This paper considers a group method of data handling based PID (GMDH-PID) controller using LASSO that is one of the sparse modeling methods. A database-driven PID (DD-PID) controller is one of the effective nonlinear PID controller design methods. However, some electrical control units in industrial systems cannot implement its algorithm because the DD-PID control scheme requires a large amount of memory capacity and high-performance processor. In this paper, a GMDH-PID controller that approximately expresses the behavior of the DD-PID controller by combinations of simple nonlinear functions is proposed to solve the above problem. The proposed method employs LASSO as a coefficient calculation method of the GMDH in which some coefficients can be calculated as zero in order to avoid the influence of the multicollinearity. The usefulness of the proposed method is evaluated by an experimental result of a helicopter model.

In the vehicle development, it is important to shorten the development period of the powertrain components such as transmission, torque converter. In order to simulate real road loads of the powertrain components, it is necessary that the dynamometer of the drivetrain bench emulates the moment of inertia of a tire. To emulate the desired moment of inertia, controller parameters are calculated based on system identification in conventional scheme. In the aforementioned control scheme, high accuracy of system identification is required. This paper proposes a data-oriented control system whose controller parameters are directly calculated without system identification. In the proposed scheme, the fictitious exogenous signal is calculated using closed-loop data, and controller parameters and system parameters are simultaneously obtained. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by using a numerical example.

This paper presents a new intelligent scope of human manipulability sharing (iSHMS) with a head-mount-type VR system. The new iSHMS is developed using a game-engine (Unity) so that a realistic computer-mannequin can be created in the 3D virtual space. The computer-mannequin is controlled according to the motion data of an iSHMS user which measured by a KINECT sensor in real time, while manipulability ellipse(s) is(are) attached at the hand(s) and/or foot(s) in considerations of human body form during a target task. The preliminary stability test validated that the user-friendly of computer mannequin and the computational stability in human manipulability analysis were improved by the 2nd iSHMS.

Recently, welfare vehicles are widely used among the aged. However, it is not easy for inexperienced beginners or the aged to control the welfare vehicle in narrow places such as elevators and corridors. For these problem, the driving assistance system has been proposed in which virtual vehicle can be projected on Head Mounted Display (HMD) and remotely controlled by a pseudo third person viewpoint so that the complex courses can be easily operated. However, it is difficult for beginners to drive virtual vehicles smoothly. So, the well-suited instruction or advice for beginners is necessary from skilled person or instructors. In this paper, we focus on the driving support system using the sharing system of Augmented Reality (AR). Not only the driver but also the instructor wearing the HMD can instruct even while driving with sharing AR. The effectiveness of the proposed support system is evaluated by comparative experiments.

In this study, we aim to quantify care skills in the care technique called "Humanitude". Humanitude has been attracting much attention as a gentle and effective care technique for a dementia patient in recent years. The developed wearable tactile sensor aims to quantify the "touch" skill among the four representative skills in Humanitude, which are gaze, touch, talk, and stand up. In addition, we developed a learning system of Humanitude using AR technology and a real object, which realizes the interaction between a care-giver and a patient and enabled to quantify the "touch" and "gaze" skill.

Odometry information is used for self-localization of mobile robots. However, the bias on odometry sometimes becomes a problem. Some calibration methods for the bias have been proposed. However, these methods require special environment such as a landmark on the ceiling or sonar sensors on a robot for measurement of its absolute coordinate. We propose a calibration system for the bias with augmented reality (AR). The system measures the pose of the robot by a software library of AR. The measured pose is compared with the pose that is told by odometry. Their difference is used for the calibration. Experimental results show that the bias on odometry can be reduced by the proposed calibration system.

The decline in productivity due to mental illness has become a problem in recent. There is Animal Assisted Activity (AAA) as a method of prevention of mental illness. AAA have weaknesses that allergies and hard to take care of. In order to overcome weaknesses of AAA, we propose Virtual Pet Activity using virtual pets as an alternative to animals. We think it is important to improve the sense of reality to gain psychological benefits by virtual pet activity. We developed the system using Virtual Reality (VR), which is a three-dimensional stereoscopy. This system enabled real-scale body motion. We investigate the influence on impression of virtual pets and user’s state of mind by real-scale body motion. The result of the study, we found that the large quantity of motion gives a better impression of the virtual pet and makes us easy to get psychological benefits.

