In this study, we develop a torus interface to enable a driver to provide multimodal bidirectional interaction with driving automation system, as a driver-vehicle interface with higher implementability for tactical-level inputs. The driver can input tactical driving tasks (e.g., turn right) by using six-axis moving input (e.g., push and tilt) with kinesthetic feedback. The interface system offers bidirectional and multimodal interaction, i.e., kinesthetic, visual, and haptic, in order to improve a driving experience. We conducted experiments using a simulator to evaluate the multimodal interaction method compared with unimodal methods. The results showed that the multimodal method enhanced the responsiveness and accuracy of the input to system and made the driver to intuitively and quickly understand the proposal from the system.

This study contributes to develop the control system for virtualizing contact sensation to the hard tissue in the development of a surgical training simulator with force display for oral surgeries and orthopedic surgeries using a bone chisel. In the surgical operation using the bone chisel, the impact forces are applied to the bone through the chisel by pounding with the mallet. Therefore, the force display device has to be reacted instantaneously to the impact force. In this paper, 2-DOF admittance control is applied to the axes of motion in the force display device for representing the contact sensation to the hard tissue.

The author has proposed a technology suggested technique to measure shape deformation of the skin surface caused by exercise as a command signal of the electric prosthesis by using a flexible sensor such as a strain gauge. In this paper, clinical experiments were conducted by healthy people such as hospital staff and students in order to evaluate the performance of this technology and prototype electric hand. In clinical experiments, we set up an electric hand directly under the arm of a healthy person so that we can experience mimicking of deterioration of upper limb function, and a simple upper extremity functional test (STEF, Simple Test for Evaluating Hand Function) used at rehabilitation field. We quantitatively evaluated the function by using an electric hand under prototype.

In this paper, we propose a new method of measuring the acoustic impedance of the lung airway to research disease of respiratory system. Conventionally, the acoustic impedance is measured by Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT). FOT method determines the acoustic impedance by superimposing small external pressure signals on the spontaneous breathing of the person. Measured impedance value includes whole lung airway from the person's lips, but important impedance value is which of peripheral airway in the lung airway test and this value is influenced by the shape of vocal tract. We propose a new method to consider an influence of vocal tract. The airway is approximated the acoustic tube, and we measure impulse response at lips, estimate area of cross section and sound pressure, and calculate impedance at the glottis.

In this paper, we propose a novel urine rate measuring system for infants and children. The uroflowmetry(UFM) is known as a diagnostic procedure for urinary tract disease. However there is no diagnostic equipment for infants and children. In consideration of physical constraints and load on infants, We embed a two-dimensional electrode array sensor with lightweight and flexible in the diaper water-absorbing layer. By utilizing the fact that the impedance between electrodes varies on the amount of urine contacting them, we estimate flow rate of urine diffusing in the water-absorption layer. In this paper, we describe the configuration of the flow rate estimation system based on the impedance distribution and the basic experiment results.

The purpose of this study is to develop a tactile-sensorized elastomer suture pad for laparoscopic surgery training. Although our previously-developed soft tactile sensor measuring iron particle core displacement with inductors is suitable for this aim, its structure should be improved so that the influence of the metallic surgery instruments such as suture needles and forcepses can be reduced. We proposed an improved structure and compared the sensor response ratio for suture needle approaching against force application of 1 N among several structure parameter conditions. As a result, we found that the sensor response ratio decreased to 10 ％ from 176 ％ by tuning the position and amount of the particle core, and the sensor thickness.

In vitreoretinal surgery, endoscopes are not often used despite their many advantages. We have developed the intraocular endoscope manipulator which has 8 degrees of freedom for vitreoretinal surgery. The manipulator was designed to be used with a microscope at the same time and to be able to obtain the field of view from the back of the iris to the ocular fundus by manipulating the endoscope. In the experiment, the manipulator operated the intraocular endoscope in an environment simulating surgery. It was confirmed that the robot can operate without interfering with the operator and the microscope and obtain the necessary field of view for surgery.

The popularity of autonomous driving has significantly increased in the recent years. In this paper, the authors developed a self-driving car using COMS, a commercially available electric vehicle from Toyota Body, and the open source robotics platform ROS. Actuators were attached to the brake and steering wheel and the wires connected to the ECU are tapped to send accelerator and shift signals from mbed. The authors used Gmapping and Hybrid-State A* for SLAM and path planning, respectively, to achieve autonomous driving of the developed vehicle.

