Printed electronics (PE) and the sensors and actuators fabricated with PE are essential to increase the freedom of design of soft robots. This study utilizes the previously-proposed method to fabricate actuators and sensors in one piece based on PE technology. This research shows that the fabrication method allows us to design various forms of robots. In particular, we demonstrate that the actuator’s shape (beam) can change its behavior, and we design a circuit to measure the amount of current in the actuator to estimate the bending deformation. We have also developed several prototypes and the simulator to design a locomotion robot’s motion composed of multiple actuators and sensors.

This paper introduces a small jumping swarm robot. The goal of this study is to operate the robots without sensors and batteries to perform swarm behavior. To move as a swarm robot, it collides with other robots and walls. To activate without battery, the robot receives power from non-contact power supply. The experimental results showed that moving distance of single robot by collision is longer than the one without collision. The other results showed that three robots moved to special area when time ratio of power supply to the field was locally controlled.

This paper discusses a wall-climbing robot that uses a blower to inspect concrete. The aging of concrete buildings has become a problem, and it has become necessary to conduct quality inspections. The inspection site may include high places and dangerous areas, and it is necessary to prepare large scaffolds and safety measures for the inspection, so the introduction of wall moving robots is expected. In order to improve the performance of the wall-riding robot, which is inferior to the wall-walking robot in terms of safety, we have proposed and implemented a Divided Suction Mechanism, and conducted experiments to confirm its usefulness.

Exploration rovers made many discoveries in exploration missions of the Moon. However, the surface of the Moon is a rough terrain. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the driving performance of the rovers. In the previous study, the running performance was improved when the rover climbed the slope while vibrating the front wheels. Two factors for improving driving performance were considered. It is the soil compaction and the bulldozing effect. The purpose of this study is to clarify the mechanism by which the running performance is improved by vibration. The normal stress sinkage and bulldozing force were measured in this study. As a result, normal stress and the sinkage was not changed by giving vibration. However, it was confirmed that the bulldozing force reduced by giving vibration. Moreover, the driving movement of rover was increased. Therefore, it was confirmed that the driving performance is improved by the bulldozing effect.

This paper presents an approach to time optimal model predictive control for a brachiating robot. In the proposed framework, multiple optimal control solvers are executed in parallel with different time horizons which are selected probabilistically from a truncated Gaussian distribution. At every time step, we choose an optimal control law with a time horizon that resulted in the lowest cost in an online fashion. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach under different initial conditions and the influence of disturbances to achieve the given task successfully.

Wireless power transfer via magnetic resonant coupling makes it possible to supply electricity for a target device which is within a few meters from the transmitter coil. However, when the target device moves and works, power reflection occurs due to the variation of input impedance. Therefore, we suggested the method using a driver coil on the transmitter side to control input impedance. Regulating coupling coefficient between the driver coil and the transmitter one, input impedance is to be matched, and the reflection is eliminated. In the experiment, the transmitting efficiency showed good agreement with the calculated value and input impedance was able to be matched under transition of distance and load resistance. In conclusion, it was shown that the proposed system could solve the problem of power reflection in a mobile robot.

Currently, the aging of social infrastructure is becoming a problem, and it needs to be inspected. Inspection involves work in high places, and it is dangerous for people to do it. Therefore, we developed a wall climbing robot with an inspection device. The inspection method is an air permeability test. The robot sticks to the wall by vacuum absorption and moves using a linear motion rail. The rails can be refracted in the middle, allowing the robot to move between planes. In this paper, we fabricated a prototype machine and improved the refracting linear rail, and verified its performance and operation．

Towards generating stable and efficient locomotion on a slippery ground, several indirectly controlled sliding robots have been designed in the previous works. Although numerical simulations have shown the possibility of achieving high-speed forward sliding locomotion, it is difficult to realize similar performance with a real machine due to unexpected behavior of their telescopic wobbling motion. In addition, it is also inefficient to conduct optimization process for them due to their redundant parameters. In this work, we introduce a minimalistic model for a sliding locomotion robot. The telescopic wobbling motion is replaced by a rotating motion while its strong propulsive force is maintained. Equations of motion are analytically derived and the validity is numerically proven.