A number of concrete structures were built during the period of high economic growth in Japan. Since those concrete structures must be inspected periodically, automatic crack inspection methods are expected realized by using image processing to find shape of crack on concrete surface. However, there is only a few researches on showing these crack detection results to inspectors. There is a system that visualizes 3D data by MR(Mixed Reality), however, it has not yet reached the framework to realize real-time inspection support with a hands-free device. In this paper, we developed a crack inspection support system using HMD(Head Mounted Display). The proposed system realized building 3D models by spatial perception mapping, detecting and matching features of cracks from captured images, and superimposing and projecting detected cracks onto real structure surface in MR space.

In this presentation, we propose an edible lens with a build-in aperture that can be eaten. The proposed lens is made of agar for transparent part and soft adzuki-bean jelly for an aperture to stop incident light. The aperture of a prototype worked properly to form image without an additional aperture. The prototype also showed a certain optical resolution of 5.56 LP/mm.

The demand for automation is likely to increase in factories where multi-products are produced in small volumes. Hence, offline teaching that never interrupts running machines in manufacturing work has an important role for productivity. Previously a teaching method using Mixed Reality (MR) head mounted device has been proposed to move a target robot to an arbitrary spatial position in the real space. This study proposes an offline teaching system using MR devices without moving the real robot. The holographic robot model is anchored in the same position as the real robot. By operating the holographic robot model, the operator provides a position of end tool as a waypoint. And then its corresponding robot posture can be calculated by solving inverse kinematics.

In recent years, shortage of experts has become a problem due to aging in the field of manufacturing. Therefore, research on manufacturing support that can perform tasks requiring advanced skills is proceeding by displaying appropriate task instructions according to the work situation even if the worker is not an expert. We have been developing visual information presentation devices, but it is desirable to be able to present other sensory information to present higher reality. In order to realize that, a 4K autostereoscopic video see-through display with haptic sensation was prototyped. In this report, the structure of the prototype system and the result of the evaluation experiment assuming simple assembling task are reported.

Studies on remote control of a mobile robot or a vehicle have been attracting great attentions for work in extreme environments or control of an autonomous vehicle. We have been trying to realize a new remote control system using an omnidirectional camera and Head Mounted Display (HMD) for an operator’s convenience and improvement of his operability. As the first step of this system, we analyses the influence to a remote operator by delayed video presentation due to communication delay. In this paper, we experimentally evaluate the relationship between the delayed time of video presentation and performance of human control to avoid an obstacle using a real robot.

Research on robotic teleoperation has acquired popularity among robotic researchers around the world. Although, it is reported that using haptic device to provide force information to users improves operability of force constrained tasks, its high cost is considered to be not suitable for ordinary users doing daily manipulation. Our research aiming at developing an intuitive teleoperation interface without actually using force feedback. In order to examine how operators’ sense of embodiment for the teleoperation system changes with or without force feedback, we developed a bilateral teleoperation system with the function to select whether to display the force, and performed a basic experiment. As a result, it is confirmed that the sense of embodiment is weakened during the manipulation without force feedback.

In a parallel wire-driven system, the friction of a drive system dependent on internal forces makes the positioning accuracy degrade. To improve the positioning accuracy, the friction compensation is very important. This paper clarifies the relationship between internal force and friction of a one-DOF system with two wires through experiment.

