In this research, upper-limb motion control orthosis was developed to prevent nasogastric tube self-withdrawal which happen frequently on nursing field. This equipment prevents fingertip's attainment to the nose with minimum operation limit, by controlling the maximum elbow-bending according to the shoulder-bending. It is associated with the intermittent stopper with a fabric belt. By myoelectric potentials measurement and the range of motion measurement, effect of upper-limb motion control and the decrease in restrained area was confirmed. Therefore effect of preventing nasogastric tube self-withdrawal was shown.

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In recent year, an enlargement of plane substrates and semiconductor wafers advances. The substrates are easier to break, so the development of non-contact transportation is desired. In our research, the substrates are levitated by an aerostatic guideway while exciting traveling waves of flexure deformation of stators. As a result, acoustic viscous force acts on the substrate as transporting force. The experimental results acquired by constructed linear transportation system are reported.

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This paper examines dynamic characteristics of a feed drive system with the nonlinear spring behavior. The dynamic characteristics during the microscopic motion can be described with the Coulomb friction term in the range beyond 1OOμm, and described by the nonlinear spring behavior in the range less than 100μm. In this study, comparing experiment results with simulation results of the driving torque for sinusoidal wave input of microscopic displacement, it is clarified that the nonlinear spring behavior can be represented by the model taken the hysteresis into account.

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CAM systems currently used make a tool path according to only a geometrical calculation, and not consider for tool deflection, tool vibration and tool breakage in machining process due to a radical fluctuation of cutting load. The purpose of this research is to generate the tool path that is able to keep the cutting load constantly by controlled federate and tool path based on NC geometric cutting simulation. This report refers to the result of tool path generation algorithm and experimentation of contour tool path and parallel tool path by comparing with current CAM 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 in NC machining processes. The servo data is directly generated by geometric model interpolation process without NC program. In geometric model interpolation process, line, arc and spline curve are used as the geometric elements to generate servo data. Then motion errors are simulated and compensated to servo data. These methods are implemented and compared feed rate and accuracy with current system. As a result, it is evident that proposed system is able to control the tool machine with high accuracy.

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A NC geometric cutting simulator is widely used software that is enable to verify a tool path without real machining process by executing the machined shape check and the interference check between a tool and a workpiece. The purpose of this study is to develop a high-accuracy NC geometric cutting simulator which is able to predict the tool deflection and wear based on removal volume. This paper describes about calculation algorithm of the tool deflection and wear based on removal volume, and refers to the result of comparison of the tool deflection and wear between NC geometric cutting simulation and machining experiment.

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"Women in Robotics" is the international community whose scope includes but not be limited to: students, engineers and researchers in robotics, human science and technology; who are interested in research and development activities conducted by women in these fields; who would like to explore technical and social needs of women for marketing; and who have interests in our activities. Our mission is to provide a venue for discussion and collaboration for technical development that creates enjoyable and efficient style of work and life. In this paper, we introduce our activities, and discuss aims and scope of the technical session at Robotics and Mechatronics Conference in 2007.

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Nowadays, with a recent interest in robots, a lot of portal/news sites about the robots appeared on the Internet, and some robot magazines are first published. Furthermore, the activities of science communication and outreach has intensified. Therefore, researchers of robotics should consider how to be involved in these media/activities and how to cooperate with it for the promotion of robotics. To solve these problems, both the researchers and the media/activities have to enhance mutual understanding and exchange with each other. In this paper, we get an overview of the current state of these media/activities and express our point of view how researchers to be involved in it.

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Mothers have useful information and experience for infant injury prevention in their own life area. As parenting support, however, sharing and accumulating system of their information does not exist. This paper reports the findings of research for mothers' IT utilization and the suggestion of information sharing environment using a cellular phone email. Furthermore, trial experiment by cooperation of 15mothers is also described. Importance of sustainable circulation with Injury surveillance, engineering study and field service is explained.

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The purpose of this study is to establish a new effective process of developing assistive products. In this process, the psychological effects caused by using an assistive product are carefully examined before forming the concept of new assistive products. Here, we introduce the case study intended for the older persons located at the former stage to develop the products. To identify detrimental factors, a qualitative research approach was adopted in a study on 5 older persons who use wheelchair in daily living. The investigation revealed that older persons who use wheelchair have characteristic impression against mobility, between wheelchair and walking functions.

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Nowadays, more than 27% of the Japanese in their twenties are not having breakfast. This report presents a new concept of dietary education coach for college students using a small humanoid robot. This robot is able to teach the user about the importance of a healthy diet every day. Following the robot's example on sleeping, eating and exercising on a daily regular base assures the user to be healthy. A future work is to implement this system.

