Currently, the text entry method of the portable information devices including smart phones and tablet, is a soft keyboard that appears mainly in the viewing screen. It considered the limited screen of portable information device is inefficient. This paper proposes a gesture-based text entry method which does not require predetermined area. It can be available anywhere on the screen, thus touch type entry is possible. This method is based on the property of Japanese Hiragana-50-phonemic-table and two step sequence of finger gesture is utilized. The first step gesture corresponds to the row entry such as “a ka sa ta na”. The second one corresponds to the column entry of it, such as “a i u e o”. From the experiments, the proposed entry method is easy to learn and entry speed is acceptable. The experimental results show that the proposed method is practically applicable as a new text entry method.

Many people feel cleaning bathtub is a great deal of housework today. Moreover, it is dangerous especially for elderly people to clean a bathtub since they may be injured by slipping on the bathroom floor. However, Japan is a most aged society in the world, so that elderly people have to do housework in many Japanese household. On the other hand, an understanding customer requirement is most important for a conceptual design. Successful companies are providing the highest quality service by which customer receives a satisfaction through the Kando experience. Thus, an element of customer satisfaction is necessary for the great success in business. Therefore, authors have proposed the Idea Creation Support System (ICSS). In this paper, we develop a robot cleans a bathtub automatically by using ICSS.

In recent years, automation for housework have been desired. Although leaning robots are developed, most of them have limited to specific features as cleaning on flat floor with random motion algorithms. To realize high performance with multiple functions to the robot, its cost would be increased and the robot design would be complex. Therefore, in this paper, a novel structure with changing cleaning functions is proposed. As a first step, the proposed cleaning robot has two functions; a cleaning function for a narrow space, such as under a bed, with distance sensors, and a function of floor materials by acceleration sensor. Finally, several experimental results shows the validity of the function changeable robot system.

NC (Numerical Control) machine tools is the device which automated operation of a machine tools by numerical control, and it is greatly contributing to a trial production or manufacturing efficiency-ization at a factory. Machine operation of the NC machine tools is automated, however a human operator needs to determine a processing parameters. An inappropriate parameter causes high loading state operation or cutting vibration, and NC machine tools position accuracy become worse. Introducing force control in NC machine tools has advantages, such as reduction of machine load, and suppression of vibration. For force control in NC machine tools, it is necessary to attach a force sensor which is expensive and fragile. In this paper, force sensor-less cutting force detection is proposed. Finally, validity of proposed method is verified by experiment.

This paper deals with a study on the intelligent cooperation control system with human operators. Especially resilient cooperative system in the case of the unexpected damage to the system devices is discussed. The remote operation of the robot arm by human operator are considered as a simplified resilient system. In the experiments, the operator controls the robot arm while viewing the monitor. Suddenly, only auditory information without looking at the monitor situations are happened. Subjects make a scene to operate the robot arm with only auditory information. After studies, operation with the auditory information feedback will be effective.

In this study, we constructed a driving simulator and attempted to assist the driver in parallel parking by presenting auditory stimuli. For this purpose, we developed an acoustic information system that has the driver turn the steering wheel on the basis of sound-pressure differences in white noise output from left and right speakers. This system provides acoustic feedback to the driver based on deviation from the target value for steering wheel operation. First, we conducted an experiment to identify the manner in which people react to acoustic information given in this way and establish appropriate control parameters. Next, we investigated how acoustic information could affect driving characteristics in parallel parking. Furthermore, based on the parallel parking experimental results, we investigated and fixed the appropriate control parameters for each operating value of steering wheel. Even if we use the fixed control parameters, the acoustic information system is effective in providing driving support.

We have proposed the assistive caster unit for step climbing for manual wheelchair users so far. This caster unit is composed by two functions: The lock function which fixes the caster rotation in case of step climbing, and The assistive plates which have same climbing ability as large wheel imaginary in the confined space between footrest and main wheel. By these two functions, the user can climb a step with small driving force not only frontal approach but also oblique approach to a step. In particular, this paper reports the improvement of the step detection mechanism activating the lock function.

To instruct motions effectively, the authors have been studying how the effects of visual and/or haptics affect motion learning performances. They prepared a 2-D stroke motion of which velocity changes occurred on a predetermined trajectory: the trajectory where just the external rotation on shoulder worked was taken as an example of the 2-D stroke motions. It was examined whether subjects can perceive the change or not. Six types of instruction modes which are combinations of visual and/or haptics were compared for examining the perception characteristic. The performance of sensations were evaluated by measuring these velocity changes of threshold. In addition, the decisive factors for noticing the velocity changes were examined among the sensations such as the hand moving velocity, the muscular force, the contact force on finger-pads.

