We have been investigating how to use behavior-controlled Daphnia as a living micromachine. The control of Daphnia was done by applying their phototaxes. We successfully controlled the behavior of Daphnia using phototaxis. However, Daphnia has millimeter sized body and it is too big for micromachines. Therefore, we have been investigating for the other applications such as for the computer game. In this study, first, we developed a simpler behavior control system of Daphnia using a laptop computer and a second LCD display. We also developed a cooling system to prevent the control pool from the heat of the LCD display to avoid the phototaxis tendency reversal phenomenon. The behavior control algorithm was also improved by using body angle information of the tool installed Daphnia. Two types of the operation tools were newly designed and investigated to improve the turning ability of the tool installed Daphnia, one is the hexagonal plate type, and the other is the small sphere type made of polystyrene foam. Both showed better turning abilities. The small sphere type, however, has the better property.

In studies of stiffness, quantitative measurement methods and experiments to capture psychological effects have been developed, but there are still few studies that collect and examine both. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship and tendency between the quantitative measurement of stiffness and the subjective impression of the object. In this paper, we report the experimental design and implementation including the measurement method and impression evaluation.

We propose a path tracking method with small distance error for guide robot. In the previous report, we compared the tracking performance with the other methods in a simulation environment. In this paper, we implemented the method to a real robot and compared the performance with the pure pursuit. We measured the distance error from the path in two aspects, the odometry-based and the real-observation-based, and the results showed that the proposed method had smaller distance error than the pure pursuit. Moreover, the angle error of the proposed method at the destination point was also less than that of pure pursuit. The three processes introduced in the proposed method gave this improvement.

In this paper, we describe a prototype of a backpack-type touch device for tag-play with a robot. When a robot touches a player in the tag-play, this device moves an arm to touch the player instead of the robot. The prototype device has an arm with one degree of freedom. The dimensions of the device are 270 x 120 x 350 mm [WDH]. The weight of the device is 2.1 kg. We conducted two experiments. In the first experiment, we verified that the device works properly even when the player runs with the device on his back, and in the second experiment, we verified that the robot of “it” follows the player, maintains the distance to the player, and the touch function.

We introduce the latent structure of human whole body motion and language through neural network. A word is represented as a numeric vector based on large scale corpus of action description. We design the latent structure of motion and natural language. This latent structure makes it possible to recognize motions as linguistic descriptions.

Interaction with animals has the effect of reducing anxiety and stress in humans. In this study, we focused on scent rubbing, in which animals rub their own bodies against humans, as one of the active behaviors of animals, and proposed a therapy robot that implements behaviors inspired by the scent rubbing of cats. We propose a therapy robot that implements behaviors inspired by feline scent rubbing, and investigate whether these behaviors have a therapeutic effect. We built a prototype with one degree of freedom in the neck and three degrees of freedom in the head to investigate the factors that are related to the impression the robot gives to humans when it rubs its head against the human abdomen. In this paper, we introduce the first prototype, and report the findings and future prospects of the evaluation of the impressions of the motion.

Kitting support systems improve work efficient, while they require workers to perform monotonous tasks. The tasks have the potential to reduce worker motivation and cause human error. In this paper, we measure the number of blinks and examine work concentration. We also provide sound information to workers to study their concentration and working time. The results indicated that kitting works with additional computational tasks reduced concentration, and the addition of sound information affected the work time.

Online communication can be realized even in remote areas by transmitting and receiving mutual images and voices in real time. However, in such online communication, it is difficult to share a sense of unity and an interactive atmosphere because the monitor is recognized as a boundary of space. In this study, we developed an avatar robot that incorporates an estimation model that simulates the degree of activated interaction based on the speaker’s utterance. The developed avatar robot expresses an interactive atmosphere while changing the complexion based on the estimated value.