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We report RoboLDK -Contest of Life with Robot- which is one of activities of service robot market by Kanagawa prefecture. Based on the result of contest and result of questionnaire, user needs and trend are reported. As the result, interactive robot won the contest. The result of questionnaire, summary of result of all, detail result of question about interface function of robot, detail result of importance of robot are reported.

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This paper describes the environmental structure description for knowledge of space "KUKANCHI". The knowledge of objects and tasks are briefly described, and several definitions for the environmental structure description are proposed.

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In this paper, improvement version of Ubiquitous Functions Activation Module, as we call "UFAM" is proposed. Previous UFAM don't have several functions to measure the distance or position. So, UFAM user cannot obtain the UFAM position. To realize the measurement of the distance of each UFAM, Ubiquitous Functions Activation Module with Area Sense is developed. In this paper, at first, previous UFAM is introduced, and improvement of the UFAM, as we call "UFAMAS", is explained about new functions compared with UFAM. Finally, we will show you the characteristics of the UFAMS.

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Our objective is to develop a human daily life support system by a micro actuation module embedded into environment based on concept of ubiquitous robotics. This means that service is offered by not a robot with substance like the conventional home robot but the small robot which is not visible. Concretely, we constitute a micro parallel mechanism using a piezo-electric device, and an actuation array is built by aligning these mechanisms. This paper describes a concept of our system, structure of the mechanism and its performance.

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The concept of distributed actuation is one of essential elements of 'Ubiquitous Function' including distributed sensing, computing, network etc. In this paper, a novel mechanism, double-wheel-type active caster, to realize the concept of distributed actuation is investigated. A closed form kinematics of omni-directional mobile system which consists of multiple double-wheel-type active casters is studied. Simulation to show the adequacy of the kinematic model is also carried out.

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In this paper, the Active Caster module for mobile platforms is described. The ubiquitous robot concept intend to realize more useful services in human life space by connecting distributed robot functions. As a distributed actuation module, the Active Caster has good characteristics of parallel driving actuator. This characteristics enables the Active Casters to be attached for various objects in human life space. The offset of the steering shaft which realizes more smooth movement of mobile platform is introduced. Moreover, Navi-Guide unit realizes more intuitive operation by human.

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"Teaching by demonstration" is a method to generate a robot program that makes a robot do the same task as the task that a human operator demonstrates. The authors have developed a "teaching by demonstration in VR" system (TbDinVR) that automatically generates a robot program to work in the real world after a task is demonstrated by an operator in the virtual world. In this paper, the authors have explained adaptation of robot programs to real environments based on visualization of task data.

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We are developing a door status detection sensor module. Since this module using a low radio power wireless unit and a small battery is very compact, we can set on the various doors easily. Robots can always ask about opening angle of the door using ubiquitous network. Robots will be able to move the next room and open/close a refrigerator, a cupboard and so on easily.

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We have developed a direction sensing RFID reader employing a dual directional antenna that enabled a mobile robot to dock with a target transponder. Some of the technical challenge was that the transponder signal was deflected in the cluttered environment, where the robot lost its way to the target. To cope with this problem, the direction correction algorithm is developed using the geometrical relations between previously estimated directions and the robot positions. The experimental results verify the reliability of the proposed algorithm that quantifies the potential error in the DOA estimation.

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We propose a novel system to represent and estimate topological relations between objects in a dynamic environment. The system can represent topological relations between objects extracting specific features of the co-occurrence matrix obtained from disparity images with the stereo vision system. Furthermore, to infer time-invariant relations between objects, the habituation concept was employed, and the habituation value was estimated at every occurrence of the event triggered by the motion vector. The proposed system enables the robot to acquire spatial situation awareness autonomously and make a decision in an unknown environment.

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In this paper, we propose a system that records human behavior continuously by using ubiquitous sensors. We constructed a room where ubiquitous sensors are embedded (i.e. RFID tags for foods, tableware, and a cellular phone, magnet sensors for doors and drawers, a laser range finder for human position recognition). In addition to the above sensors, we developed a universal remote controller to recognize the usage of various consumer electronics. Information obtained by the ubiquitous sensors and the universal remote controller with time stamp is continuously stored in the database server. With an experiment by a subject, we confirmed the sufficient information for knowing human behaviors is stored in the database.