Perception-assist automatically modifies the user's motion when the power-assist robot detected the possibility of collision between the user and some obstacles in the moving direction of the user. It can be useful function for elderly persons' daily motion assist. However, since unintentional motion is generated by the robot, the user sometimes feels discomfort. In this paper, a new perception assist method is investigated to solve this problem. When vibration is added to tendon of antagonist muscle around a joint, kinesthetic illusion is generated and subjects feel as if their antagonist muscle is expanded and joint is rotated. Controlling the user's joint motion might be possible using kinesthetic illusion by applying vibration to the tendon. In previous studies about kinesthetic illusion, there are no studies adapting kinesthetic illusion to continuous movement such as elbow flexion extension motion. In this study, vibration is added to biceps brachii during only once movement and continuous movement. Some features of kinesthetic illusion were obtained during continuous movement.

Recently, the number of electric wheelchairs for the elderly persons have increased by the aging society. At the same time, the incidence of accidents by the electric wheelchair has been increasing. The main cause of the accident is considered to be operation mistake by the elderly.Therefore, we proposed a vehicle to perform a collision avoidance to surrounding pedestrians. Especially, gaze of the pedestrian is focused on. If the person notes the vehicle approaching, it is easy to avoid collision by pedestrians. Also by recognizing the pedestrian gaze, the vehicle is expected to realize smooth avoidance motion with prediction of the pedestrian behavior.In this paper, we develop the omni-directional personal vehicle with omni-wheels installed human gaze detection system. Finally, some of basic experiments for safety control with gaze detection are verified.

We use one or two laser rage sensor(s) for our mobile robots in order to navigate mobile robots and to measure length to surrounding objects. In order to detect objects that are located outside its own measurement rang of the laser range sensor, we used a mirror to modify the measurement range of a laser range sensor, and experimentally evaluated the performance of this trial. Basic experiments are done for different mirror layouts. The experiments showed satisfactory results, thus showed the validity of the proposed method. Yet the efforts for eliminating noises in the measured data must be continued for outdoor use.

As welfare application of robotics/mechatronics technology, we focus on rehabilitation support of the ankle motion. We redesigned an ankle rehabilitation support device and its control strategy such that both intrinsic safety and functional safety are well secured. By the usage of 3D-CAD with its internal CAE functionality, the rehabilitation support device became 80% smaller in length and 33% smaller in weight, compared with the old model. We discussed the position/force control strategy by considering the usage of rehabilitation purpose.

This study proposes the hypothesis that we use different facial muscles in the utterance of English/Japanese words. In order to experimentally prove this hypothesis, we measured and compared the electromyography signals of the facial muscles. The experiments include the comparison of English/Japanese words, the effect of pronunciation training, and the comparison of vowels with similar sound. The experimental results show that the used muscles are different depending on the language, and voice training with teacher voice are effective to activate muscle usage that are not usually used so far. This result indicates possibility to provide foreign language learners about the guide function of foreign language voice training.

Recentry, the neural network is used in teamwork assist studies to predict the solo task model. Prediction accuracy of the solo task model is required to be investigated. Therefore, prediction accuracy of the solo task model was verified with general joysticks. However, prediction accuracy of neural network has not been verify when predict the solo task models with force feedback joysticks. Furthermore, the study uses a driving task. However, in this study, oar model force feedback joysticks are made which used the rowing boat task in the future. Accordingly, in this study, we verify the prediction accuracy in the neural network learning with oar model force feedback joysticks.

Recently, the robots which work in a hospital and factory have developed. The robot is expected to omni-directional motion to move in limited space. For a Mecanum wheels to be used in the wheels of the omni-directional mobile robot has a complex structure, depending on the situation of the road surface lose stability, movement is difficult. Also, due to the movement on the assumption of slip control becomes to be difficult with slippery road surface. In this study, the development of the omni-directional whole direction mobile robot equipped with a Mecanum wheels. And in order to improve the motion of the efficiency, it performs a slip correction and disturbance observer, to verify the running performance in the actual road surface.

Studies on the underwater vehicle: UWV are classified into automatic control called AUVs and wired control type: ROVs. Generally driving force of the UWV is employed a screw or a water jet. Most of UWV studies have been focused on attitude control systems. However few researches attempted position control systems. Since viscosity of water is higher than the ground of viscosity, the UWV is strongly influenced by disturbances such as wave. It is difficult to stay at the constant position. The purpose of our research, therefore, is to propose fixed position control for the UWV. In this paper, a novel control system for the position control with disturbance observer is proposed. Finally, validity of proposed system is experimented by several simulations..