For stair climbing by a mobile robot, we have developed a 1-DOF mechanism that allows a rotating axis to be lifted with less torque. In this paper, we describe the control method for stair climbing in this robot. Specifically, instead of using the angular velocity of the motor as a direct input, we used the angular velocity that considers the amount of change in posture as an input. The usefulness of the proposed method was confirmed by simulation.

In order to inspect social infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels the wall-climbing robot based on the Universal Vacuum Gripper (UVG) has been developed. UVG adhere to uneven surface by the deformable rip part. This robot has a simple structure consisting of two legs with UVGs and two rotational degrees of freedom, and can climb uneven walls and move along ceilings. However, its ascent speed of 1.2 m/min was insufficient for actual inspection. In addition, the movement between wall and ceiling become problematic in some cases without the linear adjustment of the leg position. Therefore, we developed a bipedal wall-climbing robot with a light weight linear motion mechanism using bellows to increase the climbing speed and adjust the leg position.

In this study, we evaluate the lifting and lowering motion of U-shaped suspension type cylinder elevating mechanism by changing the wheel parameters. The basic components of U-shaped suspension type cylinder elevating mechanism are a rope and wheels. This mechanism moves up and down in a spiral by the driving force of the wheels while supporting its own weight with a rope. Therefore, the force in the direction of the cylinder axis generated at the contact surface between the wheel and the cylinder is considered to affect the lifting and lowering motion. In order to evaluate the motion in the direction of the cylindrical axis, lifting and lowering experiments were conducted by changing the friction coefficient of the wheels and the angle to attach the wheel.

Snake-like robots are highly adaptable to environments that are difficult to navigate with feet or crawlers. Most snake-like robots perform "serpentine locomotion," in which they move by twisting their bodies from side to side. This method enables them to move over bumps and narrow gaps, but has the disadvantage of being difficult to move on sandy or snowy ground. In this paper, we focus on the sidewinding propulsion method, which can propel the robot even in unstable and slippery environments, and propose a moving mechanism for it. In this study, we reproduced the movement of sidewinding propulsion while saving the degree of freedom by lifting the body in accordance with the degree of freedom of bending using non-circular gears at the joints.

This paper represents a bistable tensegrity structure that can deform significantly from the folded shape to the concave shape using plate-like compressive materials. We found that a bistable structure appears when the plate thickness changes. To verify the bistability by the elastic potential energy stored in the structure, a mechanical simulator that can reproduce the tensegrity structure’s motion was developed using 3D-CAD. The mechanical simulator demonstrates bistability is verified from the change in elastic potential energy between the two shapes. We also confirm that the tensegrity prototype is stable in both folded and open shapes. We consider that the energy stored when folded can be utilized for applications such as jumping robots.

Crawling is a useful method to move in narrow environments such as tubes or tunnels. Many crawling robots have been investigated that mimics peristalsis by inflating/shrinking thin elastic film while extending/contracting connected bodies. However, elastic film-based actuation is vulnerable under harsh environments such as having rugged surface, under thin air, or being exposed at high temperature. In addition, inflation by air pressure requires a large air pump, which prohibits autonomy of a robot. In this research, we propose a crawling mechanism that uses hard thin elastic metal or plastic plates as inflators, which are driven by only a simultaneous twisting and extending motion performed by adjacent bodies. We propose a design of two types of units that inflate or shrink according to body twisting extension motion. By connecting these units, and by providing appropriate extension/contraction sequence, it is shown that the connected units perform crawling motion like peristalsis. This paper shows the design of two types of units and the sequence to realize crawling motion, with the results by a prototype robot.

