Underwater robots are expected to be the new tool for investigation of ocean and seafloor. To obtain scientific data of wide area, the robot motion should be stable, e.g., robot is supposed to keep constant depth, velocity, height and so on. The motion control plays important role in the observations. We have developed two kinds of thrusters, 90W and 150W, which can produce approximately 2.5kgf and 4.Okgf thrust. In this paper, the property of the thrusters are described.

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In this paper, we describe about development of a wireless sensor node for monitoring underwater conditions and report experimental results using a prototype of sensor node. The prototype consists of communication unit on the float and sensor unit remained underwater, and they are also connected each other by a communication cable. The sensor unit equips a CCD camera and a temperature sensor. In this report, we had some experiment for confirm how stable the measurement condition is at underwater. For easy monitoring, the image would be maintained stable posture. We set some of depth (5[m],6[m],7[m]8[m]) for the experiment and as the result, the posture of the sensor unit was affected underwater environment. We show the experimental results and discuss them and our future work.

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In this paper, we describe about the development of distance measurement system in water with a laser module and a network camera. Two laser modules setting on the network camera and two points always seem in the camera image. If the distance of camera and the measurement object is near, the distance of two laser points is long. If the distance of camera and measurement object is far, the distance of two laser points is short. By using this relation, the distance of the robot and the measurement object can measure. We illustrate about the verification of this method by the several experimental results.

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Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (UVMS) are expected to make important roles in ocean exploration. Since it is considered that UVMS will be operated by automatic and manual control, we have proposed a resolved acceleration control method and are developing a master-slave operation system. We are also developing a stereo vision system for UVMS. In this paper, we show experimental results of the master-slave operation system with the stereo vision system using a 2-link underwater robot.

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The goal of this paper is to develop a robot control system for an underwater robot with a buoyancy control system based on the spermaceti oil hypothesis. Sperm whales have a spermaceti organ in their head that is filled with spermaceti oil. It is said that sperm whales control their buoyancy by melting or coagulating spermaceti oil. In our previous study, we built a depth control system for an underwater robot with a buoyancy control device using the theory. In this paper, a depth and posture control system was built using a microcomputer, a pressure sensor and inclination sensors and so on. In addition, a prototype robot was built using the system. The buoyancy control devices use a piston and syringe mechanism, and paraffin wax poured the syringe. Nichrome wires and peltire elements heat and cool the paraffin wax. From the result of the experiments using the robot, it is conformed that when a target depth and posture were indicated, the robot moved to the targets.

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Although physical interaction between individual components plays an important role in autonomous decentralized control systems, a systematic way of designing it is still lacking. In order to alleviate this, we focus on an undulating fin of the black ghost knifefish, and we propose a design scheme based on the physical interaction between individual components. More specifically, we theoretically analyze the undulating fin based on a continuum model and derive optimal force distribution. Based on the optimal force distribution, we propose a decentralized control scheme of a robotic ribbon fin. The robotic ribbon fin developed shows that the proposed control scheme allows the robot to locomote efficiently.

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Thrusters that have a single propeller are used for underwater robots. The thrust force of the thruster differs according to the rotational direction of the propeller and cannot be measured directly because of the use of magnet couplings. We have been developing a thruster with front and rear propellers having sensing parts of rotational speed of propellers. In this paper, we proposed a thrust control method based on the rotational speed of propellers. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

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We have developed a vehicle on water which is controlled by using an information of the inclination based on the rider's balance. This vehicle on water realizes an intuitive navigation on water. In this paper, we improve the previous prototype to speed-up and realize turning function. We examined experiments and confirmed the performances.

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Authors have been developing an actuator concentration type removable underwater manipulator for the conservation of marine life. This manipulator has the following features. 1. This manipulator makes it relatively easy to waterproof due to actuator concentration. 2. Wireless LAN Access Point(AP) is installed in underwater robot and AP connects with operating PC by wired LAN. This manipulator has a few cameras to take a look operation. The command to each actuator of manipulator and camera image communicate with operating PC via wireless LAN. Therefore, the external signal wire for control has no use. 3. Removable is easy because this manipulator is connected with the underwater robot body only with the power cable. In this paper, we describe the control of manufactured actuator concentration type removable manipulator and the result of the PID control and monitoring motor current.

