ROS has been becoming popular as a distributed platform for robot applications. We present how we developed a tidying-up demonstration task including recognition of objects, grasping, handling of a tray and navigation in two-weeks stay at Willow Garage Inc. This paper focuses on the development using ROS framework, tools and packages.

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In this paper we propose a method to recognize small objects on table top for tidy up task of PR2 robot using multiplex vision. Model construction and recognition algorithms are implemented using vision sensors with another settings, cubic primitive shape fitting calculated using stereo vision, image clopping and matching is applied to high resolution camera. As a result, we show some experimental result of tidy up task using proposed method.

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In this paper, the RT-middleware toolbox "RTC-scilab" which interconnects RT-components and scientific modeling tool "scilab" is shown. Our goal is to reduce the developer's load when they implement their own algorithm into a robotic system. First, the difficulty of re-using the RTCs which directly depend on the hardware platform, like inverse-kinematics algorithm, is discussed. Next, the RTC-scilab is shown. Finally, an RTC which is programmed by using RTC-scilab is shown.

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In this paper, the robot behavior designer called "FIROSOPHY" which sequentially changes connections of RT-components is shown. First, it is pointed out that most of the recently developed RT-systems are constructed as a central controlling system which has various problems, such as complexity of development, debugging and maintaining. Next, the FIROSOPHY is shown. In FIROSOPHY architechture, the RT-task is provided as sequentially executing the RT-systems that achieve premitive skills like reaching, walking, etc. Using FIROSOPHY, prural research results on the same hardware platform can be easily combined.

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In this paper, we propose the design of firmware (FW) update system for RTC-CANopen, including system structure and FW update algorithm. Although RT-Middleware such as OpenRTM-aist enables software modules developed as RT-Component to easily communicate with each other, OpenRTM-aist requires high performance CPU and CORBA environment. Many robots and devices for robots are controlled by embedded MPUs. Therefore, we developed RTC-CANopen that is the RT-Middleware for embedded system. RTC-CANopen enables embedded system and robotic systems to use CANopen device easily. We developed update algorithm based on CANopen software update standard. Therefore, our proposed system is able to support standard CANopen devices. By accomplishing our research, we can easily maintain the FW of embedded system as well as robotic system adopting RTC-CANopen.

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The robots are expected to perform daily tasks in human environment. To realize such a robotic system, it is necessary to develop intelligent robotic technology to observe the environmental condition and to accomplish tasks. In practice, it is required to create a robot system which is robust against changes of tasks and environments. This study aims to create such a robust robot system by using RT component. As an example of a daily task performed by the robot, the task of clearing dishes is selected. This paper presents simulation result of the task with several types of robots by applying common RT component.

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This paper introduces a task switch history visualization tool for ART-Linux. It is designed to develop real-time applications efficiently. It helps developers to confirm that their applications are executed periodically without modifying their applications and to find sources of problems. It consists of three parts, Record tool, Record server and Visualization tool and supports multi-processor (core) systems. The record tool reads a task switch history from ART-Linux kernel and writes it on a inter-processor shared memory. The record server provides gathered histories to the visualization tool. The visualization tool visualize histories and provides analysis functions.

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A mobile manipulator consisting of a 6 d.o.f manipulator and an omni-directional moving platform with four wheels is developed. The authors propose a strategy for handling object by cooperation of three omni-directional mobile manipulators using passive joints. Passive joints are free to move joint's movable directions are installed at the tip of each robot to avoid excessive inner force due to mutual positioning errors. Three passive joint mechanisms consist of four passive joints with electro-magnetic brake. The most important thing in this study is simplification of the control using passive joint. The authors propose equation of load on each robot as one of the simplification of complex control with a passive joint.

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In this paper, we propose an algorithm for planning of 2D caging manipulation by robots and walls. Caging is a method to make an object inescapable from a closed region by rigid bodies. Previous studies use only robots for caging, while we use walls as well. In our previous study, we proposed a method to plan 2D caging manipulation of a circular object by circular robots and straight walls. We make some improvements to the previous planning method so that it can plan in a wide variety of environments.

