The flexibly constrained revolute pair (FCRP), which is a revolute pair with flexible kinematic constraint, has been proposed for human-safe robots. In order to drive the FCRP actively, the wire-driven active FCRP (AFCRP) is proposed. The structure of the AFCRP is synthesized as an underactuated mechanism driven by two elastic wires to simplify the structure. In this paper, design methodology of the AFCRP to have high actuation-force transmission, the desired rotational stiffness and the desired flexibility in the constraint directions is proposed. Besides, a method for kinetostatic analysis of the AFCRP is proposed. Finally, an example of the AFCRP is designed, and its motion accuracy and stiffness characteristics are examined with the proposed analysis.

Synthetic ropes are becoming increasingly popular in robotic systems nowadays. Especially since the introduction of low creep materials, many researchers have tried to investigate the usage of these ropes in robots to replace the old conventional steel ropes that are being used to date. Synthetic bre ropes possess many other benets than steel ropes than just tensile strength like low friction coecient, exibility, longer life if used properly. Amongst the existing low creep synthetic ropes, Dyneema is widely used. In related works, researchers studied the behaviour of Dyneema and other materials under impact and static loading but there hasn’t been any study of Dyneema under cyclic loading which is the scenario in robots. In this paper, we investigate the strain curve of a tendon made from Dyneema DM20 rope by performing a bedding-in process and then subjecting the tendon to cyclic loads between 70 N to 2000N for 500 cycles.

Wire drive mechanisms have flexibility of actuator location and are widely used for multi degree-of-freedom 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 studies, we have investigated the feasibility of the mechanism and developed a three-degree-of-freedom horizontal articulated robot arm with the proposed mechanism. In this paper, we developed a six-degree-of-freedom robot arm with a mechanism that can manually change the rotation axis direction of the joint. The reconfigurability of the robot arm with the proposed mechanism was demonstrated by the motion in two different joint states.

Analysis of cable-configurations of Cable-Driven Parallel Robot ”RYOMA” is discussed. RYOMA has the additional rotational mechanism embedded inside the moving part for the enlarging the rotational workspace. This mechanism is driven by friction forces between the cables and itself. Thus RYOMA is classified Frictional Cable-Driven Parallel Robot (F-CDPR). The performance of F-CDPR is effected by cable-configurations, such as cable connecting pattern for the moving part and cable winding pattern for the rotational mechanism. In this research, cable winding patterns of RYOMA which enlarge the translational workspace are derived. The relationship between winding patterns and characteristics of the Available Force Set is revealed.

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 the snake-like robot is composed of three bending modules , continuous joint mechanism, layered gear and two wire driving mechanisms, we approximate the serpenoid curve by curves without using straight lines.

Mechanical design and control of a novel cable driven parallel robot RYOMA are discussed in this paper. A pulley is embedded in the moving part which enables the unlimited rotation of the hand. The design goal of RYOMA is set as the robot performs the ADEPT test cycle within 0.3 sec. Trajectory, velocity, and acceleration pattern for the ADEPT CYCLE are generated by LinuxCNC. By off the shelf MAXSON DC motor, moving part of RYOMA generate more than acceleration of 10G and maximum velocity of 6m/s, that enables the goal motion. If the base frame of RYOMA is 3m x 3m x 3m and the drum diameter is 15mm, the design conditions are satisfied in the specified area.

In this study, we developed a system to analyze the skating motion of a small biped robot using 3D point cloud obtained by depth camera. To recognize the robot, four LED feature points were installed on the body. By measuring the positions of the feature points, the position and orientation of the robot were calculated. Within 2.6m, we were able to measure the centroid and attitude angle when skating. It became possible to evaluate the skating movement.

Automation in food industry is not progressing as quickly as automotive and electronics industries due to the difficulties of handling food products with variations in physical properties. Currently, there is not effective database of food property for the purpose of robotic handling. Therefore, in this study, we developed a device for measuring food properties by mimicking the actual scenario of a robotic gripper handling a food product. The device consists of a robotic gripper, two linear stages, a 6-axis force sensor, a camera, and aluminum frame. The robotic gripper can realize position and force control, and the device can measure geometry, elasticity, and friction coefficient. Experimental tests on shrimp tempura were performed and the results showed the effectiveness of the device.

