A significant number of the elderly have difficulties in going to a lavatory by themselves. Excreting is a purely physiological requirement and it is difficult to predict when the elderly will need help of caregivers to go to the lavatory. The elderly sometimes needs to wear an adult diaper or set a portable toilet in their living space but they makes the elderly uncomfortable and insanitary. Consequently, we proposed a mobile toilet system for solving these problems. The developed mobile toilet system waits for a calling signal from the elderly at a standby room. When control signals are received, the toilet system approaches the elderly. The past system equipped a two-wheel drive system. Considering a small space such as Japanese style house, two-wheel drive is not suitable for veering in narrow space. In this study, we developed a mobile toilet system with omni-directional mobile mechanism by employing omni-wheel.

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The number of elderly persons has been increasing in recent years. Most elderly persons take medicine every day to keep their health condition well. Elderly recipients sometimes make inappropriate medications such as overdoses, so caregivers must observe their medication conditions whenever they take medicine. Therefore, the authors develop a web user interface for the caregivers to monitor the conditions anytime from anywhere. This user interface displays their current conditions and weekly histories. The user interface also shows results of stocked medicine detection and living state estimation. Based on the information, the caregivers can recognize causes of inappropriate medications and monitor their lives with ease.

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This paper describes an abnormal behavior discriminating system based on an omni-directional vision sensor as one of the important elements in realizing "Sensing and Robotic Support Room" for elderly people. Such support rooms are expected to be further developed in the future with the high performance to automatically recognize elderly people's actions and behavior patterns and detect the unusual patterns using some sensors and to support their daily motions using some robotic manipulator control systems. The proposed monitoring system using an omni-directional vision sensor automatically learns the daily behavior patterns and detects the unusual behavior patterns and actions using logistic regression. Some experimented results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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This paper describes an anomaly behavior detection system for elderly people based on an omni-directional vision sensor. The proposed monitoring system automatically learns daily behavior patterns and detects anomaly behavior pattern using probabilistic inference approach. Bayesian Network is constructed using image feature values such as area extracted from the captured image sequence. Human trajectories are also included in image features in order to detect the prolonged motionlessness. Some experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system.

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Recently, solitary death of elderly people becomes an important problem by the super aged society. The demand of monitoring system for their living is rising, as seniors living alone are increasing. Besides, recent advanced robot technology is expected to help those people. In this paper, we developed conversation contents for monitoring robot, and then, its efficacy was investigated by an elderly person living alone.

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We focus on passive walking with upper body by means of cam-spring mechanism. In our earlier work, we realize the passive walking with upper body and demonstrate that efficiency of walking can be improved by the body by means of spring mechanism. In this paper, we demonstrate cam-spring mechanism that easily a just torque property and realize same effect of spring mechanism.

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We focus on passive walking that added upper body by means of a spring mechanism. In our earlier works, we demonstrated that the passive walking with upper body can generate a stable limit cycle by a simulation. Moreover, we experimentally realized the passive walking with upper body. In this paper, we analyze the effect of upper body on knee motions of stance leg and swing leg.

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Passive dynamic walking is a walking which does not need actuators to drive legs. A bipedal passive dynamic walking machine is able to walk along a slope only by using gravitational force. One of its features is that it is highly efficient in energy consumption. But the problem is its instability, and a constrained sole shape has been proposed to achieve good stability. However, the effect was only investigated for a mechanism that does not have knee. In this research, we examined the stabilization effect of a bipedal passive walking robot by using a model that has knees and performs three-dimensional walk. As a result, it was shown that the biped passive walking robot with knees could stably walk with constrained sole shape.

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In this research, a three dimensional quasi-passive dynamic walking that is excited by a rocking motion has been investigated. The experimental result shows this robot can walk on a flat ground and also shows a walking speed depends on a frequency of the rocking motion. Moreover, it is verified that different frequency inputs could change this frequency.

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To realize energy-efficient running, we propose a novel running based on flat-footed passive dynamic walking with mechanical impedance at ankles. Flat-footed passive dynamic walkers with mechanical impedance at ankles achieve energy-efficient walking without any control. Therefore, we expect biped robots to achieve energy-efficient running by taking advantage of the dynamics of the passive dynamic walker. We show that a biped robot achieves energy-efficient and fast running by proposed method.

