Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Series C
Online ISSN : 1884-8354
Print ISSN : 0387-5024
Volume 74, Issue 738
Displaying 1-34 of 34 articles from this issue
  • Experimental Analysis Using 1/10 Scale Vehicle Model
    Hirokazu OKAMOTO, Manabu KOTANI, Shihpin LIN, Hiroshi YABUNO, Yoshihir ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 235-241
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Railway vehicles experience the problem of hunting motion above a critical forward speed, which is the resonance of a flutter-type self-excited oscillation owing to nonconservative contact force acting between wheels and rails. This oscillation produces large amplitude motion and can cause derailment of railway vehicles. Traditional methods preventing the hunting motion are utilization of yaw-damper or improvement of the support stiffness. In this study, a stabilization control method for hunting motion by a gyroscopic damper is proposed. It is theoretically clarified by linear eigenvalue analysis that the gyroscopic damper is effective for increasing the critical speed of hunting motion. Furthermore, experiments were made using a 1/10 scale vehicle model. The experimental results show the validity of the gyroscopic damper for the stabilization of hunting motion.
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  • Yosuke NAGUMO, Katsuya TANIFUJI, Junichi IMAI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 242-249
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    This paper deals with an experimental study on wheel flange climbing of railway vehicles, which is a major factor leading to derailment. The experiment is carried out using a 1/5-scaled model wheelset of standard gauge on a roller rig. Ramp input of lateral external force acting on the wheelset causes derailment under the condition of fixed attack angle and wheel-load unbalance ratio. Three parameters such as wheel lift, lateral force and wheel load acting on outer rail are measured until the derailment occurs. From these measurements, it is possible to observe the behavior of the wheelset and to understand how the attack angle, the wheel-load unbalance ratio and the lateral external force affect the flange-climb derailment. Then, numerical simulation is carried out using an analytical model developed for the single wheelset. As a result, the flange-climb behavior observed in the experiment can be explained theoretically based on the analytical results, although more improvement is desired on the modeling.
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  • Osamu NISHIHARA, Yusuke SAKATANI, Hiroaki KITANO, Toshihiro HIRAOKA, H ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 250-258
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: August 16, 2011
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    The Meihan highway linking Kameyama in Mie Prefecture and Tenri in Nara Prefecture is one of most accident-prone areas in Japan. Representative accident factors that have been identified for the Meihan highway are chronic speeding and complex road alignments, including many sharp curves and steep slopes. One particular section is known as the “Omega curve” as the road shape is similar to the Greek character “Ω”. In this study, the probable effects of proposed plans to improve the road alignment of the Nakahata section are investigated by performing driving simulations to identify typical hazards, ranging from traffic conflicts to vehicle accidents. It was found that incidents that begin as a minor traffic conflicts can frequently escalate to become a fatal accidents. It was also found that improved road alignment generally reduces the required tire forces. For typical traffic conflict patterns reproduced using the driving simulator, it was found that road alignment resulted in considerable improvements in safety indexes which are effective indicators for the occurrence of rear-end collisions.
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  • 1st Report, Numerical Study Using Equivalent Circuit Model and Circuit Simulator
    Takeshi NAKAHARA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 259-268
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: August 16, 2011
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    Active vibration control usually achieves higher performance compared to semi-active and passive vibration controls by consuming some amount of energy to drive actuator. However, the actuator of active control system absorbs energy from vibrating structure to suppress the vibration. In other words, the actuator regenerates energy from the vibrating structure. Especially, piezoelectric actuator often used in smart structures can regenerate energy effectively, because it has few internal energy loss. Energy consumption of active control is not caused by the actuator but caused by energy loss of conventional linear amplifier to drive the actuator. Recently, class D amplifier based on switching circuit has been utilized due to its high-efficiency. It can regenerate energy automatically from the load without loss under the ideal condition when the power consumption of the load is negative. Therefore, the energy regenerative active vibration control system can be realized by using the class D amplifier to drive the actuator. In this paper, we show the validity of the energy regenerative active vibration control of smart structure using the class D amplifier by numerical simulation of a smart cantilever beam with a piezoelectric actuator driven by a class D amplifier.
