This paper proposes an operation guidance strategy for industrial robot having a hand-guiding device. In case of use of multi-axes interface for hand-guiding operation, it is difficult to operate a robot without moving it to unintended directions. In this strategy, each operation phase is associated with combination of the controllable axes at first, and then a robot recognizes a list of operation phases as an operation guidance. The robot allows the operator to select controllable axes in accordance with the operation phases while hand guiding operation. The effectiveness and performance of the guidance are confirmed through assembly experiments by using the hand guiding robot.

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In human-robot coexisting environment, both human and robot are required to estimate each other's intention and act based on the estimation. In this study, we aim at realization of active estimation by a robot. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate pedestrian intention based on the social force model. In the model, a pedestrian moves according to resultant force of four forces, attraction of a goal, repulsion from others, repulsion from barriers, and attraction of interested objects. A robot measures own / pedestrian's position and applies them to the social force model to estimate the direction of goal.

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This paper presents three behavior labeling algorithms based on supervised learning using accumulated pyroelectric sensor data in the living space. We summarize features of each algorithm to use them in combination matched to usage of the livelihood support application. They are (a)labeling algorithms based on switching model around a behavioral change-point, (b)one based on time attribution of "on-off" data, and (c)one based on Hidden Markov Models. We show the behavior labeling results of three algorithms for one month data under the same conditions. We summarize features on the basis of these results.

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In this research, we develop a Passive Dance partner Robot (PDR) for realizing the effective human-robot cooperation. Different from the active-type robot with servo motors, passive robot is controlled by the servo brakes attached to the wheels of the robot and its driving force is the actual force/moment applied by a human. In this paper, we propose a motion control algorithm of the PDR for realizing the ballroom dance with a male dancer based on the estimation of the next dance step intended by him.

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It is important to reduce the energy dissipated even in a mechatronic system such as a forklift. The present paper discusses an optimal velocity and current functions which minimize the dissipated energy of a ball-screw nut in a linear actuator. In order to estimate the dissipated energy, the power transmission efficiency of the linear actuator is induced to be different between lifting and lowering a load. The influence of the lead upon the minimum energy is examined by simulations and experiments.

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It is important to reduce energy dissipated in power mechatronics such as electric vehicles and injection molding equipments. The present paper discusses a method of minimizing the dissipated energy including the conduction and switching losses of chopper. First, the motion equation of the mechanical system and the dissipated energy are formulated. Optimal velocity and current functions that minimizes the dissipated energy are solved by using the optimal control theory. The obtained dissipated energy is compared to those without considering the losses of the chopper. It is seen from simulations that optimal velocity function with considering the chopper losses can be reduced the total dissipated energy.

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The present paper discusses the optimal gear ratio that minimizes the energy dissipated in a mechatronic system. The dissipated energy is composed of Joule loss in the motor and friction losses in the mechanical system including the gear. In the presence of the viscous friction force, the minimum dissipated energy can not be formulated analytically because the optimal velocity function is very complicated. In order to simplify the determination of the optimal gear ratio, the viscous friction is assumed to be constant. From this assumption, the optimal gear ratio can be easily obtained by solving a algebraic equation with respect to one variable.

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A hybrid electrical wheelchair powered by three energy sources, a battery, a photovoltaic module, and a hydrogen fuel cell is proposed in this paper. The advantage of using a photovoltaic module (a solar panel) is that it produces power without requiring use of fossil fuels. The advantage of using a fuel cell is that a hydrogen tank may be changed quickly and easily. We also propose an energy control system which is able to select the energy source optimally according to the operating conditions. The control system ideally gives priority to the photovoltaic modules before the fuel cell. When conditions allow for abundant sun light, the photovoltaic modules is used. When solar energy is not available, the fuel cell is used. Finally, when the hydrogen is depleted, the battery is used. This paper explains the concept of the hybrid electrical wheelchair, the mechanical design, the energy control system, and the experimental results on the energy source selection.

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Environmental mapping plays an important role for autonomous mobile robots. To add semantic information to map for robot, smooth human-robot interaction is required when teaching the object name. As the first step, we have developed a prototype system to estimate 3D direction of the tutor's hand pointing gesture using a range camera. The system also has a functions to project a mark in the work space and to recognize the tutor's voice.