Recently, sensing technology has been dramatically developed. Along with this, a wide variety of sensors have been used in a system such as automated driving technology and the robot technology. When humans recognize the environment, the information of five senses are transmitted to the sensory area in the cerebrum and processed. After that, the processed information are transmitted to the association area and fusion. Also in the robot sensor fusion, it is expected such a human sensor fusion system. In this study, we propose the system that word recognition is fusion by combining Visual Data from a RGB camera and Voice Data from a microphone using CNN that can automatically extract features. We train the network using Visual Data and Voice Data, and verify the accuracy of the system by the word recognition rate, and the possibility of sensor fusion by deep learning.

For accurate flatness measurement of large structures, we propose a method to capture wide and accurate range images by using time-series range images of multiple viewpoint. Given the size of the structure and the measurement accuracy of the sensor, this method calculates the number of divisions and the measurement time. After that, the proposed method made it possible to measure with an accuracy of 0.024 mm to white board. After analyzing the relationship between the accuracy of distance measurementσand the flatness error ΔF, The simulation revealed that ΔF = 11.174σ.

3D image measurement technology can measure multiple points simultaneously over a wide area without contact with the object. Therefore, we propose a calibrator with eight fluorescent spherical markers that can detect millipixel and that are three-dimensionally. By using this calibrator, the number of calibration images, the number of arrangements, and the number of postures can be reduced compared to the conventional method. A 3D measurement simulation was performed to confirm that the relative accuracy of 10-6 order was comparable to that of the conventional method under the condition of 400 images with the number of calibration images reduced by 93%.

This study aimed to verify the accuracy of knee joint angle estimation using a small and lightweight IMU. We calculated the root mean squared error and the correlation coefficient at the knee joint angle around each axis of the knee joint angle estimated by the IMU and the complementary filter and the knee joint angle estimated by the point cluster technique. As a result, a high correlation (>0.95) was found only in the flexion and extension angles. It was shown that the coarse movement in the flexion and extension direction can be measured even if the IMU is not fixed properly.

In recent years, “i-Construction” which aims to improve the efficiency of construction sites by utilizing information such as 3D data has been actively promoted. There is a demand to estimate the amount of soil volume excavated by backhoe. In this paper, We propose a method to estimate the amount of the excavated soil volume by using multiple RGB-D sensors mounted on the backhoe. In this problem, the sensors move relatively each other according to the change of the joint angle of the backhoe. We integrate the sensor data by estimating the relative pose of the bucket against the cabin.

In japan, robot technology for efficient tunnel inspection is required. MIMM is one of the tunnel inspection systems using robot technology. To find the deformation of the tunnel surface, it is required to analyze the difference between the two periods survey result. For that purpose, it is necessary to aligns two point clouds in precisely. But the cumulative error is caused by GNSS/IMU positioning system make it difficult to align two point clouds. Hence, there are needs for more precise positioning system for tunnel survey. Our purpose is to perform high-accuracy positioning system for tunnel survey. We proposed a new positioning method using tunnel facilities. Through evaluation test, it was confirmed that the accuracy of the proposed method was higher than that of the conventional method. In this paper, we detail to the method and evaluation test result.

3D Measurements for metallic objects or semi-transparent objects are required; however, they are still a hard problem in the robot vision field. We have developed a novel 3D measurement method that utilizes LTM sparse estimation and epipolar geometry constraint, which can measure these complex lighting objects accurately. In this presentation, we will show our results from the perspectives of computation cost and robustness. Na¨ıve LTM estimation takes a very long time; thus, we have developed computation cost and the number of projection and capturing reduction methods. We also developed a robust LTM sparse estimation method for non-linear projector-camera system behavior.

We propose a high-speed range image estimation method with submillimeter resolution in the depth direction using structured light fields using two vertically and horizontally arranged projectors of 1000 mm in parallel. It enables high-precision measurement with a minimum RMSE of 0.48 mm, and demonstrates the possibility of measuring involuntary movements such as involuntary movement measurements.

The purpose of this study is to improve the three-dimensional measurement accuracy in active stereo method. We propose a method to modify calibration parameters by non-linear optimization based on the error on euclidean space. The cost function in the optimization uses geometric constraints calculated based on euclidean coordinates of the feature points on the target. The accuracy of the proposed method was verified by the experiment. As a result, that the measurement accuracy was improved only in parts of the measurement regions was confirmed . By investigating the relationship between the spatial distribution of feature points and the measurement area, that the distribution affected the measurement accuracy was suggested.