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  • Naoto ABE, Daisuke YAMAGUCHI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 269-277
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    An active vibration control device of a multistory structure is usually set up at the top of the structure; The device has aimed to suppress the primary vibration mode chiefly. However, a variety of frequency modes are included in the earthquake wave. Therefore, when a lot of frequency modes to make the secondary mode excited are included, the secondary mode is excited compared with the first mode. In this paper, it is considered to improve the control performance of the primary mode and the secondary mode with one active vibration control device set up at the top of the structure according to the vibration frequency of double-layered structure by the simulation and the experiment.
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  • Toshitaka UMEMOTO, Tomoharu DOI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 278-284
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    With increased automation in the manufacturing industry, the demand for a quick and accurate mass measurement system is growing. In 1983, Ono proposed the Dynamic Mass Measurement Method, which intended to improve the speed and accuracy of a mass measurement system. There was a disadvantage in this method, however, that two high-quality detectors were essential since the method required two accurate transient signals of velocity and displacement. We paid a special attention to the fact that the system is a spring damper system whose signals made a damping oscillation waveform, and that resonant frequencies are closely related to the mass of an object to be measured. It means that if we can estimate resonant frequency quickly and accurately, we can easily calculate mass, and that we will need only one detector since this method requires only a damping oscillation waveform data in the transient state. In this paper, we propose an entirely new method for estimating the resonant frequency of products on a conveyor, using the extended adaptive algorithm. The experimental results of the dynamic mass measurement suggest that the estimation method is effective enough to practical applications.
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  • Takeshi YOSHIDA, Shinobu YOSHIDA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 285-292
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Reducing track miss-registration is important for achieving high-accuracy, high-speed head positioning for hard disk drives. In a rotary-type head-positioning mechanism, which employs a pivot-shaft-combined magnet-yoke assembly, head-alignment errors due to thermal deformation and moving-part structural vibrations must be reduced to meet above requirements. We examined yoke fixing methods to minimize alignment errors among heads and to reduce main-resonance amplitudes. Calculated results show that the heat-induced head-alignment errors become minimum and the main-resonance amplitudes decrease when the center part of the yoke is fixed to the base. The out-of-plane structural vibrations, harmful influence to the mechanism, are eliminated by attaching damping materials to both ends of the yoke. This fixing method can be used to achieve high-accuracy, high-speed head-positioning.
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  • Satomitsu IMAI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 293-301
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    This paper deals with reduction methods of aerodynamic excitation for a head-arm of HDD experimentally. Two types of measurement were conducted ; flow visualization around enlarged head-arm models by using a smoke tunnel, and flow field between co-rotating disks of HDD. On the flow visualization, we put a focus on separation of the flow. It is found that width of the separation can be reduced by optimizing design of the hole in the head-arm, chamfering front edge of the head-arm, and so. On the flow field, we examined flow vectors, fluctuation of the flow, frequency characteristics, influence by existence of the head-arm, and so. No factors especially exciting the head-arm were recognized. Therefore, aerodynamic excitation force is considered to be mainly due to the turbulence caused by separation, flow instability of wake, and so.
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  • Tetsuya AKAGI, Shujiro DOHTA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 302-308
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    Electro Hydro Dynamics (EHD) fluid is a kind of functional fluid. The fluid has the property that a fluid jet flow is generated between two electrodes when a high voltage is applied. DBDN (Di n-butyl dodecandioate) is a kind of EHD fluid and a dielectric organic liquid. The main purpose of this study is to develop a lightweight and compact fluid actuator which makes use of such properties of EHD fluid. We think that it is useful to apply EHD actuators to a micro actuating system as a lightweight actuator. In our previous study, we tested two kinds of pumping module; a direct type and a suction type. By investigating the relation between the generated pressure and applied voltage using these modules, we confirmed that suction type pumping module is superior to a direct type module. In this paper we describe the analysis of electric field by changing geometric parameters of the pumping module in order to improve the performance of output pressure of the module. Further, we investigated the relation between electric field and output pressure of the module.
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  • Takashi IWASA, Qinzhong SHI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 309-317
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A simplified analysis method was proposed to predict near field pyroshock responses of the spacecraft interface induced by V-band clamp separation devices. A proposed model is simplified with a single degree of freedom system, and calculates its vibration response to approximate the predominant frequency pyroshock response of the interface. Comparing the simulation results with pyroshock test data, it was presented that the simplified analysis method approximately predicts the near field pyroshock responses of the interface. In addition, a limitation of the use of the method for low shock attenuation systems of the separation device was also shown.
