In these years, a lot of people suffer with a swelling and a poor circulation of legs. Therefore, functional stockings that improve these symptoms by pressure receive much attention. For the design of them, we need to investigate the state when persons wear these stockings. In this research, I simulate the leg state on wearing stocking. Theoretically, if we have 3-D data of legs, Young's modulus and material properties of stockings, we can predict the deformation of legs and the distribution of cloth pressure. For the calculation, I model legs as a structure that consists of a rigid part and an elastic part. As a result of the simulation, I could calculate the deformation of legs and the distribution of cloth pressure to some extent. Especially as a regards the cloth pressure, the calculated result was close to the measured one. This simulation is an efficient technique for on demand product design and online shopping, the evaluation of stockings.

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We videoed and gave geometric analysis concerning for the position of spinneret, 6^<th> part and 13^<th> part of a larval body in spinning process. As a result, we confirmed some basic actions for searching basement of cocoon construction in the space. Therefore Locus pattern of Silkworm's spinning behavior based on "8" character and "S" character. We modeled this pattern to the Lemuniscate Curvilinear function, and tried to make some locus design for plane surface structure. Furthermore, We extended the pattern of Lemniscate Curvilinear to tree-dimensional space, column model and sphere model. And we applied to make artificial structure by using of a composite material and robot, we analyzed the movement for creating the Lemniscate's curvilinear function. We divided the movement to two elements, stretching and swinging, and we made two equations to control the stretching and swinging actuator.

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The micro fiber is adopted in a variety of industrial fields. The system which measures mechanical characteristic of the micro fiber is required high reliability in various environments. However, the method of evaluation for micro fiber has not been established. Then, a experimental equipment which can measure strength of micro fiber was developed. This system can measure strength by the the micro N class pull load. As for the glass fiber, it has been understood that the strength and the strain decrease from the experiment.

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In the flexible production system, cooperation of an operator and a robot is strongly demanded. This study uses various types of robots in a cell production system and a line production system. For the expression and analysis of the cell-line combined system and multi-robot system, we adopt the Petri-net. It has a function to represent not only the cooperation of the robot and operator, but also the special technique such as "kanban" method of the production system.

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The purpose of this research is to develop hi-speed and hi-accuracy machining system which is corresponded to 1 micron of accuracy. The servo data is the set of position command at every servo cycle time, which is minimum unit of position command to control servo motor in NC machining processes. The developed system has two methods to realize hi-speed and hi-accuracy machining. One is the geometric interpolation that generates the servo data directly from geometric model without NC program. The other is the prediction error compensation that simulates motion error and compensates it automatically. This report refers to the algorithms of the geometric interpolation and the prediction error compensation. Moreover the result of machining experiment using generated servo data from free surface model and compensation of motion error are described.

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Aluminum tube for gutter is welded by manual works. The manual works need mach time for making of one aluminum tube. So, automation of aluminum tube welding is expected. This paper developed robotic system for aluminum tube welding with 3DOF rotative table and cartesian coordinate manipulator. And this research makes simulator of welding motion. We planed welding motion that torch and links of the manipulator avoid aluminum tube and 3DOF rotative table. Position of translatory slider at cartesian coordinate ma- nipulator and angle of 3DOF rotative table was calculated in simulator. The real robotic system for aluminum tuoe welding could move by being calculated sulider position and angle of 3DOF rotative table.

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This paper concerns dynamic characteristics of a feed drive system with the nonlinear spring behavior. The dynamic characteristics during the microscopic motion can be represented with a mixed term by combining Coulomb friction and the nonlinear spring behavior. Comparing experiment results with simulation results, it can be found that the dynamic characteristics are dominated by the Coulomb friction term in the range of 1OOμm and over, and described by the mixed term in the range of 5〜100μm. It is clarified that the effect of Coulomb friction on the mixed term is excessively strengthened when the Coulomb frictional coefficient is used in the range of 1OOμm and over.

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This paper is concerned with a flow rate control of tilting-ladle-type automatic pouring process in casting industries. In this paper, the flow rate is modeled mathematically by using mass equilibrium and Bernoulli's theorem. And then, the flow rate feedforward control system is constructed by using inverse dynamics of the flow rate model. By using the control system, accuracy of the flow rate can be improved, and it is possible to construct systematically the flow rate control to ladles with various shapes. In order to verify effectiveness of the proposed control system, the system is applied to automatic pouring robot in real casting plant.

