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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEJ  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

Recently, wireless charging via coupled magnetic resonances gains attention because it has a potential of efficient mid-range wireless charging. Here, functions such as sensing at the transmitter and wireless communication from the target are the essential elements to realize the standard wireless charging system. Currently, the sensing and communication protocol of hardware (i.e., high-frequency power source and antenna configuration) compatible with wireless charging is gaining attention in terms of cost and space reduction due to the use of common components in multiple functions. However, these protocols have the problem of narrow effective areas. Therefore, this paper presents a method for wide-area sensing and communication with slight modification of the configuration. The basic concept is to expand the effective area related to antenna Q factor by using the Q controllable antenna acting as though the Q factor increased. The underlying theory was described with electric circuit theory. The experimental results showed that the Q factor can be increased until the resonance collapses, and the increase of Q factor has the potential to widen the effective area of sensing and communication.

DOI： 10.1109/TPEL.2016.2535259

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本機械学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Until now, energy management of the mobile device has been researched in two approaches; energy saving and energy charging. In terms of energy charging, energy harvesting and wireless charging technologies have been proposed to free the users from annoying task of connecting the wires for charging. However, these technologies could not satisfy all of the criteria; location-free, connection-free, reliable and human-safe. In response, the authors are proposing a new energy management method for mobile device based on the Wireless Charging Robot (i.e., mobile robot which mounts magnetic coupled resonances based wireless charging function). It operates in the combination of two charging tasks; charging the mobile device from robots (i.e., mobile device charging task), and charging the robot from charging stations connected to power system (i.e., self charging task). In this manner, robots mediate the energy delivery from the power system to the mobile devices, and consequently, the system satisfies all of the criteria. This paper introduces the design method of the system which can handle mobile device charging task. The effectiveness has been verified through experiment on energy management of three LEDs. We succeeded to keep the LEDs lit for 10 minutes while it normally goes off in 4 minutes without charging.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本機械学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

Recently, wireless charging via coupled magnetic resonances has gained attention because it offers the possibility of efficient midrange wireless charging. However, recent studies have shown that the use of a position sensor is helpful in realizing efficient power transmission. In response, we have proposed a passive position sensing method that shares a common structure with a wireless charging system, enabling cost reduction, and space reduction because of integration of multiple functions into a single system and batteryless and cost-effective transponders because of passive sensing. The sensing method is useful for efficient wireless charging or even long-range navigation for mobile robots such as automated guided vehicles. However, the error characteristics of the sensor have not been previously studied. Therefore, the error characteristics of the position sensing were derived through error analysis in this paper. Moreover, the first actual experiment of 3-D position estimation was conducted to demonstrate the appropriateness of the position sensing method and to analyze the error characteristics.

DOI： 10.1109/JSEN.2015.2397971

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE Computer Society  

This study considered a leading behavior of a robot. To lead a person when the person's attention is initially elsewhere, the robot's behavior needs to be designed so that it seeks the person's attention and seamlessly brings him or her to the target location. Therefore we implement a leading behavior for a robot inspired the dog's action sequence. We evaluate the robot behavior through an experiment.

DOI： 10.1145/2701973.2701985

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In recent years, energy management of the mobile device is researched in two approaches; energy saving and energy charging. In terms of energy charging, though the wireless charging and the energy harvesting technologies have been proposed, these technologies could not satisfy all of the criteria; location-free, connection-free, reliable and human-safe. In response, the authors are proposing a new energy management method for mobile device based on the Wireless Charging Robot (i.e., mobile robot with wireless charging function via magnetic coupled resonances). It operates in the combination of two charging tasks; charging the mobile device from robots (i.e., mobile device charging task), and charging the robot from charging stations connected to power system (i.e., self charging task). In this manner, robots mediate the energy delivery from the power system to the mobile devices, and consequently, the system satisfies all of these criteria. This paper introduces the concept, configuration, operation procedure and developmental results of some functions.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本感性工学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Part of collection (book)   Publisher：Springer New York  

This chapter presents the fabrication and characterization of piezoresistive force sensors based on helical nanobelts. The three-dimensional helical nanobelts are self-formed from 27-nm-thick n-type InGaAs/GaAs bilayers using rolled-up techniques and assembled onto electrodes on a micropipette using nanorobotic manipulation. Patterned gold electrodes were fabricated using thermal evaporation or fountain-pen-based gold nanoink deposition. Nanomanipulation inside a scanning electron microscope was conducted to locate small metal pads of helical nanobelts to be connected to the fabricated pipette-type electrodes. Gold nanoink was deposited under optical micrograph using the fountain-pen method. Nanomanipulation inside a scanning electron microscope using a calibrated atomic force microscope cantilever was conducted to calibrate the assembled force sensors, and the values were compared with finite-element-method simulation results. With their strong piezoresistive response, low stiffness, large-displacement capability, and good fatigue resistance, these force sensors are well suited to function as sensing elements for high-resolution and large-range electromechanical sensors.

DOI： 10.1007/978-1-4614-6684-0_11

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents a control system for redundant robot manipulators that handles the path planning and redundancy control in two separate loops. The goal is to simplify industrial programming of redundant robots, by decomosing it to a familiar path planning loop, and an autonomous redundant control loop. The familiar path planning is done using an industrial robots native control system, which is already known to the operator. An external feedback loop acts as a secondary task control loop so that the redundancy in the robot is used automatically. The secondary task control is expanded from the null space projection method to a method where a parallel space to task space is modeled in joint space. The system was implemented and experimentally verified on a NACHI MR20 7-axes industrial robot with AX20 Controller. The secondary task in the experiments was an obstacle avoidance task that was tested in unknown dynamic and static environments.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Recently, various types of mobile robots have clearly gained attention and some are readily available. In response to this, the authors have been studying on realizing both wireless charging and self-localization as an integrated compact system using magnetic resonance coupling. However, due to the fact that sensing range depends on the fixed quality factor of antenna, the narrow sensing range of the current system was a problem in the practical use. Therefore, the authors are considering a new method which enables the control of the sensing range by active quality factor control. However, the introduced theory and simulation results were preliminary so far. In response to this, this paper introduces an advanced sensing algorithm for overall sensor system with the experimental results of the prototype setup. As a result, it was proved that the quality factor could be controlled with the proposed method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.  

Recently, personal vehicles have received a lot of attention to expand our mobility for low carbon society and diversification of individual mobility. So far several small vehicles have been developed. However a new thesis of designing and controlling personal vehicles is required, because there are some difference between general vehicle-used environment and personal vehicle-used environment like mixed traffic. In such new kinds of environment, vehicles should have close relationship with drivers. To have closer relationship, personal vehicles must be smaller and lighter. In addition, designing personal vehicle's motion by considering driver's psychological evaluation, we can provide more comfortable vehicle's interface. The author defined these kinds of personal vehicle as Affinitive Personal Vehicle and focused on driver's sense of balance to estimate driver's psychological evaluation. In this paper, author shows that change of vehicle's motion effects on driver's sense of balance, and there is relation between driver's sense of balance and Kaisei evaluation. © 2014 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ISIE.2014.6864754

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Springer Verlag  

Developing autonomous mobile robots that can coexist with human in populated environments is still considered a big challenge. To address this problem the authors propose a novel scheme to assist mobile robots by providing localization information externally. This scheme combines the autonomous navigation and target tracking research fields to arrive at a structured assistance system for autonomous mobile robots. In the proposed scheme, the environment is sensed using a laser range finder and camera based sensor unit. Using Rao-Blackwellized particle filter technique, the robots that need assistance are continuously tracked. In contrast with conventional laser range finder based tracking systems, the placement of sensor is changed to a level above average human height and the mobile robots are modified by attaching a cylindrical pole. The experiments show the validity of the proposed scheme for simultaneous localization assistance for multiple mobile robots. Two mobile robots were simultaneously navigated in given trajectories using assistance data, successfully. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

DOI： 10.1007/978-3-642-37374-9_48

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Recently, various types of mobile robots have clearly gained attention and some are readily available. In response to this, the authors have been studying on the system which provides both power and self-position : the essential quantities for the mobile robot, by single non-restraint device. The proposed system realized the wireless power transmission and position sensing simultaneously using magnetic resonance coupling. However, due to the fact that sensing range depends on the fixed quality factor of antenna, the narrow sensing range of the current system was a problem in the practical use. Therefore, the authors are considering a new approach which enables the control of the sensing range by active quality factor control. In this paper, the system configuration, basic theories and circuit analysis results of the active quality factor control approach are introduced.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Springer Berlin Heidelberg  

Real-time positioning a pile for accurate pile driving is desirable for modern construction foundation work, but it suffers from the deficiency of the traditional systems because surveying instruments are manually used to mark the pile positions in which the accuracy heavily depends on the worker's experience. The paper confronts this problem by proposing a highly efficient positioning system using a Laser Range Finder (LRF). Over the traditional systems ours is superior to automatically detect the position of the pile or pile driver in real time with high accuracy. To this end, we first develop LRF based surveying system to scan the construction site in real time and gather the 2D laser point data. Then we detect target object such as pile or pile driver by fast fitting a circle-like geometric model to the data based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) inference. The performance of the algorithm is validated by both synthesized and real data set. The results demonstrate the potentials on feasibility of our method in future construction field. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

DOI： 10.1007/978-3-642-40303-3_17

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Springer Berlin Heidelberg  

Real-time positioning a pile for accurate pile driving is desirable for modern construction foundation work, but it suffers from the deficiency of the traditional systems because surveying instruments are manually used to mark the pile positions in which the accuracy heavily depends on the worker's experience. The paper confronts this problem by proposing a highly efficient positioning system using a Laser Range Finder (LRF). Over the traditional systems ours is superior to automatically detect the position of the pile or pile driver in real time with high accuracy. To this end, we first develop LRF based surveying system to scan the construction site in real time and gather the 2D laser point data. Then we detect target object such as pile or pile driver by fast fitting a circle-like geometric model to the data based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) inference. The performance of the algorithm is validated by both synthesized and real data set. The results demonstrate the potentials on feasibility of our method in future construction field. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

DOI： 10.1007/978-3-642-40303-3_17

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Springer Verlag  

This paper proposes an intuitive teleoperation scheme by using human gesture in conjunction with multimodal human-robot interface. Further, in order to deal with the complication of dynamic daily environment, the authors apply haptic point cloud rendering and the virtual collaboration to the system. all these functions are achieved by a portable hardware that is proposed by authors newly, which is called "the mobile iSpace". First, a surrounding environment of a teleoperated robot is captured and reconstructed as the 3D point cloud using a depth camera. Virtual world is then generated from the 3D point cloud, which a virtual teleoperated robot model is placed in. Operators use their own whole-body gesture to teleoperate the humanoid robot. The Gesture is captured in real time using the depth camera that was placed on operator side. The operator recieves both the visual and the vibrotactile feedback at the same time by using a head mounted display and a vibrotactile glove. All these system components, the human operator, the teleoperated robot and the feedback devices, are connected with the Internet-based virtual collaboration system for a flexible accessibility. This paper showcases the effectiveness of the proposed scheme with experiment that were done to show how the operators can access the remotely placed robot in anytime and place. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