Wire drive mechanisms have flexibility of actuator location and are widely used for multi degree-of-freedom(Dof) robots. Conventional wire-driven mechanisms using metal wire ropes usually avoid sliding contact and collision of wires as much as possible by introducing multiple passive pulleys to ensure clear wire routes. We have proposed a novel wire-driven mechanism called “Bundled Wire Drive”. We have utilized multiple synthetic fiber ropes with low friction coefficients to drive multi DoF, and bundle them together, allowing sliding against each other. In our previous works, we have investigated the feasibility of the mechanism by evaluating the effect of sliding on tension transmission efficiency using one joint models. We developed a 3-DoF horizontal articulated robot arm using this mechanism. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of the robot arm. It was confirmed that pose repeatability was 0.40 mm, position stabilization time was 0.993 s, position overshoot was 4.45 mm, and minimum resolution was 0.059 deg in joint angle.

It is necessary to achieve both strength and self-repairing rate in order to realize a self- repairing robot. Therefore, in this research we developed a self-repairing actuator unit using thermoplastic resin. It was found from experiments that it is possible to realize a high self-repairing rate by designing a shape of parts to be bonded with the resin and adjusting the heating time for dissolving the resin. It was also confirmed that the strength of the self-repairing part can also be adjusted by changing the shape of the parts. In the future work, increasing in strength and miniaturization of the actuator unit are required as a task for mounting on robots.

This paper presents the design, development and experiment of an underwater parallel wire-driven system for photogrammetry. First, we made use of a numerical simulator to design a waterproof actuator for the proposed wire-driven system. Second, we designed and developed a portable parallel wire-driven system with a size of 2.0 (L) x 2.0 (W) x 0.75 (H) meters. Lastly, a preliminary experiment was carried out in a water tank to investigate the effectiveness of the developed system.

Recently, a long-reach multi-joint manipulator is much required for investigation tasks. In our previous work, a new mechanism which is a combination of a coupled tendon-driven mechanism, a weight-compensation mechanism, and synthetic fiber ropes was suggested and a manipulator 10 m in length was demonstrated. This paper focuses on end-point positioning accuracy of the manipulator. Joint angles and an end-point position were measured by potentiometer and a laser scanner, respectively. A position of end-point which was calculated using joint angles was close in a distance of 0.2 m from result of measurement by the laser scanner. In the future, we will conduct controlled experiments for various posture of the manipulator.

This paper proposes a new position control method for a tendon-driven robot by combining an internal force feedforward control with a feedback control. The proposed method is able to accomplish a robust for wire arrangement error and high precision control.

In conventional configuration of Parallel Cable Mechanism, anchors (winding machines) were fixed and practically used in structured environment. In an attempt to reduce the hurdle of the above application in an unstructured environment, a concept of spatially structured cableway with traversing mobile anchors on it is proposed in this paper. Technical challenges lie in the strategy for mobile anchors to traverse between branched cable, the reconfiguration of parallel mechanism by anchors’ position, and the method to control the reconfigured parallel cable mechanism. A cableway network that follows a spatially structured polygonal chain is proposed. Prototypes consisting of Remote Center-of-Motion Mechanism and dedicated wheel profile was proposed, manufactured, and its traversing capabilities between branched cables were then investigated through experiments. Furthermore, its applicability to reconfigure parallel cable mechanism by anchors’ positioning is demonstrated in this paper.

Analysis of cable-configurations of novel redundant planar three degrees of freedom (dof) cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) ”SEIMEI” is discussed in this paper. This robot has the pulley embedded inside the moving part as an additional rotational dof for enlarging the rotational workspace. The three-dof hand attached to the pulley is controlled by four-dof mechanism, so SEIMEI has kinematic redundancy. The pulley is driven by the friction forces between it and loop-cables. This mechanism enables unlimited rotation of the pulley. CDPR is driven only when all cable tensions are positive. To do so, it must satisfy wrench-closure condition. In addition, SEIMEI needs to avoid slipping between loop-cables and the pulley. In this paper, analysis of cable configurations which satisfy wrench-closure and non-slipping condition of SEIMEI are discussed. Two cable-configurations among sixteen are derived and be confirmed by numerical test.

One of the advantage of wire driven mechanism is that the actuator can be located on an arbitrary position. As the distance between the pulleys becomes long, it becomes difficult to maintain the wire tension. Our goal is to control the angle of the output pulley precisely with a long-distance wire driven mechanism. We have manufactured the experimental unit in order to identify the indispensable factors for wire state estimation.

