Cracks can occur in machines and structures due to vibrations in operation. For safety, early detection of cracks is an important issue. So far many detection techniques of cracks using dynamic response have been proposed. Most of them assume that the cracks are open cracks, which are always open in vibration. However, actual fatigue cracks are breathing cracks, which open and close in vibration depending on sign of the bending moment. In a previous report, the authors presented a vibration analysis method for a beam with breathing cracks based on the mixed variational principle. This report proposes a detection technique of breathing cracks in a vibrating beam using the presented analysis method. Applicability of the proposed detection technique is confirmed by numerical simulation.

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This paper deals with an isolation device by using friction force. An isolation device has a demerit which it causes a large relative displacement under an earthquake. The purpose of this research is to decrease the relative displacement by using the friction force. An analytical model is proposed. As results of simulation analysis by using some real seismic waves, it turned out that the optimal coefficient of friction for reducing relative displacement and response acceleration exists. It turned out that proportionality relation is between the maximum acceleration of some real seismic waves and the optimal coefficient of friction. However, it turned out that inclination of the straight line has change by the real seismic waves used for simulation analysis. Then, in order to ask for inclination of a straight line, simulation analysis is conducted by using stationary random waves like white noise. The result became the same proportionality relation as the result by real seismic waves. White noise waves are used as input acceleration to determine parameters of the proportionality relation. These parameters are used to calculate the response acceleration and the relative displacement by using well-known earthquake waves. It was shown that the response acceleration and the relative displacement are decreased by using these parameters.

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This paper deals with nonlinear liquid surface and interfacial wave motions in a tank containing two incompressible irrotational fluids of different densities. In theoretical analysis, the governing equations and canonical form of a system of two fluids with a dynamic free surface and interface are given by applying Hamilton's principle. Moreover, the nonlinear ordinary differential system which governs liquid surface and interfacial wave motions is derived by using Dirichlet-Neumann operators and the generalized Fourier series expansion. Solving these ordinary differential system yields the time histories and the transitions of surface and interfacial wave motions in a rectangular tank. The validly of the theoretical analysis is verified through the experiments. The theoretical results are shown to be in good agreement with the experimental results.

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An axially symmetric cylinder, mounted on an elastic support system and partially filled with liquid is assumed to undergo a whirling motion parallel to the axis. Rotor unbalance, gravity, and gyroscopic terms are considered negligible and liquid motion is taken as being axially uniform. In the analysis, shallow-water theory is applied assuming that a liquid layer is thin, and nonlinear effects that exist in the surface wave of a liquid in a rotor are considered to predict the finite amplitude of whirl motions. The modal coupling equations including the nonlinear effects of the wave motion are presented by applying Galerkin's method. Periodical solutions are determined by applying the harmonic balance method to the modal coupling equations. Whirl amplitudes predicted by the analysis are compared with the experimental results in the previous works. The time series analysis on the modal coupling equations shows periodic and aperiodic amplitude modulations at a particular rotating speed region.

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Recently, considerable attention of material scientists and mechanical engineers has been devoted to measurement based on atomic force microscopy. Self-excitation is known as an effective excitation method for AFM probe to measure the surface of a biological molecule in liquid. For practical use of a probe in liquid, we must realize a self-sensing and self-actuating AFM probe using PZT instead of using a conventional optical lever method. However, frequency characteristics of the PZT are very complex in applications for measurement of probe behavior. For detecting sensor characteristics, the dynamics of the cantilever to which the PZT is attached are extracted from the PZT sensor output signal. To this end, we examine the frequency response of the PZT output signal in the case where the cantilever is excited with constant response amplitude by a PZT actuator. Then, we construct a method to process the signal so that the PZT sensor frequency characteristic has no high gain for the frequency range other than the first natural frequency. Finally, we conduct experiments to verify that the resultant signal is suitable to produce of van der Poi type self-excited oscillation.

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Micromechanical analysis of the macroscopic damping properties of a polymer blend composite with sea-island morphology are performed by using the equivalent inclusion method combined with the Mori-Tanaka theorem. In modeling, the shape of the island particle is assumed to be a spheroid whose rotational axis is aligned along the direction of the applied stress. The macroscopic complex modulus and hence the macroscopic loss factor of the composite are expressed as the function of the damping properties of constituents and the aspect ratio of spheroidal particle under the steady-state vibration of normal component in applied stress. The values of the macroscopic loss factor obtained are compared with those caliculated by using the conventional modal strain energy method (MSE). Consequently, the present values of the macroscopic loss factor become close to those by the MSE asymptotically as the aspect ratio of the particle increases and both values differ from each other in the range of relative low aspect ratio of the particle.

