This paper presents SysML model of a robot for better understanding and discussion on the design of an assembling system. In this model, the system is analyzed in a top-down manner and the structure and behavior of it are traced to system requirements. This makes it easy for developers and users to understand the system, its design rationales and how a task change affects the system design.

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In the field of manufacturing of a widely variety of products in small quantities, high versatility and maintainability are required for the working robot in introduction cost or operational cost. Recently, we research and develop a new type small-size multipurpose robot arm which consists of some modules combination. It allows easily change of the workspace or degrees of freedom (DOF) depending on the required task by combining some types of modules. Therefore, it is expected to improve the versatility and maintainability, and moreover, the reduction of the costs are also expected. The purpose of our study is the development of the control system to perform the picking and handling of the small component. In this paper, as the initial step of our study, we configure 3-DOF plan and 6-DOF vertically articulated robot arm as typical examples of our module robot, and we analyze forward/inverse kinematics and simulate the motion of the two robots.

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In hammering processing, the position and velocity of hammer at impact can be adjustable by using sampleddata controlled with vibration manipulation function in every natural period. Since steady impact with variable impact force and position is realized, automatic hammering robot would be realized for single or small-quantity production in plastic forming.

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A transportation system by cooperation of several manipulators has been developed until now. In this report, a practical method of determining grasping points of manipulators is proposed so that the maximum loads for each manipulator shouldn't exceed the payload capacity of the manipulators. First, we propose a searching scheme for grasping points so as not to exceed the load capacity for arbitrary trajectories of position and orientation of the transported object. Then, we verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the scheme by simulations.

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Since their introduction, robots have played an important role in the manufacturing industry. As such, manyresearches have been conducted with a focus on efficiency, such as the use of reinforced learning, through a number of random movement, to determine the best way to complete a given task. However, these researches often assume that the robot is capable of completing said task. It is possible that if such algorithms were implemented on robots incapable of completing their assigned task, damage to their output or even themselves is possible. In this paper, we propose a method which analyzes the feature space of the available robots' functionality in order to determine if the required task can be completed given the their capabilities.

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In this paper, on-line collision avoidance between two industrial manipulators considering whole body has been addressed. Both robots are controlled using unpredictable PTP commands. We have improved the collision map method to be able to detect any potential collisions between all links of the robots. In addition, Based on the map, the collisions have been avoided using time scheduling of command execution times. Furthermore, the new map has been used skilfully to avoid deadlocks which may happen if one robot blocks the movement of the other.

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When multiple robots cooperate within same environment, collision avoidance is essential technology for each robot. In order to achieve effective collision avoidance, it is desired to recognize surrounding robot's motion each other. As a method for recognizing it, exchanging motion information by inter-robot communication is appropriate. In this paper, we propose a local communication system for collision avoidance based on inter-robot communication. By rotating a transmitter and a receiver using a motor, spatially seamless communication to every direction of robot's surroundings is achieved, and spatial resolution of transmission information dependent on transmitting direction is also improved. We develop a communi- cation system in which only the transmitter rotates as a first step, and a method of restoring receiving signal to original signal. Finally we conducted experiments to confirm locality and communication quality of the communication system.

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In this paper, we consider the guidance control problem of multiple UAVs in consideration of collision avoidance. Firstly, we describe the controlled object and the control system of the helicopter. Next, guidance controller using distributed nonlinear model predictive control that combined the dynamic compensator is derived. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed guidance control system is verified by numerical simulations.

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This research proposes a method of reaching destinations for multi mobile robots by giving a formation under position uncertainty. These robots can measure 4 distances between a robot and a landmark and between robots by using 1 transmitter and 2 receiver which are located on themselves. Positions of robots, which can move and measure distances, are estimated by using extended kalman filter. And a sequence evaluation of robots formation use a variance-covariance matrix for considering position uncertainty and collision avoidance. A evaluation consider not these two points but distances between robots and their own destinations.

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In the insect and the fish that forms groups in the natural world and lives, intelligence as the individual is comparatively low living things. However, such a living thing enables the action it crowds by making the crowd cooperates by a simple rule and with order as a whole. This is said, "Swarm intelligence". In the present study, two or more robots with only a comparatively simple function are developed, and it aims at the achievement of the crowd action. The robot was developed that could set freely direction of travel and obstacle detection area by using function of omni-directional movement for traveling section and that can mount up to 8 supersonic sensors.