This paper presents a 3D object mapping system from a mobile robot in motion. Obtaining object information from the real world is essential for an autonomous mobile robot to understand its environment. The paper focuses on gathering object information as a dense 3D point cloud and its position on the global 3D map. The key feature is that the proposed system keeps global consistency and detailed object shape at the same time while the robot moves a larger area. Experiment results show that the proposed system effectively extracts surrounding objects.

In recent years, there are many multi-finger robots which can manipulate rigid objects, but it is difficult to manipulate flexible objects such as paper. Our research group developed a multi-finger robot system and succeeded in folding paper. In this system, the paper was recognized using RGB-D sensor and physical model. However, during occlusion, the matching between point cloud and physical model was unstable. In this paper, we propose a new method for recognizing a paper shape. First, a paper contour is detected using a RGB image. Next, point cloud data is obtained from a depth image. Finally, the paper shape is estimated by integrating the information from the contour, the point cloud, and a physical model. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method during occlusion.

This paper presents the method for estimating three finger joints angle at the same time using four strings and three flexible layered belts. The method applied the difference of slide displacement of strings during finger flexion. The belt keeps the relative distance from the rotational center, and the relative displacement of strings is in proportion to the joints angle. Moreover, fixing the strings and belts step by step on the finger joint enables to estimate each joints angle simultaneously. The developed device realized the measurement of finger motion, although most of the similar devices require the calibration to identify the individual finger shape. We experimented on the device with the finger model to evaluate the accuracy of the estimation of finger movement. We validated that this system estimates each finger joints angle by about 5 degree on root-mean-square error (RMSE).

Learning daily movements requires repeated practice, and this learning process is called motor learning. In this motor learning, there is a finding that it is effective to match the trainee’s body with the target’s muscle activity. In this study, using the trumpet performance as the theme, the muscle activity of the target movement was induced by stretch reflex, and the effect of motor learning was verified. The results confirmed that the performance was significantly improved before and after training by stretching reflex.

This paper addresses a method of motion capture from monocular video. In previous research, which uses generative adversarial learning for 3D pose generator and discriminator between initial 2D pose and projection of generated 3D pose to other surface, the skeleton length was temporally changed because a likely posture was estimated for each frame of the video. This research aims to dissolve this problem by constraining skeletal length change in learning and capture continuous human movement. We evaluate accuracy of the motion capture system by comparing with optical motion capture.

Bowing a string requires not only the control of the position and velocity of the bow but also the control of impedance. Once the string starts vibrating, the vibration propagates through the bow to the arm holding the bow. The impedance must be controlled in order to suppress this vibration.Therefore, this paper proposes the use of force and impedance control for reproducing the task of violin performance.The first experiment aims to identify the range of force and velocity necessary for the string to follow a periodic motion.Within the range, the second experiment examines the relationship between impedance gains and the timbre of the violin. In the last experiment, the performance of the robot is compared with the performance of an experienced violin player. Through the experiments, this paper verifies the effectiveness of force and impedance control in reproducing violin performance.

The application of functional electrical stimulation in human motor control such as motor skill teaching and motor capability expansion is recently expected. In case of human finger control, however, the higher kinematic and actuation redundancies of the finger joint make such an application more difficult. In order to solve this problem, we proposed the coordinated electrical stimulation of the agonist-antagonist muscles based on muscle synergy known as one of the human motor control strategy, and identified the finger joint equilibrium point control model.

In recent years, the kinesthetic illusion has been used in rehabilitation to recover from paralysis. In addition, there are several studies suggesting that the stretch reflex is also effective in rehabilitation. Therefore, in this study, we created a system that induces the kinesthetic illusion by presenting the VR image and the stretch reflex at the same time. The results suggest that in order to induce the kinesthetic illusion, it is necessary for the movement of the subject and the movement of the video to match at the position level. It was also suggested that adding a device of attention could increase the sense of physical possession.

This study proposes a new driving skill improvement support system based on driving skill evaluation. This research can be roughly divided into two phases. First phase is to establish an objective skill evaluation model. Second phase is to verify effects of the support system for driving skill improvement. In this paper, we focus on the first phase. We evaluate driving skill judging from driving behavior performance, driver’s head motion and gazing point. We basically implement experiments by using a VR driving simulator as a tool to get behavioral and cognitive data. The simulator is made close to a real vehicle environment as much as possible. Next year, we are going to develop the system that drivers are naturally encouraged to improve their skill through auditory and haptic feedback.