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We performed a series of lift force measurements of a dragonfly-type flapping robot for various vein structures of the wings. We provide 10 variations of wing with different thickness and vein structure, and analyzed the time average of the lift force produced by the flapping motion by measuring the weight with a load cell. The lift force varied with the vein structure, thickness of vein, wave shape of the input signal to the motor driver, and flapping frequency. Based on these experiments, the optimum vein structure and the optimum flapping motion are discussed.

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We propose a bio-mimetic energy circulatory system that has a self-recovering function in addition to an energy supply function like those of humans. Using blood like mixed fuel, this system recovers automatically when its energy tube is injured. Also this system supplies fuel cell for energy, cools down itself. Using pulsatile flow, the proposed system realized effective solidification for the mixed fuel that was pushed out of the tube, and realized filtering for almost pure-fuel. These results show a new theoretical foundation of blood solidification and show a new possibility of industrial applications.

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Amphibian robot can conserve the ecological environment at any time under the state with a changeable water level. When a live fish is imitated and a fish robot is manufactured, the robot needs only a few actuators. Newts that are amphibian swim just like fishes in water. When newts walk on the ground, the movement of newts is similar in the case of swimming. In a word, the movement of trunk is more important than detailed movement of forelegs and hind legs. In this study, a robot which imitated newt's walking and swimming functions was produced for trial purposes. This robot has the propulsive mechanism with the trunk bending and twisting. This newt robot can walked on the ground and the bottom in water, and can swim in water. The kinematic performance of the robot has been examined.

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In this paper, we propose a non-holonomic single rotor micro flying robot which has high energy efficiency and sufficient mobility, in spite of being compact and lightweight. The proposed robot is just a mechanism where a rotor and a body connected by a rotational actuator. While the robot flies vertically upward very stably, we show phenomena, observed by using a 10.5[g] prototype, that it can change the traveling path in the air by appropriate on-off switching of the rotor.

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When a helix is rotated by a torque along its helical axis, a propelling force is generated as a reaction of the force exerted on the surrounding fluid by the helix. In this study, we numerically investigated the optimal shape of a helix which maximizes the ratio of the propelling force to the torque. The most efficient helix has the filament's diameter of a tenth of the wavelength, the pitch angle of 30 degrees, and the number of turns of around 1. With increase in the number of turns, increase in the propulsive force decays, while torque increases almost proportionally. Analysis of force distribution on the helix reveals that shear stress on the helix of inside half, having the opposite direction to the propulsion, increases more than the pressure force to propel. Shear force has partially the same direction to the propulsion on the outside half of the helix.

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Two synchronized movies where bacteria are swimming near a surface are analyzed to obtain three dimensional position and posture of a bacterium. Our microscopy has two objective lenses that are orthogonal and fixed during the observation. Since the blurred contours of the bacteria, due to the fixed objective lenses, and large amount of images in the movie make the measurement cumbersome, we have developed a program that automatically presumes the position and posture of the bacterium. From the images obtained by bright field microscopy, the position and posture of a cell of elongated shape are obtained by approximation with an ellipse. Position of cells, which have the size of a few micrometers, is presumed to an accuracy of 0.7 micrometers, while posture is difficult to presume when cells look like circle because of the blurring.

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There are some efforts for providing middleware for building robot system. However, these approaches are not adequate for service robot. In this paper, we propose Kukanchi Middleware Architecture. Our research focuses on building Kukanchi System which supports interactions between human, robots and space. The proposed architecture provides APIs for robots, sensors, and user interfaces as well as functions to convert user's command to robot command. We intend and expect to simplify Kukanchi System development by applying Kukanchi Middleware.

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Our laboratory has been applying environment and task motion framework technology to finishing robot system. Therefore, the necessary information to execute finishing tasks is put various places in finishing environment. We aim to develop the system which the robot conducts finishing operation automatically. The robot needs to get the information of workpiece position and posture to automatize finishing operation. In this study, RFID tags in finishing environment are also used for this purpose. We propose two methods for getting workpiece position and posture by using RFID tags. One method uses a matrix of RFID antennas placed on the plain table. The workpiece with RFID tags is placed on these antennas. The other method uses RFID antennas placed linearly. The workpiece with RFID tags is moved relatively on these antennas. And the workpiece position and posture are got from the position of the antenna which read the RFID tag of the workpiece. In this paper, the availabilities of the proposed two methods are verified through experiments.