DOI： 10.1007/978-3-642-37374-9_10

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Freestanding flexible thin-film nanostructures are promising candidates for many potential applications, such as in the fields of electromechanical sensing, optical detection, tweezer, controlled release, and drug delivery. In this paper three-dimensional (3-D) suspended helical nanobelts (HNBs) with ultra-high flexibility are assembled by the external field guidance. Electromagnetic (EM) and electrostatic (ES) force by external potential are characterized quantitatively to guide the assembly of HNBs to create tweezer and sensing probe. Both ends of HNBs and target electrodes are attached with ferromagnetic metal connector. By the help of this hybrid assembly approach, we could successfully realize tweezer function and create sensing probe by parallel aligning and closing HNBs and soldering to interconnect HNBs onto electrodes. Adhesive force between HNBs and electrodes are characterized to show its assembly performance can be improved quantitatively. The demonstrated approach shows that the hybrid force assisted assembly is an effective and non-clean room way for assisting serial 3-D robotic assembly of ultra-flexible nanostructures, interconnection soldering which may potentially reduce the production cost and time for future manufacturing realization.© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.mee.2013.03.047

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE Computer Society  

Recently personal vehicles have received a lot of attention to expand our mobility for low carbon society and diversification of individual mobility. So far several small vehicles have been developed. However a new thesis of designing and controlling personal vehicles is required, because there are some difference between general vehicle-used environment and personal vehicle-used environment like mixed traffic. In such new kinds of environment, vehicles should have close relationship with drivers. To have closer relationship, personal vehicles must be smaller and lighter. In addition, psychological and biological status should be considered to control vehicles, but there is few method to measure and estimate such status. The authors define such personal vehicles as Affinitive Personal Vehicle and try to estimate balance control ability of driver. In this study, the authors focus on vehicle's posture and body sway of a driver to observe driver's status and get some knowledge on balance control ability. © 2013 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/URAI.2013.6677323

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SICE  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper aims at analyzing the effect of widely known impedance-shaping (IS) control method on the perception of soft tissues in telemicrosurgical applications. The generalized teleoperation control architecture has been modified to include the IS term. New performance index has been defined based on the two proposed indices for the detection and the discrimination of the soft environments to analyze the effect of this modified control on the kinesthetic perception of soft tissues. The effect is then theoretically analyzed on the conventional position-position, force-position, and four-channel control architectures based on the newly defined index. The effectiveness of this newly proposed kinesthetic perception index is also verified using psychophysics experiments. The theoretical analysis of the effects of the IS method on the perception of soft tissues is then validated using the proposed index by experiments with phantom soft tissues for conventional teleoperation architectures.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2011.2148672

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Today, because of spread of large-scale indoor environment (e.g. shopping male, university and airport), personal vehicle to expand our mobility is needed. In this research, we especially focused on psychological status of driver and body sway to estimate driver's psychological status using body sway of drivers. In this paper, we investigate relationship between trans-velocity of vehicle and body sway. And its result shows that there is non-liner characteristics between transit velocity and RMS area of body sway. Using this characteristics, there is possibility to establish personal vehicle control system including driver's state anxiety. © 2012 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/CogInfoCom.2012.6422052

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents the social behavior of a physical agent in intelligent space. Intelligent Space (iSpace) is a space in which many intelligent devices, called distributed intelligent network devices (DINDs) and including not only sensors but also actuators, are installed. Robotic devices, which provide services to users, are considered as physical agents in iSpace. For facilitating long-term communication between users and a robot, we focus on building a social relationship between a user and a robot. Toward this end, a methodology for designing social behaviors of the robot is required. Therefore, we have used an ethologically inspired approach to construct a robot behavioral model for an is pace-based elderly monitoring support system. In this paper, the robot behavioral model is presented and implementation of robot behaviors is discussed.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

We present a intuitive teleoperation scheme by using human gesture and multimodal multi-user human-robot interface. Further, in order to deal with the dynamic daily environment, we apply haptic point cloud rendering and virtual collaboration and all these functions are achieved by portable hardwares which is called "mobile iSpace". First, a surrounding environment of a teleoperated robot is captured and reconstructed as the 3D point cloud using a depth camera. Virtual world is then generated from the 3D point cloud, and a virtual teleoperated robot model is placed in there. An user uses their own whole body gesture to teleoperate the humanoid type robot. The gesture is captured by the depth camera placed in user-side in real time. And the user has the visual and vibrotactile feedback at the same time by using a head mounted display and a vibrotactile glove. All these system components e. g. the human user, the teleoperated robot and the feedback devices are connected with the Internet-based virtual collaboration system to support a flexible accessibility. So eventually, this makes possible that users can access the remote placed robot whenever and wherever they want.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper proposes an intuitive teleoperation scheme by using human gesture in conjunction with multimodal human-robot interface. Further, in order to deal with the complication of dynamic daily environment, the authors apply haptic point cloud rendering and the virtual collaboration to the system. all these functions are achieved by a portable hardware that is proposed by authors newly, which is called "the mobile iSpace". First, a surrounding environment of a teleoperated robot is captured and reconstructed as the 3D point cloud using a depth camera. Virtual world is then generated from the 3D point cloud, which a virtual teleoperated robot model is placed in. Operators use their own whole-body gesture to teleoperate the humanoid robot. The Gesture is captured in real time using the depth camera that was placed on operator side. The operator recieves both the visual and the vibrotactile feedback at the same time by using a head mounted display and a vibrotactile glove. All these system components, the human operator, the teleoperated robot and the feedback devices, are connected with the Internet-based virtual collaboration system for a flexible accessibility. This paper showcases the effectiveness of the proposed scheme with experiment that were done to show how the operators the remotely placed robot in anytime and place.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Fuji Technology Press  

In human-human communication we use verbal, vocal and non-verbal signals to communicate with others. Facial expressions are a form of non-verbal communication, recognizing them helps to improve the human-machine interaction. This paper proposes a system for pose-and illumination-invariant recognition of facial expressions using near-infrared camera images and precise 3D shape registration. Precise 3D shape information of the human face can be computed by means of Constrained Local Models (CLM), which fits a dense model to an unseen image in an iterative manner. We used a multi-class SVM to classify the acquired 3D shape into different emotion categories. Results surpassed human performance and show poseinvariant performance. Varying lighting conditions can influence the fitting process and reduce the recognition precision. We built a near-infrared and visible light camera array to test the method with different illuminations. Results shows that the near-infrared camera configuration is suitable for robust and reliable facial expression recognition with changing lighting conditions.

DOI： 10.20965/jaciii.2012.p0341

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Fuji Technology Press  

Augmented Personal Working Environments (APWEs) are 3D environments in which the physical surroundings of the user are overlaid with representations of a virtual reality. With the rapid technological evolution of personal informatics devices as well as a growing demand for more comfortable and efficient working environments, the partial virtualization of resources used in our everyday work settings is expected to gradually become inevitable. Irrespective of whether someone is working in an office environment or in industrial settings, this trend in virtualization is expected to lead to more collaborative working environments in which the available resources and the interfaces for dealing with those resources can be both physical and virtual in nature. SpatialMemory, which is a memory system embedded in 3-dimensional physical reality, may without doubt be a central subsystem of future APWEs. In this paper, our goal is to contribute to the development of a theoretical background for Spatial Memory from a cognitive infocommunications perspective, and to outline the future research directions of Spatial Memory in APWEs based on some key applications.

DOI： 10.20965/jaciii.2012.p0349

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

In this paper, the theoretical error evaluation of a coupling coefficient is discussed to establish the design method for a novel magnetic-resonance- coupling-based distance sensor using a relay antenna. In the proposed system, the target position is estimated by measuring the coupling coefficient between the transmitter part and the target antenna. The contributions of this paper are as follows. First, a new configuration of a novel magnetic-resonance-coupling- based distance sensor using a relay antenna is proposed. Second, the error rate of the estimated coupling coefficient is formulated on the basis of the equivalent circuit model. Finally, the theoretical formula of the error rate of the estimated coupling coefficient is validated through experiments. © 2012 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejias.132

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

The contributions of this study are the proposal of a distance sensor based on magnetic resonance coupling with a novel configuration and error evaluation of the proposed sensor. Since the measuring device and their batteries are connected to the target side in conventional distance sensors based on magnetic resonance coupling, the batteries need to be changed during long-term operation. Therefore, in this paper, a distance sensor that integrates the measuring device into the transmitter side is proposed
in this sensor, external attachments or batteries on the target side are not required. In addition, the distance error in the proposed sensor is evaluated by theory and experiment. In these evaluations, the effect of the Q factor on the relation between the distance error and the distance is the main consideration. Apparently, high-Q-factor antennas can reduce the distance error for long distances but increase the error for short distances. The obtained result can be used as a guideline for designing distance sensors. © 2012 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejias.132.437

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IFAC Secretariat  

This paper presents human-robot communication for a monitoring support system in an Intelligent Space. An Intelligent Space (iSpace) is a space in which many intelligent devices are installed to observe the user's environment. In this paper, we apply the iSpace observation function to a monitoring system used for maintaining the safety of elderly persons receiving home-care support. In addition, we use a mobile robot as a tool to deliver monitoring results to care assistants. We focus on an ethological approach for designing robot behaviors for human-robot communication. The implementation of these robot behaviors based on an ethological approach, and the results of an experiment conducted to evaluate these behaviors, are then presented. © 2012 IFAC.

DOI： 10.3182/20120905-3-HR-2030.00136

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper focuses on scaled teleoperation systems interacting with soft tissues and presents an optimal control scheme to maximize the operator's kinesthetic perception of remote soft environments while maintaining the stability in macro-micro interactions. Two performance metrics are defined to quantify the kinesthetic perception of the surgeons and the position tracking ability of themaster-slave system. Kinesthetic perception is defined based on psychophysics by using two metrics, which relate to the detection and discrimination of stimulus. This paper then employs a multiconstrained optimization approach to get an optimal solution in the presence of the stability-performance tradeoff wherein the objective is to enhance the kinesthetic perception while maintaining the tracking and robust stability for interactions between macro and microworlds. Simplified stability constraints for scaled teleoperation systems are designed based on Llewellyn's absolute stability criterion for the optimization procedure, which provides easy and effective design guidelines for selecting control gains. Experiments with phantom soft tissues have been conducted using scaled force-position control architecture, scaled position-position control architecture, and scaled four-channel control architecture to verify the proposed control scheme. Results prove the effectiveness of this algorithm in enhancing the kinesthetic perception of surgeons for scaled teleoperation systems. Psychophysical experiments were then performed to compare our approach with similar contemporary research methods that further validated its efficacy.