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This paper reports a method of object location estimation with Active RFID tag in real indoor environment. A robust indoor object localization system is realized based on the complementary combination of 1) received signal strength indicator(RSSI) and vibration data acquired from Active RFID tag, and 2) human behavior detected from various kinds of sensors embeded in environment. Experiment results show that our object localization algorithm can provide high performance in real living environment.

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This paper proposes a new human-friendly/cooperative working support robot named PaDY (in-time Parts/tools Delivery to You robot). This system achieves reduction of the worker's load and improvement of the work efficiency by recognizing the worker's behavior in the production site, and supporting the worker. PaDY recognizes worker's movement in the production site, and estimates the worker's intention. And, PaDY delivers parts and tools that the worker needs to worker's hand when it is necessary. In this paper, the concept of PaDY and the mechanism of VLWVWW (Very Light Weight Very Wide Workspace) Arm is described.

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We propose a new human-friendly/cooperative working support robot named PaDY (in-time Parts/tools Delivery to You robot). This system achieves reduction of the worker's load and improvement of the work efficiency by recognizing the worker's behavior in the production site, and supporting the worker. PaDY recognizes worker's movement in the production site, and estimates the worker's intention. And, PaDY delivers parts and tools that the worker needs to worker's hand when it is necessary. In this paper, the way to classify the worker behavior by using LRF in the production site is described.

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This paper describes experimental tests for easy-to-use human interface for industrial robot having hand guiding equipment. Such a hand guiding robot can be expected to be used for assembling large or heavy work-pieces. In this paper, "input-output relation", that is relationship between operator's input and speed of robot hand, is defined. Results of assembling experiments by a hand guiding robot show the effects of the input-output relations on operability. Moreover joystick type interface and force/torque sensor type interface for hand guiding are developed. Through assembling experiments by the hand guiding robot, usability of two interfaces was compared and advantages of the force/torque sensor type was verified.

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We have proposed a new modeling method of human's behavior based on the relationship between the change of human's behavior and the situation around human with If-Then-Rules and Hidden Markov Model. In this paper, we study on estimation method of next human's behavior based on the proposed model to support human's driving behavior.

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This paper describes the concept of an ultra light weight fuel cell electric vehicle (UL-FCV) for an electrical vehicle competition, the results of its running experiments, and the fuel cell improvement. The UL-FCV is a one-person operated fuel cell vehicle designed for ECONO MOVE, a Japanese light weight electrical vehicle competition held every May in Akita, Japan. Vehicles are powered using two 60 NL hydrogen tanks and are evaluated based on the distance traveled over two hours on a test course. One lap of the course is approximately six kilometers. This paper will first outline the ECONO MOVE competition, and also present the results of our preliminary running experiments and the competition. Next, we will present the experimental results of the improvements of the fuel cell driving system. Our experiments were conducted focusing on the efficiency of the hydrogen flow rate.

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In this paper, a new concept of robot having both side of ecology function and communication function is proposed. The sensing system of the robot is developed.

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It aims at the development of water hydraulic manipulator (WHM) that considers energy conservation. Few fluxes and a highly accurate servo valve are necessary to control WHM with high accuracy. Research and development of the servo valve that has small flow rate is described.

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Many types of energy in the Nature have been attracted attention by people all over the world. Especially solar energy is used through solar battery panels on a lot of roofs in the world. In this study, the method to use solar energy by not solar battery but thermal expansion of metal is proposed. Solar energy is converted into not electric energy but mechanical energy. The prototype of a motive power generator that the proposed method was applied to was developed and performance tests of it were also done. Copper was selected as the metal by considering two material properties, coefficient of thermal expansion and Young's modulus. The linear motion caused by thermal expansion of metal was changed to rotational motion by the mechanism.

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Recently, saving energy of power mechatronic machines is an important theme because the global warming becomes a serious problem. In particular, the saving energy of the electric vehicle is important. This paper discusses the energy saving method of the electric vehicle of which the energy is regenerated. Evaluation function is made from the weighted sum of the dissipated energy and comfortable ride (jerk). Using optimal control theory, we find optimal velocity and current functions which minimizes the evaluation for various weights α. Then, we examine the dissipated energy and the comfortable ride for various α.