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Multi-robot system is one of the important topics in robotics. However, we must know each robot's self-localization to apply multi-robot system. To realize each self-localization, we use evolution strategy. Evolution strategy (ES) is an optimization method based on ideas of adaptation and evolution. Our initial self-localization method is based on (μ+λ)-ES. The μ indicates the number of parent population and the λ indicates the number of offspring population produced in a single generation. Therefore, we propose a method of self-localization of multi-robot system based on (μ+λ)-ES. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Recently, the caregiver's burden is increasing in the aging population. It is said that 70% of the events that nursing care becomes necessary for elderly people are caused by cerebral vascular disease, dementia, disease of the joints and so on. These diseases can be prevented by the improvements of their life. However, it is difficult for the elderly people and caregivers to notice the warning from the small change of daily life. Therefore, a life-logging system can be one of the solutions for this problem. In our research, we developed a life-log management system for the elderly people and caregivers in informationally structured space.

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Recently, an indoor messaging system (IMES) is expected to be one of the most promising indoor positioning systems. The biggest benefit of IMES is that it uses GPS-compatible signals, thus GPS receivers can be used with miner change of their firmware. However, since the positioning accuracy of IMES is normally 10 to 20 meters, it cannot be directly used for the control of mobile robots. In the present work, a method to accomplish centimeter- to decimeter-level positioning using IMES is proposed. This method is called "real-time kinematic Doppler positioning" because position of the receiver is calculated in real-time and on-the-fly (while receiver is moving). The experimental results show that the proposed method has the potential to achieve centimeter- to decimeter-level positioning.

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The discovery of iPS cells has developed the study of regenerative medicine. Especially, the platelet from iPS cells-derived megakaryosyte is little to worry about in terms of safety. We suppose that in this way, artificial production of platelets is very near commercialization. However, the efficiency of platelet yield from a static culture is low. Therefore, in this paper was prepared the bioreactor aim of highly efficient recovery of platelets. Results of flow culture, we were able to give the load due to the flow as well as in vivo to cells. And we confirmed platelets were differentiated from megakaryocyte in reactor. Finally used medium was corrected in reservoir and analyzed by flow sytemeter. Platelets production was increased than the conventional reactor.

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In order to clarify the unsteady characteristics of the fluid forces acting on swimmer, an underwater swimming humanoid was developed. The robot was actuated by 20 motors and could perform the various human swimming motions. In addition, it has the same body proportion and appearance with half size of real human for the accurate measurement of drag force. To mimic the real human body, we scanned swimmer body and made robot cases using the data. The robot cases were printed by rapid prototype machine and were waterproofed by coating of waterproofing material. We developed gear housing for the waterproofing of motors and saving spaces in the robot. Various swimming motions were realized on the land. The developed robot's specific gravity was a little smaller than water and it could float without any buoyancy equipment on the water.

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The target of this research is to develop a redundant actuator control system for a 2-DOF robotic arm. A multimotor structure with parallel-mounted small-size motors and an ER fluid clutch is implemented to switch between mono-articular and bi-articular actuation control. The aim of applying the ER clutch fluid is to gain controllability of the viscoelastic property in the joints with simple control algorithms, and to perform precise positioning with smooth starts and stops. In this report, the experimental results of the basic dynamic characteristic of the up-swing arm positioning control when ER fluid clutch is presented. The ER fluid clutch structure tends to provide better shoulder joint angle positioning.

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We have developed oscillation wing propulsion type fish robots which was modeled the tuna. In this paper, a Scotch-York type driving mechanism of the caudal fin is used that is powered by the 2.6kW outrunner type sensorless brushless motor. In this report, we introduced cross link mechanism for the spine part to rotate the caudal fin faster and larger than rigid spine. The experimental results showed that cross link mechanism improve the swimming speed. It means that the larger yawing rotation in the propulsion is effective. We also tested our new two types of special caudal fins, rigid fin with loosen ligament and concave curve self-generation fin. In rigid fin with loosen ligament, we prepared several fins to change the shape of wing tip and the length of wing-chord. We also changed the phase restriction angle by changing the length of the loosen ligament. The new-type concave-curve self-generation fin keep its streamline wing shape when it generates concave curve. The experimental results showed that the new type concave curve self-generation fin showed the high efficiency for the swimming speed.