We aim to experimentally understand the influence of bi-articular muscles by using the robot arm with bi-articular muscles. Imitating the human upper arm, we had developed a two-link three-pair six-muscle flexible jointed robot arm which has two pairs of mono-articular muscles and a pair of bi-articular muscles. Torque-controllable servomotor with a reduction gear of low reduction ratio is used for the actuators. By using the flexible jointed robot arm, we experimentally understand the influence of bi-articular muscles on dynamic motion in the process of realizing dynamic continuous motion typified by striking and throwing based on constant torque control.

In agriculture work, weeding work in paddy field has been physical burden and taken a lot of working time. As a solution of this problem, stopping the growth of weed by stirring the soil is affective. An example is "Duck farming" that ducks stir the mad by swimming in paddy fields. In this paper, we propose new robot that imitate snakes to stir the soil. A body segment of this robot is composed of three bending modules and two wire driving mechanisms, we approximate the serpenoid curve by curves without using straight lines.

We propose the wire suspension system for automatic inspection which has a large weight capacity and wide range of movement as a positioning mechanism for heavy objects. However, the vibrations is caused by disturbance and if the object suspended by wires moves to end of the workspace, it inclines from the initial posture. This paper shows our development of orientation control device using counterweight system for solving the above problems. We derived the motion equation of this system and executed feedback control for convergence of a target. We found that counterweight is effective for orientation control by means of experiments.

In recent years, the aging of bridges which have been intensively developed since the period of high economic growth has been getting worse, and it is required to conduct an effective and efficient inspection. However, it is the current situation that inspection work cannot be performed due to lack of budget and shortage of personnel. Therefore, in this research, we propose a suspension system using four cables as a robot assuming visual inspection work of large infrastructure. The suspended object of this system causes swing motion when disturbance is applied. Therefore this research shows a method of swing motion control using propeller. In addition, we perform swing motion control experiments using experimental machines and examine the effectiveness of propeller.

Our photochemical cell membrane perforation method is new approach for mass cell processing, eg. cell therapy or regenerative medicine. The method requires homogeneous control of cell attaching pressure of nano brush shaped cell membrane perforator which contains photosensitizer, but it was hard because almost the cell size are micrometer scale and its structure is weak. Recently we made the fluid-packed perforator to homogenize the applying pressure, based on Pascal’s principle. This perforator has flexible surface which can adopt variations of cell layer on culture dishes, but fluid-packed process was hard. In this research, we will report the new fluid-packed perforator with stable process.

The objective of this research is to develop a versatile cell manipulation system for patterning single cells with high accuracy in a parallel format. For this purpose, we fabricated a monolithic microdevice incorporating a micronozzle array and pumps formed from ITO electrodes. This pumping mechanism is based on a DC-biased AC electroosmotic (ACEO) flow. We used this pump and generated a flow around the electrodes, and the flow transported a fluid containing particles or cells.

The objective of this study is to develop a 3D single cell printer based on micro-droplets containing a single cell. Previously cells precipitated in the solution during the encapsulation of cells in photocurable liquid droplets. Here, to prevent the precipitation, we increased the buoyancy of cells by increasing the density of a photocurable gel. The cellular motions are determined by the difference of gravity and buoyancy of a solution. Human cells, HeLa cells, were injected into a solution and droplets were generated. Time-series of cell number in droplets was measured.

Direct reprogramming, which is a technology inducting particular kind of cells from other somatic cells, gains a lot of attention as a new method for regenerative therapy. A main process of the direct reprogramming is transfer of gene and/or low-molecular-weight compounds, and the process has difficulties when the technology is applied to in-vivo environment. Viral vectors are often used in laboratory scale but the safety concern of them caused by stochastic nature cannot be ignored. Therefore non-viral gene transfer is required and a number of physical methods are proposed but they often have disadvantages such as low efficiency and high invasiveness. In this study, we focused on the impact pressure generated by the collapse of the electrical-induced bubbles which can be applied simply. This pressure can work as local and minimally invasive mechanical stimuli for gene transfer from the outside of the affected part. For this study, we have achieved recognizing permeabilizing of cell membrane and transfer of GFP plasmids to NIH 3T3.