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Even if the ability of one individual is low such as an insect, a fish and a bird, are often takes orderly action by forming the swarm. This is called swarm intelligence. There are many researches of such swarm intelligence. Now there are many researches that it mainly uses simulation by using software. But the experiments of using the robot is a little. The purposes of this research are realization of which is based on group of nature with enhancing of crowd action to three dimensions by using airship and mobile robot, and analyze it. In this study, behavior of fish that form the swarm, became a group and lived are researched by using the airship and mobile robot. Using the robot which is equipped ultrasound sensors and pressure altitude meter and wireless communication. By these, the swarm intelligence was made into three dimensions from two dimensions.

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It is natural to think that robots will widely spread their fields of activity in the future. At that time, the human-robot collaboration become important. Although there are a lot of robots to help people, many of them are not so versatile. However, a versatile robot tends to be complicated, expensive and difficult to use. Then, the authors propose a new versatile transportation robots system named "Universal Unipods". In this paper, the development of this robot is described. Firstly, abstract design of the mechanisms and block diagram of the architecture are described. Then, the realization of the robot as a prototype is introduced and discussed.

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The concept of a robot formation allows a multi-robot system to transfer every robot efficiently. When the system is composed of some heterogeneous robots, it is necessary to deploy the robots at each desired position where their ability is demonstrated enough. We have already proposed a formation method which can specify the position of each robot in a group. The method was verified through some simulations, where the robots were assumed to be heterogeneous and identified. When applying the method to a real robot system, it needs to obtain IDs and relative positions of the robots. A measurement system is here proposed using wireless communication and ultrasonic sound. The measurement system is evaluated on an estimation accuracy of relative position through some simulation experiments.

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In this paper, the method of recognition for unknown object using color range sensor and grasp planning using object configuration in tidying task by humanoid are presented. Key features are: (1) Taking 3-D color point cloud from color range sensor and segmentation 3-D color point cloud estimating support plane (2) extraction graspable cylinder shape from 3-D color point cloud (3) grasp planning using graspable cylinder shape considering approach direction. Finally, we demonstrated tidying behavior by humanoid using there methods.

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In the large sites such as a university or the factory, we constructed a network system for a wheel drive robot to move a site freely. In the study of the community partner robot, the robot carried out a light work in place of a human being.

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This paper describes the generation of motion forereaching a pedestrian using mobile robots. When robots act in living space to various purposes, various motions are necessary. For example, forereaching motion is effective in seeing eye to eye to talk to pedestrians. The motion generation system estimates the positions and velocity of moving objects as the pedestrians and generates a path that enables the robot to forereach the target pedestrian while simultaneously avoiding the other pedestrians. In this paper, the pedestrian motion estimation method, forereaching path planning method, and experimental results obtained from the forereaching motion generated by the proposed system are described.

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We have been executing the experimental operations of the service robot "enon" in the shopping centers since December, 2005. First, we show evaluation of services by robot in shopping mall. Then, we discuss what services are appropriate to shopping malls from the result of the evaluation. And we describe that a sales promotion service is a suitable service in shopping malls. We propose the sales promotion service by robot using the task profile of RSNP (Robot Service Network Protocol).

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Extension of range of robot applications requires us to develop cooperative robot systems. The component to share locations of the robots through the network is very important in the development. We propose to accelerate the implementation by using the RT-Middleware, which provides us with communication protocols and in which various components for localization are already available. We additionally implement the component to share the locations, which adjust difference of coordinates in each map. We confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed navigation system through experiment.

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We are developing a lightweight RT-Middleware based on RTC-Lite for embedded system in "Project for Open Innovation Promotion by Utilizing Basic Robotic Technology" by NEDO. In this paper, we introduce a method to dynamically configure the RT System by cooperating RT Components that run on the lightweight RT-Middleware.