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Recently, the development of mobile robots is actively pursued. These robots are expected to have high mobility, allowing them to work in various scenarios such as rescue and exploration. Therefore, we focused on the hexapod robot for stable operation in an irregular terrain. We developed a leg using the parallel linkage mechanism and pneumatic rubber artificial muscles, and constructed a model of the legs. The model reproduced the experimental result. Then, we developed improved hexapod robot which can support its weight mechanically using these legs. Furthermore, the robot is assembled all system for walking. Also, we demonstrated that the robot could walk with high load of 300[N].

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Recently, human assistant robots are actively developed. They are expected to have back drivability and be safe to human. Thus, we focused on variable viscoelasticity using pneumatic artificial muscle and MR (magnetorheological) fluid brake. By these devices, robots can realize various static or dynamic motions without high frequency vibration. In this paper, we focused on instantaneous force generated by elastic energy accumulated in muscles. Then, we investigated throwing motion using 2-DOF manipulator using these devices as case study of instantaneous force. Furthermore, a dynamic spring model of the manipulator was constructed for simulation. Then, we confirmed usability of the model experimentally. Finally, we conducted throwing experiment. As a result, experimental result reproduced simulation result. And we observed how joint stiffness and phase difference of each joint affect to throwing motion.

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In recent years, skiing turns are researched from various viewpoints. However, mechanism of the skiing turn remains to be completely elucidated in spite of considerable research. Furthermore, mechanical models derived by using the approximate expressions do not match to an alpine skiing turn and results are not concretely reflected. Therefore, to facilitate theoretical consideration, the passive type skiing robot was developed. Some influences on the skiing turn such as the position of center of gravity and the ski shape are examined easily by using this robot. In this paper, we examined the dynamics of skiing turn to help skiers improve their abilities as athletes.

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We propose the way to incorporate synchronization-based control to a robotic suit for Standing up motion assist. And we use non-exoskeleton robotic suit to confirm the effect of synchronization-based control for standing up motion without sense of resistance. It was found that the muscle activation of the gluteus maximus muscle and biceps femoris muscle decreased during standing up under certain condition and the robotic suit synchronized human standing up motion. We suggested that synchronization-based control was effective for standing up motion assistance with no sense of resistance.

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Two four-flapping-wing type robot prototypes using crank mechanisms were produced for this study. Their flapping aerodynamic characteristics were assessed. Their aerodynamics were measured and flapping motion mechanisms were evaluated. Based on those results fundamental design consideration was performed. We produced polyethylene film membranous wings of two kinds whose trailing edge were made free experimentally. These membrane wings performed a natural feathering motion with a flapping motion. We visualize and observed the air flow around the wing circumference using wind tunnel experiments with steam while changing the robot posture angle. As described herein, we present some results of our study.

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Several observational studies suggest that the infant vocalization towards language acquisition develops through interactions with caregivers. However, what kind of underlying mechanisms works and how caregiver's behavior affects on this process have not been made clear since it is very difficult to control the infant vocalization. In order to attack this issue, we built an infant-like vocal robot "Lingua" as a controllable vocal platform. Lingua has two features; infant-like voice and high articulation capability. The shape of its vocal tract resembles that of a 6-monthold infant based on the anatomical data, and this may contribute to the former. 7-DOFs for articulation in the tongue is realized by sophisticated design of linkage mechanisms inside miniaturized vocal tract for high capability of its articulation. Preliminary experiments showed that the robot succeeded in vocalizing almost the same fundamental frequency vowel-like utterances similar to that of an infant.

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This study demonstrates to assemble label-free massive cells three-dimensionally in parallel and bridge between micropillars without any scaffold nor specific patterning. We already proposed the label-free magnetic manipulation based on the magneto-Archimedes effect and demonstrated spheroid array formation in a microfluidic chip. In the present study, we extended the manipulation method from two-dimensional (2D) to three dimensional (3D). By arranging Neodymium (Nd) magnets to generate a magnetic force not only on a horizontal direction but also on a vertical direction, cells were aggregated and levitated between micropillars. After incubation of several hours, the cells connected each other and bridged between micropillars.