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We have been developing motor-tendon-joint series connection type biomimetic soft actuators to make robots act jumping, running and dancing like animals. We proposed and have been developing a silicone rubber compression type tendon structure for robots which act as a tendon of the muscular-skeletal system of the animals. Our first actuator using this silicone rubber tendon structure is a bit rack of motor power as a jumping robot. Therefore, in the previous paper, we newly produced a One-axis actuator using 200W coreless motor. We also modified the tendon structure. However, we could not demonstrate that the tendon structure improved the jumping height of 1 axis type actuator. Moreover, it was clarified that the knee joint angle was not controlled correctly after presenting the previous report. Therefore, in this study, we modified the tendon structure to load both tension/compression. We also introduce feedforward/feedback adding type control program to reduce vibration. The results showed that the newly made control program drastically decreased the vibration of the knee joint angle. The jumping height of the bend and stretch reaction jumping also exceeded the height of the simple jumping from full-bending position. This result showed that the modified tendon structure improved the jumping height of 1 axis actuator.

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The authors have been investigated how to use protists as living micromachines by controlling their behavior using their taxis. If we use microorganisms themselves as a living micromachine, the things they can do is very limited, such as push something, etc. Therefore, we have to develop and equip some special operation tool for each microorganism to do a special task. We once succeeded to install washer-like operation tool to paramecium, and this tool equipped paramecium could push object easier than to push it by paramecium itself. The tool equipment operation to paramecium, however, is very difficult because paramecium has soft body and we attach tool by physical fitting. On the other hand, Daphnia magna has outer shell and we can easily attach operation tool by chemical adhesion. Daphnia can also be controlled its behavior very well by using their strong positive phototaxis. In this paper, we tried to develop and make a tool and a working scheme for the highly complex task. We choose injection work for the target to prepare future medical application. First, we attached a needle on the Daphnia's back to destroy balloon by the needle. The motion controlled Daphnia could puncture the balloon made of thin plastic film using the equipped needle. Next, we developed a medical fluid injection for Daphnia. After the trials and errors, we applied a glass pipette for micro injection and forming agent to produce gas pressure as a medical fluid discharge mechanism. A motion controlled Daphnia which was equipped this injection could insert the tip of the needle and poured a medical fluid into soft jelly.

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This paper proposes a cooperative visual object tracking by a multi-robot system, where robust cognitive sharing is essential between robots. Robots identify the object of interest by using various types of information in the image recognition field. However, the most effective type of information for recognizing an object accurately is the difference between the object and its surrounding environment. Therefore we propose two evaluation parameters, called ambiguity and stationarity, in order to select the best information. Although robots select the best feature to recognize, if there are some objects that have the same information as the object of interest, robots can not discern the difference. To solve this problem, robots share the relation between the landmarks and the object of interest. Thus we propose a method to generate landmark information autonomously. The experimental results are promising with regard to effective multi-robot cognitive sharing.

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The problem of tracking human activities of daily living is considered an important subject that crosses a broad spectrum of disciplines. In this paper, we attempt to combine diverse and uncertain measurements arising from observing the daily routines of inhabitants in a closed environment such as smart homes. Specifically, we design a system that adapts itself by learning essentially the inhabitant lifestyle. The problem connotes the exceptionality, doubt, and lack of regularity that characterize generally the inhabitant activity. To tackle this difficulty, we provide a Bayesian model to perform a dynamic elucidation of the cause-effect relationships between some events and certain activities we need to legitimate at a given moment. The model includes an indication about the mean time spent to execute each activity which contributes to enhance the decision rule during the system recognition.

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This paper presents a novel angle of arrival (AoA) detection scheme by using phase differences of electromagnetic waves. Towards its practical utilization, our focus is placed on how to realize a fading tolerant AoA scheme. What is the most important aspect from the practical point of view is to allow the proposed scheme to find the high-speed direction of electromagnetic waves without requiring there time measurement. Another focus lies in realizing the scheme by developing an in-house AoA detector prototype. The implementation details are explained in this paper, and experimental results show that the proposed scheme and the developed prototype can be considered quite satisfactory for mobile robot navigation in a door environment.

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We have more than 1000 of food-poisoning cases in a year, which become an object of public concern in Japanese society. There are some temperature sensors that are able to assure heating treatment, since heat sterilization is considered as an effective process to prevent food poisoning. However, the users of these sensors are required to have knowledge for assuring the security of food, and to break cooking off to use them. Moreover, some of these sensors are able to check the temperature only on a part of food. Because of the inconvenience above, we applied several temperature sensors to kitchen utensils, in order to develop a kitchen utensil that let us prevent food poisoning by means of distributed temperature sensors. We, moreover, made experiments to test the efficiency of the utensil we made.