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In this paper, we report our activities of standardization in OMG, especially the OMG Jacksonville Technical Meeting held in March, 2010. The goal of this paper is to start a technical discussion in the robotics and mechatronics community to promote RT-middleware technology (robot systems designed by reusable building blocks) that results in efficient development of complicated robot systems. As a vehicle for the rapid development and diffusion of this RT-middleware technology, we've just started up an international standardization activity on robot technologies. In order to increase interoperability, compatibility and reusability between the various robotic common components, Object Managing Group (OMG) established Robotics Domain Task Force (Robotics-DTF) in December 2005. The Robotics-DTF is looking to begin a dialog with vendors, end users, researchers, robotics organizations and other interested parties to lay the groundwork for a common platform-independent model of robotics software development.

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Power monitoring system for robot is necessary to operate robot safely and efficiently. For this reason, the present study aims to propose, to design and to evaluate intelligent battery system based on CANopen standard as reusable power monitoring system. There are profiles that defined data which communicate between devices and so on in CANopen. The profile of intelligent battery was proposed. The profile has to monitor battery status enough. However, the profile is not evaluated. For this reason, we evaluate the profile in mobile robot. We focus on monitoring battery status when the robot go straight and turn around. We measured current, voltage and so on of battery and evaluated the profile by this measurement result.

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Because system development is becoming complex year by year, Model-based design is getting recognized to be important. In Model-based approach, by using model to describe the system, development efficiency can be improved and errors can be reduced. To make model, we adopted SysML which was standardized by OMG (Object Management Group) in 2006 to manage engineering systems by extending UML (Unified Modeling Language). In this research, we made model of the robot system by focusing the behavior the autonomous mobile robot which participated in Real World Robot Challenge 2009 (Tsukuba Challenge). By applying SysML to actual robot system, we verified the availability of SysML.

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Recently, the technique of the model-based development (MBD) has come to be used widely on the site of the embedded system development. In the present study, we propose the model-based development of the embedded system using Scilab/Scicos. As an instance of applying we tried the stabilizing control for the two-wheeled inverted pendulum by state feedback control. For that purpose we modeled the plant, designed control system, and simulated control response. The control program was generated from the designed feedback control system automatically, and we downloaded it to LEGO Mindstorms NXT. As a result of the experiment, we obtained stable execution result. Finally, we confirmed that proposed method was useful and that it is effective.

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This paper describes the construction of a mapping robot system using RT Middleware. In the RT Middleware framework, each functional component composing a robot system is realized as an RT component. We can build a software system of the robot by connecting such RT components considering reusability of the components and flexibility of the system. In this paper, in order to improve reusability of modules, we decomposed the system into several modules -robot controller, sensors, SLAM, object recognition, planner, database, and viewer-, and developed some of them newly. We constructed the system with these modules, and confirmed its performance through an exhibition at "ROBOWorld 2009" in Hamamatsu Science Museum.

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In this paper, we describe the miniaturization of PZT driver circuits for unconstrained vibrational pneumatic poppet valves. In recent years, we need the valve enough to drive the McKibben actuator for robots. It is important to make drivers for the valves small. We have developed small valves, but our valves need PZT driver circuit. This PZT drivers need to output high voltage square or sine wave for the piezoelectric actuator in the valve because their flow-rate depend on the displacement of the actuator and this displacement depends on the input voltage. As PZT driver components, we apply push-pull circuits with MOS-FETs and LC circuits with coils. The former can output higher voltage depending on MOS-FET's specifications. It is easy to make them smaller because of their simple structure. The latter use coils and it is easy to increase the output voltage to 25 through 100V from 10V input.

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In this paper, we develop a robotic arm that has three degrees of freedom for underwater robots. Electric motors for underwater manipulators has some weakness that is no-waterproof mechanics and the size. We develop a flexible joint driven by a prismatic actuator. One joint is consisted of a leaf spring and a McKibben actuator driven by water pressure. Contracting the actuator causes the bending of the joint. This mechanism restores to original state against the deformation. Finally, we confirm that the robotic arm drives using master-slave system.

