Research activities in 2002

Cellular Robotic System (CEBOT)

Robot applied under hazardous environment

The main purpose of this project is to develop a robotic system for maintenance applications under unstructured environments. The wall-climbing robot, the flying manipulator, the brachiation type of mobile robot, the pipe inspection robot etc. have been proposed.

Coordinated Motion Control of Dual Manipulators

The target of this project is to develop a coordinated motion control algorithm of manipulators based on the impedance model of each arm. The algorithm is applicable to both manipulation of an object and relative dynamic motion of RCC between two parts. It specifies the load, external force distribution, the internal force applied to the object and apparent impedance of the manipulated object.

Sensor Integration System

A new sensor integration technique using neural network and fuzzy inference has been developed so far. The goal of this project is to develop a sensor integration system for robotic applications in the aerospace industry.

Intelligent Human Machine Interface Considering InteractiveAdaptation

This project proposes Interactive Adaptation Interface applied to an operation system of rough terrain crane. The system assists human operation with various types of operational assistance information based on sensor's output and an automatic control theory. The VR technology enables the system to express more effective and easier to understand with visual display, tactile display, auditory display, etc. The system has a function that infers human's states (e.g. operational skill level) with Recursive Fuzzy Inference. To apply this function, we focus on tactile display because the system can change the strength of operational assistance. We made a VR crane simulator, which includes the proposed operational assistance system. Operational experiments were performed to confirm the effect of the proposed system. The aim of the experiments is to suppress payload's swing with 2 DOF joystick. The joystick has tactile display devices in its grip. Subjects control the joystick to suppress payload's swing with referring tactile display which shows proper control method. The results clearly show the effect of the proposed operational

Telesurgery System for Intravascular Neurosurgery

Goal of this project is to develop a medical assistance system which supports doctor's operation and decision making while a medical treatment. Our target field is the intravascular neurosurgery using a catheter that is a thin tube made of soft plastic. This softness of the catheter disturbs operator's appropriate maneuvering and this causes fatigue of patients and doctors and elongating of the operation time. Therefore, a novel medical assistance system is needed. Our approach is; first: developing new surgical devices using micro technologies and installing these devices in the intravascular surgical tools. We have developed a small force sensor that is installed in the tip of catheter. The diameter is 1.2 mm and the length is 5 mm. This small force sensor measures the contact force between the catheter and blood vessels. This information is an alternative tactile sensation that doctors had never felt. Second: integrating these micro devices into teleoperation system appropriately. Third: developing new control strategies that enable doctors to operate intravascular surgical tools easily. The new sensation is useful when the teleoperation system displays that information appropriately to the operator. So a new control strategy is needed.

An in vitro Anatomical Model of Human Cerebral Artery

Bio-Micro Manipulation System

This project aims at developing the manipulation system of micro objects such as the biological cell, microbe and DNA molecule with directly contact manipulation and non-contact manipulation. The biological cell is so small and flexible that it is difficult to handle by the manipulator with fingers directly. Therefore, non-contact manipulation with optical power and field power such as electrostatic field is considered to be effective to handle it. This project approaches to achieve the manipulation system by the constructing the micromanipulator using optical and electric field power and operating system using virtual reality technology.

Nano Device

The scope of this project is following. The theory and application based on analysis and synthesis from the micro level to the nano level engineering problems, including the material fabrication, device, machining, micro/nano manipulation, micro/nano measurement, micro/nano actuation, simulation, micro/nano robotics bio-medical science and industrial applications.