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Intelligent Space is a room or area where many intelligent sensors and actuators are distributed and networked. In Intelligent Space, the embedded sensors can monitor the whole environment by communicating with each other through the network. Based on the observed information, the actuators provide informative and physical services to users. One of the major problems in implementation of the system is a calibration of the sensors. In this paper, we consider the automated calibration of the pose of the laser range finders using mobile robots. The mobility of mobile robots allows us to cover wide areas of the environment without placing many landmarks in the exact positions beforehand. The calibration is performed based on the positions of the mobile robots in world coordinate system and their corresponding points in local coordinate system. The experimental result shows that this method can provide enough accuracy for the various applications in Intelligent Space.

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This paper presents information display system using active projector in Intelligent Space. Active projector provides interactive informative services for user. The system based on RT-Middleware is realized by combination of distributed sensors, applications and actuators. Therefore, by making independently each function into components and connecting these components, flexible and easy integration of the system was achieved. In this paper, we are aiming proposed system at the integration of Intelligent Space.

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In this research, we aim to describe objects' properties for designing services of Intelligent Space. In order to realize this, we focus on physical interaction between human and objects. Physical interaction is observed by using wireless sensor network, and described by acceleration data. In this paper, we estimate an object handled by human based on the acceleration data.

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This paper discusses the concept of a system which enables simultaneous 3D multi-targets indoor localization by using CDMA for the TOF of ultrasonic signals. The system is designed for the so-called "Intelligent Space" where ultrasonic receivers are embedded in the space while emitters are tags contacted with targets to be localized. Emitted signals from each tag is assigned with a unique pseudorandom "Gold codes" so that even the tags emit signal simultaneously, receivers can detect them respectively. Since there are usually so many targets in the intelligent space to be localized at the same time that the sampling time of traditional ultrasonic localization is often too long to apply most real time control algorisms, this system is expected to speed up the overall localization sampling rate in the Intelligent Space.

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Biology inspired edge-detection algorithms in image processing typically convolve a filter operator and the input image. Recent retinal research have shown that ganglion cell receptive fields cover the mammalian retina in a mosaic arrangement, with no overlap in the sharp vision area. The biological relevance of traditional and widely accepted edge-detection algorithms with convolution-based operators has been disproved. Using traditional filters with non-overlapping operator architectures leads to losses in contour information. This paper introduces a novel retina based edge-detection algorithm that takes into consideration data convergence, as well as the dynamic properties of the retina, by incorporating eye vibrations.

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There is a proper place for the thing, and is a proper thing in the place. And there is proper work in the place, and is a proper place in work. We suppose that it is effective to give the robot the task from an environmental side so that the robot may provide suitable service for the work place and the work situation. Then, we call the technique for relating the environment and the task "Task localization", and describe about this technique in this paper.

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Accuracy and information of objects in the environment that surround a robot differs depending on the service and task. In this research, we use the technique to express the adjacent objects in the environment altogether by a single model. This model also divided into each object model within it depending on required accuracies by the service and task. This technique would be effective for reducing processing load. In this paper, we describe the construction of the environmental recognition system and generation of variable resolution model.

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When we use PAS (Physical Agent System) for daily life supporting, space information that "What" and "Where" of objects is required. In this paper, we describe the acquisition experiment of electric wave characteristic in UFAM, method of presume position and correct acquired electric wave strength. There are necessary to construct space information acquisition system by using UFAM. And we describe the outline and the evaluation of the space information acquisition system.

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In order for a robot to operate in a place like domestic, it is necessary to collect various environment information. In the information which is needed in case something is made to work to a robot, the information which cannot be acquired using a sensor exists plentifully. So, in this research, a mark is used for construction of the environment where a robot operates. The mark is realized from the landmark and the QR code. The position posture relation between a robot and a work subject is acquired by sticking a mark. The information peculiar to a subject which is needed in case it works in the QR code is indicated. Autonomous operation of a robot was performed by using the information on a mark.

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In this paper, we discuss the evolutionary robot vision in order to perceive the environment around a mobile robot. We developed a tele-operated mobile robot with a pan-tilt mechanism composed with camera and laser range finder (LRF). Output of the camera is the information of color, and output of LRF is the information of distance to objects from the robot. Furthermore, we propose a method of sensor fusion to extract a human from the measured data by integrating outputs of camera and LRF.

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This paper proposes an automated calibration method of a distributed vision network in a unified world coordinate system. The vision network system is conceived to support a robot working in our daily human life environment: the system provides with visual observation of the dynamically changing situation surrounding the robot. Vision cameras are rather sparsely distributed to cover a wide area such as a quarter of a town. Position, view direction and range of view are the camera parameters of principal importance to be estimated by the proposed method. A set of calibration data for each distributed camera is provided by a group of mobile robots having a cooperative positioning function and visually distinguishable markers mounted on the body of the robot. Through distributed camera calibration experiment, we confirmed the validity.