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Recently, the needs of observation UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), such as unmanned helicopter, have increased instead of the manned aircraft. It is expected that the UAVs are useful for aerial image acquisition, volcano observation, observation of disaster sites and so on. Therefore, in our group, the three-dimensional measurement system using unmanned helicopter has been developed. The unmanned helicopter is equipped with three digital cameras and VVV (Versatile Volumetric Vision) which is the original stereo vision software. A stereo self-adjustment methodology is used for the stereo system to tolerate vibration of its cameras and to be robust against disturbances. Also, a gaze-observation methodology is used to get detailed three-dimensional data of an object. In this paper, the unmanned helicopter equipped with the stereo vision system, the stereo self-adjustment methodology, the gaze-observation methodology, its airborne capturing experiment and the results of the experiment are described.

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Tail-sitter is one of the simplest VTOL aircraft. However, because the flight control is difficult, past researches used special equipments to facilitate controlling. To make aerial robots smaller and simpler, we are developing an aerial robot that excludes these special equipments. Flight of VTOL aircraft can be broadly divided into three phases: vertical flight (including hovering), level-flight, and transition flight. This paper describes transition flight between level-flight and hovering of our tail-sitter VTOL aerial robot. The transition flight was constructed based on strategy that transition finishes in the shortest time and altitude is kept constant. To achieve the transition strategy, modeling and simulation were prepared. Finally, feasibility of the transition strategy and effectiveness of control system were confirmed by flight tests.

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This paper presents the development of pantograph-based variable wing mechanism with dual-support frame. In our previous papers, we constructed a simulation model with considering deflection of wings, and made a prototype of pantograph-based variable wing mechanism. The flight performance experiment demonstrated that the mechanism can generate enough lift force to fly itself. However, the lift force is not enough for hovering the autonomous flying robot mounting microcomputer, sensors and battery. In this paper, we propose pantograph-based variable wing mechanism with dual-support frame in order to avoid the deflection of wings. The validity of the proposed mechanism is demonstrated by comparing generated list forces of proposed mechanism and previous model.

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This paper presents vision based flight control of an indoor micro helicopter in the corridor of buildings. Since the helicopter has limited payload, a small single wireless camera is employed on a sole sensor device. Visual information obtained by the camera is used to estimate position of the helicopter related to the corridor. We focus on edge lines between walls and floor of the corridor and vanishing points on the shot image. Real time measurement and flight control are performed with the real indoor micro helicopter. At the first step, the experiments are held in the ideal environment which is simulated to the corridor and autonomous hovering flight was succeeded. Finally, we have experiments in the real corridor and achieve hovering flight and straight-ahead fight control.

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This paper describes insect-inspired flapping robots and measurement of dynamic lift force. Two types of robots based on dragonfly and butterfly were developed. The dragonfly-based robot imitates the take-off motion of dragonflies. The butterfly-based robot claps its wings and wags its abdomen synchronized with the flapping motion. In addition, a dynamic force measuring equipment was developed to measure the time-varying lift force of the robots. FFT was used for noise reduction of the data.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify generation mechanism of aerodynamic force of a hovering robot like as the hummingbird. The wing motion and surrounding flow of the flapping robot were investigated using motion analyze and flow visualized method. The wind which was assumed as the flying situation extended working area of the wing and influenced a locus of the wing. From results of PIV method, the fast oblique upward or downward flow and large vortex behind the wing, which was generated by the wing motion were observed.

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The final goal of this study is to develop a flapping flying robot capable of hovering. This paper describes building and experiments of two types of flapping robot. One has two wings and the other is four wings like the character "X." We developed a robot with two wings driven by a crank mechanism. Four types of wing are attached to the robot, and its propulsion and vibration were measured. As a result, we found that the wing without bones produced the best propulsion. We also modified commercial product with four wings. We attached various types of tail and found that the speed of the robot with long tail is the least.