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This paper proposes a new mechanism of stiffness adjustment for the purpose of lightweight and small devices. This mechanism utilizes a ball screw mechanism and a linear spring to adjust the stiffness around a rotational joint. By varying a nut position of the ball screw mechanism, the joint stiffness is adjusted. An advantage of the proposed mechanism is that elastic energy of the spring is maximum, when the joint stiffness is maximum. Therefore, the spring can be more lightweight and smaller than many of other mechanisms. In addition, the proposed mechanism requires less mechanical parts.

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This paper describes the simulation and experiment about a spring-motor coupling system. A system including a spring shows vibrating responses also in velocity space and our concept is to use a velocity peak for a motion. Biological systems seem also using the property. We made a mathematical model of the system and confirmed by simulation that arm angular velocity of the system is instantaneously higher than that without any spring. We analyzed the dynamical properties of the system, and proposed a design criteria using 'Velocity Expansion Factor.' We also experimentally confirmed the effect by a pitching motion.

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The development of the recent robot industry has a remarkable. In the field of various industries, a robot working in place of human is expected. Therefore we have developed a small and five-fingered robot hand like a human hand. We built a hand/arm robot system with the developed robot hand and a robot arm in order to work various tasks. However, the hand/arm robot requires a lot of time to teach motion because the hand/arm robot has a lot of degrees of freedom. In this paper, We development teaching system for hand/arm robot by teleoperation. We show the effectiveness of the teaching system which we developed by an experiment.

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This paper describes a novel joint mechanism with a multi-directional adjustable stiffness. In this mechanism, two different kinds of air cushions (Cushion A and Cushion B) are placed between a motor-driven disk and an output link. The rotational motion of the motor transmitted to the output link with the friction force between the surface of Cushion A and the motor-driven disk. In addition, Cushion A plays following two important roles: (1) Absorption of external forces by its elastic deformation and slippage on the motor-driven disk and (2) Sensing the directions and amplitude of external forces with the pressure change in it. On the other hand, Cushion B controls the degree of pressing Cushion A against the motor-driven disk by its expansion. The increment of pressing force of Cushion A results in the increment of joint stiffness, because the elastic deformation and slippage of Cushion A are prevented. This paper describes the detail of joint mechanism and its basic performance.

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In recent years, the robot has been in the field of medical scene and human life. These robots operate in an environment close to human, it is necessary to achieve the coordination of work and ensure the safety of people, when these robots contact with humans. Therefore, these robots be flexible and lightweight, it is desirable to have the characteristics a close to human behavior. For this reason, we have studied and developed an artificial muscle actuator using straight-fiber-type artificial muscles derived from the McKibben-type muscles. In this paper, we propose a new robot finger by artificial muscle actuator that is thin straight type like a wire.

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In this paper, we focus on control of slip of paper. The goal is the position control of a paper by recognizing slip information. For this purpose, we use high-speed multifingered hand with CoY (center of pressure) sensor. CoP sensor can output the center of pressure at contact position, and it can also output the vibration information caused by slip. By analyzing the information with Wavelet transform, the hand is controlled so that the paper is set to the desired position. The results of the experiment are shown.

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A humanoid robot hand is expected that it will be able to work in various fields such as remote medical care and extreme environment. Therefore we have developed and studied five fingered robot hand, "Universal Robot Hand II". However its work area is limited in real world. In this paper, we combined a robot arm with the robot hand to expand the work area and developed the Hand/Arm Robot System. This system is able to control the robot hand and the robot arm simultaneously. We show the effectiveness of this system through the manipulation experiment of door knob by the Hand/Arm Robot System.

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In this paper, we proposed a setting methodology of the reference value of grasping force, when the multi-finger hand grasps and lifts up objects unknowing their weight, coefficient of the static friction and stiffness. To avoid dropping down and crushing the object is required of the grasping force. For fulfilling this requirement, our method measures object characteristics in the way detecting the moment of crushing and slipping through the value of the mechanical-passive-element displacement. Our method sets the reference value of grasping force from the upper limit to avoid crushing and the lower limit for lifting up calculated from those characteristics. Finally, we validated the effectiveness of proposed method through experiments using the actual human-mimetic hand system.