DOI： 10.1109/TMECH.2010.2076826

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：システム制御情報学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：日本ロボット工業会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

We have been organizing the "Tsukuba Challenge, " every year since 2007 in Tsukuba, Japan. The "Tsukuba Challenge" is a Real World Robot Challenge which aims at intelligent robot technology for realizing a practical autonomous robot that works in the real environment of daily life. As the objective task of the Tsukuba Challenge, the robots were required to make their way, safely and autonomously, over 1 km down a pedestrian street and through a park in Tsukuba. In 2010, more than 60 autonomous mobile robots participated in this challenge, and seven robots completed the autonomous navigation of the designated course at the center area in Tsukuba City. © 2011 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ICMA.2011.5985710

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents a monitoring support system in Intelligent Space. Intelligent Space (iSpace) is a space in which many intelligent devices, called distributed intelligent network devices (DINDs), are placed to observe the environment. Communicating with individual DINDs enable iSpace to apprehend and understand events in this space and to activate intelligent agents such as mobile robots, computer devices, and digital equipment to provide information and services to users based on observed information. Using the iSpace observation function, we can obtain multiple humans' positions and postures at the same time, even if the humans are in different places in iSpace. Therefore, in this paper we use the iSpace to monitor daily environments with the purpose of home care support. Also, we apply a mobile robot as a tool to deliver monitoring results to users. For designing human-robot communication to achieve continuous and intuitive communication between a user and a mobile robot, we present an ethologically inspired human-robot communication model involving an experiment and implementation of robot behaviors.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents an approach to extract human walking paths independently from the orientation of the paths in a global coordinate system. Previously, observing human walking, connectivity between the spaces (areas) has been obtained. In this paper, we regard human walking paths as a feature to represent patterns of activities. Observing and describing human activities can be considered as useful information for intelligent environments to enable the environments to provide suitable support to the users corresponding to their actual situations. In this paper, we present an approach to extract human walking paths independently from the orientation of the paths in a global coordinate system. More specifically, we propose a similarity measurement based on AMSS (Angular Metrics for Shape Similarity), then classify human walking paths using a hierarchical clustering method. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves rotation invariant extraction of human walking paths.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents interaction between a user and a smart electric wheelchair. We propose a personal mobility tool (PMT) which integrates autonomous mobile robot navigation technology with intuitive and cognitive interaction between a user and a smart wheelchair. An intuitive and noncontinuous input method to enable a user to specify a direction in which he/she wants to go is proposed. Using an acceleration sensor and a pressure sensor, a user gives direction to the PMT. Then, the PMT determines a goal position in an environmental map based on the direction. Also, to help a user interpret robot behaviors, an output interface to realize informative communication between a user and the PMT is described. In this paper, we present an improved vibrotactile interface to provide environmental information from a smart wheelchair to the user. We conducted experiments to evaluate users' performance using the output vibrotactile interface. In the experiments, users tried to detect distance and angle toward obstacles based on vibration stimuli. Through the experiments, we could confirm that the improved vibrotactile interface could improve users' performance well.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, a novel position sensing method using relay antenna in "magnetic resonance coupling position sensing system" is proposed. Basic system is based on a novel position sensing of the target using arrayed power transmitters. In such case, the positional accuracy is significant factors to determine the capability of the system. Using "relay sensing method" it is expected that the position accuracy and a degree of freedom will be improved. The contributions of this paper are follows. Details of the basic part of the proposed method are introduced with the equivalent circuit model and the equations which form the foundation of this novel system. Experimental and simulation results are shown to validate the proposed model and theory. Applying the "relay sensing method", it is possible to be the basic technology to realize the "highly efficient power transmission system based on position sensing and navigation for electric mobile vehicles in the space"

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Fuji Technology Press  

This paper considers design and implementation of intelligent Space (iSpace) which is a space with many distributed sensors and actuators. iSpace system should have flexibility and scalability so that we can easily change the configuration of embedded devices and switch applications based on the situation. To realize such a system, iSpace framework requirements are discussed and a layered structure which consists of four layers - the sensor node, basic information server, application and actuator layers - is proposed. The structure makes it possible to fuse information extracted by each sensor node effectively and provides system flexibility and scalability. A componentbased iSpace implementation is also addressed. The designed framework is implemented using RT (Robot Technology) middleware.

DOI： 10.20965/jrm.2011.p0523

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：INST ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY-IET  

dimensional thin-film nanostructures and electrodes for their assembly of nanoelectromechanical systems. Helical nanobelts are placed onto as-fabricated gold electrodes using nanomanipulation inside a SEM then deposited with gold nanoink to improve the electrical conductivity and mechanical stability. Electromechanical characterisations of helical nanobelts and nanowires reveal the reduced contact resistance and mechanically strong assembly. It is promising to the application of prototype device assembly and manipulations of various nanostructures.

DOI： 10.1049/mnl.2010.0066

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper, a mobile robot navigation method based on the observation of human walking is presented. The proposed method extracts paths that are frequently used by human and builds a topological map of the environment from the observed human walking paths. Unlike the conventional methods, the proposed method enables us to generate paths which are practical, have no obstacles, and are natural for humans since the paths reflect the motion of persons. For realizing the human observation in a large area, in this paper, multiple vision sensors are placed in space. By using distributed sensors, people can be observed even when the robot is not near them or if they are hidden behind obstacles. Mobile robot navigation based on the topological map is also performed with the support of the distributed sensors. The global position of the mobile robot can be directly measured by using external sensors, which makes the localization problem much easier. Based on the position information, the mobile robot can follow the generated paths and reach the goal point while avoiding obstacles.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2009.2030825

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Intelligent Space (iSpace) is a space which has ubiquitous sensory intelligence. In iSpace, positions of objects inside the space are one of the most basic information to implement various applications. This paper describes a method to localize the target objects using distributed laser range finders. Since data from a laser range finder is only distances and angles to object surfaces, we need to estimate the object center position based on its contour. To do this accurately, information of the target shape is utilized since there exist various iSpace applications where we can select the shape of the target object or attach markers of the selected shape to the object in advance. An experimental result is performed to evaluate the proposed method. Applications of the proposed method are also shown.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Inst. of Image Information and Television Engineers  

DOI： 10.3169/itej.64.1805

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN  

Nowadays the main center of Research and Development are universities and academic institutions. The development of the Internet and network technologies made possible for research institutes to improve their cooperation and communication. The aim of this paper is to present the foundations of a uniform system for international collaboration, based on 3D Internet. The aim of the network is to create a cooperative and testable connection between mechatronical and industrial robot systems even in continental distances. In this paper we introduce a virtual laboratory which provides a suitable environment for distant institutions' laboratories for a close collaboration.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Chinese Automatics Control Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The American Chemical Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IFAC Secretariat  

This paper presents an observation system of human-object interaction. In intelligent environments, describing and recognizing human activity are one of the important issues in order for the environment to provide suitable services for users. To describe user activity in more details, we have focused on objects' information. We can consider that objects' information consists of both static information such as names, size, colors, and shapes of objects and non-static information such as use of frequency, users, locations, and ways to use them. Static information of objects can be given because we can consider that it will not change. Non-static information, however, depends on actual situation in which objects are utilized by people. We therefore focus on obtaining such non-static information via human-object interaction. This paper addresses an improvement of an observation system of humanobject interaction.

DOI： 10.3182/20090909-4-JP-2010.00045

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：University of Zagreb  

The Intelligent Space is an area (room, public space, etc.) that has networked distributed sensors, which can be used for observing and gathering information from the space. The main objective for the introduction of Intelligent Space is to provide services to humans inside the space. These services can be either informational, such as the ones provided by displays, or physical. In order to be able to provide physical services mobile robots are introduced in the Intelligent Space as actuators. The network of distributed sensors in the space can therefore be utilized to provide data from the space needed for the control of the robot. Here we present our implementation of an Intelligent Space system that uses spatially distributed laser range finders for tracking the mobile robot and humans inside the space and building the map of the space. Based on these measurements, the control of mobile robot acting as physical agent of the Intelligent Space is developed.

DOI： 10.2498/cit.1001158

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IFAC Secretariat  

In this research, we address the calibration of laser range finders distributed in Intelligent Space (iSpace) which is a space with multiple embedded and networked sensors and actuators. In order to realize automated calibration, we utilize moving objects that are not limited to mobile robots in the space. Moving objects can cover wide areas of the environment so there is no need to place many landmarks in exactly known positions beforehand. The calibration is performed based on the positions of moving objects in overlapping observable areas of different sensors. The relative position and orientation of sensors are first estimated from a set of corresponding points. The global poses of the sensors are then calculated from the relative pose estimations. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.

DOI： 10.3182/20090909-4-JP-2010.00042

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, component based design and implementation of Intelligent Space (iSpace) are described. iSpace has distributed sensors and actuators that are utilized for providing both physical and informative services to users based on observation of humans and environments. Although the essential functions of iSpace are "observation," "recognition/understanding" and "actuation " this paper focuses on development of components for observation function. We present our iSpace system developed by using RT (Robot Technology) Middleware that is a platform for development support of robot systems.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents an observation system of human-object interaction in the Intelligent Space (iSpace). Object information is necessary to describe events and human activities which happen in environments. Especially, names, colors, size and shapes of objects can be described manually because we can consider that the information will not change. On the other hand, information such as locations of objects, frequency of use of the objects, the users and motion patterns while using the objects can not be described manually because they depend on individuals and contexts when the objects are used. Therefore, we decided to obtain these kinds of object information through observation of human-object interaction. We show an improvement of the observation system and experimental results to verify the system.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

We have proposed the spatial memory which is a human interface to operate iSpace agents such as mobile robots, computer displays, etc. Spatial memory enables users to store computerized information ranging from digital files and commands for robots in real space by assigning digital information to a three-dimensional position. Users can retrieve the information by pointing the locations using their own bodies directly. The accessed information will be delivered to a suitable iSpace agent who should execute it. We named information arranged into real space "Spatial-Knowledge-Tag" (SKT). In order to encourage people to share useful information via spatial memory, they need to retrieve pre-arranged SKTs which are arranged by somebody. In this paper, firstly we show possibility of finding SKTs through seeing other users' actions, but not using any display to show locations and content types of SKT. Then, we present two kinds of displays to show users locations and content types of SKTs. Specifically, one is a visualization using computer graphics (we call "graphical display"), the other is a display using vibration (we call "vibration display"). Experiments to compare the efficiency of the methods to find SKTs are shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this research, we address the calibration of laser range finders distributed in Intelligent Space (iSpace) which is a space with multiple embedded and networked sensors and actuators. In order to realize automated calibration, we utilize the mobile robots in the space. The mobility of mobile robots allows us to cover wide areas of the environment without placing many landmarks in the exact positions beforehand. The calibration is performed based on the positions of the mobile robots in world coordinate system and their corresponding points in local coordinate system. We also extend this approach to utilize general moving objects such as humans and not limited to mobile robots. The relative position and orientation of sensors are calculated based on the tracking result of moving objects in overlapping observable areas of different sensors. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, component based design and implementation of Intelligent Space (iSpace) are described. iSpace has distributed sensors and actuators that are utilized for providing various services to users based on observation of humans and environments. We present our iSpace system implemented by using RT (Robot Technology) Middleware that is a platform for development support of robot systems. First we discuss the component design of functions of iSpace and present the operation of the developed components. The application of the system to the mobile robot navigation is then presented. The mobile robot navigation functions are also implemented by using RT components. The developed system navigates mobile robots based on information obtained by iSpace and the mobile robots.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：KOREMA  