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In this paper, the authors developed a vibration control device (V.C.D.) using a power generator and a flywheel which is suitable for vibration suppression of a structure. The V.C.D. consists of a ball screw, a ball nut, a flywheel, a gear, and a power generator. The linear motion is converted into a rotating motion by the ball screw mechanism. The damping force is generated by the power generator, and controlled by an electric resistance at the terminal of the power generator. The inertial force is created by the flywheel which is attached to the end of the screw shaft. Since these forces are magnified by the ball screw and the gear, the V.C.D. has resisting force characteristics as the sum of the controllable damping force and the inertial force in the low frequency range. In order to investigate dynamic properties, a test V.C.D. is manufactured, and the resisting force characteristics are measured by using a vibration actuator. The experiments of frequency response are carried out using a shaking table, and the experimental results are compared with the theoretical results. The seismic responses are calculated under a semiactive control based on Linear Quadratic Regulator, and the effects of the vibration suppression of the V.C.D. are discussed experimentally and numerically.

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In this paper, the authors propose a nonlinear spring mechanism for a vertical seismic isolation table. The nonlinear spring mechanism consists of a A-shaped link, horizontal coil springs, vertical coil springs and a linear guide, and has an approximate bilinear-type spring force characteristic. A vertical seismic isolation table using the nonlinear spring mechanism and magnetic damping was made, and the seismic responses of a mass installed on the table board were measured using a permanent magnet type vibration machine. Next, the vertical isolation table was attached to a horizontal seismic isolation table which was developed in our previous study, and the three-dimensional seismic responses of a mass installed on the table board were measured using the vibration machine. These experimental results were compared with the calculated results, and the effects of vibration isolation in three-dimensional directions and the validity of the calculations were substantiated.

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The purpose of this study is to propose a criterion for evaluating a capability of variable structural parameters in adaptive structure systems to implement the self-identification with the variable matrices method. The criterion is derived by analyzing a set of the Modal Assurance Criterion corresponding to two independent mode shapes, which are changed by the variable structural parameters. To demonstrate the use of the criterion, we conduct parameter identification experiments with a cantilevered beam structure with a variable stiffness system. In the experiments, an extended form of the variable matrices method is used to identify unknown bending stiffness and mass per unit length of the beam. The results show clear relation between the identification accuracy and the proposed criterion, and therefore the criterion is useful for evaluating the capability of the variable parameters to change the modal properties effectively.

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Recently, the density of components on precision devices such as semiconductors has been increasing. As a consequence, the acceptable vibration level of floors on which manufacturing equipment is installed is becoming smaller. Conversely, the vibration that is generated by manufacturing equipment is becoming larger because the size of manufacturing object is increasing. Active vibration isolation devices have been used to isolate equipment from floor vibration. However the vibration control force generated by active vibration isolation devices causes the floor vibration when they are used to isolate the large vibrations generated by manufacturing equipment. For such a background, a new vibration canceling system using an inertial force generator is developed in this research. In addition, effectiveness of the developed canceling system is confirmed by experiment.

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The tethered system, which composed with a mother ship and satellite connected with tether, is an example of recent satellites. In the analysis and modeling of tether, large deformation and large displacements must be considered. The Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation can describe the motion of tether. In the modeling method, internal damping and fluid resistance are not considered, and the identification for such parameters is still problem to be solved. In this study, the effect of damping and fluid resistance based on strain energy and drag equation are formulated while considering a parameter identification method. These parameter and number of elements are identified by the experiment at the same time. In order to verify the modeling method, an example of swing-up control using a genetic algorithm is performed in simulation and experiment. Validity of model and availability of motion control based on multibody dynamics are shown comparison between experiment and simulation.