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  • Tetsuya WATANABE, Tomoya TAKEDA, Kihachiro TANAKA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 318-323
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    For the past several years, seismic isolation systems have been focused in the seismic design of industrial facilities. This paper deals with the response reduction effect by gap. Gap is expected to decrease the relative displacement by guide. The relative displacement between structure and support becomes larger at long period in the case of linear system. Therefore, the response reduction effect by gap should be utilized positively in the seismic design. However, the response magnification of acceleration is used in the seismic design. The acceleration becomes larger by collision. Therefore, the response reduction effect by gap is evaluated from the viewpoint of energy. The ratio between kinetic energy and input energy is utilized. In this paper, “Response Reduction Map” based on energy for long period gap system is suggested. This map shows the range that energy response ratio is less than the ratio of linear system. The response reduction map without complex non-linear time history calculation can easily obtain the proper parameters, such as natural period or gap size. At first in this study, the response reduction map by actual earthquake wave is shown. Next, the response reduction map by the artificial earthquake wave calculated from the design spectrum is shown.
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  • Kenji SUZUKI, Tielong SHEN, Junichi KAKO, Shozo YOSHIDA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 324-331
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In the reciprocating engine with multi-cylinders, estimation of cylinder imbalance characteristics is an important issue for online balancing control in order to obtain high quality torque generation and reduce emission. This paper addresses the individual cylinder A/F estimation with single sensor and control problem. First, a simple model is proposed that provides an estimation of the individual cylinder A/F with multiple sampling data of the single sensor during a cycle. Then, using the model-based estimation, a feedback control approach is shown that is cycle-based PI regulation with the fuel injection as control input. Finally, experimental results carried out on an engine testbench are demonstrated to validate the estimation and the control effectiveness.
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  • Kunihiko ISHIHARA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 332-338
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    An air conditioning equipment is usually set in a rail vehicle in order to keep comfort. However the noise is offensive to the ear especially when the rail vehicle is in a stop. Then the noise reduction is very important from the point of view of keeping the car room comfortable and is one of the distinguished techniques. This paper describes acoustic characteristics of the duct with some holes. The acoustic experiments were carried out in various parameters such as the absorbing ability and the hole's area by use of the straight duct. As a result, it was clarified that the noise reduction effect of the absorbing treatment measured at the inside of the duct with holes was different from that measured at outside of the same duct. Moreover the effect of hole's area on the noise spectra was a little in spite of the presence of the absorbing treatment.
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  • Tsuguaki YOSHIDA, Shinichiro TAKAGI, Tielong SHEN, Yasuhiko MUTO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 339-345
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    In a gravure printing press with multi-units, tension fluctuations by an upstream register control often cause register errors in downstream units and the settling time of the downstream register error is longer than that of the upstream one. For this reason, it is needed to introduce a new control system to shorten the total settling time. This paper presents a cooperative register control method using feedforward signals. First, a mathematical model of the gravure printing press, called compensator roll type, is proposed and a good match between the experimental and the calculated results is verified. Then, using this mathematical model the cooperative controller is designed by computer simulation and compared with the conventional method. Finally, some experimental results are demonstrated to show the validity of the proposed mathematical model and to verify the reduction of the defect caused by the downstream register errors.
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  • Kazuyuki NAGATA, Yujin WAKITA, Eiichi ONO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 346-352
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    This paper presents a task instruction scheme for a service robot operated in a daily life environment. In this paper, we define the Object Template Model (OTM) that is the list of task models which can be applied to the object category. We also define the Task Space Model (TSM) which describes a list of OTMs and spatial information of an object fixed in an environment related to tasks of the robot. The task instruction system is composed of a manipulator and a stereo camera. The camera image of the work space is displayed on a screen and a range image of the work space is captured by the stereo camera. Our task instruction is as follows : An operator clicks on a target object in a camera image and the system gets the position of the clicked point in the work space from the corresponding range image. The system selects a TSM which includes clicked point, and the spatial information described in the TSM is attached at the point. The operator identifies the target object and selects the OTM described in the TSM. The operator then selects the task model by considering the object situation in the work space. Then the robot executes the task using the spatial information and the task model attached at the position.