This work considers the joint use of robot onboard sensors and a network of sensors distributed in the environment for tracking the position of the robot and other objects. This is motivated by our research on Intelligent Spaces, which combine the use of distributed sensors with mobile robots to provide various services to users. Here we analyze the distributed sensing using the extended information filter and computation issues that arise due to correlations between estimates. In turn we show how the correlations can be resolved with the use of Covariance Intersection at a cost of conservative estimates, and analyze two special cases where the issues related to correlations can be reduced.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper describes how the safe mobile code technology can be integrated into the Intelligent Space environment. In the Intelligent Space, several Distributed Intelligent Network Devices communicate and share their information about a human environment. In this environment mobile robots can be controlled with mobile code technology. The mobile code is a program-component obtained from a remote system, transferred across a network and dynamically downloaded and executed on the robots. This code is created, verified, stored and transmitted to the robot using the Certified Proved-Property-Carrying Code architecture, where properties and their proofs also attached to the code. The receiver can verify the proofs and it can decide whether to use or to refuse the received mobile component. Information about the robot's environment is also sent to the robot from the Intelligent Space. Robots contain explicit and formally expressed security requirements. Explicit and formal properties of the mobile code are attached to the mobile code. Then a formal verification system can verify the mobile code properties correspondence against the robots requirements. The robot refuses to execute those mobile code tasks violating it's requirements.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

We refer to channels of communication which link the user to various electronic appliances and computers as cognitive communication channels. One especially interesting research topic related to cognitive communication channels deals with a special application called sensory substitution, when information is conveyed through a channel other than the one that is normally used. Besides offering a glimpse of hope to those living with injured sensory organs, sensory substitution can have benefits when designing user interfaces in terms of cost-effectiveness, the reduction of network delays, as well as the prevention of channel overloading. One such application in robot control could be the substitution of haptic feedback gloves (which are costly, bulky and have relatively few vibration states) using parameter-rich audio interfaces. In this paper, we propose the foundations of a framework for user-directed, interactive experimentation with haptic feedback using auditory cognitive communiation channels. Within the presented framework, the paper deals with an approach to describe the relationship between physical parameters and coding parameters that can be used to convey control information through auditory cognitive channels.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper we discuss methods for estimating the position of objects in environments that have both distributed sensing devices as well as mobile robots equipped with sensors - Intelligent Spaces. The aim is to use both types of devices for the estimation. We focus on the utilization of laser range finder devices as sensors, due to their good sensing characteristics. Our main interest here is in the localization of mobile robots and we consider two estimation methods. One is based on a heuristic determination of the center of the tracked object and utilizes a Kalman filter based estimation approach. The other method is based on geometric models of both the environment and the robot, and the position is estimated using a particle filter. The methods are described and experimental results are shown, and their comparison is given.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, Intelligent Space based human-object relations observation system is proposed and constructed. Intelligent Space is the environment that has distributed sensors for observing and actuators for acting in the space, in order to provide various services to human. In addition, the verification experiments of proposed system are done and the efficiency of this system is discussed.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC  

This article systematically characterizes conductometric InGaAs/GaAs helical nanobelts for use with optoelectronic sensing. The responsiveness, energy conversion efficiency, and external quantum efficiency are improved compared to conventional sensors by reducing the length of 3-D helical nanobelts without losing exposure area. Nanorobotic assembly and characterization of 3-D helical in/out-of-plane nanobelt photodetectors allowed for stable intrinsic property characterizations. When compared to nanotube bundles, impovement in properties such as energy conversion efficiency, responsiveness, and external quantum efficiency are experimentally demonstrated in both an optical microscope and scanning electron microscope. A probe-type photodetector was assembled using nanorobotic manipulation and in-situ gold nanoparticle ink soldering. The highly efficient and sensitive 3-D InGaAs/GaAs helical nanobelt photodetectors enable many optoelectronic device applications such as being the probes for the near field optical microscopy, confocal microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, or spatial detection with further characterizations.

DOI： 10.1080/15599610802081795

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents a method for multiple objects localization in the Intelligent Space (iSpace). The localization is realized by using two types of information. One is acceleration data which is used to determine whether an object is being operated. Acceleration data is acquired by using sensor network system. The other is hand position information of a nearest user to one object. By combining the information, positions of objects are able to be estimated by corresponding positions of user hands. In this method, determination of objects initial position is a first problem. In order to solve it, we use correlation of acceleration data among user hands and objects. Initial position of each object is given based on user's hand position which is scored high correlation.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper we present a method for estimating the position of mobile robots using a combination of both robot's onboard sensors and sensors at fixed locations in the environment, where we use laser range finders as sensors. This is a situation which arises in so-called Intelligent Spaces, where there are both static sensors and mobile robots present. The method we present extends the robot localization methods based on occupancy grids, however here occupancy grids are used to represent not only the geometry of the environment but also that of the robot. For tracking the robot we employ a particle filter. The details of the method are given and experimental results are shown to illustrate the method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this research, we propose a method to localize human hand position. In order to provide many types of services for human in the Intelligent Space, human observation is needed. Many applications, such as Spatial Memory, use human hand position for the indicator and to get hand position, the ultrasound localization system is used. When transceiver inclines, the accuracy decreases. To extend the function of spatial memory to iSpace simulator, the new hand localization is needed. In this paper, we will describe the human band localization system by using inertial sensors and also the evaluation by the ultrasonic system.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

The research field on intelligent environments that consist of many distributed sensors and robots has been expanding. An intelligent environment is the space where we can easily interact with computers and robots. And we can get useful service from them. In such an environment, location information is very important. In order to achieve that, multiple camera system is promising for seamless object tracking and location system in intelligent environments. In this paper, cooperation method of cameras for seamless object tracking is described. Fuzzy-based handing over of tracking authority for a tracked object is proposed and some simulation results are shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper describes enhancement of the spatial memory system in order to improve human activities observation. In previous approach, human activities using the spatial memory in the real world can be observed, but activities using physical objects can not be observed. Therefore, we will focus on interaction among humans and objects. By attaching small sensor nodes to humans' hand and physical objects, the observation will be achieved. In order to realize uniformed methodology for the observation of human activities based on the spatial memory, we introduce Object-based Spatial- Knowledge-Tags (O-SKTs). History of human-object interaction is described by using an O-SKT including 4W1H (who, what, when, where and how) information. This paper presents a system to observe human-object interaction and experimental results of the observation.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper describes an observation system of human-objects interactions to extract relations among humans and physical objects in Intelligent Space (iSpace). The purpose is to obtain information of physical objects which can not be described in advance, in other words, depends on usage history of individual users. It is important issue for the iSpace to recognize human activities and design services for humans. In this paper, a method for multiple objects localization in the Intelligent Space is presented. The localization is realized by using two types of information. One is acceleration data which is used to determine whether an object is being operated. Acceleration data is acquired by using sensor network system. The other is hand position information of a nearest user to one object. By combining the information, positions of objects are able to be estimated by corresponding positions of user hands. In this method, determination of objects initial position is a first problem. In order to solve it, we use correlation of acceleration data among user hands and objects. Initial position of each object is given based on user's hand position which is scored high correlation.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Navigation in an unknown environment is still a hard problem, because mobile robots need topological maps in order to operate in the environment. Building a map of the environment while also using it for learning is of prime importance for mobile robots but until recently, it has only been confined to small-scale environments.
This paper describes a mobile robot navigation framework integrated into the Intelligent Space environment. In the Intelligent Space, several Distributed Intelligent Network Devices communicate and share their information about the environment. In this environment mobile robots can be tracked with ultrasonic positioning system and the topological map can be build using laser range finders.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This brief proposes a process of implementing a teletweezing system using multiple slaves for deformable object manipulation such as bio tweezing tasks. The multiple slave feature is desirable to improve both the manipulation dexterity and stable grasping force control capability. A flexible,multiple robot connection environment is assured in a very quick and easy manner using an RT-Middleware platform. In this brief, we propose the control strategy for a single-master multislave telemicrotweezer. Also, several simulations and experiments are performed to prove the validity of the proposed control scheme and the design methodology. These involve biomanipulation tasks such as Ikura (salmon roe) tweezing, which is a magnified version of a wide variety of bio-cell tweezing. To realize the Ikura remote tweezing using a single-master multislave system and a human's dexterous operation skill, we first decompose the dynamics of multiple slaves into two decoupled systems, which are the shape system describing cooperative tweezing aspect and the locked system that preserves energetic passivity. Scattering-based communication is used to passify the master-slave communication delay. Last, a preliminary pick-and-place experiment and some simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed control method.

DOI： 10.1109/TCST.2007.902960

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

The vision sensor network is expected to achieve a contact-free wide-area location system without any additional burden on users in intelligent environments. In this article, a tracking algorithm for a location system in an intelligent environment is described. A modified color tracker based on a Kalman filter and a mean shift procedure is proposed in order to improve the robustness for occlusion and rapid movement. To handle the sudden change in object movement, we propose a hybrid tracking algorithm, including an adaptive feedback loop, based on the statistics of color histogram models after the mean-shift process. Experimental results showed that the proposed method achieves more robust tracking of multiple objects than the conventional method. © ISAROB 2007.