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The most common commercial pitching machines for baseball are the “roller” type and the “arm” type. Pitches such as the fastball, curveball and screwball are easily achieved by the pitching machine with three rollers which were developed by the authors. In this study, the moving behavior and contact stress state of the ball pitched with the three rollers type pitching machine is analyzed using dynamic finite element analysis software (ANSYS/LS-DYNA). The effect of a seam of a baseball to the throw accuracy is analyzed numerically. In the analysis, the finite element models of a detailed baseball with a seam and a pitching machine with three rollers are used. Additionally, the initial velocity and the spin rate of the pitched ball are filmed using a high-speed videograph, and those pictures are compared with the finite element analysis. From the analytical results, it is understood that the coefficient of friction between the baseball and the rollers is not affected. Additionally, it is obvious that the ball's velocity and spin rate are relatively unaffected by the seam orientation, while the throw's horizontal and vertical angles are notably affected by the relative angular velocity of the rollers and the orientation of the seam.

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Recently, the studies about wheel slip control based on sliding mode control theory were developed and reported. The proposed controllers based on sliding mode control were effective for wheel slip control against railway vehicles. However, those were considered as continuous-time system, and not designed the discrete time system. This paper will present the experimental results about the new wheel slip control, designed by the discrete sliding mode control. The experiments for the proposed wheel slip control are performed while comparing a continuous-time system sliding mode controller. The experimental results proved the effectiveness of the proposed control as compared with a continuous-time system sliding mode, and showed the high brake performance under the nonlinear characteristics of brake dynamics.

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We have developed a new instrumentation technique for Si crystal growth process of Czochralski (CZ) method for the purpose of the purpose of the quality improvement. In this paper, we developed the online measurement technique for the melt surface level of Si crystal in growth furnace. Our new technique can measure the melt surface level with high accuracy without the influence of meniscus. The characteristics of this technique are the elimination method of the influence of meniscus. The elimination error of meniscus influence is within +/-0.3 mm. This technique contributes to the improvement of CZ Si crystal quality.

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In this paper, we address the problem of lens abberation adjustment for lenses of semiconductor lithography equipment. The objective of abberation adjustment is to minimize the maximum value of abberation in any part of the images that are projected on the wafer. Formerly, an approximate solution method has been used, which is based on a brute force search for a subset of all cases. However, using that method, computational times are often long and a faster solution method is necessary. Nowadays, owing to significant progress in mathematical programming research, IP solvers can reach an optimal solution quite fast. That is why, in this paper, we propose an exact solution method based on 0-1 MIP (Mixed Integer Programming), which addresses the same “lens abberation” problem with the same objective of minimizing maximum absolute value of lens abberation. In real-world 9 instances, our solution method improves maximum abberation values by 18% to 56% over similar results from conventional solution methods.

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We have developed catheter simulation system in blood vessels for surgical planning and intraoperative assistance. In this study, we evaluated the torquability of the guidewire model for the simulation system. The model of the guidewire is constructed with viscoelastic springs and segments as the dynamic deformation of a flexible structure. The vessel is an elastic circular cylinder, whose shape is defined by the centerline and the radii. Collisions between the guidewire and the vessel are calculated and the contact forces are determined according to the stiffness and friction of the vessel wall. Using these models, the trajectory of the guidewire tip was calculated when the proximal part of the guidewire model was twisted at a constant speed. When the friction coefficient between the guidewire and the vessel is large, the guidewire tip vibrates. When the guidewire is twisted, there is a lag before the guidewire tip starts rotating and friction obstructs this rotation. Besides the friction coefficient, the shape of the blood vessel also affects the motion of the guidewire tip. When the guidewire becomes stiffer, the torquability of guidewire tip increases. This simulator would be useful for the analysis of the structure of the guidewire and may help guide the design of new guidewire.

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Current virtual reality systems are not enough to realize a force feedback system for hands, arms, legs and so on. Furthermore, due to the ageing in Japanese society and the decreasing birthrate, an increasing problem of providing nursing care for the elderly has occurred. As a result, it is necessary to develop systems to aid in nursing care. The actuators necessary for such systems, need to be flexible so as not to injure the human body. The purpose of study is to develop a flexible and lightweight actuator which can be safe enough to be mounted on the human body. In this paper, a new type of McKibben artificial muscle that had a long stroke of more than 80% of its original length was proposed and tested. A long stroke lifting motion of a load with mass of 6 kg was realized. As results of experiments, it was found that the generated force was related to sealing characteristics of the actuator. The construction of the slide stage of the actuator was modified and the generated force of the actuator was improved.