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This study develops a two-step genetic algorithm-based method to generate robot actions varied in terms of their impressions given to users. This study is a part of the project that aims to achieve autonomous generation of emotional actions for robots. This study aims at generating sampled actions that satisfy hardware constraints of the robot in concern and give varied impressions as well. The variation in the sampled action group was supported by the result of a survey. Two action groups were shown to subjects; one group consists of six actions selected by the proposed method, and the other one consists of six actions randomly selected from the actions that satisfy hardware constrains of robot. The subjects evaluated variety of each action group in five levels. The result showed that the action group selected by the proposed method was scored better evaluation points than the random group.

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Emotion expression through behavior is meaningful for communication processes between robots and humans. Automatic emotion expression generation is needed for those robots in order to communicate with humans smoothly. Proposed technique generate emotional motions by modifying base motion patterns applying adjectival modification rules. Adjectival modification rules are consisted of the relationships between emotions and adjectival expressions. We have shown the technique to obtain adjectival modification rules according to organoleptic test. This paper shows that proposed technique generates the suitable emotional motion patterns based on obtained adjectival modification rules. And we confirm that generated motions can express suitable emotions using test of significance.

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A 6-DoF serial arm hand is controlled to move toward an object in an unseen environment. A consciousness-based architecture (CBA) we developed, a hierarchical human development model representing the relationship between consciousness and behavior, is used for imitating human groping action. During forward motion toward the object, a robot arm hand can help to avoid obstacles, to which the robot collects contact information. CBA organizes such information to learn a path plan for backward motion to the origin without contact to the obstacles. Experimental result show CBA successfully reaches the hand to the goal avoiding an obstacle.

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In the future, demand for robots which can comfort or relax human would increase. But there is no certain approach to develop such robots now. We propose a friendly robot system as a platform to repeat the process of trial and error. In this paper, we describe several sensory and soft-textured suits like animal skins for covering the robot system and software system having mapping function for reforming interaction modality easily. Finally we report our interaction test at an event site.

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Imitation is a powerfur tool for behavior learning and human communication. Basically, imitative learning is composed of model observation and model reproduction. This paper applies a spiking neural network and self-organizing map for model observation, and modular neural networks with some multilayer-perceptron and a steady-state genetic algorithm for model reproduction. The proposed method is applied for a partner robot interacting with a human. Experimental results show that the proposed method can learn behaviors through imitation and can interact with a human efficiently.

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Fixed sized neural networks are a popular technique for learning the adaptive control of non-linear plants. When applied to the complex control of android robots, however, they suffer from serious limitations, such as the moving target problem i.e. the interference between old and newly learned knowledge. To overcome these problems, we propose the use of growing neural networks in a new learning framework based on the process of consolidation. The new framework is able to overcome the drawbacks of sigmoidal neural networks, while maintaining their power of generalization. In experiments the framework was successfully applied to the control of an android robot.

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We constructed virtual agent system for acquisition of robot's behavior. Moreover we focus on Observation Learning. Observation learning was based on gestual interface. Recently, robots that fit into the human community are needed. These robots need natural motions, which are understandable by users for natural interaction with human. For robots acquire natural motion, we used observation learning. A robot acquires a natural motion, which adapted a user's taste from gestural interaction between a user and a robot. However a robot should move many times until acquired behavior which a user feels satisfaction. Observation learning using real-robot was burdened robot body. Acquired behavior using a robot was not able to reused for other robots. So we constructed virtual agent basis for several robots. A virtual agent acquired important points in a motion. A real robot moves using important point, which was acquired the virtual agent.

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This paper describes a method for recognizing the environment and selecting behaviors for a humanoid robot that are appropriate to the environment, based on sensor histories. In order for humanoid robots to move around many kinds of environments, one of the keys is selecting the appropriate behavior. Because features of an environment that deeply influence a robot's motion, such as viscous friction or floor elasticity, are difficult to immediately measure before moving, it is difficult for the robots to plan their behaviors to take these factors into account. Therefore, in our method, a robot first records a long time series of data from sensors attached to its body while performing each behavior in each environment, and it builds decision trees based on this data for each of the behaviors, enabling it to recognize the current environment based on the sensor history. By using the trees, the robot selects the behavior which will be most effective for recognizing the environment, acquires a sensor history while doing the behavior, and selects likely candidates for the environment. By iterating over these steps, the robot can recognize the environment and select an appropriate behavior. To verify the validity of the method, we used a small-size humanoid robot and conducted an experiment to recognize environments in a family's house.