DOI： 10.1007/s10015-007-0429-9

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

The main objective of this paper is to study the recently proposed tensor-product-distributed-compensation (TPDC)-based control design framework in the case of tracking control design of a benchmark problem. The TPDC is a combination of the tensor product model transformation and the parallel distributed compensation framework. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of the TPDC design. We study how it can be uniformly and readily executed without analytical derivations. We show that the TPDC is straightforward and numerically tractable, and is capable of guarantying various different control performances via linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions. All these features are studied via the state feedback trajectory control design of the translational oscillations with an eccentric rotational proof mass actuator system. The trajectory tracking capability for various tracking commands is optimized here by decay rate LMI conditions. Constraints on the output and control of the closed-loop system are also considered by LMI conditions. We present numerical simulations of the resulting closed-loop system to validate the control design.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2007.894697

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：CHINESE AUTOMATIC CONTROL SOC  

The Tensor Product (TP) model transformation method was proposed recently as an automated gateway between a class of non-linear models and linear matrix inequality based control design. The core of the TP model transformation is the higher order singular value decomposition of a large sized tensor, which requires high computational power that is usually outside of a regular computer capacity in cases of higher dimensionality. This disadvantage restricts the utilization of the TP model transformation to models having smaller dimensionality. The aim of this paper is to propose a computationally relaxed version of the TP model transformation. The paper also presents a 6 dimensional example to show the effectiveness of the modified transformation.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper presents the spatial memory that aids human activities in a working environment. The spatial memory enables humans to store computerized information into the real world by assigning a 3-D position as the memory address. By storing computerized information into the real world, users can manipulate the information in similar ways as physical objects. Consequently, we can retrieve stored knowledge by indicating the point using our own arms, which we name "human indicator." This paper shows a prototype of the spatial memory system, which has potential to enhance desk work. The implemented system is evaluated through two types of experiments by using human subjects. Experimental results verify the efficiency and the effectiveness of our spatial memory framework based on a statistical test.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2007.892730

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：モバイル社会研究所  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents our implementation of the control of mobile robot as actuator in Intelligent Space. The Intelligent Space has distributed sensors that can be used for tracking and mapping the space. Furthermore, it can use these measurements to control a mobile robot in the space. This way physical acting inside the space can be achieved. Here we present our developed Intelligent Space system that uses laser range finders for tracking and a mobile robot as actuator. Methods and obtained results are described.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

The Tensor-Product (TP) model transformation is a recently proposed numerical method capable of transforming linear parameter varying state-space models to the Higher Order Singular Value Decomposition (HOSVD) based canonical form of polytopic models. It is also capable of generating various types of convex TP models as well for linear matrix inequality based control design. The crucial point of the TP model transformation is that its computational load exponentially explodes with the dimensionality of the parameter vector of the state-space model. In this paper we propose a modified TP model transformation that computes the HOSVD-based canonical form by dimensionality reduced sub-spaces of the parameter vector that leads to the considerable reduction of the computation. A numerical example is also given to show how the modified TP model transformation can readily be executed in cases when the original TP model transformation fails.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this research, we aim to describe objects' properties for designing services of Intelligent Space. Intelligent Space is the environment that has distributed sensors for observing and actuators for acting in the space, in order to provide various services to human. In order to realize that, we focus on physical interaction between human and objects. Physical interaction between human and objects can be observed by attaching sensor nodes to physical objects in a sensor networked environment. In this paper, we estimate an object handled by human based on the acceleration data. In addition, the methods that classify human actions are evaluated

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, we introduce a basic framework of Intelligent Space (iSpace) and automated calibration of the distributed sensors using mobile robots. iSpace is a room or area where many intelligent sensors and actuators are distributed and networked. In iSpace, the embedded sensors can monitor the whole environment by communicating with each other through the network. Based on the observed information, the actuators provide informative and physical services to users. In order to implement such a system, a basic framework which realizes a close cooperation among distributed devices has to be considered. We propose a layered structure which consists of four layers - the sensor node layer, the basic information sever layer, the application layer and the actuator layer. The structure makes it possible to fuse information extracted by each sensor node effectively and provides flexibility and scalability to the system. Moreover, one of the major problems when setting up the devices is calibration of the sensors. In order to solve this, we utilize mobile robots in iSpace. The mobility of mobile robots allows us to cover wide areas of the environment without placing many landmarks in exactly known positions beforehand. Automated calibration of distributed laser range Enders is performed based on the positions of the mobile robot in world coordinate system and their corresponding points in local coordinate system.

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DOI： 10.9746/ve.sicetr1965.43.180

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

This paper proposes the development of a human-robot cooperative tele-micromanipulation system through a network. We have developed a novel single-master (PHANToM haptic device) multi-slave (6-d.o.f. parallel manipulator) scaled tele-micromanipulation system which enables human operators to perform meso or small-size object manipulation such as assembly or manufacturing with sufficient telepresence. It is expected to improve the human's operability and the overall dexterity of conventional tele-micromanipulation systems. To overcome the problems of the multiple parallel mechanism manipulator, virtual kinematic mapping is considered, based on the manipulability analysis of the workspace. The pick-and-place experiment results prove the validity of the developed single-master multi-slave system.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents an implementation of the spatial memory system for supporting collaboration activity in Intelligent Space. In this paper, a design of the new spatial memory system is described based on three requirements for a collaboration system: (1) sharing information for multi-users and multi-terminals, (2) access privileges for SKTs and (3) user identification. User identification method is one of the most important functions for sharing information systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a new user identification method by using the spatial memory system. More specifically, users create their own key-Spatial-Knowledge-Tags (SKTs) as passwords to use the spatial memory system. The new user identification method is evaluated through user experiments. Experimental results show high effectiveness of the method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper deals with the problem of object tracking and environment mapping inside a space with distributed sensors - Intelligent Space. In a conventional approach the distributed sensors are used for these tasks, however since the sensors are static this has several disadvantages. In this paper in addition to static sensors we introduce the use of a mobile robot as mobile sensor to gather additional information and improve the estimation performance. We discuss the characteristics of such a tracking system, mainly concentrating on a system that uses laser range finders as both mobile and static sensors. Estimation methods based on Kalman Filter and Covariance Intersection are presented and analyzed. Finally, the presented methods are experimentally tested.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper we present an approach to tracking of humans in spaces with ubiquitous distributed sensors and actuators - Intelligent Spaces. In order to be able to implement services that depend on the position of humans, a reliable tracking method is needed. In addition to the sensors distributed in space, mobile sensors are also considered. A mobile sensor is a mobile robot equipped with onboard sensors, which can be used to improve the estimate. Here we present an implementation based on laser range finders and track the position of humans, as well as the mobile robot, using a Kalman filter. Characteristics of such a tracking system are analyzed and experimental results are shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents a classification of human activities based on usage history of the spatial memory system and a numerical expression of each human activity in order to estimate individual human's intended purpose of an environment. We named the intended purposes for a place "spacehuman activity association". Intended purposes for a place will be different depending on the purpose of activities, even if observed activities are almost the same. Therefore, estimation of space-human activity association is important for intelligent environments to design services provided for individual human according to his/her current situation. The spatial memory system enables human users to store computerized information into the real world by assigning a three-dimensional position to the information, and to retrieve the information by directly indicating the point using their own hands. In the spatial memory system, what associates computerized information with a three-dimensional position is called "Spatial-Knowledge-Tag (SKT)". The users actively create SKTs based on their need. As a result, arranged SKTs in a specified environment correspond to activity histories of the users. Also, users' intended purposes for the environment are reflected in the arrangement. Therefore, classification of arranged SKTs leads to classification of human activities, and accordingly estimation of intended purposes for places. In this paper, we describe two approaches to classify human activities. More specifically, the first approach is a classification of arranged SKTs by using only SKTs' information. The second approach is a classification of arranged SKTs by using both SKTs' information and usage history of the spatial memory system. As a result, the classification based on usage history of the spatial memory system showed multiple activities in the same area. On the other hand, the first approach resulted in a single cluster in the same area. We, then, give numerical values to SKT's content type, and obtained numerical expression of each human activity.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPRINGER-VERLAG TOKYO  

We proposed the intelligent space as the human-robot coexistent system. The intelligent space is the space where many intelligent devices, such as computers and sensors like the color CCD cameras, are distributed. The Intelligent Space requires functions of identifying and tracking the multiple objects seamlessly in order to realize appropriate services to users under the multi-camera environments. In this paper, color based tracking vision modules of the intelligent space are described. MeanShift method is applied for tracking of the objects. Object tracking performance depends on the configuration of the color histograms because this method calculates the object movement between frames based on the color histogram models of objects. This paper investigates how the quantization level of the color histogram affects the tracking performance using the Meanshift method. Then, color based tracking vision system is developed and the tracking results are shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, the problem of implementation of Intelligent Space (iSpace) is considered. iSpace is a room or area where many intelligent sensors and actuators are distributed and networked. In iSpace, the embedded sensors can monitor the whole environment by communicating with each other through the network. Based on the observed information, the actuators provide informative and physical services to users. Such a system should have flexibility and scalabitity so that we can easily change the configuration of embedded devices and switch applications depending on the situation. It is also important for the system to have a function that fuses the information acquired by each sensor and share it with other devices efficiently. We present a basic framework of Intelligent Space and show the current configuration developed in our laboratory. Some experimental results are also shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents a classification of human activities based on usage history of the spatial memory system in order to estimate individual human's intended purpose of an environment. We named the intended purposes for a place "space-human activity association". Intended purposes for a place will be different depending on the purpose of activities, even if observed activities are almost the same. Therefore, estimation of space-human activity association is important for intelligent environments to design services provided for individual human according to his/her current situation. The spatial memory system enables human users to store computerized information into the real world by assigning a three-dimensional position to the information, and to retrieve the information by directly indicating the point using their own hands. In the spatial memory system, what associates computerized information with a three-dimensional position is called "Spatial-Knowledge-Tag (SKT). The users actively create SKTs based on their need. As a result, arranged SKTs in a specified environment correspond to activity histories of the users. Also, users' intended purposes for the environment are reflected in the arrangement. Therefore, classification of arranged SKTs leads to classification of human activities, and accordingly estimation of intended purposes for places. In this paper, in order to investigate usefulness of the proposed classification method, we consider two types of environments, and arranged SKTs are classified.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

We present a method for representing tracking and human-following by fusing distributed multiple vision systems in intelligent space, with applications to pedestrian tracking in a crowd. In this context, particle filters provide a robust tracking framework under ambiguous conditions. The particle filter technique is used in this work, but in order to reduce its computational complexity and increase its robustness, we propose to track the moving objects by generating hypotheses not in the image plan but on a top-view reconstruction of the scene. Comparative results on real video sequences show the advantage of our method for multiobject tracking. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the proposed performance. Also, the method is applied to the intelligent environment, and its performance is verified by experiments. © ISAROB 2006.

DOI： 10.1007/s10015-005-0362-8

Scopus

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：モバイル社会研究所  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：INST CONTROL ROBOTICS & SYSTEMS, KOREAN INST ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS  

Latest advances in hardware technology and state of the art of mobile robot and artificial intelligence research can be employed to develop autonomous and distributed monitoring systems. And mobile service robot requires the perception of its present position to coexist with humans and support humans effectively in populated environments. To realize these abilities, robot needs to keep track of relevant chancres in the environment. This paper proposes a localization of mobile robot using the images by distributed intelligent networked devices (DINDs) in intelligent space (ISpace) is used in order to achieve these goals. This scheme combines data from the observed position using dead-reckoning sensors and the estimated position using images of moving object, such as those of a walking human, used to determine the moving location of a mobile robot. The moving object is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the intelligent space. Using the a priori known path of a moving object and a perspective camera model, the geometric constraint equations that represent the relation between image frame coordinates of a moving object and the estimated position of the robot are derived. The proposed method utilizes the error between the observed and estimated image coordinates to localize the mobile robot, and the Kalman filtering scheme is used to estimate the location of moving robot. The proposed approach is applied for a mobile robot in ISpace to show the reduction of uncertainty in the determining of the location of the mobile robot. Its performance is verified by computer Simulation and experiment.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：CEAI  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper we present the implementation of mobile robot control in the Intelligent Space (iSpace). The mobile robot in iSpace is primarily used as a mean of offering physical services to users, or as a mobile sensor for providing more details about the space. On the other hand, the distributed sensors in iSpace offer advantages in standard robot control tasks. In this paper the details of the engagement of mobile robots in iSpace are given. Moreover, the details of the implementation of the mobile robot localization mapping and navigation are described in detail and experimental results are given.