This research focuses on ”gracefulness ” and aims to extract and model the graceful motion feature using classical dance. In the past, we have quantified gracefulness utilizing the shape of the trajectory of the fingers. However, the observer is not only looking at the hand movement but also the whole body movement. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the scope of observation to obtain multiple features closely related to gracefulness. This paper reports the relationship between head, body, and leg movements and gracefulness. This analysis showed no relation between the angle change and the impression in the time domain. But in the frequency domain, we found that the motion of low impression of gracefulness relates to the high-frequency components. And we showed the gracefulness motion is no periodicity.

Research using animals plays an important role in basic research as well as in applied research such as the development of new drugs. In particular, the mouse is one of the most important experimental animals for medical research because of its small size and ease of breeding. However, they are often observed and evaluated by human eyes. This has some problems such as the subjective evaluation of the observer and human error. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to have an objective and automatic analysis system. In recent years, several analysis systems have been developed. However, there are some problems in these systems, such as they can only classify behaviors roughly, and they require markers to be attached to mice. In this study, we developed a system that can perform detailed behavioral analysis of mice without adding markers using six RGB-D cameras.

This research attempts to apply toy therapy to rehabilitation for patients who have dificulties in spatial cognition and coordinated motor functions, such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and mild dementia. The proposed system supports a patient to solve a dissection puzzle with Tetromino blocks. Solving the dissection puzzle requires complicated thought and manipulation such as recognizing various types of blocks, selecting the blocks to be used, grasping the block, and arranging the block positions. The proposed method captures the image of dissection puzzle, then solves the problem based on the full-search algorithm. Finally, the system outputs clues to solve the problem. The system allows the user to shorten the task execution time, to avoid incorrect answers, to reduce the mental work load, and to increase the duration in concentration.

We have developed a wheelchair-type human augmentation medium, Sli-de-Rift “RAY”, which provides people with a new motor ability called drifting safely. In this presentation, I will describe the design of the medium, the development process, and its social benefits.

In recent years, toys such as games and puzzles have been attempted to use in enjoyable and/or sustainable rehabilitation. The study focuses on a dissection puzzle, which requires spatial cognition and coordinated movements. In the dissection puzzle, the silhouette shape of the whole blocks is shown as a problem, and the player solves the problem combining small piece of blocks to fill in this shape. However, the training effect of the dissection puzzle in rehabilitation is still unclear. So far, few studies have analyzed the puzzle solving procedure in detail. In this study, we have adopted the dissection puzzle using Tetromino (Tetris block). Tetromino has a simple shape, but difficulty of the problem can be easily arranged. We have developed a system that automatically records and analyzes the solving operation of the dissection puzzle. To measure the movement of the Tetromino, we use ArUco Markers, which can measure 6 degrees of freedom data. The video stream is acquired by a CCD camera, then ArUco markers are detected, and their movements are analyzed in detail. We conducted a basic experiment with the developed system and confirmed the measurement performance.

Human augmentation technology can strengthen, enhance, and expand human abilities with the support of engineering technologies, which is expected to turn human disadvantages associated with aging and physical disabilities into advantages. The study attempts to develop a human augmentation hand to support toy therapy in rehabilitation for patients with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and/or mild dementia. In toy therapy with a dissection puzzle, the proposed system recognizes puzzle blocks in real time, and searches for the solution based on the recognition results. Then, in order to complete the obtained solution, the human augmentation hand supports the grasping, rotation, and movement of the target puzzle blocks. The study aims to develop a system that can shorten the task execution time, avoid incorrect answers, and reduce the mental burden.

Digitizing handwriting is mostly performed either by using offline methods such as Optical character recognition or using the combination of a special stylus and pad. This approach is costlier. Therefore, in this study, a deep-learning-based English alphabet and Arabic numeral character recognition method is proposed. A particular digital pen, equipped with an inertial sensor (three-axis accelerometer and three-axis gyroscope) and three force sensors, developed in our previous paper was utilized for this study. Vision transformer (ViT) which is drawing huge attention in the field of image classification and sequential tasks was adopted as a neural network model. The model achieved an excellent F1-score result of 0.993 during testing. This confirmed a promising capability of the developed digital pen for character recognition using neural network approaches.