Retinal vein occlusion is a disease that causes vision disorder due to occlusion of the retinal vein which is one kind of micro-vascular spreading to the fundus. Most of the current treatments are aimed at suppressing symptoms caused by vascular occlusion. In this study, we focused on the impact pressure of micro-jet generated by the collapse of the electrical-induced bubbles. This pressure can be worked as local and minimally invasive physical stimuli from the outside of the blood vessel to resolve the vascular occlusion itself. Capacitance measurements were conducted to sense the approach of the device to the target. In addition, we conducted experiments to eliminate thrombus in vascular occlusion model in vitro and in vivo to establish a new treatment method for retinal vein occlusion targeting vascular occlusion.

In recent years, various micromixers have been reported. However, conventional constant flow-based methods have undesirable dead volume in the order of 10 μL in tube connection parts between microfluidic chips and external pumps. Thus, conventional methods are not suitable for mixing of rare samples, such as fluorescent reagents or antibodies. To solve this problem, we propose micromixer based on vibration-induced flow. Vibration-induced flow is the localized flow around a microstructure which is induced by applying high-speed vibration to the structure. By using proposed method, dead volume which exists in tube connection parts of conventional micromixers can be omitted. In this study, we employed micropillar array with hexagonal configuration and evaluated its design parameters. Design parameters are diameter of micropillar D and pitch of micropillar P . We varied P as 180, 200 and 270 μm and succeeded in fluid mixing with approximately 50 % of mixing efficiency with P=200 μm.

We have developed a small actuator which does not require mechanical elements by using Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) actuation which is a phenomenon favorable for downsizing. One of the advantages of this actuator is that it can be driven with little electric power. In this study, we propose a novel concept of “virtual valve” which is unlike conventional mechanical valve and a fluid itself is controlled locally by EHD. The pressure gap produces “virtual valve” in fluidic channel to control fluid. The advantage of this valve is no disturbance of fluid upstream and downstream of the channel because of short response time. Also, generated pressure can be controlled by the applied electric field. This device contributes to a new compact mechanical design, especially in microdevice.

For this study, we propose a novel sensing system for biometric identification within short time under wet environment. For that purpose, we produced a micro magnetic tag for two - dimensional observation of the temperature difference pattern when a low cost magnetic material generates heat. We carried out performance comparison of Litz wire coil compared with choke coil. As a result, it was found that the Litz wire coil is more suitable for application of the high frequency magnetic field in terms of the peak frequency of the Q-factor. As a high-throughput sensing by 2D data, a thermography was employed. Generally small target material make an amount of eddy current smaller and do not lead to enough heat generation, but it is suggested that that problem could be improved by using Fe3O4 nanoparticles. This research contributes to environmental technology and sensing / tracing technology.

In the previous studies, metal deposition was carried out using a bubble injector developed in our laboratory. By using the bubble injector, it is possible to perform metal deposition on various objects with a simple process. However, due to the low strength of the device, it was difficult to optimize conditions and stabilize metal deposition. In this research, equivalent circuit modelling was carried out of optimize the design of bubble injector, and revise the durable design using resin. As a result, stabilization of metal deposition was achieved.

In the previous study, the collateral damage area was evaluated for the electrically induced bubble injector (needle-free injector) which was invented in our laboratory. It was confirmed that the input power is closely related to the depth of the injection area. However, the device has an important subject which is that a generation mechanism of the electrically-induced bubbles is not clarified. In this study, we tried making electric resistance model of the bubble injector, and made an equivalent circuit with dielectric sheet which was bored a small hole. We measured the voltage at which bubbles are generated, and analyzed the electric field at each measured voltage by FEM analysis. Finally, we summarized a relationship between the electric field and bubble generation, and considered the bubble generation mechanism.