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Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/ROBOT.2006.1642357

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

Latest advances in hardware technology and state-of-the-art of mobile robots and artificial intelligence research can be employed to develop autonomous and distributed monitoring systems. A mobile service robot requires the perception of its present position to co-exist with humans and support humans effectively in populated environments. To realize this, a robot needs to keep track of relevant changes in the environment. This paper proposes localization of a mobile robot using images recognized by distributed intelligent networked devices in intelligent space (ISpace) in order to achieve these goals. This scheme combines data from the observed position, using dead-reckoning sensors, and the estimated position, using images of moving objects, such as a walking human captured by a camera system, to determine the location of a mobile robot. The moving object is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the ISpace. Using the a priori known path of a moving object and a perspective camera model, the geometric constraint equations that represent the relation between image frame coordinates for a moving object and the estimated robot's position are derived. The proposed method utilizes the error between the observed and estimated image coordinates to localize the mobile robot, and the Kalman filtering scheme is used for the estimation of the mobile robot location. The proposed approach is applied for a mobile robot in ISpace to show the reduction of uncertainty in determining the location of a mobile robot, and its performance is verified by computer simulation and experiment.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN  

The aim of this paper is to investigate a control framework for mobile robots, operating in shared environment with humans. The Intelligent Space (iSpace) can sense the whole space and evaluate the situations in the space by distributing sensors. The mobile agents serve the inhabitants in the space utilizes the evaluated information by iSpace. The iSpace evaluates the situations in the space and learns the walking behavior of the inhabitants. The human intelligence manifests in the space as a behavior, as a response to the situation in the space. The iSpace learns the behavior and applies to mobile agent motion planning and control. This paper introduces the application of fuzzy-neural network to describe the obstacle avoidance behavior learned from humans. Simulation and experiment results are introduced to demonstrate the efficiency of this method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Latest advances in hardware technology and state of the art of mobile agent, and artificial intelligence research can be employed to develop autonomous and distributed monitoring systems. The Intelligent Space(ISpace) is the space where many intelligent devices, such as computers and sensors, are distributed. According to the cooperation of many intelligent devices, the environment, it is very important that the system knows the location information to offer the useful services. In order to achieve these goals, we present a method for representing, tracking and human following by fusing distributed multiple vision systems in ISpace, with application to pedestrian tracking in a crowd. And the article presents the integration of color distributions into particle filtering. Particle filters provide a robust tracking framework under ambiguity conditions. We propose to track the moving objects by generating hypotheses not in the image plan but on the top-view reconstruction of the scene. Comparative results on real video sequences show the advantage of our method for multi-object tracking. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the proposed performance. Also, the method is applied to the intelligent environment and its performance is verified by the experiments.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, we investigate a mobile robot navigation system which can localize the mobile robot correctly and navigate based on observation of human walking in order to operate in the human shared space with minimal disturbance to humans. To realize this system, we utilize many intelligent devices embedded in the environment. The human walking paths are obtained from distributed vision systems and frequently used paths in the environment are extracted. The mobile robot navigation based on observation of human is also performed with the support of the system. The position and orientation of the mobile robot are estimated from wheel encoder and 3D ultrasonic positioning system measurement data using extended Kalman filter. The system navigates the mobile robot along the frequently used paths by tracking control.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper proposes a localization of mobile robot using the images by distributed intelligent networked devices (DINDs) in intelligent space (ISpace). This scheme combines data from the observed position using dead-reckoning sensors and the estimated position using images of moving object, such as those of a walking human, used to determine the moving location of a mobile robot The moving object is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the intelligent space. Using the a-priori known path of a moving object and a perspective camera model, the geometric constraint equations that represent the relation between image frame coordinates of a moving object and the estimated position of the robot are derived. The proposed approach is applied for a mobile robot in ISpace to show the reduction of uncertainty in the determining of the location of the mobile robot.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents approaches using the spatial memory to classify human activities spatially and characteristically for recognizing "space-human activity association". The spatial memory enables humans to store computerized information such as digital files and commands into the real world by assigning three-dimensional position as the memory addresses. Humans can retrieve and store such information by directly indicating the point using their own body e.g. user's hand and user's head. A virtual tag, which associates a digital data with a spatial location, is called Spatial-Knowledge-Tag (SKT). SKT is created by a human based on his policy and his purpose in an environment. SKTs including locations and contents describe human activities at places. To design and implement services for inhabitants in an intelligent environment, it is required to know purposes which people intend to use the places. This paper applies two approaches to classify human activities spatially and characteristically. More specifically, one is a classification of arranged SKTS by using only spatial memory addresses and the size of accessible regions, the other is a classification of arranged SKT based on observation of human activities and forms of spatial memory data.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper presents occlusion avoidance of information display system in Intelligent Space using RT-Components. Intelligent Space is an environmental system realized by cooperation of RT components (robots, sensors or actuators) inside a space (room, corridor or street) and can gather various kinds of information, especially the position of human and objects. When Intelligent Space observes a human, it is able to provide interactive information to him. Occlusion problem is needed to be solved to provide interactive information according the human movement. We developed the occlusion avoidance algorithm for the active projector. And this paper proposes a system in Intelligent Space using RT-Components which is useful and easy to integrate for system user or developer.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

To build complex 3D nano device such as nano scale force sensor or actuators, it requires dexterous 3D nanoassembly technology adding to 2D microfabrication or self-assembly of nano particles. We have two nanomanipulators which can be also setup either inside Scanning Electro Microscope and optical microscope. Using multiple nanomanipulators, human-friendly haptic interface, and electro statically actuated MEMS micro gripper, 3D nanoassembly can be realized. By functionalizing tips in each nanomanipulator, a complex nanoassembly work can be done in a simplified manner. We adopt two nanomanipulators and electromagnetically functionalized probe tip and glue functionalized tip.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN  

The knowledge of human walking behavior has primary importance for mobile agent in order to operate in the human shared space, with minimal disturb of other humans. This paper introduces such an observation and learning framework, which can acquire the human walking behavior from observation of human walking, using CCD cameras of the Intelligent Space. The proposed behavior learning framework applies Fuzzy-Neural Network(FNN) to approximate observed human behavior, with observation data clustering in order to extract important training data from observation. Preliminary experiment and results are shown to demonstrate the merit of the introduced behavior.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper we present an approach to tracking of humans and mobile robots in spaces with ubiquitous distributed sensors and actuators - Intelligent Spaces. In order to be able to implement services that depend on the position of humans, a reliable tracking method is needed. Also, for the implementation of mobile robot control it is important to know both the robot's and human's positions. In this work we present an implementation based on laser range finders. Firsts a short survey of the existing tracking methods, and their applicability to tracking of objects in intelligent environments is presented. Based on those results, we chose laser range finders for measurement. The method we use is based on clustering of the foreground of the measurement and tracking the position using a Kalman filter. Experimental results of tracking mobile robots and humans are given which confirm the applicability of the presented method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

In this paper, we describe an automated camera calibration method by using mobile robots. In the recent years, the research field on smart environments, which is a space with many embedded and networked sensors, has been expanding. Such a system should have flexibility and scalability so that we can easily add, remove or replace devices depending on the size of the space, application, technological advances, and so on. One of the major problems when setting up the devices is a calibration of the sensors. In order to reduce this, we utilize color markers installed on a mobile robot to calibrate distributed vision sensors. The mobility of mobile robots allows us to cover wide areas of the environment without placing many landmarks in the exact positions beforehand. The position and orientation of the mobile robot are estimated from wheel encoder and an ultrasonic 3D positioning system measurement data using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Automated camera calibration is performed based on the positions of the color markers in world coordinate system and their corresponding points in image coordinate system. Experimental result shows the validity of this method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper investigates a human walking behavior-based mobile robot control system. The Intelligent Space (iSpace) is a distributed sensory system, which is the background infrastructure to observe human walking in a limited area. The observation of human walking behavior is applied to train fuzzy-neural networks (FNN). The trained FNNs are applied to approximate the obstacle avoidance behavior of human walking. The paper introduces the iSpace and the mobile agents, which are mobile robots, utilizing the intelligence of the iSpace. The observed and trained human walking behaviors are applied to control the mobile agent in a human-robot shared environment. Experimental results demon-strate the effectiveness of the FNN-based control system.

DOI： 10.1109/TIM.2005.858824

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Virtual Reality Society of Japan  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：モバイル社会研究所  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

The knowledge of human walking behavior has primary importance for mobile agent in order to operate in the human shared space, with minimal disturb of other humans. This paper introduces such an observation and learning framework, which can acquire the human walking behavior from observation of human walking, using CCD cameras of the Intelligent Space. The proposed behavior learning framework applies Fuzzy-Neural Network to approximate observed human behavior, with observation data clustering in order to extract important training data from observation.
Preliminary experiment is shown to demonstrate the merit of the introduced behavior.

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DOI： 10.1109/IECON.2005.1568939

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Chinese Automatics Control Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Chinese Automatics Control Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper, "Haptic Loupe" telemicromanipulation systems are proposed.
We have developed telemicromanipulation systems that enable human operators to perform micro tasks, such as assembly or manufacturing without stress [1]-[4]. These systems are based on a scaled bilateral teleoperation system between different structures.
The systems are composed of an original six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) parallel link manipulator to carry out micromanipulation and a 6-DOF haptic interface with force feedback.
A parallel mechanism is adopted as a slave micromanipulator because of its good features of accuracy and stiffness. The haptic master interface is developed for micromanipulation systems. Haptic device system modeling and a model reference adaptive controller are implemented to compensate for friction forces, which spoil the free motion performance and force response isotropy of the system.
Total system performance as a telemicromanipulator system is evaluated by performing some primitive manipulation tasks in a teleoperation experiment. Experimental results are presented and discussed.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2004.837858

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：American Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

We propose an architecture of intelligent space based on distributed intelligent sensors. Intelligent space is an environmental system able to support humans in informative and physical ways. Since an intelligent space should adapt to the various sizes and shapes of an environment, an architecture based on distributed intelligent sensors is designed. The proposed architecture satisfies not only scalability but also reconfigurability, modularity, easy maintenance, and affinity problems in building an intelligent space. Intelligent sensors are-distributed among a space and they provide functions based on position information. According to the particular situation, cooperation among intelligent sensors or cooperation among function modules in the intelligent sensors are performed. Selected demonstrations are described in the paper.