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The sea transportation by ships covers most of trade, and the technologies for fuel efficiency and reductions of carbon-dioxide emissions should be developed. One of the technical issues to improve fuel efficiency of ships is how to prevent the marine biofouling to the ship hulls and remove organisms from ships. In general, the cleaning of ship hull is carried out on the ship inspection in dock yard or by divers in harbor. Frequent cleaning of ship walls is desirable to keep good fuel efficiency, however, the ship inspection on dock is done once a year and the cleaning by divers is high-cost and involves high risk. One of the solutions to the problem is to apply underwater robots into cleaning of ship surfaces. In this paper, we describe dynamics and motion control system of the underwater robots to clean ship surfaces.

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This research introduces a docking method of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle by using sonar sound location and data from an optical camera. Relative position of the vehicle can be updated and predicted for homing to the docking station.

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We have developed an underwater robot hand with built-in micro controllers using a distributed sensing system for remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with dual manipulator. A distributed sensing system is useful for decreasing the computational load of the main PC of the ROV. In addition, the distributed system yields decreasing the total length and the number of the wiring so that noise of the wiring reduces. A hand with force sensor has many pressure sensors for handling with dexterity. Force is calculated with micro controllers. Through two ways using tactile information, we investigate that this hand is able to support operators during grasping motion.

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In water rescue, divers in fire department go into the water and search the drowning man, but it is dangerous for divers and time-consuming. Some fire departments introduce the robot to support the rescue, but it is not so used, because 1) big and heavy 2) hard to know the position 3) the wire connected to Mother Ship is easy to tangle. In this research, we develop a new robot "Anchor Diver III" which is connected to Mother Ship with the wire that is kept tight all the time to reduce the risk of wire tangled. And we propose that Anchor Diver III moves with keeping the depth constant as an efficient method of scanning with sonar, and the method of measuring the position of robot in water rescue with applying acoustic positioning.

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In this study, a compact and modular underwater robot is proposed. The robot is intended to be used by operators who have little to no background in robotics or machinery in general. By designing the robot in modules, the system can be changed its functionality easily depending on the purpose or objective of the user. These modules are battery operated isolated smart systems that use wireless communications. This enables the modules to be less susceptible to flooding especially in high pressure depths. This paper describes the development of the thruster module of the robot. A prototype and basic performance tests are presented.

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In this paper, we discuss a support mechanism for maintain the position and the attitude of an underwater robot during working. This support mechanism utilize mechanical contact with an object. First, we classify the support mechanism, and then, point out the controversial issues. Next, we show a simple analysis for the design. Finally, we develop an support mechanism composed by a rigid bar. In addition, we demonstrate the performance of this mechanism though fieldwork.

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An idea of multi-leg system for aerial vehicles is proposed. It is a novel alternative of conventional landing gear and realizes adaptation to uneven terrain, shock absorption, and support of its body after landing. In order to land on uneven terrain, the system needs more than two legs. In this paper, the mechanical design of two-leg model for shock absorption and experimental results of landing on uneven terrain are shown.

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The goal of this study is to develop a control method for levitation stabilization of an aerodynamic levitated train named the "Aero-Train," which is a high-speed, high-efficiency train system. The levitation in this system occurs because of the wing-in-ground effect that acts on a U-shaped guideway. In order to achieve the goal of this study, authors have been developing the two-passenger experimental vehicle ART003R. In this paper, the overview of ART003R and the development of its control system are illustrated. Moreover, results of the preliminary levitation experiments using simple PD control, which confirmed the effectiveness of developed control system hardware, are described.

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Turbine engine has been used as high reliability and safety engine on airline transportation. Safety of aerial robots is the most significant for social use of aerial robots. We have started the research of aerial cargo robot called the 3-dimentional-transportation robot (3DTR) in 2004. First flight of the 3DTR was successfully achieved on November 22, 2005. The 3DTR is consisting of flexible airfoil, twin micro turbo jet engine and a gravity center control unit. The 3DTR meets all the following requirement for safety; touchable (without any propellers or rotors), low down rate as same as parachute (below 1.0 m/sec), low stole speed less than 25km/h, multi way control system and so on. The most significant specification for safety is to use of silent turbojet engine for the thruster of 3DTR. In this report, results of the turbojet engine development for aerial robots are reported.