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Because of occlusion, around several millimeters from grasping object, it was difficult for the method based on vision sensor to detect relative position between grasping object and the fingers of robot hand. To solve this problem, proximity sensor which detects the object in near range is very effective. In this research, we developed thin proximity sensor sheet and covered each finger of three-fingered robot hand with it. Then integrating these sensors and hand control system, we implemented object tracking controller. Using proximity sensory signals, this controller coordinates wrist position based on palm proximity sensors, and grasping posture from fingertip sensors. Therefore we realized tracking and capturing motion of moving objects.

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Human-symbiotic humanoid robots that can perform tasks dexterously using their hands are needed in our homes, welfare facilities, and other places. To improve their task performance, we propose a motion planning method with the active body-environment contact. Based on the consideration about the positive and the negative effects of mechanical passive elements implemented in joints, our motion planning method can let the hand-arm system establish the active BE contact at the appropriate body-site and select joints which make the movement for the task execution. We also construct the control algorithms for the tool manipulation to write with a pen like human. We validated our motion planning method through actual experiments on a prototype of human-symbiotic humanoid robot.

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Although pneumatic robots are expected to have safety based on the mechanical softness, large and heavy air source and reservoir tank is a problem to build a self-contained pneumatic robot. This paper proposes a pneumatic robot to have small-scale compressors. In this study, we showed a design guideline to decide the minimum condition of compressor specifications and tank volumes when a movement condition of the robot is given. We have designed and developed a prototype model of a McKibben-driven robot arm that has an embedded compressor and shown a motion experiment.

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This paper reports the model of joint stiffness of manipulator driven by pneumatic actuators. We develop a new pneumatic actuator, which is smaller than ever actuator. This leads to realize an antagonistic drive system manipulator whose size is as same as human hand. However, as being smaller, a pneumatic actuator's hysteresis increases. It is necessary to construct the model of joint stiffness of manipulator for controlling it accurately. Therefore, we construct the model of joint stiffness of an antagonistic drive system manipulator. The model is constructed in consideration of pneumatic actuator's hysteresis. Therefore, compared with non-consideration actuator's hysteresis, it is expressed well.

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We have developed the probe scan mechanism for Echography using artificial muscle actuators. First we established a driving system of the actuator by driving an electro-pneumatic control valve to examine the relationship between force and pressure. Then we constructed the mechanism to realize the probe rotation and reduce the total weight less than 650g. Next we established feedback control method of both of position and pressure in the probe. Because the contact force on body surface cannot be measured directly, we have applied a prediction control in contact force from inner pressures of actuators to realize maximum error of 100gf in the contact force.

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To realize advanced performance in robots, torque sensitivity is crucial. However, torque sensitivity and mobility performance were contradicting conditions. To overcome such problem, we developed highly rigid and high fidelity torque sensor utilizing linear encoders; we call them torque encoders. In our previous works, we used feedfoward torque controller based on identified motor parameters. To eliminate errors in transient states and have better correspondence with physical values, we need high speed current feedback controller. In this paper, we focused on developing FPGA based highly responsive hardware current controller that realizes reliable impedance control. We also built two-link manipulator consisting of two torque encoder joints, and realized impedance controller with gravity compensation.

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Rescue robots are expected to search for survivors trapped under the rubble by moving thorough narrow spaces. However, searching for the survivors under the rubble is a complex task. This paper proposes a new method to inspect narrow spaces by building a tunnel through the path. A tunnel is built by pulling out a belt from the inside of the tunnel, and it is combined with itself into a spiral form by the head unit. Fasteners are used to combine the belt with itself, and a pneumatic driving system called "Pinch Roller" is used for driving the fastener sliders. By this way, the authors have developed a prototype of Tunnel Building Robot and built a spiral tunnel with it.