DOI： 10.1109/TMECH.2004.834655

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：American Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG  

In this paper, a new method for displaying a surface deformation is proposed to provide sufficient realism in virtual environment. The approach selected in this paper is based on the fuzzy model and it is sufficient that only one additional rule be added to the fuzzy model to display a surface deformation. Furthermore, designers can easily determine which parameters should be used and how much they should be changed in order to alter shapes as required. The proposed method, thus, is a simple, but effective technique that can also be applied to real time operation and makes it possible to act on several surface points simultaneously. The results of the computer simulation are also given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：CHINESE AUTOMATIC CONTROL SOC  

This paper proposes a transformation method that serves the trade-off between the modelling complexity and accuracy of multi-variable Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference operator-based modelling (TS fuzzy modelling). The relation between the number of fuzzy rules and the modelling accuracy is defined in the paper. The proposed transformation method is capable of finding the minimal number of fuzzy rules for a given accuracy of a given TS fuzzy model. A case study, focusing on a benchmark problem of fault diagnosis, developed in the framework of EC-founded Research Training Network DAMADICS, of an actuator in a sugar factory, is presented to provide feasibility of the proposed method.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

The robots that will be needed in the near future are human-friendly robots that are able to coexist with humans and support humans effectively. To realize this, humans and robots need to be in close proximity to each other as much as possible. Moreover, it is necessary for their interactions to occur naturally. It is desirable for a robot to carry out human following, as one of the human-affinitive movements. The human-following robot requires several techniques: the recognition of the target human, the recognition of the environment around the robot, and the control strategy for following a human stably. In this research, an intelligent environment is used in order to achieve these goals. An intelligent environment is a space in which many sensors and intelligent devices are distributed. Mobile robots exist in this space as physical agents providing humans with services. A mobile robot is controlled to follow a walking human using distributed intelligent sensors as stably and precisely as possible. The control law based on the virtual spring model is proposed to mitigate the difference of movement between the human and the mobile robot. The proposed control law is applied to the intelligent environment and its performance is verified by the computer simulation and the experiment.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2003.821894

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/MIS.2004.1265880

Scopus

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

The Spatial Human Interface (SHI) is a relatively new system that enables us to facilitate human activity in a working environment. The SHI stores human activity data as knowledge and activity history of human into the Spatial Memory in a working environment as three-dimensional space where one acts, and loads them with the Spatial-Knowledge-Tags(SKT) by supporting the enhancement of human activity. To realize this, the SHI purpose is to construct a new relationship among human and distributed networks computers and sensors that is based on intuitive and simultaneous interactions. In this paper, the specified functions of SKT and the realization method of SKT are explained. The experimental results using SKT are shown.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

Mobile robots need sufficient sensors and information on the environment in order to navigate. In this paper, we propose a system of mobile robots, which is controlled in a distributed intelligent sensor network. In such a networked space, the environment is divided by distributed sensors. Each area is monitored by a distributed sensor device, which connects with other distributed sensor devices and robots throughout the network. As a result, the mobile robots are able to accomplish tasks simply by following orders from the sensor devices in the networked environment, although the mobile robots are not self-contained with information on the environment and sensors for self-positioning and control. We test several situations to verify the proposed system.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2003.817488

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

This paper dicusses the problem of parking assistance system development. Firstly, we propose the driver assistance systems general architecture based on path planning and human interface modules. A path generation method based on parking possibility area, is developed for the parking assistance systems. The human interface designed for the parking assistance systems is then described. A prototype of the parking assistance systems based on the proposed architecture and approaches have been constructed. Proposed algorithms and implementation solutions in the prototype construction are described. The lane and row parking experimental results obtained with the prototype systems are also shown. © 2003, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejias.123.227

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE Industrial Electronics Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper, a teleoperated nanoscale touching system is proposed, and continuum nanoscale contact mechanics models are introduced. The tele-nanorobotic system consists of a piezoresistive nanoprobe with a sharp tip as the nanorobot and force and topology sensor, a custom-made 1-degree-of-freedom haptic device for force-feedback, three-dimensional (3-D) virtual reality (VR) graphics display of the nano world for visual feedback, and force-reflecting servo type scaled teleoperation controller. Using this system, one-dimensional and 3-D touching experiments and VR simulations are realized. Scaling of nanoforces is one of the major issues of the scaled teleoperation system since nanometer scale forces are dominated by surface forces instead of inertial forces as in the macro world. As the force scaling approach, a heuristic rule is introduced where nanoforces are linearly scaled with an experimentally determined scaling parameter. Simulation results and preliminary experiments of touching to silicon and InAs quantum dot nanostructures show that adhesion forces at the nanoscale can be felt repeatedly at the operator's hand, and the proposed system can successfully enable the nanoscale surface topography and contact and noncontact nanoforce feedback.

DOI： 10.1109/TMECH.2003.812828

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper is the first to apply a multilevel driver assistance system in the development of a system to aid in the parking process. The development of this system is described within the WAN (intelligent CAr Navigation Systems) project framework.
A parking assistance system, parking administration system, and employed sensor system are described. The general architecture of a driver assistance system based on path planning and human-machine interface (HMI) modules is proposed. The paper follows describing the parking assistance system development using this architecture. The parking possibility region-based path-planning method proposed for implementing the proposed architecture is described, as is the design of the system's HMI.
A prototype of the parking assistance system based on the proposed architecture was constructed. The adopted hardware, software, and implementation solutions in this prototype construction are described. Finally, the results of lane and row parking experiments conducted using the prototype system are shown.

DOI： 10.1109/TIE.2002.807690

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

In this paper, a visual and haptic human-machine interface is proposed for teleoperated nano-scale object interaction and manipulation. Design specifications for a bilateral scaled teleoperation system with slave and master robots, sensors, actuators and control are discussed. The Phantom(TM) haptic device is utilized as the master manipulator, and a piezoresistive atomic force microscope probe is selected as the slave manipulator and as topography and force sensors. Using the teleoperation control system, initial experiments are realized for interacting with nano-scale surfaces. It is shown that fine structures can be felt on the operator's finger successfully, and improved nano-scale interaction and manipulation using visual and haptic feedback can be achieved.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：精密工学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Cyber Scientific  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

This paper describes our concept of Intelligent Space. Intelligent Spaces are rooms or areas that are equipped with sensors, which enable the spaces to perceive and understand what is happening in them. With such features. people or systems in the Intelligent Space can use additional functions that are afforded by the space. This research field itself is not particularly related to robotics, but we believe robots under Intelligent Spaces have many interesting features. Intelligent Spaces are expected to have a broad range of applications such as in homes, offices, factories, etc. Thus, we can consider that a robot, which will be used in our general living environment, is related to the concept of Intelligent Space. Several applications of Intelligent Space are shown in this paper with descriptions.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper, telemicromanipulation systems with haptic feedback, which are connected through network, are proposed. It is based on scaled bilateral teleoperation systems between different structures. These systems are composed of an original 6 degree of freedom (DOF) parallel link manipulator to carry out micromanipulation and a 6-DOF haptic interface with force feedback. A parallel mechanism is adopted as a slave micromanipulator because of its good features of accuracy and stiffness. The system modeling and control of the parallel manipulator system are conducted. Parallel manipulator feasibility as micromanipulator, positioning accuracy and device control characteristics are investigated. The haptic master interface is developed for micromanipulation systems. System modeling and model reference adaptive controller are conducted to compensate friction force, which spoils free motion performance and force response isotropy of the haptic interface. These systems aim to make the micromanipulation more productive constructing a better human interface through the microenvironment force and scale expansion.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Wiley Periodicals Inc.  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ASME  

A high-performance human interface device needs accurate force feedback from the manipulated environment to the operator to improve the operation. The mechanism applied in the human interface device usually has a reasonable imminent friction. This friction must be compensated in a way that the operator cannot feel this friction force but only the force from the manipulated environment. The main contribution of this paper is a practical application of direct model based chattering free sliding mode friction estimator and compensator for a human interface device, which is used for virtual telemanipulation. Experimental results are presented for a sensor glove type haptic device with 20 degrees of freedom. [S0022-0434(00)01104-7].

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：KOREAN SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS  

In this paper, we present a new approach to visual feedback control using image-based visual servoing with stereo vision. In order to control the position and orientation of a robot with respect to an object, a new technique is proposed using binocular stereo vision. The stereo vision enables us to calculate an exact image Jacobian not only around a desired location but also at other locations. The suggested technique can guide a robot manipulator to the desired location without providing a priori knowledge such as the relative distance to the desired location or the model of an object even when the initial positioning error is large. This paper describes a model of stereo vision and how to generate feedback commands. The performance of the proposed visual servoing system is illustrated by experimental results and compared with conventional control methods for an assembly robot.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper, a nano-robotic manipulation system using an atomic force microscope probe as the pushing manipulator and force and topology sensor is proposed. The task is the two-dimensional positioning of nanometer-size particles on a substrate in ambient conditions. Thus, the modeling of interaction forces and dynamics during the pushing operation is analyzed, and compared with the experimental results for an improved understanding of the nano scale physical phenomenon which is different from macro scale physics. Simulations and experiments are held for determining the conditions and strategies for reliable manipulation and determining the affecting parameters. The results show that the latex particles with 242- and 484-nm radii can be positioned on Si substrates successfully with around 30-nm accuracy, and the behavior of the particle motion during pushing can be predicted from the experimental data.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ディスタンスラーニング学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：I O S PRESS  

Motion control has been a fruitful ground for applying Variable Structure Systems (VSS) theory. This paper provides an assessment of the state of the art of the relevant theoretical results for motion control, and through a number of control design problems (namely classical, discrete-time, observer based discrete-time and frequency shaped sliding mode control) demonstrates the practical use of sliding mode in solving a number of critical design problems which are universal to both motion control and robotic manipulator control. Experimental results of a DSP-controlled single-degree-of-freedom motion-control system are presented.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：I O S PRESS  

In this paper an AC drive system of a commuter train is investigated from the point of view of load and line side perturbations. A simple drive and longitudinal train dynamical system has been developed, where the motor is driven by a voltage type inverter. This paper, as the first instant, describes and outlines the effects of load side perturbances, encountered as friction coefficient changes and normal load variations. As the next step, the effects of line side disturbances, such as overvoltage and voltage drop due to the loss of contact between pantograph and catenary, are investigated.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：VSP  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本機械学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

Advances in electronic technology have brought numerous changes in design of most types of construction equipment. The first wave of the changes can be represented by the proliferation of electronic devices, including microprocessors. Their applications include information display, engine control, and hydraulic control. Due to these electronic devices and electric loads such as lamps and motors, a typical construction vehicle has many wires and connectors. The second wave of the changes will be focused on how to reduce these complex wires by using digital communications. This paper presents the development of an integrated wiring system for construction equipment. More specifically, an excavator that has more than 40 devices has been chosen in order to apply the concept of the integrated wiring system, After grouping electrical devices by their locations and functions, two communication controllers, i,e., an instrument controller and an engine-hydraulic controller have been defined. Two test controllers have been developed in order to prove the concept.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本塑性加工学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Japan Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

In this paper, a tele-nanorobotic system using an atomic force microscope (AFM) as the nanorobot and sensor has been proposed. Modeling and control of the AFM cantilever, and modeling of nanometer scale forces have been realized for telemanipulation applications. In addition to three-dimensional virtual reality visual feedback in the user interface, a 1 d.o.f. haptic: device has been constructed for nano-scale haptic sensing. For feeling the nano forces, a bilateral teleoperation control system with virtual impedance approach has been introduced. Initial experiments and simulations on the AFM and teleoperation system show that the system can be utilized for different tele-nanomanipulation applications such as two-dimensional nano particle assembly or biological object manipulation.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Overseas Publishers Association Amsterdam B.V.  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：American Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ASME  