The authors aim to realize a wearable robot that supports the motion of the entire body trunk. In order to realize this robot, the determination of the robot structure is the primary task. Focusing on the body surface shape where the robot makes direct contact, we examine the robot structure that can follow the deformation of the body surface shape. However, with the existing measurement method of body surface shape deformation using markers, the robot structure can not be clarified. In this paper, we propose a new method for measuring deformation of body surface shape in the trunk motion without using any markers as a a preliminary step of the robot structure determination.

The purpose of this study is to develop a lighter and smaller support device that can assist the user's arm to reduce burden on workers. The support device consists of a mounting part and a linkage mechanism in order to use a single actuator. In this paper, we used an actuator and a ratchet mechanism. The ratchet mechanism is used to adjust the posture of the arm part. The effectiveness of the proposed support device is verified by the result of the experiments.

In our previous studies, it is found that human elbow joint motion could be changed from his/her intended motion only by giving vibration stimulation on the tendon of antagonist muscle. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the amplitude change to elbow joint motion change. The experiment of this study aimed to quantitatively investigate the amount of the elbow joint motion change from subject's intended motion. During the experiment, subjects made one elbow joint extension motion. Vibration stimulation was added to biceps brachii during elbow joint extension motion and its amplitude was changed in each trials. The experimental results suggest the amplitude change affects the amount of elbow joint extension motion change and it is suggested that the elbow joint motion may be controlled by using frequency change and amplitude change in the upper-limb perception-assist.

A study of an exoskeleton robot is performed extensively from demand of the field of the nursing and the physical distribution in recent years. Much of the exoskeleton robot developed at present is employing the EMG sensor or force/torque sensor as a control signal. But EMG sensor has problems such as perspiration, sensor misalignment and individual difference. Also, in common with EMG sensors and force sensors, there is a problem that the cost increases as the number of sensors increases. Therefore, we developed a power assistance system for the upper limb exoskeleton robot without EMG/force sensor. In this paper, we describe the method of constructing the torque estimation model, the result of the torque estimation, and the power assist result of the elbow joint.

Kyphotic causes decline in respiratory and circulatory functions owing to compresses internal organs. Therefore, it is important to keep a sustained ideal posture. The purpose of this study is to develop a posture retention assist device driven with McKibben type artificial rubber muscle. By using artificial rubber muscle, the developed device has a lightweight and flexibility. In this paper, the structure of developed device is described, and principle to retain posture using the device is discussed. Finally, effectiveness of this device is verified from experiments in which subject wears this device actually.

In this paper, we propose a moving mechanism of wearable robot that enable the robot to move on the wearer's arm. The proposed mechanism employs several rollers to hold and move along the user's arm. Experimental results showed the effectiveness and drawbacks of the proposed mechanism.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the alignment at the tibiofibular joint in patients with ankle osteoarthritis. For the purpose, each average size bone models were created based on Principal Component Analysis. The alignment of the tibiofibular joint was evaluated by comparing the created bone mode and subject's bone model using Go-ICP. As a result, compared to past reports it showed a different tendency in the distance between tibia and fibula and external rotation angle at fibula. In the future, we will further increase data and aim for higher accuracy, and make use of it in the medical field.The purpose of this study is to evaluate the alignment at the tibiofibular joint in patients with ankle osteoarthritis. For the purpose, each average size bone models were created based on Principal Component Analysis. The alignment of the tibiofibular joint was evaluated by comparing the created bone mode and subject's bone model using Go-ICP. As a result, compared to past reports it showed a different tendency in the distance between tibia and fibula and external rotation angle at fibula. In the future, we will further increase data and aim for higher accuracy, and make use of it in the medical field.

Near-infrared light has less absorption and scattering of light and is excellent in transparency. For this reason, near-infrared light has been applied in the medical field in recent years. NIR endoscope which is one of medical devices have a great potential as the surgery supporting system, but wavelength bands need to reduce according to the limitation of NIR endoscope hardware performance. In this paper, selecting the wavelength used to identify tumor and normal areas by utilizing the difference in absorption spectrum of near-infrared light between the tumor and normal area. Machine learning is identified and performed using the selected wavelength. The identification results by using the selecting wavelength are as well as the results by using all wavelength.

