This work describes energy consumption under reaction control in free-flying space manipulators. We compare two reaction control methods: Reaction Null space based reactionless manipulation and reaction-wheel based control. The following practical tasks are considered: (i) inspection maneuver using a hand camera, (ii) deployment maneuver from the stowed configuration and (iii) point-to-point maneuver. From the results, we can confirm that reactionless manipulation has an advantage from the perspective of energy consumption.

抄録全体を表示

Various excavation robots have been developed for in-ground planetary investigations. However, there are no reports of any robots designed to discharge excavated soil. Soil discharging is necessary for excavation robots to achieve greater depths and more sustainable excavations. We previously developed a lunar explorer excavation robot that adopted peristaltic crawling as its propulsion mechanism and this robot incorporates a soil-discharging unit. This unit can convey the excavated soil to the ground surface from the borehole during excavation. However, the soil that is carried by the discharging unit is removed by a dust collector with human hand from the unit. In the future, from the viewpoint of automaticity, the soil should be removed automatically. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel discharging unit that removes the soil automatically.

抄録全体を表示

The Morphable Beam Robot has been developed and investigated aiming to assist or substitute astronauts especially in their extravehicular activity (EVA). Tasks such as handing them tools, inspecting the exterior of the facility, or connecting cables are expected for instance. This robotic arm consists of four systems; shaping system, extension system, morphable beam and end effector. A morphable beam is plastically deformable and often used of such as desk lamp. The extension system extends the morphable beam and then the shaping system bends it. After repeating this process, the end effector reaches the target. However, measurement system for Morphable Beam Robot has not been investigated yet while the system is essential for its control. In this paper, design requirements for astronaut support are examined first. Next, shape measurement method using RGB-D camera is proposed and its measurement principle are presented. Finally, results of verification experiment for the proposed method is described.

抄録全体を表示

Space elevator technology has attracted attention as a means of transport into space to replace the rocket technology. In this paper, we make a unit type experimental space elevator climber for belt tethers experimentally and execute a traveling stabilization control. In a space elevator climber, adjusting the pressing force that the wheels apply to the tether is critical in order to ensure that the climber ascends smoothly without slippage. The electric brake which can be long-distance travel at a constant speed in the descent is required. Therefore, the experimental space elevator climber with a pressing force adjusting unit and a dynamic braking unit is made, and the effectiveness is confirmed by the ascent and descent experiment.

抄録全体を表示

The space elevator technology has been paid attention as an alternative means of transport in rocket technology. In our research, we focus the drive mechanism of a space elevator climber. In the space elevator climber, researchers had been paid attention to the ascent. Because the descent run costs the same distance as the ascent, the descent is also as important as the ascent. The descent controller should consider gravity acceleration. Therefore, we aim to descending without dropping and vibration. In this paper, we studied the descent speed stabilization control using the disk brake mechanism based on a disturbance observer.

抄録全体を表示

This paper described about practical evaluation and functional design of small self-control mobile robot. Anew architecture for controlling small mobile robots with a GPS and an Electronic Compass is described. We designed and developed small self-control robot with simple computational machine for iuture Mars investigation rover. Many trial tests for practical requirements were proceeded for each elements of body structures, electric circuits and software programs. The result using small rocket laden a mobile robot was verified durability of body design and reliability of robot control system.

抄録全体を表示

In recent years, demand for launch of the rockets has increased from space development. Although the solid propellant rockets relatively reasonable, it is difficult to safely manufacture a large of solid propellant, and the manufacturing process is non-constant. Therefore, we consider it is more reasonable if it is possible to manufacture the solid propellant safely and continuously. We focused on the movements to mix of the intestinal tract. We have developed a peristaltic pump that based on bowel peristaltic using straight-fiber-type artificial muscle. In this paper, we show it is possible to mix one high viscous fluid and another one same by measuring luminance value, the glass beads that same diameter to be used micro particles in actual manufaction and sodium polyacrylate aqueous solution resemble HTPB (Hydroxyl Terminated Poly-Butadiene) by measuring the glass beads in the solid-liquid mixed fluid.

