The present study proposes an advanced force display control system for a surgical training simulator with virtual reality. In oral and orthopedic surgeries, a surgeon uses a chisel and mallet for chiseling and cutting hard tissue. To enable the representation of force sensation for the chiseling operation in a virtual training simulator, the force display device has been constructed with the ball-screw

Recently pneumatic-driven soft robots have been widely developed. Usually, the operating principle of this robot is the inflation and deflation of elastic inflatable chambers by air pressure. Some soft robots need rapid and periodic inflation and deflation of their air chambers to generate continuous motion such as progress motion or rotational motion. However, if the soft robot needs to operate far

In this study, a method for a robot to recall multiple grasping methods for a given object is proposed. The aim of this study was for robots to learn grasping methods for new objects by observing the grasping activities of humans in daily life without special instructions. For this setting, only one grasping motion was observed for an object at a time, and it was never known whether other grasping

The number of isolated elderly people with few opportunities to talk to other people is currently increasing. Research is ongoing to develop talking robots for addressing the situation. The aim of the present study was to develop a talking robot that could converse with elderly people over an extended period. To enable long-duration conversation, we added a previously proposed active listening function

Many cooking robots have been developed in response to the increasing demand for such robots. However, most existing robots must be programmed according to specific recipes to enable cooking using robotic arms, which requires considerable time and expertise. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to allow a robot to cook by analyzing recipes available on the internet, without any recipe-specific programming

Robotic grippers that gently handle objects of various shapes are required for various applications these days. Conventional finger-shaped grippers are multifunctional and can grip various objects; however, grasping an item without slippage requires planning the positioning of the fingers at appropriate locations on the item. Hence, a ring-shaped soft gripper that coils itself around objects like a

Compared with more rigid objects, clothing items are inherently difficult for robots to recognize and manipulate. We propose a method for detecting how cloth is folded, to facilitate choosing a manipulative action that corresponds to a garment’s shape and position. The proposed method involves classifying the edges and corners of a garment by distinguishing between edges formed by folds and the hem

Firefighters need to gain information from both inside and outside of buildings in first response emergency scenarios. For this purpose, drones are beneficial. This paper presents an elicitation study that showed firefighters’ desires to collaborate with autonomous drones. We developed a Human–Drone interaction (HDI) method for indicating a target to a drone using 3D pointing gestures estimated solely

Teleoperated robots are expected to perform tasks in unexpected disaster sites, which have become increasingly common in recent years. However, only few teleoperated robots are used for such purposes owing to their poor usability compared to the handling of such tasks by humans. Further, human-machine interfaces (HMI) used in teleoperated robots are closely related to human skills. Firefighting activities

This paper presents a general methodology for the analysis and synthesis of a positive semi-definite system described by mass, damping and stiffness matrices that is often encountered in impedance control in robotics research. This general methodology utilizes the fundamental kinematic concept of rigid-body and non-rigid-body motions of which all motions consist. The rigid-body mode results in no net

Long robotic arms are useful for many applications such as nuclear plant decommissioning, inspection, and firefighting. A major problem for designing and operating long robotic arms is that even small end effector reaction forces and arm gravity can result in large loads on proximal arm joints because of long moment arms. To solve that problem, previous researches focus on specifically designed long

Power soft robots—defined as novel robots driven by powerful soft actuators, achieving both powerfulness and softness—are potentially suitable for complex collaborative tasks, and an approach to actuating a power soft robot is the McKibben artificial muscle. This study aims to show the potential of hydraulic artificial muscles to be implemented in a power soft robot with high safety, including higher

This paper presents an EKF-based self-attitude estimation with a DNN (deep neural network) learning landscape information. The method integrates gyroscopic angular velocity and DNN inference in the EKF. The DNN predicts a gravity vector in a camera frame. The input of the network is a camera image, the outputs are a mean vector and a covariance matrix of the gravity. It is trained and validated with

The novel approach to physical security based on visible light communication (VLC) using an informative object-pointing and simultaneous recognition by high-framerate (HFR) vision systems is presented in this study. In the proposed approach, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based object detection method is used to detect the environmental objects that assist a spatiotemporal-modulated-pattern (SMP)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Few physical models of oral and laryngeal systems for human speech movement exist for computer or mechanical simulators. In particular, a robot tongue mechanism that fully reproduces the deformation motion of the human tongue is lacking. The human tongue is an aggregate of muscles that is devoid of a skeleton. It possesses only a small hyoid. A mechanism that can drive and control the deformation of