In order to construct the skill acquisition method for a common treatment of dental caries, it is necessary to prepare quantitative guidelines for Dental students.

In this study, measurement and analysis for the movements of fingers and turbine have been conducted during tooth removal and restoration process using three-dimensional motion capture. Through the comparison and examination of them, validity of the constructed system has been confirmed in this paper. Moreover, the differences in cutting techniques between skilled doctors and beginner students have been discussed.

Especially, effectiveness of locations for the reflective marker for the motion analysis on the fingers from the viewpoint of improvement for the imaging environment.

A variety of mobility aids are widely used, and one of them is an inverted electric wheelchair that moves by moving the center of gravity. Inverted electric wheelchairs move by moving the center of gravity of the occupant, so physical and psychological factors of the occupant greatly affect driving performance. However, the physical and psychological load of the occupant while driving is not yet clear. In the paper, we describe the results of preliminary experiments on the psychological load during acceleration and deceleration in an inverted electric wheelchair.

This paper reports on quantitative assessment of human stress in tele-operating a mobile robot. In operating the mobile robot remotely, the operator acquired vision from a camera on the mobile robot, and blood pressure pulse wave was measured during operation constantly. LF/HF, which is one of the indexes for quantitative stress assessment, was used for this research. In calculating LF/HF, Fourier transformed graph of PPI (peak-to-peak interval) is needed. PPI graph is acquired by plotting the period of each two peaks of blood pressure pulse wave. Stress assessment was conducted in 3 situations, sitting position, tele-operation of the mobile robot without delay, and tele-operation of the mobile robot with delay. In comparison to sitting position, LF/HF increased by 114% on average in tele-operation without delay, and 303% on average in tele-operation with delay. Therefore, we could assess stress quantitatively in operating a mobile robot remotely using blood pressure pulse wave.

The existing proposal of falling risk evaluation system, a.k.a. StA2BLE, for the national unprecedented ageing society problem, is research domain. So, the keys of industrialization such as producibility, cost and usability, e.g. professional skillset required to operate, are less considered and consequentially difficult to be adapted by the society. Furthermore, since standing function factors can be identified by the system, so personal effective training program, which could bring huge value to the market, can be automatically generated based on the calculated factors. This paper is to discuss and offer social deployment strategy of the StA2BLE in order to get rid of the barriers.

This study proposes an input interface which is capable of 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) control by using oral movement.The hands-free interfaces which control 6 DoF are limited. The intraoral movements have precise and versatile movements.The interface consists of an intraoral and an extraoral link. The intraoral link includes a 3DoF joystick and the extraoral link includes a 9DoF IMU. This device allows the user to control external devices such as a mouse cursor and a robot arm by using the postural change of links. In this thesis, we introduce the design of an orally-manipulated input interface, the method of 6DoF measurement, and the performance evaluation in practical control applications.

Lumbar load, which causes chronic low back pain, varies depending on posture and external load. However, the timing to feel the lumbar burden varies from person to person. It is also known that tightening the pelvic belt against the lumbar burden improves posture and reduces the lumbar burden. For this reason, the tightening force of the pelvic belt is measured for the posture and the lumbar load, and the relationship between the sensation and the load is evaluated.

Smartphone-based microscopy offers an inexpensive magnifying solution while downsizing its optical system and considered an easy-to-use magnifier due to its small form factor compared to conventional microscopes. However, they still suffer from difficulties before and during observation: slide preparation and position control. To address this, we introduce a fingertip-attachable microscope that allows a wearer to observe small structures by directly contacting a surface while its position is adjustable by moving one’s fingertip. Resolving power was measured as 645lp/mm, and future directions are also discussed.

In this paper, we examine the effect of balustrades on squat motion. Currently, in nursing homes, we provide exercise assistance for maintaining the health of the elderly. In the squat movement, it is assisted by performing squats while grasping the balustrade. We investigated the amount of change in load due to balustrade. Here, the index of the load was the joint torque. Since squat exercise is a motions using the lower limb joint and the muscles around its joints, joint torque is considered to be suitable as an index. In the experiment, the joint position and floor reaction force were measured using Kinect and the load cell. The joint torque was determined by applying the measurement value to the three dimensional rigid body link model. Experiments were carried out squat motion in a state of railing and normal state. As a result, the decrease in joint torque due to balustrades could be shown numerically

This paper describes a method for evaluating nanobio reaction products according to experimental conditions based on analysis of electron microscopic images of the nanobio reaction products. The paper focuses on the spatial frequency components of the image that do not depend on the appearance of the image in order to evaluate and classify the images of the reaction products. Experimental results show the feasibility of the method by analyzing the microscope images of actual nanobio reaction products under several types of chemical reactions.