There are a great variety of monkeys in the zoos and can observe special movement. There is the thing which does not last that I have a tail in the monkey, and the monkey having a tail treats a tail having a long it than a body like a hand and I catch a rope and move from the edge to the edge and make a very interesting move. In this study, I assume a monkey having such a tail a model and make a robot model by a physics simulator and reproduce a state to cross the rope like a real monkey. Furthermore, using genetic algorithm, I change speed or an angle to move of the hand and plan the optimization of the model.

In this study, research the mobile robot using omni wheels, by functioning the deformation mechanism, which aims to cope with both all directional mobile and narrow space mobile. A mobile robot as four joint unit for three frames and four omni wheels. Thereby, mobile robot has mobility of omni direction movement type, flexibility of the narrow space movement type, and transformation mechanism to cope with both characteristic. Of the narrow space movement type and omni directional movement type, deformation in both directions is made possible by operating to joints unit and wheels. For confirmation of their validity, using the physics simulator.

Optical trapping is a promising technology for micromechanics, biotechnology and so on. Micro-scale object can be trapped and manipulated by optical trapping. In this study, we carried out experiment of manipulation of a glass beads on a slide glass. While the experiment in air results in failure, the beads in a water droplet can be manipulated. The trapping force can't overcome the gravitational force or an adhesive force by capillarity between the beads and the slide glass. Its manipulating performance in the water droplet is dependent on size of the beads and velocity of the manipulation. This would be because of viscous effect by fluid surrounding of the bead. On the contrary, viscosity near the slide glass can be evaluated with the result of the optical trapping manipulation.

We develop a measurement system for evaluating dispersion stability of colloidal liquids for thermal storage. The measurement principle is based on laser Doppler technique using a pair of evanescent waves created in the vicinity of the interface between solid and liquid. The use of evanescent waves can achieve a spatial resolution in the range of nanometers. In this paper, we report on the latest state of the development of the measurement system. The design concept of the system is explained and the measurement principle is provided. We built a prototype setup for initial experiment. The evanescent waves were generated and formed to a measurement volume at the surface of a flat glass plat. We experimentally confirmed the formation of the evanescent waves. Signals were obtained by using a solid material in the measurement volume near the interface.

Gap measurement is essential to clarification of lubrication phenomena at nano-meter gaps; however, there are no well-established methods. We present a new method for measuring the distribution of nano-meter sliding gaps. Vertical-objective-type ellipsometric microscope (VEM) was applied to sliding gap measurements. Feasibility of the method for the nano-meter gap measurement was demonstrated.

Vibration electric power generator has been attracting attention as an energy harvesting technology. Energy harvesting technology is an effective approach for sustainable, maintenance-free, and green power source for wireless, portable, or implanted electronics. Power generation using triboelectric charging is similar to that using electret. However it is flexible and very low cost. This study, we focus on a simple and high power vibration generator used by triboelectric charging for wearable power generator.

In our previous study, we confirmed the magnetic field of permanent magnet on the steel pipe could reduce the drag friction on the laminar flow of air in the pipe. Then, we focused that the magnetic field distribution affected the drag friction on the pipe wall. We prepared the ring type and cuboid type of magnets and compared the drag friction. As the results, the ring type magnets increased the drag friction, however, the cuboid type magnets reduce that. The estimated forces derived from the calculation of magnetic field distribution could explain the phenomena. We concluded that the magnetic field could control the drag friction of air flow in pipe flow.

In grinding, it is effective to use micro-particle grinding wheels to create high quality ground surfaces. However, the finer the abrasives used, the more problematic will the aggregateing of the abrasives be during the fabrication of the wheel. In this study, we aimed to resolve this problem by applying PELID to evenly disperse the microabrasives while laminating the grinding wheel. As a result of investigations, it was found that the microabrasives can be evenly dispersed over conductive substrates by PELID, but dispersion onto nonconductive substrates is uneven due to the charge-up of the substrate. Based on these findings, we proposed a new twin-nozzle PELID method, carried out experiments on dispersion on nonconductive substrates.

In recent years, competition in the manufacturing industry is growing increasingly intense every year on a global-scale. For this reason, Higher performance and miniaturization of products, weight reduction are important challenges to companies. The same demands are also made to tools essential to manufacturing such as grinding wheels. To meet these demands, the authors are developing a system which combines 3D printing and PELID to build grinding wheels , ELID for improving the wheel surface to provide the required grinding wheel performance, PELID(Patterning with Electrostatically Injected Droplet) which is a liquid ejection technique for controlling the distribution of abrasives in the grinding wheel. This report discusses the results of reviewing the system for fabricating grinding wheels.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is well known as a ceramic material which have superior friction and wear resistance characteristic in the water. That is used as a material for sliding bearings and mechanical seals. However, it have a problem that friction and wear become large in the ultra-pure water and during slow rotation. Then, we studied to improve the tribological properties of the carbon nanofiber (CNF) on the surface of sintered SiC grown by the SiC surface decomposition method. As a result, the friction force was reduced by the CNF on SiC surface.