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The final goal of this study is to develop a flying robot capable of hovering with two wings like a bird. In particular, we focus on hovering ability of humming birds. If a robot obtains the ability, the field of flying robot would become lager. In this paper, we focused on the effect of wing shape on drive and fluid flow behind the wing to determine the optimal wing shape. We build four types of wings and used a motor and flapping mechanism of commercial product. We measured drive and fluid flow behind each wing. As a result, we cannot find out large difference on drive between the four wings. However, we found out that wing shape affects fluid flow behind the wing. We believe that the results can be used for a new design of flying robot.

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This paper describes a flapping robot with resonant wings. The wings resonate in their first mode at approximately 12Hz. Experimental results show that the robot with resonant wings generates the thrust of 7.8gf, which is 1.7 times larger than that generated by non-resonant wings at the same frequency. In addition, the robot with resonant wings successfully flew at a velocity of 2.1m/s and a Reynolds number of 5.0×10^3 by wireless control.

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This paper presents autonomous flying robot (unmanned aerial vehicle) control using a powered paraglider and its application to gathering information from the air. To accomplish the purpose, the autonomous flying robot has a global positioning system (GPS) sensor and a wireless camera. Three PID controllers realize two-dimensional directions control and altitude control. Experiment results show the utility of the autonomous control system and gathering information (from the air) using the wireless camera.

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This paper presents trajectory tracking control of a flying robot with passive stabilizing mechanism that achieves passive stabilization of roll and pitch angles. In our previous papers, we achieved stable hovering flight of the flying robot with the passive stabilizing mechanism. This paper focuses on the influence of the gasbag on flying locomotion. Two experiments whose flying velocities are different are performed and the effect of the passive stabilizing mechanism is discused.

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MAVs and small UAVs are useful for the information gathering in the urban environment and indoor environment. In these environments, a recognition system which utilize external sensor is required because collision and GPS fault are possible. The laser range finder has been utilized but it will be an obstruction of flying robot's miniaturization because it is heavy. Therefore in this study, we develop localization and autonomous control algorithms by utilizing some lightweight JR distance sensors. This paper describes about a localization algorithm which based known environment and 4 IR distance sensors. And by using this algorithm, an experiment of localization was carried out.

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Unmanned helicopter is convenient at many situations like rescue and monitoring. However, radio control helicopter, which is known generally, is able to be operated only in the visible area of the operator. Moreover, unmanned helicopter of this type is difficult to control. In this background, many studies about autonomous control of unmanned helicopter have been carried out. In this paper, we present a fully autonomous control system for a small electric helicopter. First, we construct sensor system used for control. Next, we design the autonomous control system consist of rotor revolution control, attitude control, velocity control and position control. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of the autonomous control system by flight experiment.

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In this paper, we have developed the Four Rotor Robot for formation flight. We applied cyclic pursuit to take formation flight. We have thought about system model of the robot and designed the robot that is constructed of main unit and propeller unit. The robot has size modulation mechanism because we conducted experiments of by changing the length form the center to the tip of the robot and that is controled by a PC. In this experiment, we have succeed in flying Four Rotor Robot, and confirmed that size of the modulation system is active.

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Recent downsizing and high performing of the computer enable aircrafts to fly without pilot. Such aircrafts are called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). UAVs are mainly operating risky mission which is difficult to execute by manned aircrafts. In particular, the aerial photography is primary mission of UAVs. The conventional aircraft rolls when it changes direction and heading. But, a roll angle change causes a swing of the onboard camera and a poor reception of the GPS. Thus, a lateral directional motion without rolling is required. It is called a lateral translation mode. In this research, the UAV capable of a lateral translation mode was developed. It has a vertical canard as a means of a lateral translation mode. In addition, a control scheme that enables lateral translation is proposed and we carried out a lateral translation flight experiment.

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MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) can be used for many applications such as the investigation of inhospitable environments, regions contaminated by nuclear pollution or hazardous material and other inaccessible areas. For such kind of purposes, a small machine that can autonomously fly seems to be appropriate. Our MAV research group selects a Quad-Rotor MAV as our platform, and achieved automated take-off, landing, hovering, way-point navigation, vision-based navigation flight. However, the payload of our current platform is low (about 500grams), and the flight duration is only about 10 minutes. To overcome these obstacles, we designed a Six-Rotor type MAV with 770mm of diameter, 1.9Kg of weight, 1.5Kg of payload and 12 minutes of flight duration (without payload). In this paper, we present the main design considerations which are essential for the construction of Six-Rotor type MAV and attitude controller design technique.