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Stochastic resonance (SR) is one of the basic principles intrinsically possessed by any living thing to highly adapt to complicated environments including various disturbances. Although a noise is inevitably mixed by contact with an object and a sensor's movement on it in tactile sensing, a human being can evaluate the several micrometers of unevenness on the object surface by means of SR. We intend to apply SR to tactile sensing and to develop a tactile sensing system capable of measuring an object surface with high precision in not only a controlled environment like a precision measurement room but also in a living environment. First, we investigate the SR characteristic possessed by a Hodgkin-Huxley model, which can emulate a squid's neuron activities. According to the simulation results, we develop a new electronic circuit capable of generating the SR. We perform the object surface scan using a linear robot equipped with a tactile sensor and the circuit. A series of object surface scanning tests is repeated while changing the intensity of applied noise and compute the signal to noise ratio (SNR, hereafter) from the obtained measurement data to check the effect of the SR. In the experiment, stripe-shaped textures with a height of δ=5-30 μm are used as specimens. The SNR changes depending on the noise intensity, and the local maximum appears under a proper noise. It is found that sensing accuracy is improved according to the aforementioned SR theory. Therefore, SR, which is usually applied to noisy environments, is effective for a tactile sensing system.

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Recently, as robots are required to have more advanced ability to achieve various tasks, due to limitation of a single mobile robot, the research on multiple mobile robots system under decentralized control attention. Particularly, it is very important to assign automated delivery tasks to multiple mobile robots. Multiple mobile robots under decentralized control are not controlled, but recognize surround environment using sensors and decide action by themselves. However, since there are many other robots, collisions with other robots occur many times. In order to solve this problem, explicit communication is used, but it needs communication cost. In this paper, we propose a method of behavioral decision without knowing other robots' state for multiple mobile robots system which is applied to sorting task. Experimental simulations are conducted for different environment and the change of number of robots and the task progress are discussed.

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We have developed a cooperative transportation system with two tricycle mobile robots which are kinematically equivalent to car-like mobile robots, and we have verified the validity of an open loop control method based on chained form for the cooperative transportation system using the developed experimental apparatus. A mechanical feature of the developed tricycle mobile robot is that it is capable of controlling its single-steering wheel angle at high precision since it steers the single-steering wheel by a zero backlash spur geared motor. Another mechanical feature of the tricycle mobile robot is that it has a motor with a differential capable of driving its two rear wheels without slipping them, i.e., without spinning or dragging one of the rear wheels, when cornering. These features mean that the motion of the tricycle mobile robot is described by its kinematical equation precisely, and the controlling accuracy of the motion of the tricycle mobile robot is high enough to examine the validity of the open loop control method experimentally. We have performed a cooperative transportation task in which the two tricycle mobile robots trnsport a carrier cooperatively without changing the carrier orientation. Such task cannot be performed by a traditional single-trailer system. The validity of the open loop control method is verified by the experimental examination.

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The purpose of this research is the construction of an intelligence artificial arm control system which uses EMG signals. Signal processings of EMG signals are preformed using multiple regression equation and Mahalanobis' distance, which can learn parameters in a short time. The motion pattern discrimination is conducted with both technique and joint angles are predicted with multiple regression equation. A multiple regression model provides a less adequate accuracy than an artificial neural network generally used, but accuracy is improved by selection of suitable inputs and generation of teacher signals. Joint angles were predicted from joint angles data of the past and the signals that extracted characteristics of each motion. The experiments were conducted to verify the validity of this technique. Discriminated motions were grip, open and chuck at a hand. Predicted joint angles were multi-finger angles corresponding to these three motions. First, we verified these motions are discriminable from EMG signals, and the motion pattern discrimination was conducted. Consequently, these motions were discriminated. Second, the experiment using a robot hand was conducted. A robot hand was controlled intuitively and accurately in all five subjects. From these experiments, the usefulness of processing EMG signals with proposed methods were proved.

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Because manipulation of single particle is of great importance in areas of electronics and biology, we have been investigating an electrostatic manipulation system. A manipulator consisted of two parallel pin electrodes. When voltage was applied between the electrodes, electrophoresis force generated in non-uniform electrostatic field was applied to the particle near the tip of the electrode. The particle was captured by the application of the voltage and released from the manipulator by turning off the voltage application. It was possible to manipulate not only insulative but also conductive particles. However, if the particle was charged, Coulomb force and adhesion force prevented from releasing the particle when the voltage was turned off. This condition was apt to take place for small particles, less than 200 gm in diameter. An uneven electrode system was also developed to release the attached particle independently of the position of the manipulator. High voltage was applied to the electrodes instead of turning-off the voltage application to blow off the particle by the ionic wind generated in corona discharge field and the validity of this system was demonstrated. Three-dimensional field calculation was conducted to calculate the electrophoresis force and Coulomb force by the Finite Difference Method and compared to the measured force. It was deduced that the predominant force of particle adhesion is not electrophoresis force but Coulomb force due to triboelectrification.