抄録全体を表示

The prototype tests of spacecraft which have deployable structures are one of the important stage. When performing the prototype tests, spacecraft require space environment. However, the effect of gravity interferes with every structure on the earth, but in space the effect of gravity is ineffective. State of zero gravity is required to do the prototype test of spacecraft. In this study, we propose a prototype test system for variable flexible spacecraft by using multi mobile robots with decentralized autonomous control system. The main purpose of this system is to create a state of zero gravity as well as possible. All the robot is autonomously controlled by using force control. All the robot provide force in opposite direction to gravity. The validity of the system is verified by the simple hardware model.

抄録全体を表示

This paper describes a two-dimensional measurement method for shear stress distribution of a wheel on loose soil. The stress measurement device was improved to enable detect the shear stress distribution of a wheel. Normal stress distribution and circumferential shear stress distribution and lateral shear stress distribution were measured using this device. By combining the two-directional shear stress distribution, the directions of shear stress distribution were estimated. With this, soil flow direction was also estimated. By calculating vertical components of normal stress and shear stress, measurement validity was evaluated. In addition, the classical shear stress model and measured data were compared. As a result, both were accurately estimated, and a significant difference was not found under the low slippage conditions.

抄録全体を表示

Jumping Scouter is a rocket-powered robot for planetary exploration. The 1kg-ordered robot traverses long distance, independent of terrain conditions. For example, it theoretically jumps 2.1km on the Moon and 0.9km on the Mars with only 1.3kg of vehicle mass and 98g of black powder. It also acquires landscape imagery of wide areas during and after traversal jumps. This paper describes the robot's concept, system configuration and primary evaluation tests for jumping functionary.

抄録全体を表示

Attitude estimation of a floating object is an important elemental technology in on-orbit servicing mission represented by capture of large space debris, such as malfunctioning satellites. This paper presents a particle filter based attitude estimation method for a malfunctioning satellite whose dynamics parameters are unknown and which receives unknown disturbance. In general particle filter method, estimated state values are obtained from the weighted average because state values are independent each other. However, in the representation of the attitude, such as quaternion, each value is not independent. In this paper, Minimum Mean Square Error Approach is applied to obtain estimated quaternion values. The proposed estimation method is verified by numerical simulations.

抄録全体を表示

We developed the space elevator climber using the spiral promotion mechanism. The spiral promotion mechanism changes the angle of the rollers and the climber ascends and descends. The performance of the spiral promotion mechanism is equal to continuously variable transmission. We can use motors with small capacity by using the spiral promotion mechanism. Moreover, the mechanism has a feature of the brake by tilting a roller diagonally. A experimentally made climber can make the angle of the roller variable from 0 degrees to 90 degrees and is made to be able to adjust pressing force between the roller and the rope. The effectiveness is confirmed by experiment.

抄録全体を表示

The space elevator has been attracting as an alternative transportation between the earth and space. In the laboratory, we have been researching the climber technology to the realization of space elevator. In the space elevator, the attitude control of climbers is very important for ensuring the safety and feeling while riding of passengers. However attitude is influenced by surrounding environment because the climber is supported only by the tether. Generally, there is equipment that is called Control Moment Gyro (CMG) for attitude hold and vibration damping. In this paper, we introduced a control moment gyro unit for the attitude stabilization and we have examined attitude control of the climber using an optimal digital servo system including a disturbance observer.

抄録全体を表示

Now, minimally invasive treatments have a key role in medical care. Especially, an endoscope and a catheter occupy an important place. It is important to make their diameter smaller to expand the range of treatment. As they are inserted into the blood vessels or the alimentary canals, development of them that have bending mechanism in their tips can improve the operability and reduce the operation time. Therefore, we have made the prototypes of the small diameter endoscope and catheter. We have used the spring as these frameworks of the bending mechanism to simplify these structures. These can be bend in all directions by controlling the wire tensions. And, we have developed bending motion controller. This controller has 2 handles. One handle can control the bending angle. The other handle can control bending direction.