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To improve reliability of autonomous unmanned helicopter, GPS-INS hybrid navigation system using Kalman Filter is utilized. Barometer can be incorporated into the hybrid navigation system, but the problem is that there is no sufficient model which can describe the relation between the altitude and the atmospheric pressure under ground effect. The purpose of this paper is to construct a model equation of atmospheric pressure which is easily incorporated in the hybrid navigation system for autonomous unmanned helicopters. Moreover, we propose that the model equation of atmospheric pressure under ground effect can be applied to estimate the helicopter's altitude from the terrain.

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Recently, radio controlled (R/C) unmanned helicopters become to be used for operations such as taking aerophotograps, spreading agrochemicals and investigation into disaster area. R/C helicopters can take-off and landing in just 1 to 2 square meters. And, R/C helicopter's operation cost is very lower than real ones. However, R/C helicopters fly with high speed rotating rotor blades. The rotor blades are very dangerous. Therefore in this study, the aircraft frying with ducted fan thrust (named DFO: Ducted fan Flying Object) was made with ducted fans for hobby R/C airplanes. Because ducted fan's rotors are covered with the duct, ducted fan is safer than helicopter's rotor blades. Considering experimental DFO's problems, study for steady flight was made from various ways.

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This paper proposes a dependable visual control method for a small-scale helicopter with a wireless camera. The camera sometimes captures noisy images, and we cannot control the helicopter by directly using the captured images. The proposed method decides whether each captured image is noisy or noise-free in real-time. Noisy images are not used to make the control signal.

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Recently, the needs of observation UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), such as unmanned fixed-winged aircraft and unmanned helicopter, have increased instead of the manned aircraft. It is expected that the UAVs are useful for aerial image acquisition, monitoring of high place and so on. Especially small unmanned helicopter can fly and hover in the narrow space. And small UAVs have characteristics of portable and small risk of harm. Therefore, in AIST, the small unmanned helicopter system is being developed. This time, in order to control the small unmanned helicopter by a computer, a new signal converter is made for the small unmanned helicopter experimentally. The signal converter can convert control commands of the computer into signals for radio control. In this paper, the outline of the small unmanned helicopter system, the new signal converter and the automatic pilot system for the small unmanned helicopter are described.

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This article proposes a flight trajectory control system for quadrotor helicopters. Quadrotor helicopters have a symmetrical shape with four thrust rotors and have an advantage for control over general helicopters because of the simple structure. Based on a detailed physical model of a quadrotor helicopter, a hierarchal control architecture is proposed to achieve trajectory control for three degree-of-freedom (DOF) of position and the yaw angle (1DOF) using independent four thrust forces. Simulation to evaluate flight trajectory control performance was conducted and the results showed the validity of the proposed method. Future work will be to make an experimental system and to evaluate the proposed control system by experiment.

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We have been working on mobile robots cooperation using land mobile robot and unmanned helicopter. In the previous paper, we report the experimental results using a small-unmanned helicopter and an omni-directional mobile robot. In order to realize efficient cooperation, the control performance of helicopter should be improved. In this paper, the mounted system of helicopter and the results of thrust measurement experiments are described.

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The small unmanned helicopter has excellent flight characteristics like hovering flight and vertical takeoff and landing. So, it is expected that the helicopter will be used for various missions. In this paper, we introduce about the autonomous control of Ultra small-scale unmanned helicopter named SRB Quark SG. Firstly, we designed the control device and the control system. Secondly, we described the attitude model of SRB Quark SG which is derived by black box modeling used Multi Input Multi Output(MIMO) mathematical model and the attitude controller which is designed by LQI control method. Furthermore, we show the validity of the attitude controller by the simulation. Finally, we show flight experiment result.

