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In this paper, we introduce a report on the situation at Fukushima and present two lessons that were learned involving: (1) multi-robot operation and (2) robot operation by workers. Workers with no prior experience with robots operated multi-robots in dynamically changing environments. We focus on the following two themes in multi-robot operations: (1) communication between operators and (2) pairing of operators. An experiment using a rescue robot operation training platform based on Unified System for Automation and Robot Simulation is shown, and the results of the experiment are discussed. We believe that these verify that the training platform is useful for recue robot operation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: Efforts have been made to improve the OPACs by collocating bibliographic records sharing the same "work" and navigating users among records under a certain "work," according to the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). This paper investigates methods of automatically identifying "works," i.e., grouping bibliographic records sharing the same work, for the JAPAN/MARC records, which are typical Japanese bibliographic records created and maintained by libraries in Japan. It reports the extent to which records can be automatically identified as member of a particular work and also which of the possible methods are effective. Methods: The method used in this study is to generate work identification keys for each work represented in a bibliographic record and then to bring the keys representing the same works together. The keys are in principle constructed as a combination of an author name and a title from the record. Several methods of generating such keys were examined and the clustering of keys was executed for each method. The clusters built automatically were evaluated by comparing them with the sample correct sets built manually. Results: The results of the experiment show that the proposed method is effective in average cases; however, the performance depends on the characteristics of works, for example, the volume of records sharing the same work, whether anonymous or not, and whether uniform titles exist. It also shows that it is effective to generate keys for every bibliographic hierarchical level with data elements such as author headings, statements of responsibility, descriptive titles, and title headings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a humanoid robot HRP-IS that is capable of simultaneous whole body motion control In phase one of the Humanoid Robotics Project (HRP) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and lndustry of Japan, Honda R&D Co. Ltd has produced humanoid robot HRP-1 as a humanoid research platform to ease the development of good applications for humanoid robots in phase two of HRP However; HRP-1 controls its legs and arms separately, and is not suitable for some applications. We modified the control hardware of HRP-1 and implemented our own control software. The modified robot was designated HRP-JS. The motion controller of HRP-IS is built in accordance with the plug-in architecture. We have developed some plug-ins including a real-time walking pattern generator (KWALK plug-in) and a reflex controller (STABILIZER plug-in) to maintain the dynamic balance of HRP-IS. In this paper we present the system architecture of the control system of HRP-IS and several experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue focuses on Discovery Science (DS), which is a scientific discipline on any discovery process that is mainly approached by computer science. DS first started as a national project in Japan involving more than 100 researchers in 1998 and the project gave birth to a series of international conferences on DS, which have been held successfully every year since 1998. The objective of this special issue is to provide a leading forum for timely, in-depth presentation of recent advances in algorithms, theories and applications in the field of DS. Seven papers, ranging in a spectrum from basic theoretical research to solid application research, are included in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]