The omnidirectional motion can move any direction without changing the direction of its own. The authors have developed Wave-wheel mechanism and Screw-type differential rotating mechanism. Also, the stepping performance were improved by extending the ground point from point to line. In addition, we have evaluated the motion characteristics of one ciliated wheel mechanism. In this paper, we examined the composition for vehiclization. In the vehicle configuration, the minimum necessary two units are arranged in parallel. We conducted experiments using actual mechanisms and confirmed that the inventive principle is also effective for vehicle construction, omnidirectional motion.

The volcano exploration mobile robot using a phenomenon of rolling down on slopes was developed in our previous study. However, the robot had a problem that it cannot stop on slopes. In this study, to realize a roll-down mobile robot that can stop on slopes, the roll-down locomotion and stop mechanism using transformation by air pressure of the body is proposed. A prototype of a roll-down robot with the mechanism was developed and experiments were conducted to verify the validity of the proposed method. As a result, the robot was able to stop on a slope by exhausting the air inside the robot body and transforming the shape. This paper describes the concept of the roll-down locomotion and stop mechanism, the developed prototype, and the experiments using the robot.

In this paper, the mechanical properties of a drill with an applied Archimedean Screw on a fresh snow slope were experimentally evaluated. This drill is used for a snow exploration robot, and it was conducted as part of the verification of the robot's ability to move on a fresh snow surface. A full-scale model of the drill was placed on a snow surface with a known slope, and the amount of settlement and slip (the amount of movement parallel to the slope) were measured by applying a load to it. As a result, it was confirmed that the phenomena were different from those on the flat snow surface, and it was clarified that the machine for the slope needs to be improved.

The ultimate goal of this research is to safely apply automatic driving to Personal Mobility Vehicles (PMVs), which are personal transportation vehicles. One of the problems in applying automatic driving to an inverted pendulum vehicle is that the vehicle requires posture stabilization control at all times. It is important to understand the dynamic motion of the driver during automatic driving. In this paper, we experimentally understand the driver's response during automatic turning. The behavior of the driver of an inverted pendulum type vehicle during manual and automatic turning was investigated. The displacement of the driver's COG in the x-axis (front-back direction) was found to move backward during turning and decelerate the vehicle. On the other hand, the displacement of the COG in the y-axis (lateral direction) was found to move in the opposite direction of the turning direction due to the centrifugal force acting on the driver during the turn under the automatic turn condition. As for the COP, it was found that the driver maintained balance during the turn by moving the inside foot more inwardly and the outside foot more outwardly.

A new transportation system, in which personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) and public transports are combined, attracts attention from the viewpoint of environmental loads. Several PMVs including Segway have been developed, however, the use of those vehicles on Japanese public roads is prohibited. As a result, a foldable PMV is developed to be used on Japanese public roads. Although this PMV is designed to run on public roads, it is designed to make it difficult to avoid danger in the braking system. Therefore, in addition to the deceleration by the open loop control developed by Sakata, we developed a new heel brake that features the backward leaning posture and the movement of the center of gravity. With this brake, even a standing ride PMV can avoid danger by sudden braking. In this paper, we describe the outline and design of the developed brake system and report experimental results of performance evaluation using the heel brake.

Transportation vehicles are expected to be able to move in an arbitrary direction quickly. The wheeled mechanism named active omni wheel that can move in both longitudinal and lateral directions was proposed to meet this demand. However, the velocity characteristics of the vehicle equipped with serval active omni wheels remain unknown. With this in mind, this paper analyzes the velocity characteristics of the vehicle with respect to four possible types of wheel layouts. The traveling velocity of the vehicle while rotating is schematically obtained by the intersection of the velocity distribution of each active omni wheel based on the wheel layouts.

Recently, simplified electric wheelchairs, that is, wheelchair with a motorized device attached to a manual wheelchair has been gathered attention. Simplified electric wheelchairs are relatively lightweight. We developed the 3-wheeled simple electric wheelchair. This wheelchair has two large wheels and an active-caster, a type of powered caster which can move in any directions. With this structure, the active-caster saves as a support, the risk of falling backwards can be reduced when the wheelchair running over steps. However, 3-wheeled simple electric wheelchair have a problem that stability of straight running is poor. This is because 3-wheeled wheel chair has the same relative positional relationship between the wheelchair operator and the turning center as front-drive wheelchair. In previous studies, yaw rate feedback control was used to solve this problem. So in this paper, we introduce the control to 3-wheel simple electric wheelchair and improve the running stability of the wheelchair.