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This paper deals with the swing-up problem of Acrobot, which is an under-actuated system with two links and has non-holonomic constraints. For the problem, several control methods have been proposed but these methods require at least two controllers for the swing-up action from a hanging position and the balance action at the inverted position. In this paper, we propose a controller which is globally defined and available for both actions. We show that the inverted position of Acrobot coincides with the intersection point of two curves derived from the dynamic property of Acrobot, and when the state remains on the dynamic constraint, it converges to the intersection point of the curves. From this point of view, we design a controller that restricts the behavior of the state to the dynamic constraint. Applying the proposed method, a global swing-up control can be accomplished.

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In face-to-face communication, the speaker as well as the listener nods during conversation. We refer to such behavior as “Speaker's nod”. In this paper, a “Speaker's nod” is realized as a natural interpersonal behavior in the receptionist robot SAYA, which has human-like appearance. First, we investigated the timing, angle and angular velocity of the human “Speaker's nod”. Based on the results, we developed a “Speaker's nod” function for SAYA. As a result, we found that “Speaker's nod” appears at the end of utterance frequently and appropriate nod-angle and angular velocity improve the humanness of SAYA. We then confirmed the effectiveness of “Speaker's nod” by a subjective experiment. The results indicate that appropriate nod timing, angle and angular velocity improve not only the humanness but also communicative effectiveness of SAYA in face-to-face communication with humans

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This research examines a master-slave control system for a tele-operation construction robot. This system is comprised of two joysticks on the master side, which are used to perform the object operation from a remote location, and a robot arm with four degrees of freedom consisting of a fork glove, swing, boom, and arm on the slave side. The authors previously proposed a control method that gives the operator a realistic feeling of the force generated by the construction robot independent of the characteristics of the object being manipulated using the velocity-drive force characteristics of the actuator. However, that research did not reach a stage in which operability could be evaluated adequately when the control method was adapted to actual tasks. Due to the high adaptability of human subjects, there are cases in which adequate evaluation is difficult if only work efficiency is considered. Therefore, an evaluation that includes the mental strain on the operator is necessary. We believe that alleviating this mental strain can contribute to improved efficiency and safety in tele-operation work. In this study, we evaluated operability when this control method is adapted to an actual task, based on work efficiency, indexes expressing the danger level of an operation, and measurement of mental strain using NASA-TLX, and we verified the effectiveness of the control method.

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Recently, the sound and vibration generated by rolling bearings rotating at high speeds and subject to large radial loads have been frequently discussed and are thought to be generated by rolling balls cllision with retainer wall. In this study, the experimental behavior for the ball revolution is observed by using a system that the test bearing of inner and outer ring are independently rotated on contra-direction respectively, and its situation is recorded by VTR. The main conclusions are : (1) When the retainer is removed, the balls in the bearing are aligned up along the center of the loading area in the lead. (2) The balls in the loading area do not move within the retainer pocket. However, the balls in the unloading area move considerably within the retainer pocket

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It is not easy to improve the profitability of manufacturing system, since there are many kinds of time and quantity based criteria for evaluating the performance of the objective system. Furthermore, some of the criteria form a trade-off relationship and the most important criterion shifts dynamically during manufacturing operation. In order to improve the profitability, we have focused on product cost as a universal criterion. In this paper, we propose a product cost definition based on Activity Based Costing (ABC) and try to integrate the cost module into Distributed Virtual Factory to enable rational decision making with cost criterion. Efficiency of the proposed methodology is clarified by computer simulation with DVF.

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Manufacturing systems usually have some indirect works needed at various cycles. In indirect works, the tool exchange, maintenance, the quality check, the part replenishment, etc. are included. In order to operate the manufacturing system efficiently, it is effective way to make a schedule in consideration of the work load balancing and to operate them without error using work-order cards. We have developed the scheduling algorithm to output appropriate work balance with easiness and steady by taking a heuristics in that longer time task have more influence to the work balance degree. This paper discribes the study on the algorithm. In addition, this paper discusses the algorithm that is able to find the meta-parameters values to output the minimum cost schedule.