Gelatin is useful biomaterials for biofabrication. The property of gelatin is unique. The state is changed to sol or gel by temperature. Utilizing the property of gelatin, we are able to fabricate cave for artificial vessels in biodevices. Therefore, micro gelatin fibers are useful devices for fabrication of artificial vessels. In this paper, we made a mold for fabrication of micro gelatin fibers. We used PTFE for molds, because it has non-adhesive. Then, we made micro gelatin fibers which were 20～100 μm in width utilizing the mold. Machining marks of the mold were transcribed on the surface of micro gelatin fibers. We are able to fabricate cave with arbitrary shape for artificial vessels utilizing micro gelatin fibers.

Generally, refrigerator has heater onto heat-exchanger set in freezing room. It requires us extra electricity only to thaw frost on the heat-exchanger. To replace heat-exchanger is worthwhile, however, frosting generation is not able to prevent. Therefore, a surface which can easily detach frost is truly demanded. Surface wettability and micro-texturing is supposed to have influence to change contact angle of frost and its contact area between frost and the surface, so we prepared several micro-texturing surface to observe the growth of frost on different line/space width, and depth specimens to clarify the effect of texturing on it. In the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) equipped peltier device behind of sample was used to observe the surface and micro frost generation on each surface.

Grooves were generated on the surface of the molding when the 3D structures were printed. The grooves were difficult to remove by the abrasive finishing process because the grooves exist inside of the printed structures. When the printed surface was melted and reformed utilizing chemical melting finishing process, the grooves will be disappeared and smooth surface will be appeared. 3D-Chemical Melting Finishing Process can selective surface treatment. In this paper, we investigated the fundamental characteristics of the 3D-Chemical Melting Finishing Process.

Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) is one of the noteworthy devices due to its superior decoration and low cost process. However, there is a drawback in low conversion efficiency. Therefore we have studied fabrication method of the TiO₂ films for the improvement of the conversion efficiency. In this paper, we report on a method how to improve the conversion efficiency due to optimizing TiO₂ layers using the electrostatic inkjet. It was found that density of the TiO₂ layer is controlled by changing gap length between the two electrode by a scanning electron microscope of the inside and interface of TiO₂ layers. Further, the conversion efficiency of the cell was slightly enhanced by the stack of the two different density layers.

Because of the recent development of science and technology, Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) has been advanced to the investigation, such as a disaster site. These aircraft have spread, in this condition there is a possibility of contact with an obstacle when moving on the ground. For damage to the power source is fatal to MAV, we consider that the development of the folding mechanism is an urgent need, in the present study was carried out its development.

Changing the uneven surface allow the water repellency to increase and decrease. The leaf of the lotus is known to form the water-repellent surface by a surface uneven and characteristic. In reference to it, I made the surface which changed surface height, the width of the column, a diameter. I made the water-repellent surface by applying water-repellent medicine to the uneven surface which I made. I drop a water on the surface which I made and observe the water-repellent increase and decrease by measuring a contact angle and a Sliding angle. As a result of measuring In a depth change, a sliding angle and a contact angle become constant in 50μm in depth or more together. In the change of the uneven, I understood that I could raise a sliding angle and a contact angle by lowering a diameter and the width of the column

This paper describes effects of viscous liquid on adhesive characteristics of sole pads for insect-inspired wall-climbing robots. Ants can walk on the smooth vertical surfaces using an adhesive organ and secreted viscous liquid. We fabricated two kinds of adhesive pads inspired by the adhesive organ of ants. Pure water and silicone oil of kinetic viscosity 1000 mm²/s were provided to the pads, and normal adhesive forces between the pad and a glass surface were measured. The experimental results show that the pad provided with the silicone oil generates higher adhesive force than the pad with water. The adhesive force of the silicone oil remains constant regardless of the pad materials and amount of the oil, and increases with increasing pull-off velocity.

Anti-stiction coating must be one of the key technologies to ensure reliability of NEMS devices and to improve accuracy in a nanoimprint lithography. Typically, polymer films were coated on a silicon surface for anti-stiction. In this study, we proposed vapor-phase deposition technique to form fluoropolymer film on silicon surfaces. Fluoropolymer used in this study was perfluoropolyether (PFPE) Fomblin Zdol (molecular weight of 2000 amu). As a substrate to coat the Zdol, we used a silicon wafer. Anti-stiction properties were verified by measuring surface energies by a contact angle measurement and also by measuring stiction forces using an atomic force microscope (AFM). As a result, it was revealed that the films thicker than 0.5 nm effectively reduced the adhesion forces down to approximately a half of that of the bare silicon surface.