As part of the development of a parallel cybernetic avatar that can move two robot arms simultaneously, this study examined the task performance and usability of the parallel arms when operated by a human without assistance. As a result, the method of changing the magnitude of the motion reflected in the two robot arms by the slider showed lower task performance but higher usability. This may be because it is less cognitive load to adjust the robot arms simultaneously than to switch between them. We will continue to design parallel cybernetic avatars that include cognitive load, which we were not able to verify in this study.

Walking is one of the most important physical activities. Many people suffer from gait disorders due to injuries or neurological diseases such as stroke. Therefore, the necessity of gait analysis has increased. In previous studies, electromyography was used to analyze gait. The muscle synergy hypothesis has been used as a method to reduce the dimensionality of information-rich electromyography. Gait analysis has been conducted by treating spatial information as synergy. However, in repetitive motions such as walking, temporal information is also considered to be linked. In this study, we analyzed walking on a treadmill at different speeds and loads by using Time-Varying Synergy, which treats spatiotemporal information as synergies. We discussed the differences in locomotion with different conditions by comparing the parameters.

Understanding the decline in motor functions of the elderly is important to provide useful service to improve their quality of life. In this paper, we develop a system to manipulate the sense of effort when holding a weight with force assist by using artificial muscles. Based on the relationship between weight and sense of effort during weight holding, the amount of force assist was calculated. The experimental results suggested that the proposed method can create the sense of effort of other person with force assist.

There is a demand for canine long-distance navigation. It can extend the search range of search & rescue dogs and increase the exercise opportunity of household dogs. We have shown that on-suit light beams can guide dogs who are trained to follow a light using food and a clicker as a reward. However, feeding machines or people aren’t suitable for long-distance navigation training because the range of canine motion is limited to near them. In this paper, we propose a canine suit equipped with a feeder. We developed a small feeding launcher mechanism that can shoot out dogs’ food with different lengths and widths. The launching mechanism is optimized so that the food can be fed beyond the head of canines during activity. We evaluated whether the feeding launcher mechanism on the suit can fly foods, using a stuffed dog.

We have proposed a new robot suit system. The robot suit system consists of two robot suits. One is the robot suit to trace the motion by the encoders, and another is the robot suit to execute the motion by the motors. We have developed the new yaw axis mechanism, which is the arc-shaped mechanism using a rack and a pinion. We experimented in the basic arm motion. We confirmed the joint angles measured by the new yaw mechanism and the wrist positions obtained by the forward kinematics. We are going to develop the new yaw mechanism of the robot suit to execute the motion.

In the food industry, automation using robots is highly demanded due to the influence of labor shortage. In this paper, we developed a pneumatically driven soft robot hand with thin and flexible fingers having thickness of 5 mm. With the developed soft robot hand, it is possible to arrange and pack cakes of different sizes and shapes without damaging them. In order to manufacture the thin finger, we proposed a new manufacturing method in which a soft skeleton part is embedded in the air chamber of the flexible finger. By using this manufacturing method, it was possible to simplify the manufacturing process of flexible fingers and improve the strength of the hand. Experiments were conducted to measure the gripping force and pack three different cut cakes.

In this paper, we designed a articulated robotic hand using round-belt twist-mechanism with movable pulley whose mechanism combined with wire-drive and Twisted round-belt Actuator(TbA). This robotic hand mainly has three developed features compared with a previous study. (1)We adopted movable pulley to improve fingertip force. (2)We added a joint to make number of the robotic finger joints same as number of human finger joints. (3)We replaced acceleration sensors with encoders to stabilize signals of joint angles. First, we explain the mechanism of this robotic hand which are mentioned above. Second, we show experimental results of the tracking control for step-like force and sinusoidal force references in the variation of frequency. Finally, we apply the novel sensor-less fingertip force control method to this robotic hand and demonstrate the fingertip force control for step-like force references.