Accurate vehicular trajectory estimation is important for the recently developed autonomous driving systems. As the accuracy of the vehicular trajectory estimation is reduced with the slippage that occurs during turning, we propose a method in this study to accurately estimate the trajectory of a vehicle, focusing on the slip angle estimation. Although the two-wheel model is used as a general concept

Autonomous robots are expected to replace dangerous, dirty, and demanding (3D) jobs. At a theme park, surveillance, cleaning, and guiding tasks can be regarded as 3D jobs. The present paper attempts to develop an autonomous tour guide robot system and co-experience system at a large theme park. For realizing such autonomous service robots used in our daily environment, localization is one of the most

Probabilistic localization based on Bayesian theory has been researched as a sensor fusion method to improve the robustness of localization. Pieces of position information, generated by sensors’ observation models with consideration for noises, are fused according to Bayesian theory. However, having large noises not considered in their observation models, the sensors output erroneous position information;

In this study, we evaluated the deformation shape of a balloon-type dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) that has been prestretched with water pressure. We fabricated the DEA with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as the elastomeric material and carbon grease as the electrode. We derived analytical solutions for the deformation of the DEA based on structural mechanical models. Additionally, we compared

Rescue robots are expected to carry out reconnaissance and dexterity operations in unknown environments comprising unstructured obstacles. Although a wide variety of designs and implementations have been presented within the field of rescue robotics, embedding all mobility, dexterity, and reconnaissance capabilities in a single robot remains a challenging problem. This paper explains the design and

We propose a method to realize the dynamic manipulation of a string with unknown characteristics via a high-speed robot arm. We use a mass-spring-damper model for the string and repeat three steps: motion generation, real manipulation, and parameter estimation. Robot motion is given by the joint angular velocities expressed by the Bezier curves. Their control points are randomly positioned to generate

Planetary exploration rovers have required a high traveling performance to overcome obstacles such as loose soil and rocks. Push-pull locomotion rovers is a unique scheme, like an inchworm, and it has high traveling performance on loose soil. Push-pull locomotion uses the resistance force by keeping a locked-wheel related to the ground, whereas the conventional rotational traveling uses the shear force

In this paper we introduce a novel robotic end-effector for pick-and-release of a sheet of cotton cloth. One of the main operations in a factory for sewing cloth products is to pick up cloth parts, provide them to a sewing machine, and sew them together. Fabric products are assembled by performing this work in various processes. Each work starts with a lot of cloth parts stacked near a sewing machine

This paper presents an extended Kalman filter for pose estimation using noise covariance matrices based on sensor output. Compact and lightweight nine-axis motion sensors are used for motion analysis in widely various fields such as medical welfare and sports. A nine-axis motion sensor includes a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a three-axis magnetometer. Information obtained from

This paper proposes a locomotion approach of leg-wheel robot utilizing passive wheel attached to the foot of bipedal robot. The key feature of this approach is bipedal mobility without swing leg. This mobility contributes the stability based on expansion of support polygon during locomotion, the robustness for obstacles and stopping to prevent fall, and the adaptability by prevention of body swing

To obtain the necessary information on fuel debris and water leakages during the decommissioning task of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, an ultrasonic-based method was proposed for future internal investigation of the primary containment vessel (PCV). In this article, we describe the rotatable winch mechanism and visual localization method, which were used to aid the investigation. We used

Automatic analysis of our daily lives and activities through a first-person lifelog camera provides us with opportunities to improve our life rhythms or to support our limited visual memories. Notably, to express the visual experiences, the task of generating captions from first-person lifelog images has been actively studied in recent years. First-person images involve scenes approximating what users

This paper describes development of a mobile robot using semicircular wheels on uneven terrain. It performs the crawl gait on flat ground without changing potential energy and the butterfly gait to climb over debris. We also used crawl gait to perform turning motion. The butterfly gait is used to climb over high steps. Turning motion is achieved not only by creating a difference in angular velocity

We propose miniature ultrasonic motors using stators made of a single bulk piezoelectric element. The bulk piezoelectric stator has the potential to increase output by reducing the dissipation that occurs in the adhesion layer between the PZTs and a metallic component in the stator. In this paper, we build two kinds of bulk piezoelectric stators: a cubic bulk stator with a side length of 4.2 mm and

This paper proposes a novel, simple and high-efficient submerged structural stabilization system for a self-stabilizing buoy that provides a stable platform for oceanographic and meteorological sensors. The proposed stabilization system is a Seesaw-like Tuned Mass Damper (STMD) combined with a foil and is designed in a way to harvest the activation energy from incoming waves. A fixed rudder in the