Active casters are omnidirectional wheels that has driving axis for caster wheels and steering axis. They can move in all directions by coordinated control of the steering axis and driving axis. However, the steering axis was not stable when controlled using the kinematics of the active caster. The reason for this is that the conventional control method did not take into account the time delay caused by dynamics. Therefore, we devised a method to compensate for the time delay. This method uses the analytical solution of the nonlinear differential equation of the steering axis in kinematics. As a result of experiments using this method, the stability of the steering axis and the maximum speed when going straight were improved.

Stairs are one of the barriers for personal mobility vehicle (PMV) in daily life. Crawler-type vehicles and vehicles with special and complicated mechanisms are commonly used for climbing stairs. On the other hand, our vehicle is based on a wheel mechanism. And the wheel mechanism of our vehicle can perform a leg-like motion if necessary. In this paper, we analyze the stair climbing motion by using the roll axis. The roll axis control which we have analyzed is a control in which the target roll axis torques calculated from posture control and angle control are added together in a constant ratio.

We propose a steering control method for support in using personal mobility. The purpose of this study is to support user’s steering control in narrow environment and reduce the user’s operational burden. When we provide the steering assistance, we respect the input of them by designing the shared control. Taking it into account will lead to increase independence for users. When providing assistance, it is important to improve safety by decelerating the vehicle in consideration of obstacles and to guarantee operational efficiency. We conducted driving test using the personal mobility, in order to verify the effectiveness of our supporting method and what is causing the burden on the user.

For personal mobility(PM) operators, it is difficult to move through a crowd and it is important to estimate collision risks and to control driving velocity properly. In this study, we propose an automatic velocity control system for PM based on “Passability Index (PI),” which indicates difficulty of driving while pedestrians are passing. The system uses an RGB-D camera and LRFs to estimate a pedestrian’s position and velocity. To calculate PI, the system calculates width of passage during passing considering pedestrian’s movement. Then, PM adopts a proper passing velocity depending on PI. Experimental results show that the proposed system helped operators to drive safer compared to manual (non-supported) driving.

This paper deals with a dynamically-stable personal vehicle which is driven by four omnidirectional wheels. It has two distinctive mechanical structures. First, the vehicle body is connected to the chassis with a single universal joint. Though the body is inherently unstable, once it is stabilized by an appropriate feedback controller, the posture is always maintained upright while driving, even on sloping surface. Secondly, four wheels are elastically supported by independent suspension for traveling on rough road. It causes additional oscillatory dynamics in the closed-loop system which must be explicitly taken into account in the controller design. The overall mechanical structure, its kinematic and dynamic models, derivation of the controller are described.

With the development of VR in recent years, the development of temperature presentation devices is expected. We propose a cooling sensation presentation system that uses the heat of vaporization as a new temperature presentation device. In this paper, we report on the structure and cooling effect of the created cooling sensation presentation system.

A tactile display that can control mechanical stimulation to the fingertip is useful for researches on perception mechanisms. In this study, for the analysis of texture sensations, we developed a tactile display that can simulate the vibration and the frictional force derived on the skin when a human slides an object with a fingertip. Besides, the contact surface can be exchanged. It is composed of a vibrator, a voice coil motor, a load cell, a flat plate with different surface geometries, and a monitor. The finger is fixed and a feeling of the movement of the fingertip is compensated with the monitor. Basic evaluation tests showed the reproduction of the vibration and frictional force, inducing different roughness perceptions.

This study analyzes the recognition process of examining the texture of fine particles through tactile sensing using human fingers and aims at establishing the structure of texture recognition. In this study, the SD method (Semantic Differential method) is used to execute the language estimation (the evaluation value) of fine particles. This paper is intended as an investigation of a feature of KANSEI evaluation in their mid-teens, mid-twenties and around 60 years old using principal component score.