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Insects have an ability to track airborne odorants and localize the odor source. To apply this ability to artificial odor source localization, we used silkmoths, well-known model insects in odor tracking, and developed a novel insect-machine hybrid system. A mobile robot bearing two gas sensors was located in the odor plume and was remotely controlled by a tethered walking silkmoth located in a different place. Olfactory information acquired by the gas sensors was transformed into optical signals which were recognized as olfactory input to the channelrhodopshin-2 (ChR2) transgenic male silkmoth. The moth responded to the optical signal and performed odor tracking behavior and the robot was controlled based on the behavior. We named this optical connection between the artificial sensors and insects as 'bio-photocoupler' and proposed this hybrid system as one of the most effective way to apply the insect sensory-motor system into an artificial system.

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Insects perform sophisticated visual-based behaviors and adapt to the real world with their simple brains. Understanding of the mechanisms behind these behaviors is expected to help us to develop autonomous robots. Obstacle detection and collision avoidance are fundamental functions for autonomous robots, and several models have been proposed based on the results of biological experiments in insect visual-motor systems. However, how insects cope with multiple moving objects during locomotion are not considered in these experiments and models. In this study, we developed a simple model based on recent findings of motion detection in crickets in which visual angle, visual angular velocity, and moving direction of objects are important cues to detect moving objects even during locomotion. We implemented these visual cues into the model for obstacle detection and collision avoidance, and evaluated its capability to cope with the real environments employing a small mobile robot equipped with insect-mimicked vision.

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A purpose of this study is to develop the flight type robot for the indoor exploration. I used FPV operation as the operation method. The performance and a setting position of the cameras are important by FPV operation. This is because there is much collisions of the obstacle by the investigation in the room. In addition, the operation only with a camera has a fault to say that the change of the picture becomes small for the movement of the body. The fault complicates operation. Therefore operation becomes simple when there is operation assistance. The method performed the position maintenance control of the robot using optical flow.

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Recently, humanoid robots have been developed in the area of robotics. We hope humanoid robots are enabled to act in disaster site. Because the humanoid robot can perform action like human. However, the robots can't walk on irregular ground. In this study, we present a hovering unit mounted to the sole of the humanoid robot. By this system, humanoid robot can switch between walking and floating movement. Floating movement can be executed without being affected by the ground. As a first step in the development of floating humanoid robot, we developed the attitude control of the ducted fan bicopter.

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Recently, R/C helicopter is used in fields of aerial photography and aerial investigation. But helicopter rotor blades are not covered, and the thrust is generated by very high rotational speed. So R/C helicopter has a high risk. In this study, we developed a new flying object that using ducted fans instead of rotor blades. And we named it DFO3. It has two ducted fans, normal and reverse rotation. It enable that gyro moment is canceled. We use PI-D control on 3-axes (roll, pitch yaw axis) attitude to control DFO3. At first, we calculated PID gain at the pole placement method. And simulate the PID gain at the DFO3 control system. Next we try flight test by used PID gain. We succeeded to achieve stable hovering by 3-axes attitude control. Then we want to make the Pusher type of Tail-sitter on the basis of the DFO3.

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A variable pitch propeller dramatically improves agility of a quadrotor UAV. However, this propeller has two degree-of-freedom inputs for one thrust, namely the number of revolutions and propeller pitch angle. Therefore we have to select an appropriate pair of the number of revolutions and the propeller pitch angle for the reference thrust to generate optical motion. In this study, we develop a flight simulator of the quadrotor UAV including the movement of the variable pitch propeller. First, we examine thrust variation with respect to the number of revolutions, pitch propeller angle, and consumption power. Then, we implement the model of the variable pitch propeller obtained from the experiment to the simulator. Finally, we demonstrate half-flip motion of the quadrotor UAV that is motion of the UAV with the variable pitch propeller by using the developed simulator.