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This research aim to develop the shake mixing assist system using master-slave system. We purposed the vibration suppression filter that suppress breaking fluid level, and constructed the assist shake mixing system that reduce the air entrainment.

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In this study we consider the mapping relation between machine movement and operation, and examine how maneuverability is affected by the mapping relation. We treat an example of that a one-degree-of-freedom slewing arm is operated with a mouse pointer. We evaluate the time of task achievement and reference error to realize operating unit which we can operate quickly and exactly. Then, we consider the influence of maneuverability when the mapping relation between the motion of slewing arm and the orbit drawn by mouse pointer is changed.

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In this study we propose a new power-assist system which is able to realize motion-assist depending on the circumstances predicting operating touque and future trajectory in real time, and to realize high power-assist ratio without unstability by using model predictive control. Some results of verification are given in order to verify the usefulness of proposed power-assist system.

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In this study we realize a power assist based on positioning operation motion estimation using model predictive control with a combination of the surface EMG sensors and the force sensor. Some results of verification are given in order to verify the usefulness of proposed power assist system.

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Estimation method for human operation is implemented based on context data of action and state in this paper. The human operation model is generated using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Since MHH can deal with longitudinal data, the change of human operation and the situation around the human are modeled so that the current state predicts next human operation. The human operation model is implemented to a TV game so that the professional player model helps the beginner player.

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The acquisition technique of human operating characteristic is proposed in this paper. The proposed method consists of multiple modules which employ a Linier Quadratic Controller (LQR) and a Linear Predictor. The variable corresponding to human input can be implemented to the module. Since the other variables are non-controllable with the human input, multiple modules are arranged to the variables. Each module divides the human input according to the responsibility signal. The responsibility signal is adopted to the soft max function so that the non-linear control input is imitated by multiple modules. The proposed method is implemented to the pin-pong game and the experimental result show the effectiveness.

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The maintenance and management of mountain forest needs special knowledge and skill, and contains various dangerous tasks. Thus, the shortage of workers and aging of manager cause the problem of increasing unmanaged forests. In this research, we are developing "Teleoperated mountain forest maintenance robot system", which assist human work semi-autonomously. In this paper, we will develop a experimental mobile base, and discuss localization and mapping problem using surrounding trees as the landmarks. The experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed method.

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The paper deals with the problem of automatic cleaning of glass windows. A small-sized glass cleaning robot has been proposed by authors. The robot is composed of two units sandwiching the glass by magnetic force. To improve the functional performance of the robot and increase the cleaning reliability, a sensor detecting the level of the glass dirt is introduced. The sensor is composed of light emitting and receiving sections. It detects the dirt by measuring the amount of reflected light which changes in dirty parts of the glass. A signal processing scheme for this sensor is presented, and a motion control method incorporating the dirt sensor measurements is constructed. The validity of the control method and the feasibility of reliable cleaning are tested under experiments.

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Recently, a small sized mobile robot has been actively studied because it can enter into a narrow work space. However, the micro controller mounted on the small sized robot does not have enough memory size to record information for multiple tasks and behavior logs with large size. Therefore, we develop a small sized mobile manipulation robot with a SD card to realize the above abilities. This paper reports the rst experimental results for con rming the writing performance of the SD card to record the robot behavior.

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Recently, robots are developed to support and to help for personal works effectively in home and office. Especially, it is hopeful for the robot to transport heavy loads in order to improve the working efficiency in logistics field. Automated guided vehicles perform a stable transportation by lifting the center of gravity of the object. However, it is difficult to transport various kinds of objects because of limitations in size and shape. In this research, a transportation robot is developed to transport objects in various sizes and shapes automatically. Specifically, a cooperative transportation system is proposed by using two robots to carry a large object that cannot be transported by one robot. The model based on a holonomic property is compared to the model based on using heterogenous robots in simulations. The experimental results using real robots are also presented.

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Recently, multi- joint manipulator is mainly used on production sites, such as factories. It's redundancy increases according to the degree-of-freedom of manipulator. It becomes possible to do complicated work and the obstacle avoidance ability can be improved. But, because the weight of manipulator increases along with the number of links rising, the control energy increases in order to prevent a hand's accuracy from decreasing. Here, human-being's behavior that utilizes bracing motion for e.g., writing characters on a paper, can be put into manipulator's control strategy. We consider that consumption energy can be cut down by the bracing. And we also expect that the hand's accuracy can be improved by contacting with surrounding environment and the total of consumption energy will be able to decrease. In this paper, the validity of bracing an elbow is shown by simulations, by using mobile manipulator whose elbow is attached on the ground.