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The purpose of this study is to develop a wind tunnel experiment system to analyze flight mechanism of flapping Micro Air Vehicles (MAV). This system controls fixed wing MAVs and flapping MAVs in a wind tunnel without a supporting rod and analyzed for stable flight of the MAVs. In order to realize this, we detected position and yaw angle of MAVs in a low speed wind tunnel by a image processing system, which it consist of two CCD (Charge Coupled Device) cameras. Being based on the experimental results obtained in the flight of the fixed wing MAVs by PD control, we have been succeeded in the free flight of the flapping MAVs by controlling rudder, flapping frequency.

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The Aerial Photographing that uses the radio-controlled helicopter becomes active on business. However, it needs a skilled operator of the radio-controlled helicopter. Some autonomous unmanned helicopters were reported, but they consist of specialized airframe and special control system, so they are very expensive that local government, a company, and etc. may not operate them. In previous study, we present a remote control support system consists of hobby-class radio-controlled helicopter, microcomputers, and low-cost sensors. We also developed attitude control system and evaluated it. In this study, we add the position control system to the attitude control system, and evaluated them by experimental results in practical situation.

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There are various electrical appliances such as the cleaner, washing machines, and air conditioners in surroundings now. These products are operated by the embedded system and has been achieved the multifunction and high performance. The embedded system is electronic equipments composed by the microcomputer that provides a specific function. The function demanded for the embedded system becomes various, and the scale of the embedded software it keeps increasing in recent years. Model Driven Development is one of the development methods of embedded system. This development method is based on a model. This method enables to test at model phase without actual embedded system. In this study, the airship control system is designed with MDD. The PID control was modeled and built into the airship control system. Moreover, the performance of the airship control system was evaluated.

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A new type flying machine "Flying Saucer (FS)" using ducted fan is presented in this study. As rotor of ducted fan dose not protrude from its duct, the risk is reduced than airplane and helicopter, and accident possibility is also reduced. FS maneuver is similar to that of helicopter, so attitude control system is necessary. In previous study, we present a remote control support system consists of hobby-class radio-controlled helicopter, microcomputers, and low-cost sensors. We applied this system to FS, and evaluated them by experimental results in practical situation.

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To develop flying rescue robots using autonomous unmanned helicopters, it is necessary to improve performance and reliability of flight control systems. Adaptation against the environmental changes, such as wind, has very important role. In this paper, adaptive heading (yaw) control for an autonomous helicopter is proposed. Roll angle and roll rate are used to determine desired yaw angle. Therefore, roll dynamics and yaw dynamics are coupled and stable dutch roll is induced to change the yaw angle corresponding to wind direction or the direction of the helicopter's motion. Results of flight experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Rescue from Drowning have the issue with rescue activity. In issue we aim at early detection and rescue victims, in this paper we propose an approach that research of rescue from drowning by flying robot. We apply RC helicopter to flying robot which have floater, and devise a carrying technique. Wind have to do with floater to get across, and examination of wind's effect when get across correctly.

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The stress of treatments in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has been considered to affect autonomic nerve activity and motions in premature infants. In order to improve the treatments in NICU, we surveyed the actual environment in NICU, quantitatively. In this paper, we measured heart rate (HR) and motions of 8 premature infants at cry that other infants. As the results, we clarified that the autonomic nerve system became active depending on the cry of other infants. W We found that the motion indication was different depending on the premature infants, from the analysis of motions. Therefore, motions by stimulation were different in each premature infant. Importance of treatment according to individual premature infants was suggested.

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In this study we investigated how the inner cushion influenced on the pressure distribution which was working at the head, the back and the buttock of the children when they sat on the child seat. This inner cushion was pre-produced to reproduce the pressure distribution between the children's body and their mothers' body when the children sat on their mother. From the result, the pressure distribution was quite similar when the children sat on the inner cushion in compare with that when the children sat on mothers' body. Therefore it is expected that the children feel 'held feeling by their mother' when children sit on the inner cushion.

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A sitting comfort of three child seats, whose size was changed, was evaluated by six babies. The pressure distribution between the seat and human body was measured while sitting on these seats and the trunk angle was measured by CCD camera. As the result, it is found they evaluated the middle size of seat a good sitting, the contact area between the middle size seat and body was the largest and the contact pressure was the smallest and the trunk angle of the middle size seat was the smallest.