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This paper describes an integration of a teleoperation-controlled system with mobile robot. We develop a mobile robot that is installed various sensors to recognize environmental situation and self-localization. And we use tablet devices as control interface. For the first step of this research, we develop the integration system of robot, tablet interface and environmental sensor. To realize the system integration, we applied robot technology middleware to integrate different elements. Our system is integrated by 4 devices that is installed 6 components. Through simple experiments, we show the teleported control task which is performed by simple instruction.

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This paper describes an Electric Micro-Car (EMC) with a tubular frame structure. This EMC consists of a front, a rear, a cabin, and a chassis module. The design efficiency of the car can be improved, and the car can be easily customized because each module is designed independently. The static and the dynamic analysis are discussed to achieve the rigidity and the weight reduction of the car. Through several simulations by the autodesk inventor simulation software, the human safety and the weight saving of the car are confirmed.

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This study addresses the problem of the variation of road surface friction for a wheel type mobile robot. The dynamics of wheel type mobile robot changes owing to the influence of the variation of the road surface friction. In case of the control system by using the fixed gain, it is desirable to design a feedback gain for every the variation of the road. We will propose the speed control method adopting the simple adaptive control (SAC) in order to adapt to the variation of road surface friction. Numerical and experimental results demonstrated the usefulness of the SAC for the speed control of the wheel type mobile robot.

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The firefighting robot using variably configured crawler vehicle has been developed successfully. The firefighting activities from outside of horses are strictly restricted by walls. The water flow throw a window reaches only a small portion of firing area. If the firefighting robot intrude into the horse, the dead angle firing zone should be almost diminished. A variably configured crawler vehicle is applied to surmount the barrier of intruding root. The water reaching distance can be controlled by the water flow speed and inclination main arm angle has been clarified and verified by some experiment.

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In this paper, we concern an operator support system for a class of manual control systems that a human operator manually controls an object. The multi-rotor helicopter is used, for example, environmental observation, pesticide application and disaster area. However, skillful technique is required for operations of the multi-rotor helicopter. Actually, fatal accidents are caused by the crashed air craft by operating error, that to prevent human errors is required. Therefore, we built the operation support system for the multi-rotor helicopter. Specifically, if the operation has performed abnormal operations, the system immediately alert to the operator to danger of an operation. The proposed support system is based on the identification method for a smallest model set which are consistent with the input and output data.

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A multi rotor helicopter is a flight robot which can hover, take off, fly, and land in small areas. A multi rotor helicopter is more stable and maneuverable than a general single-rotor helicopter. Recently, multi rotor helicopters are getting a lot of attention for information gathering in disaster areas. This paper deals with the observing system by multi rotor helicopters. In this system, we can fly the helicopters and obtain the data of the helicopters such as the location, the video, and so on over the Internet. Therefore, this system makes it possible to control the helicopters from distant location in the event of a natural disaster. Moreover, we apply the formation control to the helicopters, and show the effectiveness of the proposed system from experiment.

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A balloon like mechanism enclosing powder exploiting jamming transition is developed for a landing gear of aerial vehicles on rough terrain. The hardness of the balloon can be drastically controlled changing the enclosed air pressure. An aerial vehicle that has this mechanism can fit undulated terrain by its softness and prevent tumble by its hardness. This function needs only one D.O.F. A controllable mechanism is manufactured using rubber sheet, coffee powder, a pump and air valves. A quad rotor helicopter model with this mechanism is developed. Takeoff, landing, and fitting on undulated ground shape are demonstrated using the manufactured model.

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This paper deals with a hybrid type flying observation device which are consist of a helium gas balloon and a multi-rotor helicopter. The helium gas balloon can make flight for a long time. The multi-rotor helicopter is stable in the wind. The hybrid type flying observation system gets the best of both worlds. In general, helium gas is released from a balloon in every aerial photographing work. Moreover, most aerial photographers with the balloon give up a flight in the winds of 5 m/s or greater. However, the proposed system does not need to release helium gas. Additionally, the flying observation device in the proposed system can make a flight in the winds of 5 m/s or greater.

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We produced the eye-tracking system using the simple infrared ray web camera. Three basic movements were tested in order to use the eye-gaze input device. First, we watched four corners of the PC display and inspected whether a pupillary central coordinate accorded with the visual line direction. Second, we displayed three lines of sentences to the PC display and detected the saccade to determine whether the sentence was read. Finally, the detection errors of fixation point were measured by viewing nine areas on the display.