This paper describes the development of a several smart material devices such as stress-strain sensor and micro-energy harvesting based on our newly developed the robust magnetostrictive Fe-rich Co alloy. The principle of the “inverse magnetostrictive phenomena” and the basic design of ring-type torque-sensor are first mentioned and then, the magenetostrictive vibration energy harvesting those are characterized by leakage magnetic flux” associated by applied stresses is discussed.. These will become the important technique to develop the “IoT sensor net- work” devices in the near future.

Nowadays, it is expected that vibration power generator is used as autonomous power supply of wireless sensor network. Mechanical resonant vibration power generator is high efficiency when environmental vibration is near the resonant frequency. However, displacement of moving part of generator is large at low frequencies. To miniaturize a generator, it is necessary that a generator is changed translation mechanism into rotary mechanism. Over the past few years, several studies have been made on vibration power generation using self-excited rotation or gyro effect. In comparison with self-excited rotation or gyro type, a resonance type generator has an advantage of being a simple structure. So, we develop the resonant rotary vibration power generator to attain miniaturization of the generator. In this paper, we report the mathematical model of the resonant rotary vibration power generator and results of evaluating the prototype.

Gyroscopic generator generates electricity from environmental vibration using gyroscopic effect. In this paper, simultaneous equations that take into account the characteristics of the spinning motor and the power generation unit have been made and numerical solutions were obtained to find the efficiency of the generator. Also the efficiency improvement by a reduction gear was clarified. A prototype generator was produced to verify the power increase by the feedback mechanism and the validity of the theory.

This report introduces the function of the developed Monitoring and Operation Unit and the application case of a production site. This unit has three functions. First is acquiring information from a display of manufacturing equipment. The second is generating a human interface signal of manufacturing equipment. The third is connection to network. Automatic information collection and beginning work through a network are achieved to off-line equipment using these functions. Automation and visualization of a production site are achieved by this unit. Installing this unit and the transfer robot in an existence half automated manufacturing process makes the production full automation.

In this work, magnetostrictive fiber/polymer composites are developed by embedding Fe-Co continuous fibers in an epoxy matrix in order to study the stress-rate-dependent energy harvesting characteristics. Compression tests are first conducted to measure the output voltage of the sample. A simple nonlinear magnetomechanical coupling modeling of magnetostrictive fiber/polymer composite is then established, and the output voltage due to applied stress and effective magnetoelastic constant are predicted. The results show that the output voltage density of the Fe-Co fiber/polymer composite dramatically increases with increasing stress-rate, and becomes larger than that of Galfenol. Synthesis of Fe-Co fiber based composite might reduce the effect of the demagnetization fields, generate strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and induce large prestress during the curing process, leading to extraordinary inverse magnetostriction enhancement. It is expected that the output voltage becomes large if the fiber is heat treated and is made thinner.

Low-cost and low-power monitoring technologies are needed for an administrator of infrastructure to manage them safely and efficiently. Conventional inspection technologies are fundamentally depending on the inspectors' skills such as hammering and visual test, which demands much labor and financial cost. Acoustic emission (AE) techniques have the potential to detect quantitatively early-stage deteriorations of the infrastructure. We have been developed an innovative monitoring system with a wireless AE examination. In this monitoring system, AE signals are filtered and extracted as the AE parameters in the FPGA based sensor nodes. A sensor node has been equipped with a wireless interface and an energy harvesting module designed for 10 years maintenance-free operation. The AE parameters are subsequently transmitted to a data server that accumulates the data necessary to diagnose deterioration of the infrastructure. This paper presents the system architectures of the wireless AE monitoring system according to our prototype.

Energy harvesting is one of the key technologies to realize the IoT (Internet of Things) society. Since it is unrealistic choice to feed power line to all the wireless sensor nodes or replace batteries in them, gathering ambient energy and transducing it into electricity is an important alternative. In these days, more and more researchers around the world are diving into the development race on energy harvesting device technology and autonomous sensor nodes. The United States and the EU are eagerly funding relevant projects for decades and finally the Japan government has found out the importance of energy harvesting technologies. In this lecture, various energy harvesting technologies and their R&D activities including photovoltaic, thermoelectric, electromagnetic, piezoelectric, electrostatic and magnetostrictive as well as future prospects of the technologies are mentioned comprehensively.