The Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, or SCARA, is an industrial robot typical of those widely used in assembly processes. It was invented by Professor Makino of the University of Yamanashi, Japan, the author of this report, and developed by him in collaboration with his colleagues and industrial partners. The first prototype of the SCARA robot was built in 1978. Fundamental studies were done on the characteristics and usability of this prototype and the second one, built in 1980. In 1981, some industrial partners began to market their own versions of the SCARA. These models were called SCARA-type robots. This report recounts mainly the first stage of the development of the SCARA.

This paper describes the successful research and development (R&D) of parallel bicycles (PB robots) including six prototypes created by the authors and their applications to personal vehicles. The first, developed in 1986, consists of a pair of coaxial wheels and an inverted pendulum on the wheel axis. Since then, the authors have carried out fundamental and practical studies on static/dynamic posture stabilization control, dynamic movement, and slope and stair ascent/descent. The PB robot control mechanism has recently been applied to educational robots, mobile humanoid robots, and personal vehicles. This paper also discusses personal vehicles commercialized as an application of the PB robots.

ASIMO, developed by HONDA Research Institute Japan Co., Ltd., is the world’s first humanoid robot to achieve autonomous biped walking. Despite the fact that research on humanoid robots began in the 1960s, no successful cases of dynamic biped walking robots existed before P2. ASIMO, which is an abbreviation of its product name “Advanced Step for Innovative Mobility,” began being developed in 1986. Prototype 2 (P2) astonished the world when it was introduced to the public in December, 1996. A smaller, more multifunctional ASIMO, shown in Fig. 1, was unveiled in 2000. In July 2002, ASIMO became famous around the world when it rang the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)’s opening bell. In 2004, it was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) [2].

This paper focuses on a telerobotic system in which an operator executes tasks by operating an arm-equipped tracked vehicle, HELIOS IX. It is necessary to develop an assisting sensor system, teleoperation system, and semi-autonomous robot motions to enhance teleoperationability, because HELIOS IX has many DOFs and unique mechanisms. To realize this development, the authors discuss the required specifications of the sensors, teleoperation system, and semi-autonomous motion planning. First, the sensor system for assistance and teleoperation system are described. Next, terrain-adaptive, tracked locomotion with no additional sensors is explained and verified through terrain traversing experiments. Then, the authors discuss the telerobotic system for the door opening task, a system based on Shared Autonomy, and demonstrate that HELIOS IX can successfully perform the door opening task. Finally, we describe what we have learned and the problems involved in the development of the telerobotic system of the HELIOS IX rescue robot.

In order to improve the measurement accuracy of fuel injection quantity based on Test Bench for fuel injection Pump (abbr. TB4P), on the basis of the function between needle valve lift and fuel injection quantity, two-level pressure adjustment module, which combines proportional flow rate valve with pressure sensor and takes advantage of spring of fuel injector, is used to control the outlet pressure of fuel injection pump, which results in the fuel injection pressure stably. Fuel injection pump and fuel injector are modeled by use of HCD of AMESim, and the system model of fuel injection quantity measurement is built. Simulation curve of fuel injection quantity is got by AMESim, which is compared with the curve of standard fuel injection quantity according to relative error. The results show that the relative error from the data of simulation system is smaller, so the methods of measurement and simulation in this paper are effective.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a ceiling hanging mobile robot for factories, offices and living spaces where human and robots can share spaces cooperatively. Based on an analysis of related work, we select two promising candidates of ceiling attachment method; a permanent magnet method and a mechanical constraint method. We combine these two ceiling attachment methods with practical locomotion methods, and realize two ceiling hanging mobile robots. Two different robots are designed and implemented based on our selected approaches. We evaluated the basic performances of those two robots in experiments. Difficulties in their design and implementation processes of the two robots are described, and technical insights are summarized based on the comparison of difficulties, safety, performance and cost. Discussions reveal that the two robots have quite different characteristics. In conclusion, two different application areas are proposed for the two robots with different ceiling attachment methods. Although there are large numbers of reports on wall climbing or ceiling hanging mobile robots, this paper is the first work, to our knowledge, to compare qualitatively and quantitatively the performances of multiple robots through development of real prototypes.

This paper discusses human skills enabling rapid adaptation to a changing environment, e.g., when a human table tennis player hits an incoming ball, and describes how to transfer these skills to a robot. Human skills are classified into motor and cognitive. Motor skills are functions involving precise limb movement with the intent to perform a specific act, i.e., hitting a ball. Cognitive skills are functions involving meaningful responses to external stimuli. We extract these skills from observing human movement using principal component analysis and generalize these skills as a schema for a generalized motor program. We also describe table tennis matches between a human opponent and a robot to which these skills have been transferred.

Automated vehicle inspection is utilized to inspect vehicles in a parking lots. This paper presents an approach for inspecting vehicle inside through car windows to determine any changes since the last inspection using a Laser Range Finder (LRF) sensor. Features of the approach include the detection inside vehicles method, data alignment using an ICP algorithm, inside vehicle data comparison to find any differences since the last inspection. An item identification method has been used to obtain the average height and size of objects inside vehicles to identify such changes. Our approach was shown to successfully detect typical simple items, i.e., bags, notebook PCs, and wallets, used to test the proposed method. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of our approach for inspecting and recognizing objects inside vehicles.

In this paper, we propose a mobile robot system which has functions of person following and autonomous returning. The robot realizes these functions by analyzing information obtained with camera and laser range finder. Person following is performed by using HOG features, color information, and pattern of range data. Along with person following, a map of the ambient environment is generated from range data. Autonomous returning to the starting point is performed by applying potential method to the generated map. We verified the proposed method by experiment using a wheel mobile robot in an indoor environment.