Autonomous operation of robots requires on-line obstacle avoidance. A wide-spread tool for obstacle avoidance, employed both for mobile robots and for manipulator arms, is the artificial potential field method. This paper extends previous results for planar problems to the general n-dimensional case. A significant decrease in computational complexity is achieved by projecting the n-dimensional workspace into a two-dimensional subspace called the operation plane. Furthermore, only the closest obstacle is taken into account when designing the artificial potential field. The effects of the required switching between potential fields of different obstacles are examined using sliding mode theory. A tracking controller is presented which allows exact following of the gradient of the artificial potential field. The methodology is illustrated with several numerical examples.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE Industrial Electronics Society  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：WILEY-BLACKWELL  

Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) are applied to turbomolecular pumps (TMPs) and milling spindles. However, their application areas are limited because they are costlier and require larger space than conventional mechanical bearings. Omitting position sensors from AMBs is one of the promising methods to solve such problems. An additional merit is that rotors can be shortened to have a higher critical speed by removing sensor targets from the rotor. The sensorless operation of AMBs has already been achieved in several instruments developed for experimental study. In this research, the sensorless magnetic suspension method is applied to a TMP manufactured as an industrial product, and it is demonstrated that sensorless AMBs can suspend a highspeed rotor.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

A key goal in dextrous robotic hand grasping is to balance external forces and at the same time achieve grasp stability and minimum grasping energy by choosing an appropriate set of internal grasping forces, Since it appears that there is no direct algebraic optimization approach, a recursive optimization, which is adaptive for application in a dynamic environment, is required.
One key observation in this paper is that friction force limit constraints and force balancing constraints are equivalent to the positive definiteness of a certain matrix subject to linear constraints, Based on this observation, we formulate the task of grasping force optimization as an optimization problem on the smooth manifold of linearly constrained positive definite matrices for which there are known globally exponentially convergent solutions via gradient flows. There are a number of versions depending on the Riemannian metric chosen, each with its advantages, Schemes involving second derivative information for quadratic convergence are also studied.
Several forms of constrained gradient flows are developed for point contact and soft-finger contact friction models, The physical meaning of the cost index used for the gradient flows is discussed in the context of grasping force optimization, A discretized version for real-time applicability is presented, Numerical examples demonstrate the simplicity, the good numerical properties, and optimality of the approach.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本機械学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this article we try to summarize the field of intelligent control (IC) for human-machine systems (HMS) from a subjective point of view. Mechatronic components have become intelligent from integrating mechanical, electrical and software intelligence in minimum space, certainly an important step in building IC systems, Taking this and recent successes using artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, so called soft computing, the field of IC is exciting with a bright future. This article attempts to anticipate this future and discusses directions of research to approach the realization of more intelligent systems, Human inclusion in such IC systems is as important as to increase autonomy, flexibility, and fault-tolerance, Iterative improvement over trials and optimal system design are important issues, The authors' research to realize IC of dextrous manipulation is briefly reviewed discussing the hey results and lessons.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD  

A new identification methodology, the variable structure system-based identification method, is proposed for multi-input multi-output systems. The developed identifier can successfully estimate unknown system parameters for both linear and some kinds of nonlinear systems that may not be linear in parametric space. The new identifier is essentially a closed-loop system with variable structure control. One major advantage of the proposed identification algorithm is that it provides effective identification for those nonlinear plants if only they are linear in parameter space while in sliding mode, in contrast to other identification algorithms, which usually require that the original nonlinear plants be linear in parameter space. Another advantage of the identification algorithm is that, owing to the robustness of variable structure control, systems with high parameter uncertainties and nonlinearities are not controllable, and consequently identifiable.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

In this paper we present a dynamic force simulator (DFS) for force feedback in human-machine systems, We propose a virtual world model with two force flows: one is the force flow from human to an object, the other is the force flow from an object to human, To use this model, DFS simulates object dynamics, contact models, and friction characteristics of the human hand interacting with the object in Virtual Reality, After derivation of kinematic and force relations between hand and object space, we balance the two forces: one from the human and the other from the object in the contact force space in Virtual World and then realize the adequate feedback forces to human operator, Interaction with DFS allows calculation and feedback of appropriate forces to the force controlled actuators of the sensor glove we have developed, In this paper grasping of a cylinder in the virtual world is presented, During object grasping, we measure joint angles and torques using the sensor glove system, In the future we will use this system to analyze human dextrous manipulations called Human Skill.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD  

The classical DC drive control structure (outer speed control loop and fast inner current control loop) is applied for induction motors. This paper focuses on the inner current control (indirect current control) loop. Three Park vector based VSC (Variable Structure Control) methods (one for input rectifier two for the output inverter) are studied. In the three cases, a complex error vector, a complex sliding surface and a complex distance vector (which indicates the distance of the actual state from the sliding surface) are defined. The inverter is switched in such a way that the system trajectory gets as close to the sliding surface as possible. In spite of the fact that the error vectors have different physical meanings, similar switching strategies can be applied to all cases due to the similarity of mathematical equations. By the proposed method both the low-order harmonics and the audio noise can be reduced.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：INST MEASUREMENT CONTROL  

Based on the guaranteed stability approach, a modified adaptive controller is presented for robotic manipulators. The developed control strategy guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking errors and parameter errors in the presence of a class of slate-dependent uncertainties, and the tracking error can be made arbitrarily small, rt is shown that with resettable design parameters and a low-pass-filter form of update equation the performance degradation and destabilisation of robotic systems can be prevented effectively in the practical situation.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：VSP BV  

In this paper we propose a new forthcoming research topic, the Intelligent Assisting System-IAS. Using this system, we are approaching the identification and analysis of human manipulation skills to be used for intelligent human operator assistance. A manipulation skill database enables the IAS to perform complex manipulations at the motion control level. Through repeated interaction with the operator for unknown environment states, the manipulation skills in the database can be increased on-line. A model for manipulation skill based on the grip transformation matrix is proposed, which describes the transformation between the object trajectory and the contact conditions. Tle dynamic behaviour of the grip transform is regarded as the essence of the performed manipulation skill. We describe the experimental system set-up of a skill acquisition and transfer system as a first approach to the IAS. A simple example of manipulation shows the feasibility of the proposed manipulation skill model. Furthermore, this paper derives a control algorithm that realizes object task trajectories, and its feasibility is shown by simulation.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：システム制御情報学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD  

This paper proposes two identification methodologies, the VSS-based direct and indirect identification methods, to deal with the parameter identification problems of both linear and nonlinear systems. Parameter identifiability and convergence are studied. The validity of proposed algorithms is confirmed through some numerical simulation examples.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

This paper describes a control scheme for a robotic manipulator system that uses visual information to position and orientate the end-effector. The control system directly integrates visual data into the servoing process without subdividing the process into determination of the position and orientation of the workpiece and inverse kinematic calculation. The feature of the control scheme is the use of neural networks for the determination of the change in joint angles required in order to achieve the desired position and orientation. The proposed system is able to control the robot so that it can approach the desired position and orientation from arbitrary initial ones. Simulation for the robotic manipulator with six degrees of freedom is done. The validity and the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme are verified by computer simulations.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Fuji Technology Press  

A microactuator consisting of a plane wafer with striped electrodes covered with an insulation layer and a thin cylindrical roller was fabricated. The silicon micromachining techniques were utilized to make the micro electrode patterns and the insulation layer on the plane wafer. Rollers were machined and assembled mechanically. The diameter of the roller was 0.4 mm and the width of driving electrodes was 34 μm. The position of the roller was determined by measuring the capacitance coupling between the roller and each electrode. Voltage up to 110 V was applied to the electrodes just beneath the roller and in the driving direction. The roller was kept at the ground potential and rotated towards the direction where the electric field attracted it. The driving performance, like stepping motors, was examined. The actuator was applied to an electric micro relay. © 1992.

DOI： 10.1016/0957-4158(92)90014-F

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：the Robotics Society of Japan  

A new method for the sliding surface design of variable structure control systems (VSS) using frequency criteria of Hš€theory is presented in this paper. Hš€theory is a well-known tool for forming desired frequency character in linear controller designs. We show that an Hš€state feedback solution is available for sliding plane design. The idea of augmented control plants, where the system states are increased by appropriate frequency weights, is also useful for sliding mode control. With this approach, frequency shaping which agrees with the specification of the response can be designed. © VSP and Robotics Society of Japan 1993.

DOI： 10.1163/156855393X00393

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE Control Systems Society  

DOI： 10.1109/37.126850

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

DOI： 10.1002/eej.4391110215

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：INST ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本機械学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：I E E E  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

This paper describes a local path planning method for a mobile robot to search for a path in an unknown environment by using visual information. The mobile robot system has a hierarchical path planning system which searches for a path efficiently in an uncertain environment. The planning system consists of a global planner and a local planner. The global planner gives a global path in terms of a sequence of visual sub-goals. Then the local planner generates a local path between the sub-goals with the help of a visual sensor. The main focus of this paper is on local path planning, which provides real-time guidance to the system. A visual sensor can provide useful information about the environment. So, an algorithm is proposed to generate avoiding points by using visual information to bypass unknown obstacles in the local path planning. Local path planning in a simple environment is simulated by using three-dimensional graphics. A simple experiment is also done for the case where there are two obstacles. The validity of the proposed method is verified by these simulations and experimental results. © VSP and Robotics Society of Japan 1991.

DOI： 10.1163/156855391X00287

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Generalized predictive control (GPC) developed by Clarke et al. is a powerful control method. It is known that GPC has a strong robustness to the parameter mismatch, model order, dead time, etc. In this paper, the authors implement this method to a servo system using DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The predictor used here predicts the future trajectory points. The control input is then determined by minimizing the norm of future errors (i.e. the differences between future trajectory points and reference trajectory points) over a future control horizon. The algorithm is easy to be implemented in a computer, especially in a DSP system. In the experiments, DSP is used to calculate the voltage to be applied to the servo motor. The experimental results show that accurate trajectory following is possible in spite of the simplification imposed to the predictor model and ignorance of the payload. © 1990, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejias.110.990

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：電気学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：I E E E  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：日本ロボット学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE Power Electronics Society  

A new methodology using the theory of variable structure systems is developed for accurate tracking control of robotic manipulators. The proposed method, based on a sliding mode controller, produces a discontinuity control input so that the nonlinear interactions and influence caused by unknown parameter variations can be depressed whereas the resulting control law is simple and easy to apply to online computer control. The digital simulation results of a three-degree-of-freedom manipulator show the validity of accurate tracking capability and robust performance of the system with the developed control scheme. Copyright © 1987 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

DOI： 10.1109/TPEL.1987.4766351

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：計測自動制御学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：システム制御情報学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：システム制御情報学会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC  

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