抄録全体を表示

This paper describes the results of development of a plasticization PVC gel added the high-permittivity powder of polyaniline coated oxide polymer on surface. The displacement and force of gel actuator are higher than a pure gel, since the composite gel has high-permittivity and low Young's modulus. The dielectric constant and Young's modulus of fabricated gel added polymer powder were 25 and 0.28 MPa, respectively. The amplitude actuator using the composite gel was 38 μm when the frequency of applied vibration was 200 Hz. The result of sensory evaluation using the trial Braille display was that a perceivable frequency was 300 Hz. To the question of which of two vibration is fine, all test subject were selected the actuator using composite gel.

抄録全体を表示

This paper reports on a folding micro coil as a receiver for MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). A folding micro coil was fabricated by aligning uniformly circular plates along the coil axis by using MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology. Since line width depends only on the direction of coil diameter, the line width doesn't decrease with increasing coil turns. Therefore we can fabricate the micro coil which has compatibility between increasing coil turns and decreasing resistance. The diameter of the coil and the length of the coil were 6 mm and 12 mm. The number of coil turns were 4, 6, and 8. The resistance of turn 4, turn 6, and turn 8 coils were 1.24 Ω, 1.54 Ω, and 1.69 Ω, respectively. Since a folding micro coil has low resistance, we acquired MR images with high SNR.

抄録全体を表示

In this study we focus on the microsurgery that is surgical operation using operative microscope. Only a special trained microsurgeon can perform the microvessel anastomosis operation. As for the microvessel anastomosis operation, a maneuver is mainstream. However, the operation by the maneuver is easy to come to have a long time, and the burden to depend on a patient is big. In addition, bad points such as the fear of a leak and the secession by the roughness of the sewing width exist. Therefore, is this study; for the purpose of shortening of the blood vessel anastomosis time in the operation, the reduction of the burden on patient by it, the reduction of the degree of difficulty of the microvessel anastomosis operation, I develop a thread and the new anastomosis device for the maneuver using the needle.

抄録全体を表示

This paper proposes an autonomous distributed sensor robot with an insect-mountable biofuel cell (imBFC) which generates electric power from trehalose found in insect hemolymph and a wireless sensor device. First, we evaluated electrochemical reactions of the anode in 100 mM glucose solution and the imBFC. Then, we measured the performance of the glucose BFC and imBFC and the maximum power of 76.8 μW (65.6 μW/cm^2) and 50.2 μW (42.9 μW/cm^2) was obtained. Finally, we attempted to drive a wireless sensor device consisted of a DC-DC converter and a radio sensor module powered by the imBFC and succeeded in driving the wireless sensor device. These results indicate the possibility for developing the autonomous distributed sensor robot without external power sources.

抄録全体を表示

This paper reports a muscle-powered miniaturized cylindrical conveyor which has peristaltic movement and bending motion. In our study, we used two types of Drosophila melanogaster (DM, fruit fly) larvae that express GCaMP calcium indicator or channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in the cell membrane of skeletal muscles. We observed calcium ions wave on living larvae due to muscle contraction and determined the optimum light condition. Then we controlled speed and width of the peristaltic waves of DM larvae with blue light by using optogenetic method. By changing speed of the propagating light wave while fixing the width of stimulation area, we tested contractile displacement. We succeeded in transporting micro beads arbitrarily by combining a variety of local stimulations.

抄録全体を表示

We previously reported three-dimensional acoustic manipulation. Two opposite ultrasonic phased arrays generate a localized standing wave at an arbitrary position in midair. Submillimeter-sized particles are suspended in the nodes of the standing wave and moved by gradually changing the position of the standing wave. It turned out that the unbalance of the conditions of the ultrasonic phased arrays causes the drift of the standing wave and the particles drop off at the end of the standing wave. In this paper, a standing wave is generated by a single array with a reflection plate. This configuration enables more stable manipulation in the directions parallel to the reflection plate.