In conventional massage machines such as massage chairs, the movement and posture are limited. To solve this problem, a massage robot with a multi-finger hand are developed. Since this robot comes into direct contact with the human body, it is important to measure the force applied to the fingertips. However, there are few practical force sensors that are small enough to be attached to the fingertip of a robot hand and can withstand a large load such as a massage operation. In this paper, we propose a fingertip force sensor using a piezoelectric element, which is easy to miniaturize and can withstand a large load such as massage.Then we discuss the prototype sensor and its evolution results.

We have been investigating a method of tactile presentation using electrical muscle stimulation. In the process, we found that the subjective force magnitude the user felt differs between physical force and virtual force generated by electrical muscle stimulation. If the subjective feeling is different, it may induce misunderstanding against the displayed contents. This difference is a problem for the haptic presentation by electrical muscle stimulation. Therefore, we measured the point of subjective equality between the physical force and the virtual force generated by electrical muscle stimulation using the method of constant stimuli. In this paper, we will discuss the results in detail.

In recent years, with the development of Virtual Reality (VR) technology such as Head Mounted Display (HMD), the importance of technology to reproduce the sense of touch in VR space has increased, and various haptic devices have been proposed. On the other hand, there are some problems in presenting force sensation in VR space, such as the size of the device. We have proposed a method of presenting force sensation by using a device equipped with a vacuum brake on an omni-directional vehicle. In this paper, we report experimental results of the force sensation subjectively felt by the subject at different duty ratios when the solenoid valve is PWM controlled.

Conventional studies on softness perception under pseudo-haptics employed deformation of two-dimensional images of fingers and an object. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a method using three-dimensional computer-generated images to present pseudo-haptics information by manipulating the angle of each finger joint displayed in VR space using hand tracking. At the same time, we also considered the differences between individuals.

The stick-slip phenomenon occurs in dynamic friction plays an important role in haptic perception. We observed that when using the finger pad to interact with a rough surface, under a certain downforce, the stick-slip phenomenon is more likely to occur when the finger exploring in ulnar direction than radial direction. We speculated that this might be the result of the different deformation characteristics of the skin on both sides of the finger pad. In this paper, we performed 3D measurements to obtain the height information on both sides of the fingertips under different downforce and tangential force. The results showed the differences in the elastic properties of the skin, which may explain the direction-depended stick-slip phenomenon.

In recent years, many tactile displays have been developed. Haptic displays based on tactile information obtained from actual textures have high reproducibility, and these displays enable advanced virtual reality experiences. However, in order to extend these contents, new tactile information must be collected from actual textures. However, in order to extend these contents, new tactile information must be collected from actual textures, and it is impractical to collect the necessary tactile information one by one. To solve this problem, we propose a method to generate uncollected tactile information from existing tactile information using Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). We generated and evaluated new haptic vibration information by manipulating the label information for generating haptic vibration information with GAN based on the triaxial acceleration information when touching the actual texture.

Several attempts to extend the phantom sensation to localize the vibration source outside the body have been reported. However, it is difficult to localize a vibration source with an arbitrary waveform. In this study, we focus on the vibration intensity perceived by humans. We propose a method to geometrically distribute the intensity to multiple vibrators and localize the vibration direction as a single point. This paper attempts to represent vibrations propagating from a remote location to the feet. The calculated intensity of the vibration source was distributed to four vibrators on both feet according to the orientation. The experimental results showed that the proposed method could present the approximate direction while maintaining the intensity of the stimulus.

Micro-channel devices for cell manipulation are being actively developed, but there are very few reports on plants compared to animal cells including human cells. This time, we will introduce root isolation and observation methods for Arabidopsis thaliana roots using a micro-channel device. Specifically, we optimized the height and width of the channel through which only 1 of Arabidopsis thaliana root can pass. Since Arabidopsis thaliana is a model organism in plant research, it was targeted this time. In the future, based on the findings obtained in this study, we would like to analyze the behavior of individual roots and clarify the correlation with repellent substances by utilizing the characteristics of microchannel devices.