The purpose of this research is to develop a measuring device which measure three-axis orthodontic force and three-axis orthodontic moment for decreasing accident of orthodontic treatment. The developed measuring device is composed of six-axis force sensors, arm and tooth models. The developed device simulates various rows of teeth in orthodontic operation and measures 14 × 6 axes orthodontic force and moment from tooth models simultaneously. The average force and moment error that is caused by vertical force of the developed device per loaded axis are 1.78 % and 2.72 % respectively. The average moment error that is caused by couple forces of the developed device per loaded axis is 17.1 %.

The purpose of this research is to develop a robot for visualizing echocardiographic cross-sections automatically. In this paper, we report the estimation method for unstable mitral and aortic valve positions based on 4D heartbeat to obtain the 2D long-axis view including both two centers of the annulus precisely. As the positions of two valves can be determined with blood flow in heart, we have detected edge points of blood flow from the centers of constant blood region, and identify these as main intracardiac parts(LV, LA, etc) based on relative positional relationship. Then, connecting the edge points by line, we have estimated the closest valve's positions from constant blood region on the lines. We verified the accuracy of the method under changing probe angles. The result showed the high accuracy within ±10 degrees of the probe angles, though it is necessary to improve the method under the large pitch angel.

To further minimize invasiveness of surgical robot, the diameter of laparoscopic instruments should be smaller. However, it can lead to the degradation of the performance of the surgical robotic instruments/devices. Thus, we proposed modularization of surgical robotic instruments as a method to solve this problem. The robot modules are inserted from an incision created in the navel into the abdominal cavity then connected to shafts. The shafts are 3mm in diameter, used as an anchor and are held by a passive arm. Therefore, the initial workspace position can be easily determined and flexibly changed.

In this paper, we developed the surgical simulator in Sigmoid Colon for verification of the accessibility, accuracy and duration of the surgical operation with multiple robot models. As the result, it has become available to verify feasibility and to analyze easiness, accuracy and duration of operation.

A non-contact type whistle force sensor based on the principle of a whistle has been proposed. We observed two cases where the sound frequency of the generated sound decreases and increases when a force is applied to the whistle sensor, that is, when the outlet resistance of the air flow changes. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the sound characteristics of the whistle sensor and to improve its performance. In order to evaluate sound characteristics, we introduced a flow sensor and investigated the relationship between the change of sound frequency and that of the input flow rate. The experimental results suggest that the change of outlet resistance does not change the input flow rate and the change of the sound frequency depends on the shape of the outlet.

To prevent communication failure and disconnection of wireless communication between mobile robot and operator, the operator has to monitor operability of mobile robot. Therefore, we have been developing communication quality measurement method for mobile robot. In this paper, we proposed mobile robot operability measurement method using CMD packet. It is not necessary to measure large quantity of packet in the proposed method, an operator is able to use communication band with efficiency. The communication quality measurement system using the proposed method is implemented on mobile robot, then we conducted evaluation experiment. We confirmed that packet jitter caused accumulated errors of mobile robot by experimental results.

In this paper, we propose a wireless mobile robot tele-operation method using ZigBee networks as reserve communication infrastructure. Wireless LANs are used for robot communication infrastructure, but problems due to communication troubles are also reported. Therefore, we have been discussing tele-operating system of mobile robot using ZigBee which is hard to interfere with wireless LAN as reserve communication infrastructure. In our proposed method, we defined the packet format for remote operation assuming remote operation without camera information. The defined packet format was evaluated in an Ad-Hoc network environment and its validity was confirmed. We also confirmed that it is possible to operate a mobile robot in the experiment.

Development for safety autonomous mobility navigation system that deal with low speed vehicles, such as wheel chair, guidance robot and transportation robot is introduced. Our R&D policy based on Ethical, Legal, Social and Economic issues for the mobility system is also introduced.