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This paper deals with the generating imitated motion by using FDNet. Imitation is effective solution for some robot working in complicated situation. Because it is impossible to predict all situation and impliment robot all the motion. FDNet features a "relation network" which describes the robot system. We suggest the "Feature Network" for skill imitation and implement it by using FDNet .

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In this paper, a new mimesis scheme is proposed. This scheme enables for a humanoid to imitate human's motion even though the humanoid cannot see human's whole-body motion and the humanoid did not seen the exactly same motion before. Our mimesis framework is based on continuous Hidden Markov Model. Viterbi algorithm is applied in order to generate more various motion patterns than the number of existing proto-symbols. In order for the humanoid to imitate other's motion in a smooth way, a smoothing technique in generation problem is realized. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by simulation on a 20 degrees of freedom humanoid robot configuration.

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This paper proposes a model for estimation of intention to replace a local prediction model. Main subject of this model is actor's purpose. Because there are many ways to achieve a purpose normally, we implement the concept of "Achievement" instead of prediction error in local prediction model. And we show simulation experiment in order to test proposed model.

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Body-image is necessary for a robot to adapt to a variety of situations. Moreover, it is required to have the body-image of the invisible parts such as the organs of the face or the back. In this paper, we simulate that a robot learns the relationship betwen the displacement of the coordinate of the hand and that of the joint angles of the arm during moving its hand in front of the face. With this relationship, we proposed a model that the robot learns the integration of visual and tactile sense through the somatic sense through touching the face.

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This paper proposes a lexical acquisition model which makes use of saliency to associate visual features of observed objects with the labels that is uttered by a caregiver. A robot changes its attention and learning rate based on saliency. Simulation experiments show that the learning model with saliency effectively associate the given labels with the observed features. Moreover, in the experiment with a real humanoid robot, the visual features are represented with self organizing maps which adaptively represents the shape of observed objects independent of the viewpoints.

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This paper proposes a system that models the human intuitive parenting which is thought to help human children to acquire sympathy with others. The internal state of a robot is constructed based on the psychological judgement space proposed by Russell. A robot can associate its internal state with the visual information of human's facial expression through communication with a caregiver. After association, a robot can evoke its internal state by observing human facial expression.

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A pioneering constructivist approach to building a robot that reproduces a developmental process of infants' vowel acquisition has been conducted by Yoshikawa et al. inspired by the observation in infant study. They have constructed a mot her-infant interaction model with robot learning capability and parrot-like teaching by caregiver. However, the robot has not listened his/her own voice, therefore nor actively explored more natural vowels similar to the caregiver. The study presented in this paper extends the previous work in the following manners seeking for more natural interaction. First, imitation of the caregiver's lip. Second, utilizing the pentagon which the caregiver's vowels construct in the formant space. Third, hypothesizing that mutual imitation between the robot and the caregiver is introduced to obtain more natural vowels. Through this process, the desired formants are gradually shifted, expecting to more natural ones. The experimental results are shown and the future issues are discussed.

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In ocean development, research on underwater robots and the development are performed briskly. A posture measurement sensor is required for the underwater robots. Tiltmeters, magnetic sensors, and gyroscopes are known by attitude measurement sensors. Especially, the gyroscope is the most useful. However the gyroscopes used for satellites, aircrafts and submarines have problems in size, the price and so on. In recent years, small, inexpensive and high performance gyroscopes are developed. We have developed underwater vehicle attitude measurement system using mini-gyroscopes. In this paper, the modified attitude measurement system is reported. The system consists of three gyroscopes and a mirco computer. Experimental results show the usefulness of the system.

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This paper is concerned with a position and attitude measurement system for underwater robots. Recent years dynamics and control of Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (UVMS) have been studied. The manipulators are required to catch and handle objects. Therefore, sensors that measure position and attitude of the objects must be mounted on UVMS and it is considered that stereovision systems are one of the sensors. However there is no stereovision system for UVMS. We have proposed a stereovision system for UVMS using mobile cameras that can pan, tilt and slide individually by stepping motors, and track the object. Effectiveness of the proposed system was demonstrated by experiments of positon measurement on the ground. In this paper, position and attitude measurement experiments in the water are done. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system.