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We have developed a tracked mobile robot which attaches four legs at the comers of robot's body. This mechanism enables the robot to move on rough terrain robustly. In addition, the robot is able to perform handing tasks such as carrying an object and removing small obstacles in its movement by using the legs as manipulation arms. This paper describes mechanisms and characteristics of the robot. Several experimental results showed the validity of basic track-movement and manipulation of this robot.

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In this research, a small mobile robot driven by the reciprocal motion of three wires is proposed. It is capable of being effectively utilized for a search inside of rubble to quickly search for victims when a disaster such as an earthquake occurs. Since the mobile robot does not have to mount any power unit on the body, it is possible to construct the body of relatively light weight. Furthermore, since any electrical power source is not mounted on the body, the crawler robot can perform a searching operation under a sodden environment without additional waterproofing. It aims to develop remote control mobile robot for transmitting the driving force by wires in this research. In this paper, we consider the feasibility of the mobile robot driving by the power transmission with the reciprocation of wires.

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In this paper, a design method of a control system for dynamic posture control of inverted pendulum type two-wheeled robot. First a state space model for keeping the forward inclined posture is derived. Secondly, a servo control system using optimum regulator theory. A simulation result that the robot runs under the gate with the forward inclined posture is illustrated, to check the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Autonomous unmanned helicopter is useful in various disaster prevention activities. 3D terrain mapping system using autonomous unmanned helicopter is one of the most promising applications of the autonomous unmanned helicopter. To improve the accuracy of the terrain mapping, it is necessary to improve the estimation accuracy of the attitude. In this paper, we focused on generalized Rodrigues parameters, which are one of the minimal representations of the attitude. Based on numerical simulation's results, the relation between attitude estimation error and the order of generalized Rodrigues parameters was discussed in this paper. Finally, we concluded that rho_8 is optimal for the precise attitude estimation.

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In recent years, UAVs play various roles through line progress of line flight control technologies. And missions such as information-gathering and aerial photography can be performed by UAVs, instead of manned aircrafts. And UAVs have advantages of the low risk of losing lives by crashes and the low maintenance cost because of no crew aboard. For the missions described above, the flight control technologies are essential for UAVs, but many flight control technologies rely on GPS. And small UAVs are suitable for operation in urban areas and mountainous areas, indoors, but GPS cannot be used in those environments. So in this study, the flight control techniques by using the optical flow sensor in GPS-denied environments are introduced. In this paper, we derive a correction formula and test the correction formula experimentally by using motion capture system to verify the usefulness of the correction equation, describe the conclusion and the future works.

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This paper describes image measurement for monitoring at disaster site by an autonomous blimp robot. A surveillance system has been required to gather information after large-scale disasters on stricken areas safely and quickly. To collect the information, it is useful to use a blimp, because of its low-sky availability, safety and long flight. We have already proposed automatic flight control systems for outdoor blimp robots. This paper shows a dense point cloud that is reconstructed by using 165 pictures captured from an autonomous blimp robot.

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A battery powered MAV is used to search inside damaged building and plumbing. However, its flight time is from 10 to 15 minutes because of the limitation of battery. We proposed a MAV has adhesion mechanism to improve above problem. It can hover longer time without propelling by using adhesion mechanism and winch mechanism. In this paper, we evaluate adhesion performance of the MAV in considerable environment.

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In this paper we propose tire friction model as extension of nonholonomic constraint. At first we derice longitudinal and lateral tire friction force respectively, and then combine two directional friction force. We show the example of motion and friction force in the simulation.

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We research the method of route setting by environment information from the internet map read by human for outdoor autonomous mobile robot. In many cases, making autonomous movement perform to a robot, in advance the data of the course needed to be collected at fieldworks. Thereby, the range which a robot can move autonomously was limited by collected data at fieldworks. In the future, we will can set from the internet map information the route for the robot without prior fieldwork. In this paper, we describe setting method of reliability based on the information read from the map for self-positioning and he experimental results.