Robots deployed in large human-populated indoor environments such as shopping malls, airports etc., communicate via wireless networks for enhanced perception and decision making capabilities. Owing to dynamic signal attenuation in such environments, connectivity issues can arise during robotic navigation, causing information flow disruption that can lead to potential danger. Also, the presence of humans also add a layer of temporal signal variation complexities. This work presents an approach for embedding radio signal strength constraints within networked service/social robot navigation in large human-populated environments. We develop a Gaussian Process based online spatio-temporal signal strength prediction model that also aims to take into account the temporal fading arising due to the presence of human crowds. Based on this model, we then devise a transient-goal driven navigation strategy to realize a sub-optimal path towards a known goal, that is aimed at resolving both communication-aware and human-aware planning constraints.

The authors have been developing an information-gathering system, Robot Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN), using a teleoperated mobile robot and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in underground spaces in post-disaster environments. This paper describes about RWSN construction method with using a leaky coaxial cable (LCX) as one means of improving communication connectivity. An actual RWSN with a crawler type rescue robot, WSN and LCX was constructed, and experimental results of communication quality measurement were shown to confirm the utilization effect of LCX.

In recently years, it has been demanded to control robot remotely in the place which is dangerous for people. However, it takes cost and time to construct a remote control system. By using RSNP which is communication standard and RT-middleware which can modularize robot elements, it's possible to reduce the development period and cost and to construct a remote control system easily. In addition, mobile robot and robot arm are necessary to perform actual task at remote locations. In this study, we constructed a remote control system of movable working robot by combing a mobile robot and a robot arm. And we verified the effectiveness of the robot system combing robot elements. In the verification experiment, we performed pick and place task that the robot gripped the object and brought it to the target position. As a result, the work was able to be completed.

An air supply system for pneumatic wearable device must be portable. However, it is not easy to realize both portability and performance. Therefore, two-port air-operated valve using the pneumatic soft actuator, which has light weight is developed in this study. In this paper, the structure and principle of developed valve are described, and flow characteristics of the valve is evaluated based on the effective sectional area.

In Japan, low birthrate and aging is progressing rapidly. It is necessary to compensate for the labor shortage, because the working population reduces. As a solution to this problem, the introduction of a robot can be considered. Conventional teaching methods include remote teaching and direct teaching. These teaching methods have problems in terms of difficulty teaching sensibly and safety of the teacher. We extracted the target position / posture of the robot to be taught using motion sensors and verified by simulation before applying the actual machine. As a result, the real-time motion measurement system constructed in this research was found to be applicable to robot teaching using simulation. However, since the movement of the shoulder was not taken into consideration, there was a difference in position estimation.

In this research, we report that we developed prototype of the soft power support suit based on the knowledge of clothing design. There is a method using 3D measurement and plaster measurement as a way to design clothes. Based on this method, we propose to make measurements and clothing patterns for the power support suit. The concept makes it possible to realize power support suits that decreases the deviation of the mounting point and the burden during wearing. Based on the concept, the soft power support suit was prototyped and an operation test was conducted.

In endoscopic surgery, there is a problem that it is hard for the surgeons to carry out the work indication of verbal because they cannot use their hands for doing indication during surgery. To solve the problem, we developed the hands-free pointing device using an acceleration sensor and a gyroscope sensor. This device is able to point to the location in the monitor without hands. In this system, the operator can move the pointer in the monitor to tilt the neck. In this study, we evaluated that this system has the good performance for the pointing ability of the moving time by doing the verification experiments and that this system has a high potential as the hands-free pointing system in endoscopic surgery.

In our previous work, to achieve rich communication with remote people through a small wearable robot, a miniature humanoid MH–2 have been developed. The MH–2 has a head with 3–DOF and 7–DOF arms. It employs wire-pulley mechanisms to be compact. However, MH–2 cannot move fingers that can express various gestures. To tackle the problem, we have developed MH–3 which has 1–DOF multistep hands. The 1–DOF multistep hands achieve bending fingers step by step. In this paper, we describe the arm motion test with “finger pointing gesture” to confirm feasibility of the MH–3 with 1–DOF multistep hands.

To improve safety of wearable assist robots, this paper investigates the influences of shape of contact parts of the robots applying force to users. Because the robots contact the users and apply the force directly, improving safety for the user is the most important task. To improve safety from the aspect of control system, a contact force distribution feedback control system has been researched. Performance of the control system is closely related to measurement of contact force. To improve the measurement performance, contact parts designed to be similar to the human body surface was proposed. In the previous research, the effectiveness of the proposed parts was only confirmed through computer simulation. In this paper, we built on a robot and evaluated measurement performance. Compared to simple-shaped parts, the proposed parts was confirmed to be more suitable measurement result for the control system.