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A scheduling problem is formulated focusing on jobs stored in production resources in the present paper. In a production system with finite buffer capacity, the job are stored in not only buffers but also production resources such as machine tools and assembly robots. Therefore, successive jobs cannot be processed by the resources until the previous jobs are removed from them. In such a scheduling problem, certain processing orders of jobs are infeasible because start times and release times of the jobs can not be determined. The graph representation method for conventional scheduling problems is extended in order to judge feasibility of the present schedules, in which the jobs stored in the resources are taken into account. A local searching method is applied to improve the schedules of the production systems with finite buffer capacity. It gives an appropriate schedule in combination with the dispatching procedure proposed in the first report.

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To respond recent diversifying customer's needs of a product, one of the most important work is to figure out customer's evaluation criterion of a product. Furthermore, emotional needs such as styling and user-friendliness, which is difficult to quantify, have been important factors with multitude of products having similar performance. Truly effective evaluation criteria often hides in customer's subconscious level, which is not easy to extract with frequency based statistics of conscious interviews, which is commonly used. In this paper, we propose an experimental method to externalize latent customer's evaluation criteria for product design. In this method, first, conscious perspectives for evaluating a product are extracted with evaluation grid method. Next, the extracted evaluation perspectives are mutually reviewed among the subjects and find effective latent evaluation criteria. We carried out an experiment based on to proposed method with a shape of plastic bottle. With the experimental result, we show that there are more effective perspectives in the minority one than in the majority one and the effectiveness of unexpected perspectives extracted from another subject.

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The aesthetics of a product's shape has become an important factor to increase the value of mature products. However, such emotional quality regarding the customer's need is difficult to capture due to its subjectivity. To address this issue, we have previously proposed shape generation methods that help the customers to externalize their image of product aesthetics into a shape. The previous methods enable one to generate design samples that fit the customer's conscious image of a product shape based on his/her fixed sensitivity. However, customers also have latent sensitivities of which they are not aware. In this paper, we propose a shape generation system that enables the user to exchange design solutions and viewpoints with others. The aim of sharing solutions is to evoke the latent sensitivities by showing the unexpected viewpoints of others. To generate design samples, we improve the previous system in which the users generate design samples based on favored features to which they pay attention. We conduct a shape generation experiment using the proposed system to verify the effectiveness of exchanging solutions and viewpoints with others. We compared the effectiveness of self-solutions, which are generated without the exchange, with co-solutions, which are generated with the exchange. The result suggests that the cosolutions are more likely to be effective as to their preference and unpredictable quality. We observed certain effective patterns in the design process : All co-solutions generated by referring to unpredicted topological shapes produced effective results. Using such shapes, the subjects are able to discover new viewpoints for the target design concept. The stated metaphorical viewpoints of others also help to introduce such new viewpoints.

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Recently, stainless steel and titanium are mainly used as a structure material. And some surface treatments regarding coloring for these metals are used for producing high quality industrial product. In previous study, we have proposed that coloring for stainless steel and titanium using YVO₄ laser became possible, the desired colors could be made by the inverse analysis using neural network, the new coloring method was effective for controlling regarding coloring of the sensitive color and the oxide film of titanium after heat treatment had photocatalytic. In this paper, both high speed coloring and microscopic coloring were investigated for improvement of both the productivity and the quality. Limit of the laser power for high speed coloring was at first researched by the experiment. The new method for high speed coloring was also developed and evaluated. The stable coloring on the curved surface was developed by using adjustment of defocus. Limit of size for microscopic coloring was finally investigated by the experiments with both conventional machine and new set-up. It is concluded from the results that (1) The new method for high speed coloring was effective for high productivity, (2) The coloring using adjustment of spot size could achieve uniform and stable coloring on the curved surface, (3) Limit of size for microscopic coloring with the new set up was 10μm.

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CVS (Convenience Store) is increasing. And the number of the closing shops is increasing. Therefore I have to decide a better geographical convenience point to open a store newly. In a conventional research, It didn't treat all the customers. In this research, I treat all of customer, regular customer, general flow customer, a special flow customer. I consider that a general flow customer is affected by other customers. Therefore I use improved ACO. ACO is effective in TSP etc. Furthermore, I improve ACO to take the action that matched a customer characteristic (=the charm degree that conventional ACO didn't treat). In this research, I suggest technique about a new branch of CVS with consideration of not only a regular customer but also two kinds of flow visitors and take in influence between customers and charm degree in ACO.

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