In this research, we focus on a self-propelled phenomenon of an oil droplet due to surface activation reaction. It is known that the behavior of a self-propelled oil droplet varies depending on its shape. When an oil droplet is spherical shape, the droplet shows stochastic behavior such as curvilinear motion and direction change, and when the oil droplet is boomerang shape, the droplet moves steadily in linear locomotion. Therefore, we focused on the shape of the oil droplet running straightly, and attempt the direction control by deforming the oil droplet into the boomerang shape using the exoskeleton frame. Furthermore, we exploit a method to transport an overwater object.

The Stimulation Responsive polymer gels are actuated by temperature. Added Metal complex that causes to make Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction to the gels, and causing BZ reaction, there are doing periodic swell-deswell motion. They were named as Self Actuated Gels. Gels are sensitive to temperature, so we researched Stress-strain characteristics of Oxidized state and Reduced state in Self Actuated Gels with temperature of different solutions. The solution’s temperature is 10°C and 30°C in experiments. As a result, the true-strain in 10°C until broken the gel were 0.63 (oxidized) and 0.67 (reduced). At 30°C is 1.11 (oxidized) and 1.24 (reduced).In addition, when 10°C and true-strain is 0.6 ,there was about 5 kPa that the difference of true-stress. At 30°C (true-strain was 0.6), is about 13kPa that the difference of true-stress. From this result, we could estimate the true-strain of until broken the gels, and known the measure of the mechanical energy that can be taken out.

In recent years, medical micropumps have been studied, and problem for the micropump include the complexity of their structure and leakage current in micropumps. In this study, we develop a micropump driven only by chemical energy without electronic devices. The pumps include oscillating gel driven by the oscillatory BZ reaction, and the gel swells and shrinks autonomously driven gel using BZ reaction (BZ gel). We believe that BZ gels could be useful for the medical micropumps.

A BZ gel swells and contract repeatedly without stimulus. Herein, we aimed at control the oscillating of BZ gel by induction of the oxidation using silver ion. In order to induce oxidation in BZ gel, we made the BZ gel contact the silver periodically. As a result, we found that oscillating of BZ gel changes depending on the contact period of the silver wire. Hereafter, we would investigate the relationship between the contact period of silver wire and the reaction period of BZ gel.

A gel is composed of three-dimensionally crosslinked polymer chain and solvents such as water. Especially, a stimuli responsive polymer gel is known to generate volume change by external stimulation. A BZ gel contains metal catalyst for Belousov - Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, and generates autonomous motion coupled with the BZ reaction. BZ reaction demonstrates chemical oscillation and chemical waves. In this study, we investigated chemical waves in BZ gels under strain.

Soft robots have a possibility to open up the coexisting society. For adapting external environment, Soft robots need sensing function of its strain or external force. The Dielectric elastomer sensors (DES) can sense large strain and consists of flexible elastomer, sandwiched two flexible electrodes. The construction of the DES is same as Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). If communization of sensor and actuator is realized, the mechanisms of the Soft robot become simply. Herein we made a DES by using materials same as DEA. In the first experiment, the DES sensed strain of 40% maximum. We assumed that the path of the electrode was broken in the strain of 40%. Therefore, we made the electrodes after we applied the pre-stretch to the elastomer. In the result, the DES sensed the strain of 80%. We succeeded in improving the sensor's performance and noticed the importance of the pre-stretch.

This research aims at the development of fast calculation and accuracy of numerical analysis for biomaterial deformation of maxillofacial palpation using local area analysis method. The target of this paper is the non-uniform stiffness biomaterial deformation like as cervical lymph node cancer. In particular, this paper mainly studies the effect of the size of local hemisphere analytical region on the deformation and stress distribution. We use the commercial FEM software ANSYS16.1 to study it. The local hemisphere analytical model is consisted of fat material (Young’s modulus, E=1.0×10³Pa) with 35, 40, 45 and 50mm in diameters, which the sphere lump 10mm in diameters (Young’s modulus, E=1.0×10⁴Pa) exists at the center of the model. The nonlinear deformation analysis under pressing 300Pa on the circular surface 10mm in diameters at the center. As the results, it concludes that the appropriate local hemisphere size is from 40mm to 45mm in diameters.