We proposed the heart surgery simulator having a temperature indicator for measurement of temperature variation after surgical training of catheter ablation. This simulator consists of overall heart model and left atrium model having temperature memory function. Left atrium model consists of two hydrogel materials to mimic human tissue properties and rapid fabrication of the model using photo-polymerization. Irreversible temperature indicator is impregnated into the left atrium model to evaluate the temperature change of the model. We calibrated color change versus maximum temperature. The accuracy of temperature indicating function was ±0.4℃ at 56℃. The left atrium model is fabricated by DLP 3D printer. We demonstrated color change of the fabricated left atrium model by heating of the model.

Flexible endoscopic surgery in the field of internal medicine requires advanced technique. The master - slave robot supports insertion of a flexible endoscope. The robot allows forward and backward movement and swiveling of the endoscope, as well as vertical and lateral bending of the endoscope tip. Bidirectional haptic feedback function is realized by bilateral master-slave control. The motions and forces between master and slave device are visualized by the control system, which would be available to quantify of the operation of the endoscope and useful as a teaching tool. In this report, the visualizations of the force and motion are presented, and the potential of the system is discussed.

The average age of Japan increases year by year due to the development of medicine. In the future we will focus on diseases caused by aging. They are provoked by deformation of organs. So, We proposed that we could heal diseases by deforming the organs and named it as an organ pressure remediation. In this study, we focused on high myopia caused by deformation of the eyeball and conducted research. In the experiment, eyeball compression test was performed. It was found that the eyeball was the hardest at the first time and the almost constant in the subsequent experiments. Also, non-compressed fundus tissues and compressed one were observed. The thickness of the retina did not change with compression of 0N and compression of 25N. However, it shows that compressive stress acts because minute wrinkles are formed on the surface during compression. Thus, we indicated the possibility of organ pressure remediation.

In neurosurgeries, a neuronavigator is useful for improving safety. However, the brain displacement called brain shift is a problem which makes surgical images taken before surgeries inaccurate. In this paper, we describe a method of the real-time visualization of the brain shift using augmented reality (AR) technology and real-time physics simulation.

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate wearer's pointing direction ant interested targets by using a chest mounted camera. The proposed method aims to estimate wearer's interested targets by combining SLAM-based 3D reconstruction of surrounding environments and wearer's pointing direction estimation.

This paper is a study on power assist suit. We have developed an electric power assist device that has compliance to users. Next, we constructed a control system in which the assist device follows the movement of a human user. Then, we devised a control system that detects and automatically supports the movement of the user lifting up. In addition, in order to support multiple tasks of users, we constructed a system that automatically supports the action of climbing stairs. We confirmed that the intended action of PAS was realized by experiments.

Platform carts have been used in various industries to carry heavy loads. However, heavily-loaded platform carts can’t get over a step. Therefore, we invented a new loaded platform cart mechanism that enables to get over a step with slide mechanism. Further, we verified a relationship of impulsive force and angle of mechanism through a simulation.

A wheeled mobile robot is expected of a high speed exploration and low production costs compared with a crawler type of mobile robot. A four wheeled mobile robot has especially a simple driving mechanism and good maintenance characteristics. In the field of the farm machine, the four wheeled mobile robot on a rough terrain is expected as the farming autonomous robot. In this paper, a four wheeled reconfigurable mobile robot is developed for use on the rough terrain slope like a grassy slope. The developed mobile robot is composed of a four-wheel drive mechanism and active articulated four legs by linkage mechanism. The effectiveness of the developed mobile robot is shown in experimental results by grassy slope movement.

Benefits of the wheel include high speed movement and versatility, but since it has difficulty overcoming obstacles such as steps, various activities are restricted. In order to solve this problem, we developed an expanding wheel robot combining wheels with claw mechanisms. By changing the wheel diameter from 150 [mm] to 280 [mm], it is possible for the robot to overcome a step larger than itself. The machine also has a tail with one degree of freedom and supports movements such as inversion of the robot and selection of the claws orientation. By using a screw mechanism for the deployment of the wheel, we realized the independence of the two functions of deployment and traveling.

