for businesses to deploy robots.