ZMP Uses PTC Pro/ENGINEER® Wildfire® 3.0

Market Analysis Changes Incorporated without Delaying Product Launch

PTC, the Product Development Companyâ„¢, today announced that ZMP has created the first network music player, miuro, using Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0. ZMP specializes in robotics and the new music player, miuro, is equipped with the latest features such as autonomous movement technology.

ZMP has been using Pro/ENGINEER, PTC's leading 3D CAD solution, since 2001. ZMP originally selected PTC because high performance 3D CAD is necessary to develop a human-like robot which has complicated joints that move smoothly. In addition, Pro/ENGINEER has strong capabilities to leverage 2D data in 3D designs, which is needed for ZMP to collaborate with its art designer. The first product developed by ZMP using Pro/ENGINEER was a humanoid robot PINO Ver.2 which was launched in 2003. Subsequently, ZMP used Pro/ENGINEER to design its next humanoid robot, nuvo, which was launched for home use in 2004.

During the development of miuro, the first priority was on the robot's unique appearance which includes two hemispheres as a wheel. After pre-market analysis, ZMP determined that it was necessary to reduce the overall size of miuro by 10% from its original prototype. Since the product release date was already determined, ZMP decided to upgrade from Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 to Wildfire 3.0 in order to utilize enhanced sketcher, assembly and drawing capabilities.

Additional challenges in the miruo development project included the need for design intent and change information to be shared quickly and accurately with internal and external team members. Specifically, design information had to be shared with a team member having no 3D CAD environment, several other internal team members as well as outside suppliers with limited security access rights. A new capability added to Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 allows shaded views to be included in 2D drawings and published to PDF, enabling a swift and correct communication of change requests with suppliers and designers.

"ZMP has been impressed with the improved interfaces, higher general performance, and productivity improvements of Pro/ENGINEER that continue to help our mechanical engineers produce the most innovative robot products," said Mr. Hiroaki Koike, general manager, Technology Development Department of ZMP. "With Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0, ZMP was able to quickly take advantage of features that helped improve collaboration efficiencies in our diversified product design environment, ultimately helping us make necessary changes determined by our market analysis without jeopardizing our launch date."

"ZMP continues to leverage Pro/ENGINEER to design some of the most captivating commercial robots available in increasingly shortened timeframes," said Chad Hawkinson, vice president, product strategy, electronics, PTC. "The power, quality and ease-of-use of Pro/ENGINEER make it the right choice for electronics and high tech companies around the world."

The miuro is called a "network" music player robot because, unlike any other commercial music players around the world, the robotic miuro roams to find the best location to receive and play music. The miuro has a variety of connection options to enable listeners to enjoy music from multiple sources and in multiple locations. Users can either enjoy music stored on a PC via wireless LAN connection, or attach and play an Apple Computer's iPod® (or via an audio input terminal from other music players) through special speakers co-developed with KENWOOD.

By PTC