抄録全体を表示

In this study, to examine potential of the bioactuator driven by chemical energy, we tried fabrication of the micromachine driven by insect muscle cells. They have resistance to environment and large contractile force. Heading towards implementation of the micromachine, we designed it and analyzed maximum displacement of the micromachine by simulation. To verify insect muscle cell adhesion to the structure, we did an adhesion experiment. We confirmed cell adhesion to the structure and compared its behavior with that cultured on a dish. The data presented here show the potential that single muscle cell bioactuator may be used as the driving force of micromachine.

抄録全体を表示

This paper proposes a concept of mechanical characterization of cell based on a new index which is measured by using the robot integrated microfluidic chip (robochip). We fabricate a pair of on-chip probe as the width tunable microchannel into the robochip, and the channel deform the target cell with periodic motion. When the vibration deformation is applied to the target cell, the cell start to move along the microchannel at a certain frequency due to the flow induced by the microchannel. We can regard the frequency as a index of the mechanical characteristics of stiffness of the cell.

抄録全体を表示

Tactile sensation during the application of cosmetic foundation is important factor for customer preference. In this study, we developed a system in order to measure tactile sensation during the application of cosmetic foundation. This system consists of a three axis acceleration sensor attached on finger nail and a six axis force sensor placed under the application surface. Using this system, we measured vibration and friction characteristics of three cosmetic foundations which were evaluated by professional technician of sensory evaluation. As a result, we distinguished three samples by two physical parameters during application.

抄録全体を表示

A spray-coated tactile sensor is proposed that has a simple structure and can be attached to complicated three-dimensional shapes such as a curved surfaces. This sensor detects strike points using the signal phase delay. In this paper, the fundamental requirements of the structure and the principle of the signal phase delay are discussed. Finally, it was found that the signal phase delay is caused by the vibration of base material or distributed constant circuit of RC with experiments.

抄録全体を表示

In this paper, we report a method to estimate the friction coefficient of a road surface for humanoids. To estimate the friction coefficient, we invented a foot structure on whose sole a partial slip could occur. We fabricated a foot model with the foot structure and conducted the experiment, in which the load was increased on the foot model on two road surfaces, Non-Oil Surface and Oil Surface, different in the friction coefficient. The distributed forces on the sole was measured by 3-axis force sensors. We found that the ratio of the friction force to the normal force decreased when the friction coefficient decreased. The sole deformation was also measured by a high speed camera and the occurrence of a partial slip was confirmed on both surfaces. We concluded that the magnitude of the friction force was related to the regional stick/slip condition on the contact area.

抄録全体を表示

This paper presents the influence of the liquid infiltrated into the skin on the moisture measurement by a piston-type electrostatic sensor. The electrostatic sensor consists of the thin copper and silicone sheets and measures the voltage generated by which the sensor is contacted and released the skin. The voltage is changed by the skin moisture condition. In the experiment, the skin which the distilled water and 10 % glycerol liquid were infiltrated was measured by the proposed and commercial sensors. As a result, it was shown that the electrostatic sensor was influenced by the liquid.

抄録全体を表示

The authors developed devices of passive type force display function that use only brakes in place of actuators for working elements. In addition, they developed an application that could evaluate such devices quantitatively. They contrived that usefulness of force display systems can be evaluated quantitatively, and so examined the usefulness of devices experimentally. However, significant differences of usefulness were lower than expected. Therefore they plan an application that can evaluate operating efficiency with basic manipulations and aim to achieve results that gets large significant difference according with how the force display functions contribute.

抄録全体を表示

Operation analysis is applied for various field, but usually people can only get visual or analytical data from motion analyzer, but cannot get physical feelings directly in their bodies. Li some fields such as sports and rehabilitation, it is more efficient to feel motion than to see the motion image nor read numerical data in order to acquire skills. The aim of our research is to develop a device to teach people directly the desired action by the force produced by Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG). hi particular we focus on the swing motion training of golf, baseball or tennis play. This paper introduces the developed CMG prototype and its application in the pendulum movement control with experimental results.