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This paper deals with the human interface system for multi-robot teleoperation in exploring unknown environment. Some operators can recognize a robot's environment easily and teleoperate multiple robots through these interfaces. However, in an unknown environment, the position of obstacles are often changed by environmental change. When the position of obstacles are changed, the environmental map must be reconstructed for teleoperating the robots in the changed environment. In this paper, we propose a reconstruction method for the environmental map in dynamic environment. By reconstructing the environmental map, operators can teleoperate a robot appropriately in dynamic environment.

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Projection based information display system is proposed in this paper. Normally, human should approach information sources which are located around our living environment. E.g. bulletin boards, artificial signs, local maps, etc. However, the proposed system is able to afford human with relevant information by projecting on where the human is facing. Different than usual, information approaches human in this system.

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Kagawa Satellite Development Project is developing pico-satellite named "STARS," for the purpose of verification of Tethered Space Robot. The STARS consists of mother and daughter satellites. The mother satellite deploys the daughter satellite which controls attitude by its own link motion. Space environmental experiment for the STARS is now undergoing. Microgravity experiments by parabolic flight and drop capsule confirm motion of the STARS, especially for deployment and retrieval of a tethered space robot. Heat and vacuum test and radiant rays test confirms durability of the STASR on orbit. Vibration test confirms durability of the STASR on orbit for the launch.

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Tethered satellite system consists of main satellite, subsatellite and tether in zero gravity environment. Tether has characteristics that is light weight and flexibility. Therefore, tether is used widely in space. Authors propose a method of cargo transfer using tether tension. Historically, object is moved by rocket thrustor in space, but this method needs fuel in tank. This problem can be solved using tether. In this paper, The object is assumed as rigid body. So, object is rolled by tether tension. This paper tries tension control method for cargo transfer using optimal control and energy method. Authors confirmed rolling motion of cargo was controlled by tether tension.

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The shortage of human resources on the International Space Station (ISS) is becoming a serious problem. In our previous work, a new space robot system named "Intra-Vehicular Free-Flyer System (IVFFS)" has been proposed. The IVFFS supports not only non-contact but also contact tasks during intra-vehicular activities (IVA). To accomplish such requirements, we introduced a prototype model called "Space Humming Bird" (SHB) which has a variably structured body to satisfy both safety and dexterity requirements. In this paper, to confirm the feasibility of our concept, several experiments with a developed prototype model on a planer micro-gravity simulator are executed. Point-to-point motions, docking motions against the wall, opening door tasks, and undocking motions are achieved.

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A hybrid simulator is known for a characteristic problem that the kinetic energy of the numerical model is increased during simulation because of servo error and delay time. This paper presents compensation methods for that problem. For compensation of contact force, the contact force is changed to reduce impulse added to the numerical model. And for compensation of delay time, a simplified model of the simulator is refined and a damping factor is added to the model to compensate the delay time. Effects of the compensations are evaluated by restitution coefficient of a numerical model. After that, capturing an object by a dual-arm space robot is simulated by using a hybrid motion simulator with the compensation.

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In order to make space missions succeed surely and safely, it is necessary to assume various cases and take measures at the stage of development or designing an operation! plan. For this purpose, computer simulations play a key role in the development and operation of space systems because of the difficulty in performing ground-based hardware testing. In a dynamics simulation for space missions, the most difficult thing to model, and can easily cause sonic simulation errors is the contact force. In this paper, a novel strategy of identifying contact dynamics parameters by a hybrid simulator is described. The evaluation of the time delay which exists in the hybrid simulator is also described. The parameter identification with a hybrid simulator is substantially enabled by this evaluation.

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Space arms such as SSRMS and JEMRMS are modeled as a macro-micro manipulator system, where a macro arm perform a passive flexible base during the operation of a micro arm. Paying attention to the reaction dynamics, it is possible to perform vibration suppression control with arbitrary positioning of the endtip. In this paper, the application of the adaptive control methods for the adaptive control under the parameter errors is verified through the hardware in the loop simulations.