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Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are attractive tools to survey earth science and oceanography, however, there exists a lot of problems to be solved such as motion control, acquisition of sensor data, decision-making, navigation without collision, self-localization and so on. In order to realize useful and practical robots, underwater vehicles should take their action by judging the changing condition from their own sensors and actuators, and are desirable to make their behavior, because of features caused by the working environment. We have been investigated the application of brain-inspired technologies such as Neural Networks (NNs), Self-Organizing Map (SOM), etc, into AUVs. A new self-organizing decision making system for AUVs using Modular Network Self-Organizing Map (mnSOM) proposed by Tokunaga et al. is discussed in this paper. The proposed decision making system is developed using recurrent NN type mnSOM. The efficiency of the system is investigated through the simulations.

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In this paper, we propose a motion planning method of mechanical underwater fins based on time-scale transformation. In order to generate a desired thrust, the proposed method provides a quasi-optimal motion and the feedforward control input of a fin. It is easy to implement the proposed method presented here because it doesn't need a computational fluid dynamics approach or estimation of any physical parameters such as added-mass, drag and lift coefficients. As a first step, in this paper, a preliminary experiment in a test tank is conducted by using a 1 degree-of-freedom (DOF) mechanical fin.

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Underwater robots can play a significant role in the investigations of underwater environment. However, conventional underwater robot systems that consist of underwater robot, operator and huge support ship have some problems such as propagation loss of acoustic wave, constraint of underwater robot behavior by umbilical cable. In this research, underwater robot systems with a Surface Support Vehicle that tracks an underwater robot are proposed. The Surface Support Vehicle is a compact surface vehicle having the functions of support ship and tracks an underwater robot autonomously. By installation of the Surface Support Vehicle, the problems of conventional underwater robot systems are resolved, and novel operation methods are realized. In this paper, the advantages of installation of the Surface Support Vehicle are explained and a effectiveness of the Surface Support Vehicle is verified by the experimental results in actual environment.

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In this paper, we discuss a manipulator for underwater robots. The Waterproof-Mechanism was one of most important componets for developing underwater mechanisms. And an underwater manipulator is designed using a CAD/CAM system and realized by the waterproof mechanism based on magnet coupling. Finally, we develop underwater manpulator and equip Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with it.

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This paper deals with a development of underwater propulsion mechanisms and robots by using traveling-wave motion of flexible fins. In the study, two robots are developed. The one is a robot that has two flexible fins controlled independently for rotational and translational motions. And the other is a robot that can change fin form either for rotation motion or for translational motions. Propulsion and motion performances are experimentally evaluated. The propulsion force and the torque generated by the traveling-wave motion are measured in stationary water. As a result, smooth rotational and translational motions of the robots are obtained by the traveling-wave motion, and the effect of the traveling-wave motion on the propulsion force and torque is clarified with changing the frequency of the motion.

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Emvironmental awareness spreads to the general people nowadays and the water quality of urban rivers are attended. The river is one of important assets and the improvement of the quality is desired. To improve the water quality effectively, it is required to survey the situation of the water quality properly. Underwater robots are one of the effective solutions for the river survey. Although a propeller screw is a popular propulsive method for underwater vehicles, fish's swimming motion is more effective and efficient. Therefore, in this study, we aim to develop a fish-like robot for river survey. In this paper, a prototype of fish robot is developed and the characteristics of the motion control are experimentally investigated. Moreover, the C-shaped fast turning method with parameters is proposed, and the results are shown.

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It is thought that the swimming behavior of fishes can propose a new, highly effective method of underwater propulsion. When an eel swims, we can watch the phenomenon that the amplitude of lateral undulation increases from a head towards a tailpiece. We thought that each joint of an eel generates the same flexure power, but the amplitude might increase naturally because the body has the elasticity and then it would be effective for propulsion power and efficiency. In this research, we developed the eel-like robot for which we used the elastic joints. It was put micro computer and batteries on the head of the robot. In addition, we used 8 servomotors for actuators of joints and used 7 copper sheets for the elastic joints. We installed them to the robot from the head in turn. When the robot undulates, arguments of each servomotors change on Sin wave of the same amplitude that put off phase as time goes by. We made simple simulation of eel-like robot in consideration of inertia and drag in a static fluid. The amplitude of the midlines of swimming robot increased from a head towards a tailpiece in results of both simulation and experiment.