This paper proposes a strategy of picking up an object placed on a desk using the six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot hand. The robot hand has two plates serve as fingers each has 2 DOF, and handles objects. In addition, the hand is able to open and close the fingers (1 DOF), and rotate whole of the fingers (1 DOF). The two fingers are able to fold and changes the figure of it to handle various objects. The hand is able to execute various task, holding in the palm, pinching, grasping, and pulling an object. In the paper, we shows the mechanism of the robot hand, the system configuration and the process of handling object. The experimental results of picking up some objects show the effectiveness of the system.

In this study, we proposed a self-weight forceps type gripper which is applicable to bag-shaped flexible heavy objects such as garbage bags. We have achieved high gripping performance for bag-shaped flexible heavy objects by using a self-weight type gripping mechanism and a forceps-type gripping surface. In addition, we formulated the gripping force and verified its effectiveness by experiments. The contributions of this paper are the following three points. The first is that a simple mechanism has achieved high gripping performance. The second is that complicated force control is unnecessary. And finally, the required power consumption for gripping is suppressed by using the weight of the object.

In this paper, we present a method that picks up objects from a cells tray using “Finger-position Overlaid and Cropped Images". The proposed method enabled picking up objects from the cells tray to a small number of samples. The proposed method and a bassline method using regression were compared. Picking up experiments were conducted with 20 and 40 training data. The success rate of the proposed method in both of them was high, and in 40 training data, the success rate of the proposed method was 75%. In addition, objects that could not be picked up were moved in the cells tray to enable pick up by 3 processes.

In this study, we propose a high-speed grasping strategy for picking up a single sheet object placed from multiple sheets. The robot hand is teleoperated by a data glove to generate the fingertip trajectory for the pickup motion. At this point, it is difficult to grasp a single sheet with only the fingertip trajectory, and it is also difficult to operate at high speed. Therefore, the next step is to adjust the motion timing between the two fingers of the robot hand, and to convert the trajectory to one that is capable of grasping a single card without fail, and also capable of high-speed motion. From the experimental results, we confirmed that the proposed grasping strategy can successfully pick up only one sheet object with high reliability in various kinds of materials and thicknesses.

Automation in the food industry is underdeveloped comparing with the automotive and electronics industries. One important reason is the lack of effective robotic end-effectors. In this paper, we presented a robotic end-effector consisting of multiple thin wires for automating food arrangement operations. The thin wires are flexible and can be easily deformed to follow the shape of food product. Therefore, it can prevent damage on the food product when grasping. In addition, the end-effector has a simple structure and can be easily manufactured with food-compatible materials. Experiments were conducted on grasping and arranging 5 kinds of tempuras and results demonstrated the capability of the proposed end-effector for handling food products with various shapes, sizes, and physical properties.

A thin robotic hand with only one finger is presented for grasping operations at narrow spaces. The single robotic finger has the two operation modes. The one is the insertion mode, and the other is the grasping mode. The switching of the operation mode was accomplished by rotating the motor attached on the hand unidirectionally only. Another way for the switching is that a fingertip is passively rotated via a contact with a table or surrounding, followed by active motor rotation to complete the switching. The effectiveness of the developed robotic hand and its control methods are validated by several experiences.

This study proposes the underactuated robotic gripper that achieves the grasping and wrist twisting motions via a single actuator. The gripper has the function to switch the motions by the contact between the finger and an object. The wrist twisting motion can be activated by the switching, which is called self-twisting function. By the gripper mechanism, the gripper realizes the special grasping mode, “Twist grasping”, that allows the wrapping of a flexible thin object around the fingers of the gripper. Twist grasping provides the high payload according to the number of wraps. We present the gripper design, control methodology of the gripper, and analysis of the twist grasping. The performance of the gripper is evaluated through the experimental validations.