In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) micromanipulator mounted on a glass capillary is developed for handling biological samples such as spheroids and embryos. To fabricate the micromanipulator, we developed an additive manufacturing system based on high-resolution microstereolithography using a 405-nm blue laser. Using this fabrication system, the micromaniplulator mounted on a glass capillary was fabricated. We demonstrated the capture and release of a spheroid with the micromanipulator. It was confirmed that spheroids could be easily handled by a simple operation with minimal damage using a cage-like multiple finger structure. Additive manufacturing of tailor-made micromanipulators mounted on a glass capillary will be useful for biological and tissue engineering researches.

We evaluated adhesion force of suction cup on different softness of target surface. For flexible devices attachable to human bodies, suction cups have superior properties to other conventional attachment mechanisms, because they enable to use repeatedly and show relatively high adhesion forces. However, suction cup can generally adhere to hard and flat surface, so it is difficult to attach them to soft surface. Therefore, we focused on deformation mode of suction cup. We revealed that spring constant is changed by adhesion surface because deformation of suction cup is different on adhesion surface. So, we measured adhesion force by changing young’s modulus of suction cup, which is considered one of the parameters. We found that the lower the Young's modulus was, the smaller the preload required for the suction cup to initiate attachment was. In addition, we figured out that that when the suction cups had the same shape, the maximum adhesion forces decrease when Young's modulus of suction cups increase.

We controlled a light distribution of scanning light when we give the MEMS scanner drive signal by considering light distribution of the laser spot. MEMS scanner is possible to scan light by changing the angle of the mirror by giving a drive signal. There is, however, a difference between the predicted light distribution of scanning light and the actual light distribution of scanning light, and the control of light distribution was incorrect in the previous research. So we deriving the theoretical model of light distribution by MEMS scanner. And we measure the light distribution of the scanning light when we give the MEMS scanner a drive signal, then we compared measured value and the theoretical model. As the comparison result was in good agreement, it was found that the light distribution can be controlled by the theoretical model. In addition, the effect of the response time of the MEMS scanner to the drive signal on the light intensity distribution of the scanning light was investigated.

The control of the movement of microalgae by light irradiation allows for transport of microstructures and development of environmental control. The purpose of this study is to develop a motor control technology by irradiating the euglena, a phototactic microalgae, with light. In this paper, we optimized the light irradiation conditions of the multi-point light irradiation system used to control the movement of Euglena, and observed the response of Euglena to light irradiation.

O Optical device applied of hologram technology develop in recent years. We have focused on hologram which to have a perfect command of a ray. Conventional geometry correction systems were expensive systems that required a PC and camera. In this study, we have developed geometric correction hologram to control a ray for low cost and real-time. We have constructed Holographic Surface Projector (HSP) which is used hologram geometric correction technology. This can arrange projector is on the same plane with projection screen. In this paper, we report hologram exposure technology which controls one by one-pixel diffraction angle for incidence ray from projector.

In this study, we report on the drumstick device for measuring 3-axis force of the fingertip in double stroke. This device consisted of 3-axis force sensor installed in drumstick. The 3-axis force sensor is capable of detecting normal force and 2-axis shear force with the sensitivity of -22.3 mV/N, -64.2 mV/N and 60.0 mV/N. This device can measure the impulsive force and 3-axis force in playing the drum. The average force of the normal force was calculated, and the normal force indicated the largest amount of force. When the average force are measured at each tempo, that average force was increased linearly to 150 BPM. However, it was decreased from 28.4 N to 4.17 N in range of 150 BPM to 180 BPM. From the results, it was confirmed that the method of controlling stick depend on tempo. Therefore, it was suggested that the performance of the drumming could be evaluated by using this device.

This paper reports on a double winding micro coil as a receiver for MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). A double winding micro coil was fabricated by assembling 3D printed structure and the flexible substrate wiring fabricated by MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology. This micro coil has low parasitic capacitance because we could increase the gap between wirings. Furthermore the number of turns per unit length of this micro coil was increased by double winding wiring. The parasitic capacitance of fabricated micro coil at the frequency of 85.8 MHz was measured at 1.33 pF. The parasitic capacitance of fabricated coil decreased 24 % compared to the parasitic capacitance of comparison coil. The ratio of signal to noise of fabricated coil was 16.