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  • Keigo HARA, Shoichi MAEYAMA, Yutaka TANAKA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 353-358
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    This paper proposes the system for a mobile robot navigation with a laser source on the ceiling. At first, users make a map which shows where the robot should go. Based on the map information, the laser spot is automatically irradiated to the ground. Then, the mobile robot detects the position of the laser spot by the photo transistor array and follows the trajectory of the laser spot. The proposed system is implemented and confirmed the feasibility through several basic experiments.
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  • Characteristics of Motor Unit
    Toshiya ISHIKAWA, Takeshi NAKADA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 359-364
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In this study we aim to realize an actuator that is comparable with a natural muscle from a viewpoint of flexibility, the output force and the responses. In the 1st report we constructed the Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator protected by “a rolled film tube” with the high heat resistance and the high flexibility, and it is named “the unit cell”. In this report we constructed an actuator named “a motor unit” with the larger output force by bunching up 7 unit cells, and the characteristics of the motor unit are investigated by the experiments in which the motor unit is driven in Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM). The result of the experiments shows that the static characteristics of the output force and the displacement to the input pulse frequency in the motor unit near proportion relations in comparison with the unit cell still more and the output force increases almost 7 times as large as the unit cell. It is found out that the time constant of the motor unit becomes larger compared to that of the unit cell, and the power conversion efficiency falls when pulse width is extended to improve the time constant.
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  • Yoshito IKEMATA, Akihito SANO, Hideo FUJIMOTO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 365-371
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A passive walker can exhibit a stable limit cycle. In our earlier work, a global stabilization principle of fixed point has been established mathematically, provided that the state just after heelstrike exists at the next step. However, this condition may not always hold. The passive walker with knees can execute the leg-swing motion with no control, only by gravity effect. Unfortunately, while the walker takes a step forward, the swing leg may strike its toe on the slope at unsuitable point. Therefore, understanding of the mechanism of swing-leg motion is very important for assuring the next step. In this study, we focus on the flexion and extension of knee joint of swing leg. In this paper, first, an equation of angular acceleration of knee joint is derived by simplifying and linearizing the model of passive walker. Then, the mechanism of the flexion and extension of knee joint of swing leg is explained.
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  • System Design and Evaluation of the Workspace
    Masaru YANAGIHARA, Jun OKAMOTO, Takeshi ISHII, Yasuyuki MOMOI, Norihir ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 372-379
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    Hip joint surgeries are commonplace in our aging society. In this paper a prototype of a muscle scraping manipulator for minimally invasive RAO (Rotational Acetabular Osteotomy and one of the hip joint surgeries) is described. The muscle scraping manipulator's role is to make a surgical space between muscles and the surface of bone around hip joint for the other manipulator whose role is to cut bone. The mechanical structure is very thin to follow narrow path and tough enough to scrape and retract muscles around hip joint. The prototype is designed based on the required specification from the experiment data. The prototype has 9 DOF, in which 3 DOF manipulator are capable of controlling the tip position and the force between muscle tissues and the surface of the bone. 6 DOF manipulator's role is to position the 3 DOF manipulator. Evaluation of the prototype was done by using a compliant control as scraping method of muscle tissues from surface of the bone. The capability is revealed as a scraping length on a phantom of 140 mm around human hip joint model. We shall continue to study a stable control method to scrape tissues.
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  • Koki KAMETA, Akinori SEKIGUCHI, Yuichi TSUMAKI, Yoshikazu KANAMIYA, D. ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 380-385
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Humans utilize the configuration with extended knees to achieve efficient walk. A humanoid robot, however, cannot do so, since this posture is a singular configuration. In order to tackle this problem, in our previous work, a walking pattern generator based on the spherical inverted pendulum model has been proposed. It enables to generate up-and-down waist motions and utilizes the singularity neighborhood in the middle of each support phase. However, the spherical inverted pendulum model cannot move the ZMP during each single support phase. In this paper, we propose a new approach to generate a walking pattern based on a Spherical Inverted Pendulum model with an Underfloor Pivot (the SIPUP method). With this method, the ZMP gains mobility during each single-leg support phase, and walking with a smaller acceleration is achieved. In addition, it becomes easy to utilize the singularity neighborhood. As a result, the knee joint can be almost fully extended (less than 0.01 rad). Experimental results show the effectiveness of our approach.