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Various kinds of robots have been developed parallel with progress of computer and the operations with robots in the extreme environment such as rescue, space and ocean are getting practice solutions. The underwater vehicle are expected as one of solutions for underwater activities i.e., maintenance of underwater structures, observations, scientific research, and investigated the efficiency during recent decades. Especially, the underwater structures are getting large-scale and large-depth. In order to do safe and efficient works, the works are desired to be carried out automatically. This paper describes development of autonomous underwater vehicle for coastal observation.

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There is a hypothesis that insists that sperm whales melt and congeal sperm oil in their head to adjust their buoyancy. This paper describes an underwater robot with a buoyancy adjusting system based on the sperm oil hypothesis. First of all, we chose paraffin wax as a substitute of real sperm oil and measured its buoyancy increase between liquid and solid states. Paraffin wax's melting point is relatively low and its volume difference between liquid and solid states is large. Then, we designed and developed an underwater robot. Six syringes filled with paraffin wax were installed in the robot and the wax was heated by nichrome wire to melt it. We measured robot's buoyancy increase and succeeded in making the robot surface and change its posture.

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Sinece Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (UVMS) are necessary for ocean exploration, many studies have been done about UVMS. However, the experimental studies are only a few. Through simulations and experiments of a floating underwater robot with 2 dimensional and vertical planar 2-link manipulator, we have shown that continuous and discrete time Resolved Acceleration Control (RAC) methods have good control performances in spite of using an inaccurate hydrodynamic model. In our proposed methods the time derivative of momentum have been used. Since the derivative of momentum is concerned with the dynamic equation, in this paper we propose a RAC method for UVMS using kinematic and dynamic equations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by experiments.

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Since Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems(UVMSs) are necessary for ocean exploration in future missions, many studies have been done about UVMS. UVMSs are affected by hydrodynamic force and the exact value of the force cannot be obtained. To solve this problem, control methods using neural networks have been proposed for underwater vehicles. In this paper, we propose an UVMS control method using neural networks. Experimental result shows the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

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Visual investigation of an accidental sinking is necessary to identify the accident and determine its causes. We are developing an AUV for this purpose and propose a wreck observation system for AUV (Autonomous underwater vehicle) without transponder-based positioning systems that need a costly preparation. This paper proposes a terrain based localization method to accurately determine the AUV's position. The method is conceptually simple: The AUV measures topography of the bottom using multibeam sonar, and correlates the measurements with an existing map. The proposed method is robust and computationally efficient compared to other methods that are used for terrain navigation. We also present the simulation results using data of a sea trial in order to demonstrate its effectivity.

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We have proposed UVMS that captures Acanthaster Planci for the purpose of saving coral reefs. In this paper, we present an video processing method as the one of the functions of UVMS in order to recognizing Acanthaster Planci. The video proccessing method is based on HSV transformation and template matching. We have tested the effectiveness of the algorithm by using some videos in this paper.

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A high maneuverability rescue robot vehicle for water disaster is proposed. A prototype underwater vehicle with variable configuration segmented wheels (VCSW) has been tested successfully. The six segments of a VCSW are deployed and retrieved periodically according to the wheel rotation. This motion under water produces a thrust force to propel the vehicle. The newly designed semiautomatic control system is enables depth and inclination control automatically by feedback of pressure information and inclination information, and other control items are controlled manually by joysticks. The experimental results revealed that the vehicle is capable of various motions under water.

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This paper shows organ model based variable impedance control for robot assisted needle insertion. The method is made by the organ model adaptive identifier and the variable Impedance control. This new force control method for surgical robot realizes the precise position control and compliant motion for unpredicted force. The experimental result provide the practical effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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This paper presents a robotic assistant system which holds a laparoscope to provide precise positioning of the laparoscope and stable image without the support of the human camera assistant. Using a 3D optical tracking system, we realize automatic positioning of a laparoscope by preoperative workspace planning and intraoperative 3D instrument tracking. In the preoperative planning stage, the surgeon can decide several workspaces and appropriate scales of magnification for operating in the workspace. In operating, if the tip of the surgical instrument is within the workspace decided in the preoperative planning stage, the manipulator automatically moves such that the workspace is centered in the laparoscope image and magnified with the appropriate scale. To evaluate validity of the proposed system, we conducted a laparoscopic cholecystectomy simulation. In conclusion, our system has a possibility of reducing the surgeon's mental/physical stress and will enable smooth surgical operation.