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This paper describes a tube actuator aimed for a robot to inspect in the narrow and curved path. The tube is made of silicon, and its surroundings are restrained. This actuator has mainly two functions: enabling advancing of the robot, and enabling it to curve into the desired direction. The advancing motion is promoted by pressuring, which draws out the folded tube, and curving motion is achieved by changing the restraining condition of surroundings of the tube. Preliminary experiments showed that the tube can curve 90 degrees under the pressure of 0.2MPa. Furthermore, to curve the tube into desired direction, the restraining material can be made of water-soluble film or thermoplastic film, which changes its mechanical properties under certain conditions. Using this actuator, the developed robot was able to advance through narrow path and curve through the path in directions of three dimensions.

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Pneumatic actuators have several advantages, which are high compliance, light weight, safety, and cheapness. However, a pneumatic system is complicated because of electric wires and air supply lines from solenoid valves and compressor. We aim to simplify pneumatic system and proposed a new control method. The developed pneumatic system which is called multiplex pneumatic control system is driven by air resonant vibration remotely without electric wires. This system is configured with an oscillator, resonant valve, and air tube connected to the actuator serially. The system is effective to multi-DOF pneumatic mechatronics system. In this paper, the multiplex pneumatic control system constructed with four resonant valves is applied to the system having four pneumatic cylinders. The independent control of the four pneumatic cylinders is succeeded by using four resonant valves.

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This paper proposes a teaching system for multi-fingered robot hand using kinetic information of a manipulated object under rolling contact in order to achieve the desired movement of a manipulated object easily and accurately. According to the kinetic information of manipulated object which was obtained by haptic device, the teaching system sets the contact position and calculates the trajectory of each joint angle by inverse kinematics function. To set the contact position appropriately, the system considers constraint condition under twist rolling contact. This paper describes the results of experiment using the developed teaching system, and the future works to be improved are discussed.

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This paper addresses the significance of physical interruption in the computation of indeterminate grasp/contact force. Introduction of an elastic contact model is a reasonable solution to the problem questioned by Maeda et al. It corresponds to the contact and deformation in actual grasps. This paper introduces two computation methods based on the elastic contact model. We also address the limitation of the elastic contact model and propose its modification.

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Multifingerd hand is capable of using tool and can increase its ability. With high-speed actuator and vision robot can do more advanced tool manipulation than human. The task multifingered hand catches a small ball in parabolic and free fall motion using tweezers is taken up for its demonstartion. Experimental results are also shown.

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Sensing finger joint torque is necessary for dexterous grasping and manipulation with a multi-fingered robot hand. Many methods for measuring torque are proposed. It is hard to mount the traditional torque sensors on the robot fingers. Authors have proposed a new torque sensor which is small structure. The torque sensor is to measure strain of the elastic body. It can be built in the robot finger mechanism. This paper reports some experiments of the torque sensor. The experiments are performed to show characteristics which are hysteresis and frequency response. Motor can be controlled using a signal of the torque sensor.

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This paper analyzes static grasp stability of single planar object, in which we consider joint angle displacement. Grasp stiffness matrices are derived from the viewpoint of potential energy method by replacing grasp system with spring model. Moreover, grasp stability is evaluated with eigenvalues of the matrices. Effectiveness of our method is demonstrated through numerical examples.

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This paper describes the finger mechanism with omnidirectional driving roller to realize the two active rotational axes on the surface of the grasped object. As the omnidirectional driving roller, we adopt the Omni-Crawler we developed: the crawler mechanism with circular cross section. This cylinderical tracked unit can be used as the roller and the fingers with this roller can manipulate the grasped object in the arbitrary axes. The basic concept of this finger is proposed.

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This paper describes the morphing omnidirectional gripper which is able to grasp various objects with low melting point alloy, functional fluid, dilatancy fluid, and so on. The deformable part of the gripper changes its shape by covering all direction of objects and makes the contacting area higher. This time, we especially focus on the "Hot Ice" phenomena to realize higher grasping motion. The basic performance of fluid of CH3COONa has been observed.

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We have been developed an autonomous running method for a four wheels steering type mobile robot with a SOKUIKI sensor by a laser which can be run on an outdoor road in uncertain 3-D world. In this paper, we propose an autonomous running method to direct this robot to goal at the shortest route using a made 2-D map by a bird's-eye measurement with the SOKUIKI sensor.

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