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This paper addresses proposal and verification of a wire type steering system for an All Terrain Vehicle. The final purpose is to develop the automatic traveling robot that investigates the environment. Generally, the investigators occasionally wastes time and hangs the hands through they investigation because the land is vast. Therefore, development of the automatic traveling vehicles are required. In this research, as the former step, mechanical property on steering is studied to develop of the steer control device.

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This paper presents the duty factor based transitional gait walking of hydraulically actuated hexapod robot. We develop the hydraulically actuated hexapod robot named COMET-IV which operates for hazard operation assistance in outdoor. Currently COMET-IV has been designed with capable of performing three gait pods which are Tripod, Tetrapod and Pentapod. However the weakness here is COMET-IV cannot transit or change rapidly among these gait at a time. Therefore this project was done to solve this problem by constructing the transitional gait. The technique was proposed which is based on the duty factor which is the ratio of the supporting interval to the cycle time. Thus by putting the transitional gait algorithm, the moving velocity of the robot can be increased and decreased gradually. The results are being validated and verified with some experiments.

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This paper presents the locomotion method for hydraulically actuated hexapod robot in rough terrain. We develop the hydraulically actuated hexapod robot named COMET-IV which operates for hazard operation assistance in outdoor. Outdoor fields consist of various environments, so the robot must have high adaptability to the ground. Conventional method, position control, has difficulty to adapt to them. So we apply the position/force and attitude control to the COMET-IV and the locomotion test in outdoor field is done. The effectiveness of the control system is shown. And it is necessary for COMET-IV to walk on the gradient of 20 degrees, which is one of the design specifications. The gait planning and motion of the body is discussed and the presented method is verified through the locomotion test of the gradient of 10 degrees.

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In recent year, two missions have been examined from the viewpoint of the lunar origin clarification. One is to clarify the whole image of moon by placing seismometers. The other is to have information by taking samples of regolith into the ground with excavating. The exploration robot is required that it can excavate into the ground, taking a sample of regolith by itself in a small size and with lightweight. We focused on peristaltic crawling of an earthworm whose locomotion mechanism can move while keeping a large area in contact with the ground. It is expected to be suitable for a lunar exploration robot as a thrust mechanism. The developed robot which used peristaltic crawling could move in perforated dirt. In this paper, we suggested various shapes of earth augers as the excavating mechanism of regolith. Then we had some experiments.

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In this paper, joint system of manipulator and sensor gimbal on Micro series rovers is discussed. Micro series rovers are planetary explore rovers we are developing. Joint system such as motor drive unit has some requirement to install into rovers. After discussion of requirements, we designed and developed cylinder type driver unit with a ultrasonic motor and a harmonic gear. We also introduce about measurement methods and its results by each systems.

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Mobile rovers for lunar or planetary exploration are expected to break a new ground in the field of space science. The realization of adequate locomotion mechanisms for traveling on the surfaces of extraterrestrial bodies is principally a technical challenge. In particular, a reliable mobility on loose soil such as the lunar soil is required for successful rover missions on the Moon. So, the authors propose the novel concept of a micro-rover with an old and new locomotive component, screw unit, and such innovative rover is called Screw Rover. The screw units basically enable the rover to move in various directions by the simple combination of driving modes. Furthermore, Screw Rover can possess a robust and insensitive structure to the serious situation which is a stuck phenomenon caused by slippage and sinkage. In this paper, the fundamental considerations which include the design overview of Screw Rover and the theoretical discussion are presented as the primary study on Screw Rover.

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Lunar rovers are required to move on rough terrain such as in craters and cliffs where it is scientifically important to explore. Some researchers are developed locomotion systems to traverse surface. On convenient rovers, the large and heavy road wheel was used. However, it is difficult to use those because transportation system reduces just now. Therefore, the rovers are required size down. If the rovers are small, the performance is down. This study developed the elastic wheel which can get high performance to traverse soil. Elastic wheel can change its forms. The surface of the wheel changes flat toward the ground surface. Further, the stress between the wheel and soil is small. Elastic wheel is not easy to sink and slip at traversing soil. This paper focuses FPR material which has light weight and high hardness. Moreover, if the thick of FRP material becomes light, they have effect of elastic. Therefore, this paper proposes the wheel using FRP which can keep the effect of the elastic wheel developed by this study.