抄録全体を表示

Vibration feedback is widely used in mobile information devices and video games. Improving reaction time to vibration is important for enhancing operability and usability. An eccentric rotating mass (ERM) and a linear resonance actuator (LRA) are typical vibrators in practical use and these are advantages and disadvantages in terms of stimulus magnitude and response speed. In this paper, we proposes a stimulation method to improve human reaction time using ERM and LRA to overcome the weakness of each actuator, which is especially the slowness at the starting point of ERM. The stimuli proposed realize vibration feedback that has enough magnitude and response speed at the same time. In the experiments, several types of combined vibrations were investigated for improving human reaction time and keeping naturalness of the perceived sensation. The results showed that the proposed method could improve the reaction time with 24 ms in average for a button-press task.

抄録全体を表示

Recently, many researchers have developed tactile displays using vibrotactile stimuli. However, a tactile display method stimulating multiple positions on the body especially for representing realistic experiences have not been studied enough. This paper proposes a tactile display method for conveying realistic hitting sensations of tennis with vibrotactile stimuli to the multiple positions of forearm. At first, we reproduce vibrotactile stimuli based on the measurement data for forehand strokes. Then, we investigate the effects of stimulus parameters, which are mainly focused on a damping ratio and a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), to represent the stroke sensation. Experimental results showed strong sensations were obtained when the damping ratio became small, i.e., duration of vibration became long. We also confirmed that SOA didn't have a great effect on hitting sensations in this experimental conditions.

抄録全体を表示

We have proposed and developed a system to provide tactile stimulus to enrich music experience in the bathroom by controlling the water flow of the shower. In this paper, we conducted a user study to verify the effect on improvement of music experience by the shower tactile stimulation device. The result showed that music experience while taking a shower was improved. In particular, songs that have a characteristic beats or melody were effectively enhanced by the tactile stimulation of the shower.

抄録全体を表示

Contents using users' whole-body motion is now becoming popular, along with the spread of the low-cost whole-body motion capture systems. To present tactile signals to the whole body, latency of the system becomes a critical issue because it leads to spatial gap between the desired position and actual stimulation position, and also leads to spatially unsharp sensation. We have proposed to use linear resonant actuator as a high response vibrator, and use projection light to drive the vibrators so as to eliminate latency derived from PC-sensor communication. This paper reports result of the user study evaluating shape perception of the presented image by allowing free user motion. The result suggested that high-response vibrator and larger number of vibrators are both effective for achieving quick recognition.

抄録全体を表示

This paper describes development of Multiple Texture Button, which presents a variety of click feelings by providing decaying sinusoidal vibration at the moment of press. The button consists of a spring to provide kinesthetic sensation and a vibrator to provide vibrotactile sensation. To estimate the potential of the button, we implemented a video game application (shooting game), where a gun fires a bullet with various speed when the button is pressed. Modulating decaying sinusoid vibration enabled the button to present various clicking feeling matched with the context of the game (i.e. bullets' speed).

抄録全体を表示

We propose a proximity and tactile sensing method (3D tactile sensing method) using self-capacitance measurement. The proposed sensor consists of the two electrodes (E_1, E_2). The capacitance between E_1 or E_2 and GND is measured by switching between E_1 and E_2. The capacitance between E_1 and GND is used to detect the object before contact (proximity range) and to discriminate the material on contact. In addition, the capacitance between E_2 and GND (E_1) is used to detect the indentation on contact. Thus, the sensor can detect object both before and after contact (3D range). This technique may be applicable to proximity and tactile sensor for robot.

抄録全体を表示

Recently, force feedback devices have been applied in virtual reality, medical training systems, and rehabilitation. Generally, these devices display the human forces sensed by the impedance control using motors; however, motorized actuators are disadvantaged by low output and backdrivability. In an effort to counteract these drawbacks, we developed the force feedback device using pneumatic artificial muscles and magnetorheological (MR) clutches. The artificial muscles deliver high output and backdrivability, while the MR clutches enable fast responses. Furthermore, because the stiffness of its pneumatic artificial muscles directly responds to forces, our force feedback device detects human forces without force sensors feedback. In this study, we introduce the prototype of our force feedback device, and evaluates its performance. Finally, our force feedback device quickly switched between stiffness and the unloaded condition using its MR clutches and displayed arbitrary virtual three-dimensional object without force sensors feedback.