We have proposed the microgel robot having soft-rigid hybrid structure. We fabricate a microgel robots using two types of material. One is SU-8 that is epoxy resin as a rigid structure. The other is PNIPAAm that is a thermo-responsive gel as a soft actuator. The volume of PNIPAAm changes depending on its temperature. We use the volume change as actuator. PNIPAAm is mixed with a graphene as a light absorber. In this study, we fabricated a microgel robot has three actuators. Therefore, we irradiate these actuators with a light to drive the robot. By irradiating three actuators with a light in sequence, the microgel robot moves forward with peristaltic motion. In addition, we evaluate the displacement of the microgel robot.

In this study, we propose a reconfigurable microgel robot which can be assembled and disassembled by light irradiation. Reconfigurable modular robot is attracting large attention because of its scalability, self-healing function, and flexibility. However, few modular robots in microscale have not been proposed yet. We propose a concept of reconfigurable microgel robot and fabricate a module of this robot. The module has “drive” and “assemble/ disassemble” functions that are required to realize a reconfigurable microrobot. For driving the robot made of thermosresponsive gel, PNIPAAm, we use a volume change of PNIPAAm controlled by light irradiation. For assembly and disassembly of the robots, we use molecular recognition technology using β-cyclodextrin and azobenzene. We succeeded in performing the two basic functions of “drive” and “assemble/ disassemble” by using the proposed module of the microrobot.

In order to develop a new kind of actuator made of physiological tissue muscle, the initial task as the purpose of this study is to design the minimum muscle weight required to generate specific contractile force. In this study, gastrocnemius muscle of toad was subjected to external electrical stimulation signal. Utilizing the muscle contraction model, with electrical stimulation signal as input, it shows that muscle contraction can be simulated by adjusting specific parameter of the model. Initially, the relationship between muscle contraction model and muscle weight was revealed by experimentally stimulating muscles of different sizes under several kinds of stimulus conditions. Then, we successfully designed muscle weight required to get the contractile force expected based on the muscle contraction model.

Attitude control is essential technique for cell surgery or three-dimensional observation of microobjects in field of cell biology and medicine. Previously, we proposed the three-dimensional rotation of microparticles using vibration-induced flow. Vibration-induced flow is generated by the high-speed vibration of a microobject. Therefore, we can change angular velocities of a microobject by applying different amplitude of the vibration. In this paper, we construct an angle control system for microobjects toward attitude control using vibration-induced flow. We constructed the system of visual feedback control using the voltage as manipulation variable. We succeeded in controlling the angle of microobject with an angle error within 3 degrees at horizontal rotation and vertical rotation. We will realize attitude control by using proposed method in the future.

In this research, we propose an immersive micromanipulation system using a real-time 3D imaging microscope and glove-type control interfaces for efficient cell manipulation. In this system, an operator wears a head-mounted display and glove-type control interfaces, and the operator is immersed in a virtual manipulation space derived from a 3D imaging microscope. The operator then manipulates the micromanipulators in the virtual manipulation space using glove-type control interfaces worn on the hands to perform micro-manipulation tasks. The motion in the virtual manipulation space is reflected to the actual microspace. We verify that the proposed system improves the efficiency of micro-manipulation through subject experiments of micro-manipulation using microbeads.

Cell cryopreservation is an essential technique for stable and long-term storage of cells in various fields, but it generally requires addition of at least one cytotoxic cryoprotectant. We previously reported a cryoprotectant-free cryopreservation method based on inkjet technology and also developed an automatic thawing apparatus to reliably throw the droplets containing cells on the substrate into the prewarmed medium. However, the apparatus could decrease the cell viability due to the temperature rise of the droplet in the falling process of the substrate. In this study, we numerically analyzed the temperature of the droplet on the substrate and confirmed that the droplet temperature hardly increased during the process. The result suggests that cell viability would not decrease during the thawing process by the apparatus.