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A small-scale unmanned helicopter has a potential of performing excellent flight characteristic such as hovering and moving sideways during flight. Hence, the possibilities of applying such helicopters in performing specific tasks is widely expected and being the focus of research. We introduce in this paper, the autonomous control of small-scale electrical driven helicopter. A control system which is based on LQI control method was designed and implemented. The control system consists of the MIMO(Multi-Input Multi-output) controller. The designed altitude controller implements the MIMO controller in its inner loop. Simulation results showed the effectiveness of our controller.

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VTOL aerial robots called "X4-Flyer" has an advantage that the mobility and maneuverability are high, compared to other types of VTOL aerial robots. However, it is not easy for the X4-Flyer to design a controller in an underactuated system that controls six generalized coordinates with four inputs. Moreover, several parameters such as the airframe weight, the generated thrust, etc. are required to implement a dynamical control law. Therefore, it is necessary to design a desirable controller by actually constructing an X4-Flyer and obtaining main parameters through the measurement experiments. In the present study, an actual X4-Flyer is designed and produced, and it aims at developing the robot that is able to fly autonomously. In particular, thrust experiments of a rotor and take-off experiments of the airframe are reported.

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At present, metal detectors (MDs) are still widely used in mine detection tasks around the world. However, discrimination between metal fragments and landmines remains a difficult problem. This paper introduces a new processing method for MD signal dataset captured in the 3D surrounding space of a given target. A detailed investigation of such a signal dataset taken by a robotic arm, from various metal pieces with different shapes and sizes was firstly carried out for different postures and distance from the MD, and it was verified that the depth, metal shape, type and surface area can be successfully estimated. This basic methodology was then applied to examine a dataset taken from many real mines, and the results show that the probability of discrimination between metal fragments and types of landmines can be greatly improved.

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This paper describes the design of the attachment for Demining Heavy Machinery, BM307-V23 and the mine detection arm, Field Arm. We propose the concept of demining tasks by collaboration of BM307-V23 and Field Arm with this attachment in order to detect anti-tank mines. Required elements of the attachment are safety for deminers, easy detachability, simple structure and enough strength for long-term use in the mine fields. This paper addresses details of mechanism and structural analysis of the attachment, and some basic experiments for confirming the effectiveness of this concept, strength of the attachment and movement of Field Arm on other platform.

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Mobile robots with driving mechanisms based on wheels, tracks, legs, snake-like locomotion, etc. have been developed for movement in rough terrain environments. However, if the environment has steep and long slopes, or if it has holes (e.g. pits or ditches) that are several times deeper than the size of the robot, these existing locomotion methods will not be able to overcome these extreme obstacles. The authors have developed an advanced field robot system that allows the robot to cope with these extreme conditions. The system is based on a new method of locomotion, which uses a Tethered Detachable Hook (TDH) and a launcher-winch. In this paper, the authors propose a new hook mechanism called 'TDH IV' by using wireless communication with an IR receiver and tether-triggering locomotion. Focusing on the design concept, structure, and features of the TDH IV, we discuss its validity and implementation.

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In this paper, high speed walking of Hexapod robot is taken up. This robot has a design specification about walking speed. That is 1 km/h walking. Limit capability of the hardware was measured to design new foot trajectory for high speed walking. With the spec in mind, new foot trajectory was designed. Parameters in this trajectory were decided in the range where limit was not exceeded. As a result, it became clear that the maximum walking speed for hardware is 0.45 km/h. To walk at 1 km/h, improvement of hardware is necessary. Partial Model Matching Techniques was applied to design PID controller. But the derivation gain became minus. The reason was the model parameter. From this result, it was unveiled that Partial Model Matching Techniques was not able to be applied to this model.

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The focus of development on the robot for this issue will consider many target including the size the robot. Hexapodbased robot namely COMET was developed to focus on large disaster rescue with uneven and rough terrain environment. Then, the performance of walking is focused because it is significant. In oder to improve the capability to walk on unknown rough terrain, in our laboratory, researches in all aspects has been done until now. However, it is difficult to achieve the goal at the present stage. Therefore, in this paper, the detection of ground surface condition that is most influential to walk is considered. New detecting motions using estimated force of foot tip of COMET-IV are made for detection of terrain. The detecting motions are as follows, ● A behavior that examines whether the terrain can stand against the weight of body. ● A behavior that judges whether the robot can walk on the target position or not. In addition, experiments were done with the motions, and the effectiveness of the behaviors are confirmed by the results.