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There are a lot of pedestrian flows in the commercial facility. These flows often cross each other, and change goals, e.g. reception desk or ticket-vending machine. Moreover, too long people queue at a goal sometimes blocks up other flows. This phenomenon makes us uncomfortable. In order to reduce the congestion and realize the amenity space the environmental design considering the swarm behavior of people is required. In this paper, the authors focus on the formation control of people queue at a goal and propose the formation control method by optimizing the location of guide robots. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified with simulations.

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The congestion in an exhibition space depends on the flow of visitors. Because the flow of visitors depends on the space layout, it is possible to reduce the congestion by changing the positions of exhibits and partitions. Therefore, to reduce the congestion, a macro model of the visitors' flow is required. In this paper, we propose the model of human flow in an exhibition space. The flow of visitors is modeled by vector field. The vector field in the virtual space is mapped to the real space to match the positions of exhibits and partitions. In addition, the congestion in the space is assessed by using the proposed model. Comparing the satisfaction levels with exhibits in two types of space layouts, we discuss amenity space design.

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This paper is about a system which supports continuation of daily physical exercise. According to the motivation theory, an intrinsic motivation is a key to acquire the physical exercise habit. An intrinsic motivation develops in self-determinable situations, so we developed a gymnastics system, which allows its participants to determine how they move and exercise. The system should satisfy conditions below: (i) Guides its participants to rhythmic and big-motioned exercise using four major muscles, (ii) Allows its participants to determine how they exercise, and (iii) Maintains exercise intensity from 55 to 65 %HRmax. We newly defined abstracted-quantity, which represents expansion of exercise, and invent the biofeedback exercise program to achieve the conditions above. Evaluations indicated the efficiency of developed system.

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This paper addresses a human skill evaluation technique with human input command decision characteristics during a mobile object operation. The characteristics are how long past of tracking error information is utilized to decide the operation command. This evaluation is achieved by a novel human model with multiple neural networks which have different time series of input signals. Then, by the prediction errors from the neural networks, which time series is dominant to decide operation command can be estimated. In this paper, target tracking tasks in 2D CG environment are experimented.

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To realize the dexterous manipulation for micro objects such as cells and tissues, two-fingered microhand has been developed. In previous works, most of studies about two-fingered microhand had been focused on automated manipulation. However, tele-operation to realize the dexterous manipulation for the target cell is still an important technology. In this paper, the user interface, which is suitable for two-fingered microhand, is proposed and evaluated through experiments.

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Multi-beam optical tweezers are one of the most suitable techniques for dynamical and simultaneous handling of numerous micro-beads. Using a single laser source with 700 mW, we have developed a hybrid multi-beam optical tweezers system, which combined the generalized phase contrast (GPC) method and the galvano mirror (GM) scanning method in parallel. The efficiency of trapping laser power was improved by optimizing of both fabrication process of a phase contrast filter (PCF) and coding procedure of phase values with a spatial light modulator (SLM). Consequently, our hybrid system could assemble micro-bead arrays composed of over a hundred beads without undesired stacking of beads along the beam axis. We were also able to manipulate several tens of micro-beads simultaneously by independent use of its GPC part.

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Atomic force microscope (AFM) can observe nanometer-scale surface topography of the sample in various environments. In addition, it is possible to fabricate the surface using the same probe. However, AFM imaging has the problem that it takes at least several minutes to obtain the surface image. In this study, we have developed a nano fabrication method by combining high-speed imaging technology with the AFM probe manipulator system using a haptic device for human interface. It is possible to nano fabrication under the high-speed imaging. Therefore, the operator can monitor the nano fabrication scene by high-speed imaging. In addition, the operator can feel surface reaction by using haptic device.

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AFM can be used not only for surface observation but also for local surface fabrication. In particular, in micro-anatomical field, AFM has been expected as a micro-manipulator. Thus, highly accurate positioning of the AFM probe relative to a sample has been required. We have developed a compact AFM manipulator coupled with an inverted optical microscope to observe the AFM probe edge for accurate probe positioning and monitoring the scene of the manipulation. In this research, the apparatus was customized to remove a single biological cell selectively from a substrate. To avoid damaging the cell, a micro-cell scraper was fabricated from a micro cantilever using focused ion beam milling. As a demonstration, a single Hele cell was selectively removed from the substrate, and then it was collected by a micropipette. The system would be very useful as a single cell sorter.

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