In this paper, we propose to use nematodes as micro robot to transport materials. Micro robots of nematodes consist of three processes: (A), we have nematodes hold micro materials. (B), we have nematodes transport to the destination. (C), we have nematodes discharge micro materials at the destination. In this research, we describe the evaluation of the method which realize (A) and (C). We were able to confirm that materials introduced into the nematodes were discharged. Based on this fact, we conclude that we can realize the transportation in the laboratory environment.

A robot that is small but has high awareness ability and ability to traverse rough terrain is a difficult task to realize with current robot technology. On the other hand, we aimed to solve this problem by using insects that are born with high awareness ability and ability to traverse rough terrain. By applying electrical stimulation to insects, specific movements are induced, and by combining them, they are guided to the destination. In this study, we developed a control module that gives electrical stimulation and installed it in Madagascar hissing cockroach. It was also shown that it can be guided to a heat source by using the thermography mounted on the control module.

The measurement method of mechanical characteristics of organoids is expected as a low-invasive evaluation method of the physiological state of the organoids. We proposed a force sensing probe fabricated of based on a quartz crystal resonator (QCR), which is high rigidity and high force resolution. The force sensing probe was fabricated by micromachining technique, and the force resolution of the developed probe was 58.8 nN. By using the developed probe, we measured the Young’s modulus of an organoid to assess the feasibility of the stiffness measurement. As a result, the Young’s modulus of an organoid was successfully evaluated as 2.02 kPa. It suggested that the proposed method has the possibility of the stiffness measurement of microstructure.

There are many insects comprise swarms and swarm manipulation has been one of the most interesting tasks for many scientists. The stimulation to manipulate them can be especially useful in the field of biological cyborg manipulation because the swarm itself will be mainly used in large space. In this paper, we propose to suggest xenogeneic species as a stimulation that enables us to control the behavior of insect swarms. By using image processing, we analyzed their behavior from many points of view. As a result, we confirmed that the majority individuals were influenced by the location of the xenogeneic one in an aspect of the number of colonies and male group was influenced more strongly than female one. However, as we failed to find strong practical reaction. It is better to select much more different species as a xenogeneic one.

The purpose is development for a microfluidic device to measure field potentials generated by 3D human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) spheroids.

Cardiotoxicity occupies most of the reasons for discontinuing drug discovery development. Improving cardiotoxicity assessment methods is desired because early detecting cardiotoxicity saves labor and cost. Cardiotoxicity is assessed by the field potential (FP) from cardiomyocytes. However, it has not established to measure FP from 3D cardiomyocytes spheroids since it has difficulties with its adherence. We developed the microfluidic device to measure FP from 3D hiPSC-CM spheroids by distorting in the height direction. In a channel of the device, it has objects to fix a spheroid and the electrode film on the bottom.

In recent years, there are many cell measurement methods, and cell measurements with heat, which is closely related to life activity, are also performed. However, since cells have heterogeneity and volatility, thermophysical properties in cells are apparent physical properties, and the intracellular phenomena that affect the apparent physical properties are still unknown. Therefore, we aimed to measure the internal state of cells by combining optical observation with a microscope and heat conduction distribution measurement by a micro single-sided transient hot rectangle technique, which is minimally invasive by sort-time heating and adjustable of heating time. In this report, we proposed and verified a measured value normalization method to realize measurement under multiple heating conditions at the same time. In addition, we measured cultured cells using the same method, confirmed cell heterogeneity, and showed the possibility of measuring the internal state of cells by heat.

A printable artificial muscle built from biomolecular motors had been proposed and showed great potential in micro-robotics. Based on our previous research, we proposed a stable direct measurement method for the contractile force generated by such artificial muscles. Artificial muscles were photo-patterned in an oil-sealed micro-chamber, and the contractile force was directly measured by a modified micro-force sensing probe. Calibration tests were conducted to ensure the measurement accuracy of the modified sensing probe. The relationship between the contractile force of artificial muscles and the height of artificial muscle solution was evaluated. This improved measurement system can contribute to the further research and application of this artificial muscle.