抄録全体を表示

Although minimally invasive endoscopic surgeries have been attracted attentions, the quality of the surgery depends on surgeon's skill. The reason comes from the fact that an endoscope has narrow viewing angle and surgical tools in patient body have low-degree-of-freedom. One of the approaches to solve the issue is utilization of a surgical robot such as da Vinci. Since downsizing of end effector is required for surgery robots, a tendon-driven joint with two degrees of freedom is effective. However conventional position/force controller for the mechanism does not take account of dynamics of the tendon-driven joint. This paper therefore proposes position/force controller taking dynamics into account.

抄録全体を表示

Aging of skilled workers and lack of successors is becoming serious in recent years, and previous studies have tried to reproduce a human's skilled motion when a contact object moves around a work space by using a robot including a camera. However since the studies do not take account of a measuring delay of a camera, control bandwidth is not wide. This paper therefore proposes a delay compensator for a position/force hybrid control system which is utilized for the reproduction of human's skilled motions.

抄録全体を表示

Humans have perceived the surface characteristics of an object by sliding their fingertips, slip of the fingertip can be measured through the contact deformation. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the surface characteristics of an object using a quantitative evaluation of the contact deformation. The index of the contact deformation is obtained by an image processing of the contact area captured by a camera using the FTIR method. This paper describes the experiment to evaluate the contact deformation when it is applied an external force to the elastic urethan gel pressed against a flat plate with films which have various surface characteristics.

抄録全体を表示

Haptic feedback is crucial for enriching the experience of virtual reality contents. While most haptic devices focused on the fingertip, or some required huge setups, we have developed a simple glove-type master hand that has two features. One is that it uses numerous actuators to cover the whole hand (52 vibrators). The other is that we employed linear resonant actuators to achieve high-speed response. We also developed VR environment that users can touch and feel VR object with the glove. In this paper, we conducted an experiment to verify the significance of the whole hand tactile stimulation and high- speed feedback for the identification of contact shape.

抄録全体を表示

A low-cost torque sensor particularized for friction compensation inside a gear was developed using an optical interrupter. A hysteresis-free property was achieved by a hollow-cylindrical strain body which deforms within the elastic region. An instrumentation amplifier was also designed in order to cancel the common-mode noise and increase the S/N ratio.

抄録全体を表示

This paper investigates the effects of muscle activities on human perceived forces. It is known that the activeness of force generation effects on attenuation of the perceived force. To investigate the mechanism of this phenomenon, we measured and compared the muscle activities in force generation tasks, which requires reproducing the perceived force by adjusting the force against the thumb actively or passively. Experimental results well followed the attenuation tendency reported in the past literature. We determined that main related muscle to adjust the force generation in our experiment was the ulnar extensor muscle of wrist. This muscle tends to increase the activity corresponding to the increase of the applied force only in the acive condition. This result indicates a possible connection between the muscle activities and the perceived forces in the human sensorimotor system.

抄録全体を表示

The purpose of this study was to develop the orthodontic force measurement device by using 6-axis force sensors and action sticks. The developed device can measure the orthodontic forces applied to multiple tooth models at the same time. We calibrated the developed device. The calibration result showed that a maximum mean square error of forces and moments were under 0.15 N and 0.014 Nm, respectively. We measured forces and moments which occurred in the case of V bend wire orthodontic treatment. The result agreed with the previous study and suggested that the developed device can use for orthodontic force measurement.