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At present, with the development of robotic technology, many industrial robots for simple operation to replace human have been introduced. Anyhow, there are still many dangerous operation of disaster area of restoration activity and crater observation investigation done by human. We developed the hydraulically actuated hexapod robot named COMET-IV. COMET-IV locomotes autonomously and assists various hazard operations outdoors. In this research, we are using pressure sensor to estimate slope surface and slope angle. We considered body attitude of COMET-IV on slope and using attitude sensor to control body attitude of COMET-IV. Finally, we proved our research by the experiment.

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Mobile Mapping System(MMS) come to be widely used in survey. Although MMS can survey precisely in open sky condition, the quality of positioning is reduced in GPS blockage conditions like urban area because errors which accumulated by inertial measurement unit cannot be reset. Since GPS satellite geometries change hour by hour, the precision of survey data at same position is different. This paper describes a positioning correction method using road features which are common for multiple survey data. This method references road feature coordinates extracted from high-precision data, then correct low-precision data by observing same road feature coordinates. The result of positioning of this method depends on observation errors occurred when a user selects the two coordinates. Thus, this paper also proposes an observation error reduction method calculating road feature center coordinates from 3D point clouds.

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These days an area of research about the driving support to prevent the traffic accidents becomes active. In the research, we have detected the obstacles in front of ego-vehicle with stereovision system. In addition we have tracked the obstacles that exists in the image in time series to estimate the detected obstacle's position and velocity robustly. But in conventional method, there was a problem that tracking obstacles was unstable in some case. So in this paper, we locate the cause of the problem, and we propose a method to track each obstacle more robustly by adding a parameter to the information of the obstacles to solve the problem.

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This paper describes an extrinsic camera parameter estimation method for a 3D measurement using a mobile mapping system (MMS). MMS can acquire the 3D information of the road environment efficiently using the laser scanner. However, a measurement range is limited because of the performance of the laser scanner, the use of camera for the 3D measurement is expected. In the 3D measurement using the camera, the accurate extrinsic camera parameter estimation is required. We propose an automatic camera parameter estimation method that uses the measurement data of laser scanner acquired by the MMS. In the result of experiment, it is confirmed that the proposed method can estimate the extrinsic camera parameter to an accuracy of 0.07 degree.

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The Micro Reactor Network in Okayama Prefecture is organized by researchers, institutes and companies relating micro chemical process and high precision machining in Okayama prefecture. Through the network, collaboration researches and developments of novel micro reactors have been established, in addition, practical realization and commercialization of the developed micro reactors have been promoted. Based on the advanced technology in Okayama, namely high precision machining, the network aims to make Okayama prefecture major R & D center of micro reactors. In this paper, some mechanisms, the active micro reactor system, the active generating /separating system for slug flow, and the ultrasonic vibration device for generating emulsion, developed in the network are reported.

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The aim of this paper is to introduce a project for emulsion generation device in Okayama University. We have generated sub-micrometer size droplets by using an ultrasonic vibration and microchannel plates. Especially, the device and system is for the generation of drug droplets. The ultrasonic vibration is oscillated by PZT plates and microchannel plates are made of stainless steel. The distribution of pressure depends on cross sectional pattern of the microchannel. As the applied voltage increased, emulsion became smaller and distribution became sharper. When the vibrator was oscillated in 2.25 MHz, the generated emulsion has an average diameter of 200 nm.

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Okayama University established an actuator research center as research and development about the actuator and a foothold of high specialized personnel training in November, 2008. The activity purpose of the center establishes 「The field crossing type engineering system」 across the fields border of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials engineering, and it is to perform the research and development of an epoch-making actuator and practical education research activities.

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Research project of "Soft fluid actuator" has been promoted in Okayama University. This project is organized by different field researchers; robotics, mechatoronics, health and medical researchers. Soft fluidic actuators are configured with polymer material and driven by fluid (pneumatic and hydraulic) pressure. Therefore they will have many advantages; high compliance, light weight, low cost and non-electrical drive. Namely they are breakthroughs of the realizations of highly safe mechanisms. In the project, not only fundamental researches of new soft fluid actuators but also applying them to medical and welfare mechanical systems have progressed. In this paper, the concept and purpose, the organization, and some researches of the project are introduced.

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