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  • Takanori MIYOSHI, Shin'ichi OGASAWARA, Hideo KITAGAWA, Kazuhiko TERASH ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 386-394
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: August 16, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In this paper, a power-assisted wheelchair to support helpers is presented. The model reference control system is proposed such that the wheelchair comfortably moves at the ideal speed with helper's weak force, and H infinity controller is implemented in order to highly maintain the control quality regardless of the disturbance such as the variation of a passenger's mass or the slope of the road. The effectiveness of the proposed system is validated through various experiments such as the comparison with the PI controller, change of patient, the up-and down-slope, and the rotary motion.
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  • Makoto KIKUCHI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 395-399
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    One of the most crucial issues in the force feedback micromanipulator is the dynamics of the nerve-musculoskeletal system of fingers. Micromanipulator is now actively applied in the medical field such as a brain surgery operation, a cancer test, etc. In this study, a mathematical model of the human finger grasp system was proposed on the basis of physiological findings as part of studies on the force feedback micromanipulator. Specifically, we considered the nerve-musculoskeletal control system of the fingers to be a mixed system of a length-control system using the muscle spindle and a tension-control system using the tendon organ. We proposed model of how these two reflex systems are mingling. Then, the model was evaluated through an experiment. The results revealed that the model in this study could reproduce the operation of the finger more faithfully than the conventional compliance model for fingers. Moreover, this study revealed that the refractory period characteristics of muscle in a nerve pulse transfer mechanism influence final value of contraction force.
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  • Koichi SAGAWA, Shuko ABO, Toshiaki TSUKAMOTO, Izumi KONDO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 400-408
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    This paper describes a measurement method of three-dimensional (3D) forearm movement during pitching motion using an elbow-mounted sensor (3D sensor). The 3D sensor is composed of two kinds of accelerometers with the dynamic range of 4 [G] and 100 [G], and two kinds of gyroscopes with the dynamic range of 300 [deg/s] and 4 000 [deg/s], respectively, since the sensors used in the measurement of the sports activity require wide dynamic range. The 3D sensor is attached on the forearm and measures 3D acceleration and angular velocity. The 3D trajectory of the forearm is estimated by the double integration of measured acceleration which is transformed from the acceleration based on the system of moving coordinated on the forearm to that on the fixed system of coordinate. Since the estimated trajectory of the forearm is affected by the numerical integration, the error of the 3D trajectory is reduced by determining the position and posture of the forearm at the end of the pitching motion. The results of the pitching experiment show that 3D trajectory and angle of the forearm estimated by the 3D sensor agree with that measured by the video camera image with the error margin of around 10%.
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  • Kyoko HAMAJIMA, Jian LU, Koji ISHIHARA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 409-416
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    The detection of object zone which includes surveillance targets such as human and machines is high important process of Vision Based Protective Devices for safeguarding of machinery, since object zone represents presence of a target. In this paper, the detection method for VBPD is proposed and the feature of this method is that the areas depicted by object bearing angles which are detected by all sensors are used as silhouettes. It is shown that the characteristics of the tendencies that object zones appear in response to certain numbers of sensors and object placement condition given are analyzed. Although the proposed method is robust to occlusion, the missing is unavoidable. Therefore, sensor positions should be determined according to the result of risk assessment. Ghosts in the detection result are unavoidable by the proposed method, but the ghost detection is not failure to danger. There is basically no solution for the ghost problem, therefore it is necessary to supplement with other detection method using active sensor to solve this problem.
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  • 1st Repor, Effect of Orientation in Microtexture
    Toshikazu NANBU, Yoshiteru YASUDA, Kenshi USHIJIMA, Dong ZHU
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 417-424
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    Improving the traction coefficient of a traction drive system is a key factor in obtaining a smaller, lighter unit and also greater torque capacity. This study focused on the microtexture of the rolling elements, and effect of orientation in microtexture was examined with the aim of improving the traction coefficient in the viscous region. Three textures-dimple, transverse and longitudinal-were examined using a 4-roller tester that enabled tests to be conducted under high pressure and high rolling speed. As a result, it was found that the longitudinal surface texture is the best for improving the traction coefficient. The results obtained with EHL analysis showed that only the surface texture with longitudinal grooves improved the traction coefficient, just as in the tests conducted with the 4-roller tester.