The aim of this research is to realizing an omni-directional mobile platform with high moving performance by simple mechanisms. In the authors’ previous study, an omni-directional mobile platform combining a dual-wheel caster-drive mechanism and a rocker bogie mechanism was proposed. In this report, to realize high driving performance with a simpler configuration, number and structure of the passive wheels are considered, and running performance is compared by experiments.

I studied the relationship between the position of the center of gravity of the crawler type mobile robot and the height of the step that can be climbed. I showed design guidelines for crawler robots. We propose an easy way to estimate the height that can be climbed

In this study, we have developed monocoque frame robots using plastic honeycomb cardboard for the NHK robot contest. We cut plastic honeycomb cardboard with a water jet cutting machine, and assemble the pieces for robot parts in the similar way of jigsaw puzzle assembly. Thus, by establishing the design and processing method using plastic honeycomb cardboard, we can produce a very lightweight and highly rigid robot compared with conventional aluminum frame robots in the robot contest. Moreover, the time for the design and processing of a robot frame is greatly reduced. Robots made of plastic honeycomb cardboard are safe owing to their lightness, therefore, they can be applied for robots coexisting with humans.

We discuss how to create an amusement content using dancing robot in response to live performance of the guitarist. The robot's performance is changed by the performance of the guitar, simultaneously on the other hand, the guitarist can enjoy the jam session with the robot by changing the guitar playing inspired by the robot motion. In this paper, we consider a method to select the desired robot motion based on the guitar playing method's feature values obtained from the guitar performance. We will also examine techniques to reflect the audience's evaluation on the selection of robot motion using Neural Network.

In this presentation, the gait patterns of a quadruped robot are analyzed by decomposing and integrating motion by feature quantity analysis based on machine learning from a motion data. Recently, a complication of robot control becomes issues, and the development of a system which can realize various movements with a simple system is required. Despite, there exist a lot of studies are attempting to generate new motion using the quadruped locomotion robot whose controller consists of the central pattern generators, the discussion of how the gait patterns are generated is still open. Here, we consider the possibility of generating new gait patterns by a behavioral approach, in which the behavior data are brought from all of sensors and actuators information online.

The purpose of this study is to propose the quantification method of grace from the classical dance motion. William Hogarth said that human motion trajectory which includes ”the line of beauty” seems graceful. We proposed a new method to extract ”the line of beauty” features from the curved surface formed by arm movements and to quantify the grace features. In this report describes the performance verification of the proposed quantification method.

Ground staffs at the airport are required elegant behavior for customer service. On the other hand, this job also includes handling a lot of heavy luggage, which places a heavy burden on the body. This research proposes to construct a beautiful standing posture model to evaluate functional underwear targeting female grand staff. As a first step, we quantified the qualitative elegant attitude features based on the standing posture of the ground staff instructor. From comparison results with untraining women's posture, the characteristics of the ground staffs appeared on the angle of the plane composed of the shoulder and thoracic vertebrae positions. Using this parameter, we evaluated the functional underwear and discussed the results.

We developed a pupil response interface using hemisphere displays for enhancing affective conveyance. This interface can generate pupil response like human by speech input and enhance affective conveyance. In this study, for the basic research of realizing an intimate communication during embodied interaction between human and pet-robot, we perform the analysis of pupil response during his or her body contact stroking forearm or head by using a pupil measurement device. On the basis of the analysis, we develop an advanced pupil response system for enhancing emotional empathy such as intimacy. In this system, when the talker touches any surface of hemisphere display, the expression of emotional empathy is generated by the pupil response.

It is desirable that the operational interface of the drone, which is expected to rapidly increase in the near future, be simple and intuitive. In this research, first, we propose an input method that reflects the movement of the fingertip that touched the screen of the tablet terminal on the trajectory and speed of movement of the drone. Movement of the drone is generated from two kinds of fingertip motion, that is, a flick input and a swipe input. Swipe input generates exact motion, and flick input generates fast motion. Next, we propose an eye gaze input interface that moves the drone in the gaze direction of the eyes. The iris is detected by image processing, and the reference trajectory of the drone is calculated from its direction and distance of the iris.