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This paper shows the development of a respiratory surgical navigation system for the metastasis cancer in a collapsed lung. This system has two navigation methods, (a) Collapsed simulation,(b) Palpation using manipulator. Collapsed simulation provides the position of the cancer in a collapsed lung using the preoperative CT Data. Palpation using manipulator after collapsed simulation provide more precise position of collapsed lung.

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The authors have been developing a surgical navigation system for the graft replacement in the thoracoabdominal area. The system supports a surgeon to detect an essential artery, which provides major blood supply to the spinal cord. With a self-produced viewer, we could assist for surgeons to visualize a virtual tool on the three-dimensional image space in sync with the movement of the current position of a pointer tool. In this paper, we describe the training session with a human phantom assuming the clinical case. We newly implemented an adjusting method in the regional area and examined the effectiveness of the system. It was found that the accuracy of the system is enough to utilize for clinical application.

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In the present treatment system of Twin-To-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, surgeon uses visual measurement of endoscope image in doing the identification of anastomotic vessel, before taking decisions to do some treatments on suspected vessel. Given this factor, we proposed a navigation system that may lead the surgeon to find targets for treatment quantitatively, to improve the treatment's safety and accuracy. For the first step in developing the system, we proposed a vascular mapping system to make an overall view of placenta. We developed a software application to make corrections on the image distortion of 2D-picture that is taken from endoscope, and do images combine to get the overall map of the diagnosed target. The effectiveness of the application was verified experimentally, which were conducted by considering the motion range of endoscope.

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This paper proposes a new laparoscopic forceps manipulator for minimally invasive surgery using the mechanism that we call double-screw-drive (DSD) mechanism. DSD mechanism is a link driven mechanism which enables omni-directional bending by rotating two linkages consisted of right-handed screw, left-handed screw and universal joint. The opening and closing drive of a gripper is also attained by rotating another linkage. Therefore, DSD mechanism realizes bending and gripping drive without using wires. The developed multi-dof forceps manipulator has a high rigidity and its bending range is wide enough, which is 90 degrees in any direction.

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Current laparoscope manipulators perform well, but they are generally large, heavy, complex, and expensive. In the limited space of a typical crowded operating room, the base of the conventional robot arms occupies a considerable amount of floor space next to the patient and the robot arm holding the laparoscope may restrict full access to the abdomen of the patient. To solve these problems, we propose a novel wearable laparoscope manipulator which is put on the surface of the patient's hypogastric region, using a parallel mechanism and artificial muscles.

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Current laparoscope manipulators perform well, but they are generally large, heavy, complex, and expensive. To cope with this problem, several compact laparoscope positioners have been devised. These systems, however, require special zooming/computing devices and/or high resolution camera. To solve these problems, we propose a laparoscopic manipulator system based on the selective use of digital zoom function.

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Recently, the development of MRI compatible robotics for supporting surgery is required in medical area. In this study, MRI compatible needle insertion manipulator and supporting manipulator are developed. These manipulators are designed small enough to operate the surgery in the vertically limited gantry space of MRI, and are composed of non-magnetism material to avoid the influence of a high magnetic field. And because the characteristic of the flexible rack was evaluated, the accuracy of the manipulators was improved. In the experiment we evaluate the usefulness of the prototype. Finally the manipulator was able to insert a needle to the hog liver.

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Ultrasonic diagnostic equipments are widely used for the medical examination. However, it is difficult for the doctor to obtain a comprehensible image while pressing the ultrasonic probe. An ultrasonographic image is taken by pressing the probe. And the image recognition is related to a contrast. Therefore, a contact force relates the image contrast. As a prototype, we developed an ultrasonic probe positioning robot. Consequently, this robot is made to measure the relation between the contact force and the image contrast. The experiment investigated the relation between the contact force and the image contrast, and controlled contact force by the image contrast. The result shows that the image contrast controls the contact force and if an error of contrast exists, the contact force is controlled the constant value at the point of the saturated image contrast.

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This research proposes a manipulator which is able to approach to deep area of internal organs such as lung, and furthermore realize minimally invasive surgery. This manipulator is driven by Magnetic force, that is, the small permanent magnet on the manipulator produces force a generated external magnetic field. By using magnetism, the manipulator is safe due to low voltage in the body and structure is simple. In this paper, we suggested the control to manipulate the direction and the strength of external magnetic field to generate large bending angle of manipulator.

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