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  • Temperature Measurement of Swash-Plate and Cylinder-Block
    Toshiharu KAZAMA, Tadamasa TSURUNO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 425-430
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Temperature of bearing/seal parts of axial piston pumps was measured. Both of a rotating cylinder-block type pump and a rotating swash-plate type pump were prepared; five thermo-couples were embedded in the swash-plate and one thermistor was placed in the suction conduit for the former pump, and five thermo-couples were installed in the cylinder-block and one was at the casing for the latter pump. Hydraulic mineral oils with ISO VG22, 32, 46 and 68 and the waterglycol type hydraulic fluid with VG32 were used at the test fluids. The maximum discharge pressure was 20 MPa and the maximum rotational speed was 28.3 rps. The inlet oil temperature was specified at 30 to 50°C. At the atmospheric pressure to the maximum discharge pressure, the temperatures, flow rates and the torque were measured. In conclusion, i) The temperature of the swash-plate between the crescent-shaped discharge and suction ports increased greatly; ii) The temperature of the cylinder-block at the bottom dead center of the pistons increased markedly; iii) The temperature increased as the discharge pressure and the rotational speed became higher; iv) The temperature rise was larger as the fluid viscosity was higher and the inlet oil temperature was lower, and v) The temperature rise in the case of the water-glycol fluid was noticeably smaller than the rise of the mineral oils.
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  • An Examination Using a Plane Inclined Bearing with Finite Width
    Kunio SAKI, Ren LIANG, Yoshihiro YASUDA, Takuo SAKI
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 431-438
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    Inverse problems in hydrodynamic lubrication mean that the film pressures are treated as known and Reynolds equation is solved to give the film thickness distribution. In a previous paper, we presented numerical methods for one-dimensional inverse problems. This paper presents the formulation for two-dimensional inverse problems using the finite element method and CIP method. These numerical methods have been applied to a plane inclined bearing with finite width. It is shown that inverse solution for film thickness is correct over almost region, however, on and around inlet corner points, correct solutions are not obtained. Both analysis using the finite element method and CIP method give the same results. The cause of incorrect solutions should further be pursued.
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  • Munetoshi IKEGAMI, Isami NITTA, Hirotoshi TERAO
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 439-445
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The printing method of the dye sublimation printer is to push and heat a dye-based ribbon by a thermal print head, and diffuse the ink dyes to desired positions into the receiving layer of a paper. In a previous work, a real contact area between the ink dyes and the paper was necessary to increase the optical density. The ink dyes were effectively heated at the real contact area, to diffuse the ink dyes into the receiving layer. Thus it is important to place the heater of the thermal print head at a position where the contact pressure is most high. The contact pressure distribution acting on the thermal print head was calculated by FEM. The friction force on the thermal print head shifted the contact region to the paper feeding direction. On the other hand, the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber shifted the contact region in the opposite paper feeding direction. The friction force on the thermal print head influenced the contact pressure distribution than the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber. Then, it didn't need to consider the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber to calculate the contact pressure distribution. To examine the effect of the contact pressure on the print quality, the optical densities were measured with the heater positions on the thermal print head changed. It was found that the optical densities increased along with the increasing contact pressure.
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  • Etsuji OHMURA, Kenshi FUKUMITSU, Masayoshi KUMAGAI, Hideki MORITA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 446-452
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
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    When a permeable nanosecond pulsed laser is focused into the interior of a silicon wafer and is scanned in the horizontal direction, a belt-shaped high dislocation density layer that consists of a partially polycrystalline region that is formed at an arbitrary depth in the wafer. By applying tensile stress perpendicularly to this belt-shaped modified-layer, the silicon wafer can be separated easily into individual chips without creating any damage to the wafer surface compared to the conventional blade dicing method, because the internal cracks spread from the modified layer up and down to the surfaces. This technology is called “stealth dicing” (SD), and attracts attention as a novel dicing method in semiconductor industries. The purpose of this study is to clarify the formation mechanism of modified layer. A coupling problem composed of focused laser propagation in a silicon single crystal is examined, considering laser absorption, temperature rise, and heat conduction, with particular attention to an experimental result that the absorption coefficient varies with temperature. Simple thermal stress analysis was also conducted based on those results. As a result, the formation mechanism of the modified layer could be explained clearly. It was seen that the temperature dependence of absorption coefficient is the most important factor of the modified layer formation. The present analysis can be applied to find the optimum laser irradiation condition for SD method.