In this study, we focused on the action of inserting and bending a finger into a tool when using a tool with a robot hand, and predicted that control using a human body mimetic skeleton with thin fingers and tactile sensation of the entire finger circumference would be important to realize this action. Therefore, we developed a new robotic hand with a sensor that combines epidermis and nerve line made by a 3D printer. The nerve line can detect the point of contact with high responsiveness, and we have realized the grasping and manipulation of scissors, drawer operation, and pen picking up tasks using control based on contact information.

We propose a disposable robot hand that can be made by folding a strip of cardboard several times. By rotating the paper around one folded part, a flexible grasping motion can be naturally realized by the links made of the paper, which is suitable for handling food. In this report, we clarify the basic characteristics such as strength and gripping force of the hand using various paper materials.

To realize robotic fingers that naturally grasp like human fingers, underactuated linkage mechanisms are widely investigated. It is also known that the mechanisms are easily realized by using paper or thin plates, which realizes soft and disposable hand suitable for food manipulation. However, previous realizations were difficult to craft and forced to use adhesives. We have proposed a new design of a simply assembled paper hand that is fabricated in a few seconds by bending only four points and engaging three cuts. This report shows a design and some performances of handling foods.

Soft grippers, including the conventional parallel shell gripper, are fabricated using traditional rubber casting process. In this research, we propose a demolding-free casting approach that does not require demolding silicon rubber from the mold. The rigid shell component serves as not only the mold for casting but also a part of the shell gripper. By using the proposed fabrication approach, shell gripper with thin structure can be realized, which is very essential for grasping objects in a clustered scenario. Experiments on grasping and packing multiple cucumbers simultaneously were conducted to evaluate the performance of the fabricated shell gripper.

In the field of food processing and production processes, serving is still done manually by people in many cases. To solve the problem of quantitative serving, which is one of the challenges of robotic operations, we have developed an end-effector that can grip only one spaghetti. In this paper, we propose a method of attaching several small fingers to the end-effector, and attaching capacitance sensors to each of them. The system detects the success or failure of grasping with each finger and controls the number of fingers to be opened accordingly to compensate for the error in the amount of serving. We actually constructed the system and conducted experiments using spaghetti, and confirmed that the system can control the end-effector by detecting the capacitance.

We had developed many types of Multi-Motor Power Unit (MMPU) that drives an output shaft by using power of multiple motors. In this study, we had suggested a new concept of MMPU that consists of different characteristic motors. Also we had integrated a reduction gear into a suggested MMPU. The reduction gear is dual ratio reduction, 1st. step of reduction gear consists of a star-type planetary gear, and 2nd. step of reduction gear consists of mechanical paradox gear mechanism. We had developed the reduction gear built-in type MMPU that have two types of motor. In this presentation, we report on the metallization of all gears of the MMPU, the integration of the rotary encoder function, and the experimental results of motor characteristics measurement.

In this study, we fabricated dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with using organogel. DEAs have the advantages such as easy to miniaturize and high responsiveness. The most of DEAs have two-dimensional shape and there are a few DEAs with three-dimensional (3D) shape. 3D shape DEAs are able to be applied to organ model or tactile presentation device. Considering these applications, it is required to produce larger displacement. In this paper, we fabricated the DEA which can generate larger displacement by using organogel that has excellent permittivity and elasticity. The fabricated gel was driven as DEA by using the experiment system which use water pressure to apply pre-stretch in the out-of-plane direction. In addition, we evaluated static characteristics when DC voltage was applied to DEA and frequency response.

McKibben Pneumatic Actuator (MPA) is a type of artificial muscle. In previous studies, the contraction tension of MPA has mainly been investigated. However, the extension tension also affects the motion of robots. Therefore, this study aims to verify the characteristics of MPA for a compressive load. The compression characteristics of MPA can be applied to the utilization as a structural material. First, we developed the experimental setup for the compression test. Next, the compression test of MPA was conducted, and the deformation mode using captured images was measured. Hence, the deformation mode and extension tension differ depending on the end condition. In addition, MPA does not cause clear buckling because of its softness. The experimental results suggest a correlation between strain, pressure, and tension.