Although many metal work welding processes have been robotized recently, manual welding is indispensable in custom-made and high-mix low-volume productions. Hence, skilled welders are needed widely in the metal work industry. On the other hand, many people have little incentive to become a new welder because of the high physical risk and heavy demands of skills training. Virtual Reality (VR) technology may provide an effective solution, and various complex high-tech VR systems for training have been proposed so far. However, high tech VR training systems may not be required as long as the skill to be acquired is analyzed, and its tasks are confined. In this paper, a simple VR training system for steady state electrode manipulation skills in manual arc welding is proposed that uses neither force display nor mixed reality, and its effectiveness is verified. Good correlation is found between skills learned via VR welding and in actual welding in experimental tasks. Consequently, the proposed system can train novice welders safely.

This research proposes a new propulsion mechanism called “Surface Wave Mechanism.” The concept behind the Surface Wave Mechanism – generating waves for propulsion – features a large propulsion area, no exposed infinite rotating shaft, and water- and dust-proof attributes. The Surface Wave Mechanism is introduced, and three prototypes are designed and evaluated. Specifically, the cylindrical model, Rotary Surface Wave Mechanism PL-1, possesses a novel structure that generates propulsion throughout the cylindrical body using a single actuator, as detailed in the mechanical design and experiment results presented.

We have been studying the mechanism and control method for electromagnet-type microrobots that have a volume of 1 cm³. Running straight and making turns with just a single electromagnet coil is the feature of the microrobot I developed. Newly developed microrobot is controlled by a wireless remote controller using the difference in the vibration characteristics of the left and right legs of the microrobot.

We developed simple legged robots (biped, quadruped, and multiped robots) and their control systems based on the biomechanical and physiological findings to investigate biomechanical and neuromechanical functions in locomotion dynamics. This paper introduces these robots and the experimental results.

This paper presents a novel myoelectric prosthetic hand with a strong grasp that contributes to weight saving. The hand has 2 degrees of freedom (DOF) for wrist motion and 6 DOF for motion by the four fingers and thumb. The hand’s appearance and size are similar to those of a Japanese woman’s hand. The hand weighs less than 300 g and its grasp exceeds 20 N.

This paper describes a humanoid robot system that simultaneously controls the three factors, energy transmission, rotational axis and centrifugal force in rope-turning tasks. As a result, this system realized both rope turning with one fixed end and with a human rope turner.

This report presents a new hand motion assist robot for rehabilitation therapy. The robot has exoskeleton with 18 DOFs and a self-motion control – symmetrical master-slave motion assistance training. It assists independent flexion/extension and abduction/adduction of individual hand joints, thumb opposability, palmar flexion/dorsiflexion of the wrist, and forearm pronation/ supination.

The Slim Slime Robot is a hyper redundant mobile robot with three-dimensional workspace composed of serially connected modules driven by pneumatic actuators. This paper covers the design and control of the Slim Slime Robot.

This paper introduces the android robot SAYA and its applications. SAYA was developed to enable human beings and robots to communicate emotions. SAYA shows six basic facial expressions: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, sadness, and happiness. In order to improve the quality of facial expressions and its reality, the android robot which mimics a real human being was also developed. The suggested practical applications for SAYA are a receptionist and a remote teacher. The android robot SAYA is also serving as a simulated patient for medical interview training in psychiatric education.

We have developed a simply designed robot for the purpose of the psychological research confirming human recognition of the boundaries of robot agents. The physical boundary and the agent’s boundary of a robot are considered to have different shapes in human recognition. Results of the experiment indicated that we controlled the agent’s boundary successfully.

In this report, we introduce the development of a teleoperation system for a construction robot. The system is based on master-slave control, and consists of existing hardware, including hydraulic actuators. We propose presentation methods to provide a realistic presence at a real field, and confirm the validity of our system with experiments.

We have developed an innovative medical-personnel rounds-assistance robot called Terapio for use in hospital support, mainly in medical materials delivery and personnel rounds data recording. Terapio’s omnidirectional mobility and personnel tracking control during doctors’ rounds realize the smooth transfer of medical supplies from the nurses’ station to a patient’ bedside, for example. Vital information collected during medical personnel rounds is automatically recorded by a CCD camera and a voice recorder. This important information is then stored through the use of a touch panel.

This paper presents an innovative pressure sensor system embedded in a sock, which has a number of health care applications. One of these is the low-cost, reliable detection of the bed-departure of Alzheimer’s patients, an increasingly common problem that causes significant stress to caregivers. The system comprises a pressure sensor embedded in a sock and a coin battery-powered microcontroller containing a radio-frequency module. Once the user wanders out of bed and steps onto the floor, the sensor on the sock will immediately detect the pressure caused by his or her body weight and will wirelessly trigger an audible sound in a caregiver’s monitoring unit, which can be a Smartphone, tablet, or dedicated monitor. Furthermore, the pressure sensor and the microcontroller can be combined into one re-attachable unit, which can be stuck conveniently to the ball or heel of the user’s foot or any ordinary sock, slipper or shoe. In addition, the system can function as a highly accurate pedometer that is useful for monitoring the user’s health by tracking changes in his or her gait characteristics. In this study, a prototype sensor sock was developed that included an ultra-thin flexible pressure sensor, microcontroller, Bluetooth low energy module, and control software. The efficacy of the sensor sock in detecting and alerting patients’ wandering has been demonstrated.