This research aims to improve maneuverability for power assist system based on guidance force field. This paper describes a method of improving maneuverability using guidance force field of toward the desired trajectory considering approachability on the impedance-controlled manipulator. The approachability in this study means the direction where to approach target work piece. The guidance force field generated toward planned trajectory considering approachability based on Minimum-Jerk Model. It was designed to be easy to apply operator's mind, because the guidance force was designed to decrease when the difference between the desired trajectory and the end-effector position was increased using spreading parameter of guidance force field. Moreover, we defined evaluation function to evaluate maneuverability for guidance force field. As a result of study, we confirmed that the proposed method can improve maneuverability through experiments.

Our goal is to create a service robot that can effectively express itself by incorporating the choreography that have been inherited throughout the ages. In this paper, we use a robot based on Joruri puppet with integrating 2D-LiDAR, and verify its effectiveness in attracting visitors at a large exhibition. Then, we will attempt to measure the effectiveness, the color of the kimono, the effect of sound, and visitors' movements such as taking pictures. At the same time, we verify the possibility of using 2D-LiDAR for measurement.

In this work we developed a planner for planar sensorless in-hand caging manipulation for part feeders. In-hand caging manipulation is a method in which an object is caged by a hand throughout manipulation and located around a goal as a result of the deformation of the cage without sensing the object configuration. This method can be applied to part feeders to manipulate objects from random to targeted poses. In this paper, the following three points were proposed for part feeders, a new robot hand configuration named ``opposite-type hand'', improved motion planner for the hand and a hand closing algorithm. The first aims to make the manipulation more robust. The second is for computationally efficient planning of in-hand caging manipulation. The last improves pose accuracy by closing the robot hand until the object reaches desired pose. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed points.

Although there are various past studies on pitching robots, there is insufficient research on a pitching robot with a comparable size and mass to a human pitcher. Past studies have not simulated a human pitcher's hand motions, including the fingertips, and they have only developed robots capable of throwing at a slower speed than a human pitcher. We have developed a pitching robot that simulates the motions of a human pitcher with the aim of achieving similar pitching speeds as a human pitcher. Our robot can mimic the human pitcher's transition from active to passive joint motions by using an elbow mechanism that can shut off power to the motors. We have also developed fingers that can add a spin to the ball. Also, the robot is closer to the weight of an average human adult. We reduced the weight of the elbow mechanism by 48.5% compared to the previous model, employed more flexible materials. By adjusting the timing of the movement of the wrist, index finger and middle finger, the robot could throw the ball with a rotating motion.

In this paper, we propose the principle of the robot hand equipped with mechanisms consisted of a belt and a spatula at the fingertips to scoop and pull-in a soft object in addition to simply pinching up an object. This fingertip mechanism allows the fingertip to be inserted between a target object and floor or other objects with low friction and enables stable gripping by pulling the scooped object into the robot hand. With these functions, the robot hand can also pick up a soft object without causing the object excessive deformation or breakage. To achieve both scooping and pulling-in functions compactly, the belt is driven by a mechanism using a motor and flat spiral spring. Furthermore, this paper proposes a small linear drive for moving the spatula linearly that uses a leaf spring with holes in a row as a rack gear. At the end of this paper, we discuss the configurations of the actual machine and the knowledge of the pinching up motion and scooping and pulling-in function obtained from basic experiments with the actual robot hand.

A lunar landing base is a key infrastructure for mass transportation from Earth to the Moon and for sustainable activities on the Moon in the future. Unmanned robots are expected to survey the soil stiffness of multiple points for securely constructing the landing infrastructure. There is a trade-off between the time or energy required for the survey, the number of survey points, and the completeness of the survey. This paper proposes a path planning for robotic soil investigation that determines the location and the number of additional survey points. The proposed method aims to obtain completeness of information related to the soil stiffness as well as to reduce the survey time. The simulation study reveals that the method achieves obtaining a certain level of completeness while it reduces the time required for the survey.