Hydraulic actuators have a much higher power density than their electromagnetic counterparts. However, traditional hydraulic systems are powered using a centralized hydraulic unit that operates continuously regardless of the conditions of the actuators. This results in low power efficiency. Electrohydrostatic actuators, on the other hand, combine all the components into one single unit, resulting in better power efficiency at the cost of duplicative components in multi-degree of freedom systems. In this paper, we propose the Alternating Pressure Control System (APCS) as an alternative to traditional centralized systems. In APCS, pressure is controlled by synchronizing on-off valves with an alternating pressure source. Experiment results showed that the APCS was able to control the pressure in four hydraulic cylinders simultaneously, with a 0.75 MPa RMSE.

Being soft imparts a functionality of body compliance, thereby enhancing the range of actuation and adaptability to unstructured environments. The present study focuses on the development of a multi-balloon dielectric elastomer actuator to provide a traveling-wave for the linear transportation of objects. The actuator consists of an electrode-patterned membrane with a directly bonded rubber substrate. The actuator induces large deformation using only electric power and does not require the bulky external system which is essential for conventional pneumatic actuators. Results show that the actuator’s components assembled and interacted with each other and could successfully transport an object linearly. Throughout the experiment, the maximum strain was obtained at a pressure of 12.2 kPa and the linear velocity reached 0.97 mm/s. The potentiality as a portable actuator was experimentally validated by replaying the transportation. In the future, this design can be applied to portable small-scale robots and annelid robots with high reliability.

In this study, we analyzed dynamic characteristics of a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with pre-stretch by applying water pressure to realize controlling displacement. This experimental system is able to stretch elastomer in an out-of-plane direction. Thus, this experimental system can be applied to driving three-dimensional (3D) shape DEAs. Also, by controlling displacements of 3D shape DEAs, they can be applied to organ models or tactile presentation devices. In order to control displacements of these DEAs, it is necessary to analyze dynamic characteristics of this experimental system. In this paper, we constructed a physical model of this system to analyze dynamic characteristics and compared experimental values of the displacement and frequency response with theoretical values.

Force-display devices can be classified into two types according to the difference in the method of force generation: active type and passive type. Active type devices use actuators such as motors and pneumatic artificial muscles, and are capable of active force presentation. However, pneumatic artificial muscles have limitations pressure propagation speed due to air compressibility, and so have difficulty to present force sensation at high speed. Passive devices cannot present the force sensation acting during stoppage. The purpose of this study is development of a hybrid force-display glove that uses a pneumatic actuator as the active element and a brake made of functional material as the passive element, and to compensate for the shortcomings of both mechanisms to realize effective rehabilitation for hemiplegia of the hand, a typical sequela of rheumatism and stroke. This paper describes the optimization of the internal structure of the pneumatic balloon actuator introducing an evaluation index considering time response performance.

In order to achieve precise control, it is necessary to exclude disturbances. The general servo motors used in haptic devices use multiple gears to obtain torque. Therefore, they are affected by various kinds of friction. It is known that the contact friction can be reduced by vibrating the contact surface using ultrasonic waves. The static friction force can be compensated by superimposing a low-amplitude wave. It is proposed that these waves can also be used to compensate for dynamic friction. Viscous friction is also compensated in a different way. The goal of this paper is to improve the response of a servo motor using these techniques. Finally, the performance is evaluated.

Direct Drive (DD) motors have high back drivability because no reduction gears are used, and are possible to improve the flexibility if used at robotic joint. Accordingly, on the other hand, the output joint becomes easily influenced by disturbances and thus high gain feedback control is needed for accurate position control. However, there is a limitation of the value of velocity gain (D gain) because D gain is increased, a high-frequency mechanical vibration would occur due to the amplification of a discretization noise. In this study, we focus on the viscoelasticity of polymers and propose a new viscoelastic module using polymers to add adequate mechanical viscoelasticity to the DD motor. The prototype mechanism of the module is proposed and its effectiveness is shown through basic experiments.