In recent years, interventional radiology (IR) which is a medical procedure has been attracting considerable attention. Since this surgical method is less invasive, but doctors are exposed to strong radiation in the case under CT-guidance. In order to overcome this problem, we developed remote-controlled IR assistance robot. As a research topic, automated needle puncturing by the robot is focused on. However, currently the robot cannot obtain CT image in real time. So, the robot cannot obtain the form of needle based on CT image and cannot control state of needle accurately. On the other hands, we aim that the robot moves automatically for restraining a bend of needle. As the first step for this, the method to estimate a form of needle by using a force sensor information is proposed in this paper. If a form of the needle is displayed in user interface, it become easy for doctors to remove a bend of the needle during surgery with remote-controlled IR assistance robot. Additionally, we conducts the experiment to confirm effectiveness of proposed method.

In this study, we have developed an endoscope training system that uses training data from a qualified surgeon of forceps operations. The system has received positive evaluations from doctors as a method for helping train beginners. However, the system has the problem that the training data is limited. Thus this study aims to expand the training data by estimating the position information of the forceps. The constructed algorithm estimates the position information of the forceps in the videos used as part of the training data along the time series using machine learning, evolutionary computation, and computer graphics. This paper describes the technical elements of the constructed system and reports on the verification results of the accuracy of the estimated forceps position information.

Synchronization is one of most significant phenomena observed in the collective behavior of coupled oscillators such as nervous system. Although some researches have been conducted thus far for understanding the theoretical aspects of the dynamics in coupled oscillators systems, few studies have tried to predict and control the synchronization in the target systems. In this study, we proposed a method for online prediction of synchronization in coupled oscillators system consisting of metronomes.

The purpose of this study is to develop a robot for total knee arthroplasty(TKA). The robot is designed to be used in minimally invasive surgeries(MIS) and features usefulness. We’ve been working on a method to achieve approaching a surgical bone-cutting tool toward femur and tibia with appropriate tool posture. In this method, data of the tool movement by an experienced doctor is used as the appropriate tool posture. The operator of this robot receives appropriate posture and modifies the posture of the tool when he moves the tool into the cutting area. As a result, the operator approached the tool toward bones with the posture which is similar to the experienced doctor’s tool posture.

In laparoscopic surgery, force sensing for surgical devices is highly required. This paper presents a force sensing method by using string vibration for multi-DoF forceps. It vibrates cables driving joints and measures their tensions from sound signals of the cable vibrations with a microphone. The frequency of the cable vibration must be sufficiently higher than noise frequencies. We verify that a small diameter hole can be a fixed end of cable vibration. Such fixed ends can be easily installed in a shaft of forceps and can make the length between fixed ends shorter and the frequency of vibration higher. Experimental results demonstrate that this method can measure external force applied at the tip of a forceps when the external force is in the radius direction of the forceps.

This paper proposed a suction device with a valve opened in contact with objects. This valve opens and directly suctions the internal organs when the sucker contacts with the organs. Therefore, the suction force is high and there are no controllers such as the valves or the pressure sensor even if the serial-connected multiple valves. Moreover, there is no spring structure for close of the valve because the valving element is pressed on the valve seat by a pressure difference. Then, the force opening our valve is smaller than one opening the commercial valve, and there is no leakage compared with a suction assist valve. We made a prototype of suction device with the proposed valve and confirmed the operation of it.

In this paper, we propose and prototype a new soft robotic rehabilitation glove which is lightweight and flexible. As one of the way of rehabilitation for postoperative or spasticity, the continuous passive opening and closing motions by rehabilitation gloves are effective. However, most conventional rehabilitation gloves have challenges such as weight, size or hardness. In this study, we propose, design, prototype and test the lightweight and flexible new soft robotic rehabilitation glove by using the lightness and flexibility of thin McKibben muscles. As a result, we success to open and close hand and hold a water bottle with relaxation status.