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Planetary rovers usually slip on a surface of the planet because of sandy and loose ground. Because of the slip, it becomes very difficult for rovers to follow a target trajectory. In the worst case, the rover falls into a state of stack. To avoid such situation, it is very important to understand the relationship between wheels and the ground, and slip-ratio is one of the important parameters. To estimate the slip-ratio online, we developed a wheel with built-in force sensor array (BFSA-wheel) which enables measurement of distribution of normal stress. Based on terrarnechanics approach, slip-ratio can be calculated. by measuring the distribution of normal stress. In this paper, we report our experimental result of slip-ratio estimation by using the BFSA-wheel. Then we discuss a possibility of slip-ratio-estimation based on our proposed method.

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The purpose of this research is to construct the system which can extract and recognize action and a phenomenon dynamically from the sensor information. The system to propose divides arbitrary signal patterns with the short-term pattern based on time constant for searching events, and by making the shortest unit of a phenomenon as the "event primitive", a phenomenon can be recognized as an event primitive sequence. Moreover, on a higher order layer, system updates the time constant for searching and make a prediction based on known event primitive sequence, and has the composition that can perceive the information-unexpected according to the differential from putative event sequence by controlling background information and making active attention. On the other hand, when the information observed frequently, a gaze to the information of phenomenon falls and the system which aims at improvement in the recognition accuracy of an anomalous behavior by being buried in background information by proposed architecture. Proposed system extracts the features based on primitive pattern in the power-spectrum pattern in time series and classifying the observed phenomenon according to the event primitive, which is the shortest unit of the event.

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This paper presents a gestual interaction system between human and robot using pointing movement. To interact at actual rooms, the system that obtained RGB information of a pointed out object was developed. The system recognized a pointing gesture and obtained a feature of pointed out object by a image processing. Two sets of tracking modules comprised of a camera and a PC was prepared in a room. Thus, in this research, we constructed RGB data obtaining module. The module obtained coordinates of indicated point and calculate the coordinates in picture. The system was developed using Robot Technology Middleware (RTM). RT Middleware was developed by AIST (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) for easily integrating robot systems by modularized software components. By constructing modules based on RT Middleware, we developed modules, which are functional elements to interact with human as components of easily system integration.

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When we use robots at daily life environment, Robots need enormous information of surroundings or objects. But it is impossible to put all the information into robots. Therefore, Ambient Intelligence is thought as the key of realizing service robots working at daily life environments. Enormous information for human being is distributed in the Internet, however a little information for robots is there. We are proposing a date structure used for describing environmental information for executing tasks by various robots. In this paper, we pick up a door closing task done by robots and show an example of a design of Ambient Intelligence.

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This study deals with a multi-legged planetary exploration rover with isotropic leg arrangement in view of 3-dimensional space. Since the each leg consists of 3-link mechanism, the rover can traverse even on rough terrains by striding over small obstacles. And this rover can continue walking even after overturning because of its isotropic shape. This paper treats two such types of rovers, one has 6-leg arrangement based on a regular octahedron and another has 8-leg based on a regular hexahedron. Some basic performances of the grounding legs (i.e. reachable region, static 'manipulability' and load of each joint) are compared for the two rovers. Besides, design procedure of the size of the rover's leg is proposed.

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Lunar or planetary exploration robots (rovers) move to long-distance destination under the limited conditions such as unknown environment and time delay. Rovers are required to move autonomously and efficiently. Rovers need the ability to recognize the environment widely and to plan route and sensing depending on the situation. This paper proposes a behavior planning scheme for rovers based on environment understanding. The proposed method includes route planning and sensing planning.

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An approach to the lunar and planetary subsurface exploration by an excavation robot is a novel and challenging project. There are few proposals including an excavation system for planetary exploration by an autonomic and small robot. So, this paper describes a basic concept about subsurface exploration by viewpoint of soil dynamics and robotics. This paper considers the fundamental strategies to advance under the surface and the contents serve as a guideline to establish the total system of the lunar excavation robot.

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Lunar rovers are required to move on rough terrain such as in craters and rear cliffs where it is scientifically very important to explore. Wheel typed rovers are popular for planetary exploration missions. However, there is a problem that the wheel typed rovers have possibility of stack. Therefore, this paper investigates a mechanism of kinetic behavior between the wheels of the exploration rovers and soil. This study especially focuses on influence on mobility of lugs. The fin called lug needs for running on soften surface like soil. However, there are few studies about the effect of lugs. Therefore, in this study, running experiments on simulant are carried out to observe the traversability of the wheel with lugs using slip ratio and electrical current.

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In this paper, we discuss about visual tracking system of landmark on our proposed human machine cooperative tele-drive system for a long range traversability. The tracking system is composed by feature area selection and tracking processes based on human visual system. Landmarks are used for the compensation of command path to avoid hitting obstacle because of measurement error.

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