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In recent years, Japan is facing a problem of an aging society with a falling birth rate. This creates growing concerns among people about declining social welfare services due to manpower shortage. In order to deal with such a problem, it is expected to develop a robot which can perform tasks in a human living environment. In this situation, wheelchair robots are one of the promising solutions for care support of elderly people and so on. Our solution for the problem is to propose an autonomous wheelchair robot focused on compact mobility functioning in a wider range of spaces and to prototype the robot TAKAO 4 based on the concept. This paper presents the outline of underlying prototype robots TAKAO 1-3, the concept for developing new wheelchair robot, expected functions, and designing the robot.

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Indoor environments, such as factories or offices, the location and attitude estimation of the robot is important. Conventionally, they have been estimated using the external information by processing the camera image and the Laser-Range-Finder. However, high performance computer is required on the robot itself to calculate these information. Therefore, we propose localization method using a few microphones measuring sound directions as landmarks. The proposed method estimates the location and attitude by Extended Kalman Filter using a microphone information and odometry information of the robot. Efficacy has been shown the results of the experiment, the proposed method is to correct its own position.

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We describe an aerial robot equipped with a hand on the top of the body for realizing an aerial manipulation in the space above the robot. The robot consists of a small quadrotor platform, an one degree-of-freedom robotic hand and a camera. In the experiments, grasping the bar placed on the robot, keeping the grasp while the rotors stopped, and releasing the bar are achieved.

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While it is possible to use GPS and pressure-sensors in an outdoor environment, using these methods to hold a certain altitude and position in confined spaces or GPS denied environments is not possible. In this paper, a method to analyze a camera picture and use this information to achieve a hold position and altitude task via FPGA is proposed. The camera signal is processed and converted into control signals by the FPGA and then overlaid with the operator signals. This enables our prototype a semi- or fully autonomous indoor flight.

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In Niigata region of the metal processing industry, we are developing a jet engine flying robot (UAV). Niigata Sky project(NSP) is a regional consortium of aviation industrial development, and is being extended to the development of the flying robot system . This paper is the report of the progress of the current situation on NSP.

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This paper deals with a new all-round Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for Air-Land-Sea. The new UAV is a quadrotor helicopter with two rolling protect-flames, and can not only fly in the air but also move on the ground, the wall, the ceiling and the water. In this paper, firstly, the dynamic equation is presented of the new UAV, which is described by a set of nonlinear equations. Secondly, a useful controller design method based on the input-output linearization is proposed for the position tracking control. The design problem is reduced to that of a linear system, and the design method is simple and straightforward.

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In Japan, since the Great Earthquake, attention has surrounded development of disaster victim relief activity using robots. Development of a robot that is adaptive to various environments in irregular places, rubble, and confined areas is needed. A wheel movement type robot, a robot in the shape of a snake, a crawler type robot and a multi-leg robot are all described in the relevant literature as rescue robots that are currently studied. Although these robots are high efficiency and/or high ground-covering ability, they need comparatively large space to move. We have developed a cylindrical crawler unit based on worm-rack mechanism, that doesn't need large space to move and has high ground-covering ability. In this study, incorporating a mechanism that allows for lateral movement to the unit, this robot was realized movement, including the switching of the lateral movement and move back and forth. This report describes structure, driven mechanism, experimental evaluation are reported.

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In this paper, we propose a fast stair-climbing robot with a simple hopping mechanism using vibration of the two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) system. This robot consists of upper and lower bodies connected by a spring and a wire, and hops by releasing stored energy in the spring and travels quickly using wheels mounted in the lower body. These mechanisms allow the robot to climb stairs quickly and economically and land softly without a complex control. Here, we developed a two-wheeled inverted pendulum mechanism to reduce the required tread length. As a result, the proposed mechanism reduced impact acceleration by 66% during the first landing and 60% during the second landing for the climbing height of 200 mm and reduced the required tread length by 92%.

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Many crawler vehicles for rescue use have been researched so far. In the near future, if this type of research is to advance to the next stage, experiments in realistic environments are necessary. Particularly, dustproof and waterproof capabilities are necessary to operate in a real environment. This paper describes proposal of the high strength retractable skin and development of the closed type crawler vehicle covered by it.

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