In our previous works, MEMS tactile sensor using microcantilevers has for gripping control of a soft object by a robotic hand has been developed, however, improvement of its sensitivity for more precise control has been an critical issue. In this work, significant sensitivity improvement of the tactile sensor has been achieved by redesign of the microcantilever.

This paper reports a measurement method of blood components by Mid-IR. Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) and Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) method, the spectrum of intralipos as lipid was measured and exhibited specific absorption wavelengths of lipid. We fabricated a polydhimethylsiloxane (PDMS) diaphragm structure which has an ultra-thin PDMS membrane as a simple human-skin-like phantom, and the intralipos spectrum was observed via the ultra-thin membrane by the ATR method. Although the spectrum originated by lipid was not observed, absorption peak which can be attributed to water was clearly observed.

This paper report a moth eye structure for a Si based photodetector to function in the near infrared region, which prevents reflection and increases the transmittance without disturbing the propagation direction. A structure of moth eye pillars was fabricated on the surface of Si on the premise of deployment to Si based infrared photodetector. The moth eye pillar structure was capable of suppressing diffraction inside the Si suppresses reflection. By fabricating a pillar-type moth-eye structure on Si, reflection at the air - Si interface was suppressed and light could be efficiently introduced into the Si. As a result, the electrical detection value due to the Schottky barrier was increased. It will increase the sensitivity of infrared photodetector.

This paper reports a simultaneous measurement method of photocurrent by a SPR photodetector and vibration angle of a metal cantilever with a strain gauge. The SPR photodetector and the strain gauge were mounted on the cantilever to integrate an angle scanning mechanism of a spectrometer using the SPR photodetector. A structure of the cantilever designed to be able to change between –15 to +15 degrees to detect peaks of photocurrent by SPR. While irradiating the SPR photodetector with a single wavelength of 1250 nm and vibrating the cantilever, the photocurrent and the angle of the cantilever were measured simultaneously. It was also confirmed that the peak angles of photocurrent by SPR was measured near a theoretical angle.

In this paper, we report fabrication of a circular dichroic filter with a 3D printer. Microscale chiral structures exhibit strong circular dichroism in the infrared region, and are promising for optical filter applications. The optical properties of microscale chiral structures that absorb one side of circularly polarized light and transmit the other were evaluated by simulation. Prototype chiral structures were fabricated with a 3D printer and we confirmed that microscale chiral structures can be fabricated with a 3D printer. This leads to realizing fabrication of single layered thin optical filter that absorb one side of circularly polarized light with a 3D printer.

A printable artificial muscle assembled from motor proteins had been proposed and showed great potential in micro-robotics. This paper presents a new methodology for the direct measurement of the contraction force produced by such artificial muscles. Artificial muscles were patterned by UV layer scanning in a semi-closed micro-chamber, and the contraction force was continuously measured by a lengthened micro-force sensing probe. An experiment was performed and results proved the ability of the proposed method for quantitative measurement of artificial muscles. This approach might help us characterize the mechanical properties of artificial muscles and lay a foundation for further application in robotics.

In this paper, we propose 3D rotation method of a single microparticle by using 2-DOF vibrations. We have proposed cell manipulation method on a microfluidic chip based on a vibration-induced flow. Additionally, we achieved various two-dimensional cell manipulations in previous studies. However, 3-DOF actuator was required in previous study to realize three-dimensional rotation of cells. Vibration-induced flows in vertical direction is already observed when we applied a rectilinear vibration on horizontal plane by using 2-DOF actuator. Thus, we aim to perform three-dimensional cell manipulations without 3-DOF actuator. In this study, we propose three-dimensional rotation method of microparticle by using vibrations on horizontal plane with 2-DOF actuator.

Recently, cell spheroids are attracting large attention in medicine and biology because it can be used for various biomedical applications. In this study, we propose a formation method of cell spheroids on microfluidic chip based on vibration-induced flow. Vibration-induced flow is local flow which is generating around vibrating microobject. Thus, we can form cell spheroids by using flow around vibrating microobjects. We performed formation of cell spheroid by using proposed method. Furthermore, we evaluated the shape of formed cell spheroids. We confirmed that the size of cell spheroid can be changed by changing the center diameter of fabricated microobject. We will evaluate effects of design parameters of microobject and form cell spheroid having little variation in the future.