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  • Takeshi HARADA, Takuya SEMBA, Brian J. STONE
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 453-458
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A truing technique for fabricating the tip of an electroformed diamond tool of 0.1 mm diameter and 4 μm mean grain size with a hemispherical shape and flattening the cutting edges of diamond grains on the tool working surface was developed. A polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tool of 0.5 μm diamond grain size and 10 mm diameter was employed as a truer. It was confirmed through the truing test that the rough surface of the PCD truer generated by electric discharge truing should be partially flattened to eliminate scratches and removed chips adhering onto the tool working surface. In addition, truing conditions that enable the flattening of sharp cutting edges on a tool working surface along the hemispherical tool profile were determined by conducting a truing test in which both the revolution speed of the tool and the rotation speed of the truer were varied.
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  • Masakazu KOBAYASHI, Tomoyuki MIYASHITA, Hiroshi YAMAKAWA, Masataka YOS ...
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 459-466
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper focuses on the creative aspects of collaboration and proposes a method for analyzing created ideas to help designers to enhance designers' creativity during collaborative design projects. The proposed method is based on DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), analyses ideas created by designers to reveal characteristics and overall effectiveness of each idea, interrelationship between ideas and potentially fruitful directions for improvement of created ideas and exploration of new ideas and aims to help designers explore more sophisticated ideas. To enable smooth collaboration when using the proposed analysis method, this paper also proposes a computerized support system. This system is based on a combination of the analysis method proposed here, and the method for visualizing interactive communication processes proposed in our previous work. Analyzing system analyzes created ideas and visualizes the results from the multiple viewpoints, whereas visualizing system records interactive communication processes among designers and visualizes them in an easy-to-understand way.
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  • Yoshiyuki KARUNO, Takahiro NAGASAKA, Hitoshi IIMA, Tohru IKEDA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 467-474
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In this paper, we consider a task assignment problem arising in an assembly shop, in which n tasks are assigned to m workers. The integer processing time Pi[j] is required when worker i processes task j. For an assignment of the n tasks, the load of each worker means the sum of processing times of tasks assigned to the worker. Since every worker processes the assigned tasks repeatedly during a day, the maximum load over all the m workers is referred to as the cycle time. The minimization of the cycle time is closely related to the maximization of throughput of the assembly shop. The objective is to find an assignment of tasks that minimizes the cycle time under some specific constraints, but the problem is NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm using a binary search technique for the task assignment problem, which runs in polynomial time. The performance is examined by means of numerical experiments, and the results are reported.
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  • Ryoichi ITOH, Koetsu YAMAZAKI, Jing HAN
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 475-483
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper studied factors that affect consumers' feeling in fingers when unscrewing the cap to open an aluminum beverage bottle, and then investigated experimentally and numerically the size and surface shape of the cap in order to guarantee consumers' openability. Firstly, the gripping and opening way while rotating the cap by fingers was determined as the most popular opening way according to a survey of consumers. The grip force and torque were then measured simultaneously using an experimental bottle equipped with force sensors, and the relationships between the gripping force of fingers and the torque, the dimension and the gripping force of human hands were investigated. Moreover, experiments of semantic differential method were performed to study feelings in finger when pressing vertically and then moving along the surface of test pieces. It's observed that the dimensions of the surface in a wave-shape influenced the feeling in finger as well as the slip between the finger and the test piece. Finally, a finite element analysis model of finger pressing and moving along the wave-shape rigid surface was examined to evaluate numerically the discomfort and slip.
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  • Development of 5-inch Locomotive Model Set
    Masahiro YOSHIDA, Michiaki WADA
    2008 Volume 74 Issue 738 Pages 484-490
    Published: February 25, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 04, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper describes effects of Monozukuri curriculum (creative engineering education) to build a 5-inch train model to encourage lower grade students to participate in graduation research at technical colleges. Characteristics of this Monozukuri curriculum include having fifth graders experience teaching lower grade students one-on-one, as well as having the lower grade students experience many manufacturing processes. The effects of this Monozukuri education were reviewed by lower grade student progress score from first to fourth grades, t-test and student questionnaire. The results showed that lower grade students participating in the Monozukuri curriculum for more than five times and receiving adequate guidance from higher grade students had improved grades in their studies due to increased interest in creative engineering.
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