Machines that are sensitive to environmental fluctuations, such as autonomous and pet robots, are currently in demand, rendering the ability to control huge and complex systems crucial. However, controlling such a system in its entirety using only one control device is difficult; for this purpose, a system must be both diverse and flexible. Herein, we derive and analyze the feature values of robot

A new approach to the active fault diagnosis (AFD) for input redundant plants is presented in this paper. A test signal which helps the diagnosis is injected to the plant in addition to nominal control input in the AFD typically. One feature of the proposed AFD is adaptive allocation of the test signal. The adaptive allocator which distributes the test signal and injects it to the redundant actuators

It is a problem that the poor gait function of many elderly people affects their activities of daily living (ADL), and deteriorates their quality of life (QoL). To enhance rehabilitation of the gait function, it is desirable to increase the amount of training received. In this research, we develop a measurement system for a gait training device that enables effective rehabilitation using the internet

Teleoperated robots are expected to perform tasks in extreme environments such as disaster sites. However, only few teleoperated robots are used for this purpose because their usability is poor compared to human skill in such tasks. Further, the use of human–machine interfaces used by teleoperated robots is in itself a human skill. In this study, we compare the skills of firefighters (experts) when

In this paper, a navigation and environment mapping method is presented for small exploration robots that use hopping motion. While previous research about hopping rovers mostly focuses on mobility and mechanical design, the motivation for the proposed method is to provide a fully autonomous navigation system using only a monocular camera. The method accurately estimates the hopping distance and reconstruct

Large-sized gantry-type linear motor sliders are widely used in industry (e.g. in liquid crystal panel production equipment). An appropriate control model is important for deriving control methods to improve control performance. Although various control models of large-sized gantry-type linear motor sliders have been developed in previous studies, no results are yet reported regarding control models

The wheelchair is the major means of transport for elderly and physically disabled people in their daily lives. However it cannot overcome architectural barriers such as curbs and stairs. In this study, we developed an inverted-pendulum-type robotic wheelchair for climbing stairs. This wheelchair has a seat slider and two rotary links between the front and rear wheels on each side. When climbing stairs

We have proposed and developed a new quadruped walking robot with a spherical shell, called “QRoSS”. QRoSS is a transformable robot that can store its legs in the spherical shell. The shell not only absorbs external forces from all directions, but also improves mobile performance because of its round shape. In rescue operations at a disaster site, carrying robots into a site is dangerous for operators

The currently available exoskeleton for assisting the paraplegic patient in walking usually adapts a pre-programmed gait that involves the patient following an exoskeleton lead. The system allows the patient to hold a pair of canes in order to keep balance, and does not contribute to keeping balance without the patient’s action. This paper proposes an algorithm based on the zero moment point (ZMP)

This paper proposes a stair-climbing gait for a four-wheeled vehicle. The idea and methodology of climbing stairs are described, and the results of experiments are shown. Crawler-type vehicles and vehicles with special, complicated mechanisms are commonly used for climbing continuous steps (stairs). In contrast, in this paper, a four-wheeled vehicle with additional degrees of freedom, whose mechanism

Locomotion is a fundamental human skill. Real-time sensing and feedback is a promising strategy for motion training to reconstruct healthy locomotion patterns lost due to aging or disease, and to prevent injuries. In this paper, we present a pilot study on locomotion training via biomechanical modeling and a wearable haptic feedback system. In addition, a novel simulation framework for motion tracking

This paper proposes a stiff and safe task-space position and attitude control scheme for robotic manipulators. This study extends the work of Kikuuwe et al’s. (2006) velocity-bounding proxy-based sliding mode control by explicitly addressing the attitude part. The proposed controller has a Jacobian-based structure, which realizes smooth trajectories when the desired attitude is far rotated from the

In a musculoskeletal system, internal tensile forces are generated among the muscles because it is a redundant system. The balancing of the internal tensile forces for a given posture generates a potential field in the system. Therefore, the potential field is utilized for the sensorless feedforward position control and improvement of stability based on the feedback method. However, the stability of

One of the main challenges for the elderly is insufficient lower limb strength during sit-to-stand movement, which may be improved by supporting the joint externally. Existing lower extremity exoskeletons use perfect revolute joints as knee joints, which do not match with human joint biomechanics. They also require a complex control system to produce the required torque at the corresponding joint angle