This paper proposes a pantograph mechanism that amplifies both the strain and force of the twisted and coiled polymer fiber (TCPF). In the proposed mechanism, the TCPF is stored in the pantograph and forms several loops around the circumference and inside of pantograph. The outer loop works as the fixed pulley that amplify the TCPF strain. On the other hand, the inner loop amplifies the TCPF force by working as the movable pulley Through experiments when setting the number of outer and inner loops to 1, it was validated that the force by the proposed mechanism can output approximately double of the TCPF force. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the strain can be amplified simultaneously.

This paper proposes a hyperboloidal pneumatic artificial muscle. The actuator has a unique hourglass shape that has a potential to achieve low bending stiffness, high contraction force, and contraction ratio even if the actuator is short. Thus, it is suitable for soft articulated robots that require flexible short actuators. This paper presents characteristics of the focused actuator, fabrication methods, basic performance, and remaining technical problems.

Musculoskeletal robots using MPA are known to be able to achieve dynamic motions such aswalking and running. However, these robots were often controlled by trial and error, such as adjusting the timing of pressure application. We focus on the antagonistic drive, which is a characteristic of the musculoskeletal system, and have proposed a tension-feedback cooperative control method that generates periodic motion by autonomous coordination of antagonist muscles. In this control method, it is necessary to measure the tension applied to the MPA, and in the previous study, the tension was measured by connecting a load cell in series with the MPA. In this paper, we propose a lighter and smaller tension sensor that is built into the end part of the MPA. We designed the sensor and developed a prototype, and confirmed the operation of the sensor through experiments. From experimental results, it was confirmed that the developed tension sensor has hysteresis but generally works as expected.

Thin steel plates are widely used as materials for automobiles, electric appliances, cans, and other products in current industries. Recently, the manufacturing of extremely thin steel plate has become possible, and with various industrial demands, the surface quality of steel plate continues to be enhanced. Research on non-contact transport technology is being carried out in order to apply magnetic levitation technology using electromagnets to the transport systems used in production lines for thin steel plate. When a thin and flexible steel plate is to be levitated, the vibration of the steel plate reduces the levitation stability. It is necessary to control the vibration of the steel plate in order to improve the levitation stability. In this report, we made a new electromagnet and examined the attractive force characteristics.

Detecting the contact of Multi-fingered robotic hand’s fingertip and an object plays an important role in grasping the object stably. However, there remained considerable difficulties due to non-ideal external factors, in which for an under-actuated finger with force sensor located at the link far from the fingertip, each contact position cannot be determined using only the kinematic model and tactile information. In this paper, the Density-based clustering method to the force sensor and position encoder data is introduced to realize real-time contact detection. In our approach, data of the finger’s joint sensor during operation when not in contact with object is collected and analyzed using Density-based clustering algorithm. Learned information and collected data are then used to perform real-time contact detection.

We improve a method for grasping arbitrary shape objects applicable to multijoint manipulators with a two-finger hand and an RGB-D hand-eye camera. The computational cost for detecting grasping positions is reduced by limiting computing area. A collision avoidance algorithm between the hand and objects is also newly implemented. Our new implementation is evaluated with experiments in which an actual manipulator picks up each object from their pile. Experimental results suggest that not only the robot come to grasp the object within 11 seconds, but also it is able to grasp from a pile of work.

Throwing by powered robots transports objects with short time in wide range where the robot cannot reach, and high throwing accuracy is required for its utilization. In this paper, we propose an identification method of the error of minimum set of dynamic parameters to compensate the landing error and improve the landing accuracy of throwing robot based on sensitivity analysis. Focusing on the 3-DOF planar manipulator, 1-dimensional experimental data is projected on the subspace of 15-dimensional parameter space. By obtaining the common subspace of the multiple data, the covariance of the error of error is optimized based on sensitivity analysis. By using central solution of the parameter error, the feedforward torque is recalculated by inverse dynamic computation, and throwing experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.