抄録全体を表示

Body ownership transfer in the rubber hand illusion is a well-known multisensory illusion in literature. In our previous study, we have investigated the components to increase the multisensory illusion using robotic instruments. Based on the findings shown in the previous study, we developed a microsurgical robotic system for the further investigation of multisensory illusion in the form of multi-degree-of-freedom master slave system. In this paper, we report the effect of multisensory illusion in terms of the operability on the developed microsurgical robot. The experimental results showed the operability is significantly correlated to the multisensory illusion.

抄録全体を表示

We developed a new technique for measuring a softness of the target object. This is the reason that the technique inheritance of quantify the palpation is difficult in medical scene. In our proposed method, we realized good performance of softness measurement by placing the "softer sponge" than the target object in the front of the pressure sensor to mitigate collisions and pushing the target object at "a certain distance (<mm)". It could apply for medical, food, and industrial fields.

抄録全体を表示

In manufacturing quality-check processes, there are numerous situations where skilled workers are often called upon to evaluate surface roughness with their sense of touch. However, this method is non-quantitative and is dependent on the skill and experience of the workers. Therefore, the development of a measurement device that can acquire quantitative surface profile data more easily than existing equipment is required. In this study, we developed a prototype portable, manually operated, tactile sensor system that utilized two cantilever-structured thin-plate tactile sensors operating in tandem. The tactile sensors consisted of piezoelectric polymer film (PVDF) that served as strain detectors. Since it is necessary to measure the amount of tactile sensor movement in order to evaluate surface roughness, this system calculates time delays between the two sensor signal outputs, thereby allowing sensor head movement amounts to be determined during measurement operations.

抄録全体を表示

When a wire hanger is placed on the head, the head rotates involuntarily. This phenomenon is called the "Hanger Reflex", and it was also found at the waist and wrist. This paper focuses on the waist-type hanger reflex and its effect on walking. We found that the waist-type hanger reflex turn the direction of walking to the same direction as the rotation direction of hanger reflex, which can be applied to navigation interface.

抄録全体を表示

This paper proposes a novel tactile sensor developed to be used in artificial fingers to measure force and detect vibrations. The sensor measures magnetic flux in space using three orthogonal ratiomatric linear sensors (RLS) placed around a cylindrical niobium magnet. The change in magnetic flux near the RLS is proportional to the inverse third power of the distance from the magnet to the RLS. The magnet and the sensors are covered by a soft overlay which can be deformed when forces are applied. By measuring the change in magnetic flux near the three RLS and using beam bending theory, we could calculate forces applied at the tip of the soft sensor structure.

抄録全体を表示

Two oscillating fin propulsors connected in parallel and staggered was investigated to aim an environment friendly and energy saving propulsor. In this study, as a preliminary experiment, swimming speed of the staggered arranged small fish-like toy robots "robofish" was investigated, and it was confirmed the staggered arranged robofish increases swimming speed for 13%. Then, thrust characteristics of the palm-sized fin propulsor, which two fin propulsors were connected in parallel and staggered, were investigated. In addition, two dimensional flow structures behind the fin propulsors were observed to reveal dominant flow patterns. As the result, thrust force of the staggered arranged fin propulsor was improved for 7% compared with the parallel setting. Contracted flow pattern passes from the first fin to second fin was obtained by PIV measurement.

抄録全体を表示

Coral has important value. In recent year, coral of the important value is damaged. This laboratory has developed an underwater robot. This research, underwater root to clean the crown-of-thorns starfish. Underwater robot is mounted acetic acid syringe to perform the removal of starfish. The end effector experiment in the pool and the sea. Object of the sea experiment use the crown-of-thorns starfish. Underwater robot was able to be injection into the crown-of-thorns starfish at the sea experiment. Crown-of-thorns starfish became only a bone and the needle 11 days later. Therefore, underwater robot can be the acetic acid injection in the sea.

抄録全体を表示

An attitude measurement of a robot using gyro sensors makes measurement errors due to drift. Although inclinometer is suitable for measuring attitudes in static environment, it is difficult to measure and accuracy falls down in dynamic environment. In this paper, we present a method of dynamic attitude measurement for UVMS (Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System) using a mathematical model of inclinometer.

抄録全体を表示