In robot teleoperation, a lack of depth information often results in collisions between the robots and obstacles in its path or surroundings. To address this issue, free viewpoint images can greatly benefit the operators in terms of collision avoidance as the operators are able to view the robot’s surrounding from the images at arbitrary points, giving them a better depth information. In this paper

In this paper, a novel visual-tactile sensor is proposed; additionally, an object manipulation method for a multi-fingered robotic hand grasping an object is proposed by detecting a contact position using the visual-tactile sensor. The visual-tactile sensor is composed of a hemispheric fingertip made of soft silicone with a hollow interior and a general USB camera located inside the fingertip to detect

Medication is an important approach of treatment for patients with schizophrenia; however, the availability of visiting nurses and other human-related support is limited. This study aims to build a system in which service robots support the treatment of individuals with schizophrenia with medication at home. Moreover, medical staff can seamlessly monitor the status of their patients through the robots

As the geriatric population expands, caregivers require more accurate training to handle and care for the elderly. However, students lack methods for acquiring the necessary skill and experience, as well as sufficient opportunities to practice on real human beings. To investigate the necessity and feasibility of care training assistant robots in care education, we developed a simulated robot as a shoulder

In this paper, we propose a wearable tactile sensor for measuring the shape of micro-undulations on a hard surface. The proposed sensor has two layers. The inner one is a thin rubber layer into which a strain gauge is embedded that is formed around a user’s finger. The outer layer is a flexible structure that consists of numerous pins on a flexible sheet. The shape of micro-undulations on an object

Stretching is a major treatment for restoring the ankle range of motion while decreasing the ankle stiffness. An automatic stretching machine can provide long-term continual stretching at home. However, no commercial stretching machines are currently available, and therefore, no safety guidelines exist for them. In this study, we prototyped a stretching machine using a chassis from a commercial foot

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based robots have become popular in various fields, thereby increasing the demand for care robots. Such care robots recognize or estimate factors such as human states and then perform actions depending on the estimation results. If the humans cooperating with robots do not understand robot functions well, the task will not be performed appropriately. Additionally, it is

Measuring and controlling external force from the environment and human beings are essential to realize the future application of the robot systems for medical, nursing, and personal support systems. This paper proposes a friction and noise suppression for force control system based on the integration of the reaction torque observer and force (torque) sensor information. The proposed method performs

The mechanical properties of cells, such as leukocytes, in a diseased state differ from those of healthy cells, typically due to their microstructure. The deformability of the cells through a constrictive area is analyzed by the applied stress to the cell. This study investigates the relationship between the sample flow speed and distribution of captured leukocytes based on the cell deformability using

This paper examines the feasibility of automated alignment in sagittal direction in MR-TRUS fusion biopsy of the prostate by comparing the prostate contour in axial images between different modalities. In the treatment of prostate cancer, an important factor affecting the prognosis of patients is focal therapy of cancer within the prostate. Therefore, MR-TRUS fusion biopsy of the prostate is attracting

Active microfluidics for the applications to cellular deformability measurements is an emerging research field ranging from engineering to medicine. Here, we review conventional and microfluidic methods, and introduce an on-chip cell manipulation system with the design principle of fast and fine cell manipulation inside a microchannel. In the latter part of the review, we focus on the results of red

This paper describes a vacuum suction-type end effector for depalletizing robots in distribution centers. The developed end effector has multiple suction pad units to which a bellows pneumatic actuator is applied as the support mechanism. Load-bearing capacity is improved due to a high-strength wire provided inside the bellows, and the contraction force is improved due to ring members placed inside

One of the main sequelae of stroke is dificulty walking, which is characterized by a decreased gait velocity and asymmetrical walking patterns. The purpose of this research was initially focused on developing a vibro-tactile cueing device that recognizes an implicit increase in cadence frequency. Subsequently, a proof-of-concept study with patients who had experienced stroke was conducted to examine

For future medical microrobotics, we have proposed the concept of the electroosmotic self-propulsive microswimmer powered by biofuel cell. According to the derived theoretical model, its self-propulsion velocity is inversely proportional to the length of the microswimmer, while it is proportional to the open circuit potential generated by the biofuel cell which does not depend on its size. Therefore

A worm gear has the advantages of a large reduction ratio and non-backdrivability. Because of this non-backdrivability, it can maintain a joint angle without energy consumption. Today, many robots have large workspaces that extend into the living spaces of humans, and they are required to work cooperatively with humans. In such cases, backdrivability is necessary to achieve high compliance for robots