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This paper presents the locomotion method for a hydraulically actuated hexapod robot in slope. The hydraulically actuated hexapod robot named COMET-IV which operates for hazard operation assistance in outdoors is developed. We have applied a stereo camera to estimate inclination of slope and used an attitude sensor to measure attitude of COMET-IV. Using data from the stereo camera and the attitude sensor, COMET-IV walks on slope and changes its gaits. Next, our suggested method will be proved by the impractical experiment.

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Metal detectors (MD) have been used for humanitarian demining, and these are the most reliable sensors that have been developed for demining. However, in order to detect all the mines, the MD usually detects both metal clutters as well as mines, and this problem causes drop of detection efficiency. In this paper, some parameters that change the signals from MD were specified and four methods for estimation of these parameters were proposed. In order to develop these methods, 106 test pieces made from four kinds of metal were prepared and MD's signals of these test pieces were collected using a robotic manipulator. Results of processed data from MD were shown and validity of these methods was confirmed.

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For space robots having manipulators with joint torque and velocity controllers, we have proposed trajectory tracking type digital control methods using the transpose of Generalized Jacobian Matrix (GJM). It is considered that many tasks will be achieved by cooperative manipulations of several space robots in future space missions. In this paper, the tracking control method is applied for the cooperative manipulations by some space robots with joint velocity controllers. Experimental results using a simulator show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

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This study deals with a multi-legged planetary exploration rover with spherically-isotropic leg arrangement. 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 the other has 8-leg based on a regular hexahedron. Some basic performances, i.e. static 'manipulability' and load of the supporting leg, are compared for the two rovers. From the results, reasonable walking attitudes for the rovers are proposed.

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This study proposes a method to autonomously identify sizes and locations of the small impact craters on planar surface such as the one of spacecraft's solar array. The method is realized with the 2D-scanning range sensor in 6DOF motion over the measuring surface, and its motion parameters should be estimated to determine each crater's location as well as its geometry. In order to precisely extract the geometrical property of the craters from the range images, two invariant parameters based on 3D curvature is utilized. Also, the sensor's 6DOF velocities are estimated from the range flow data, which is computed from two successive range images. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated through a numerical simulation using synthetic range image sequence.

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The Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite (STARS) is in development at Kagawa University and was launched by the H-IIA rocket by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on 23 January, 2009. The primary objective of STARS is technical verification of a tethered space robot, which is connected to a mother spacecraft through a tether. Main characteristics of STARS are : (i) it is mother-daughter satellite ; (ii) it becomes a tethered system on orbit ; (iii) the daughter satellite is a tethered space robot. STARS consists of two satellites connected by a tether. One is a mother satellite, which deploys and retrieves a tether connected to the other satellite. The other is a daughter satellite. During tether deployment, the attitude of the daughter satellite is controlled by its own arm link motion, and a camera mounted on the daughter satellite takes a photograph of the mother satellite.

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A localization method measuring two-way range is efficient for a rover especially on small planetary bodies, where conventional methods of localization could not apply to. Numerical simulations have shown that the method can localize a rover with the accuracy of several meters, assuming small body, whose diameter is less than 1 [km]. Rotational parameters of an investigating planetary body have been assumed to be known, however, these parameters are also estimated amount that they may include some uncertainties in actual. This paper describes influence analysis on localization accuracy of uncertainties in rotational parameters and proposes a method, which estimates both position of a rover and rotational parameters.

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InfoBalloon is the name of the captive balloon system which has been developed at Hokkaido University for collecting and distributing disaster information. InfoBalloon is intended for operations both in disaster time and ordinary time. Therefore, InfoBalloon should provide information services to residents in its territory community with long-term and stable operations. In this report requirements of captive balloons for realizing continuous services are firstly introduced and then technical problems to be addressed are discussed. To enable long-term and stable operations of InfoBalloon, a new balloon shape and tethering method for InfoBalloon have been developed. The balloon shape for the wind effect and the tethering method with three parallel wires and a pivot base keep InfoBalloon at required position in air against a wind with stable attitude. A breakage prevention system against heavy wind and thunder is also designed and now being implemented for safety and continuous operations of InfoBalloon.

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