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This work is the extended version of a paper presented at the conference HMM2021, about the history of mechanical engineering. First, the initial cultural and industrial steps in the robotic field in Japan are introduced, to display the beginning of this interlaced path, before WW2; then, in the context of the aftermaths of the war, some famous anime heroes are presented as ancestors of the coming mecha anime series. The rising research in the field of robotics and more generally the developments of contemporary Japanese automation industry are then drawn, as a technological substrate for mecha conception. In particular, Masahiro Mori studies are taken into consideration to identify an actual robot design pattern to apply to the following comparative description and examination of the different mecha; finally, thanks to this analysis, the common breeding ground whence robotics and mecha (and their reciprocal influences) arise, is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze and compare two didactical designs for introducing primary school pupils to proportional reasoning in the context of plane polygons. One of them is well-documented in the literature; the other one is based on our own data and is accordingly presented and discussed in more detail in this paper. The two designs come from different cultural and intellectual environments: lesson study in Japan (implicitly based on the “open approach method”) and “didactical engineering” in France (based on the theory of didactical situations). The general aim of our paper is to compare these two environments and their approaches to didactical design, basing our discussion on the concrete designs mentioned above. Clear differences among them are presented, while we also identify links which hold potential for integrating research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The qualitative description of rock masses by means of classification systems and subsequent correlation to establish engineering quantities or design parameters has become one of the most challenging topics in rock engineering. Many rock mass classification systems have been proposed for rock masses with the consideration of a particular rock structure and/or specific purposes. Therefore, direct utilization of these systems, in their original form, for the characterization of complex rock mass conditions is not always possible. This is probably one of the reasons why rock engineers continue to develop new systems or modify and extend current ones. The recent tendency is to obtain rock mass properties from the utilization of properties of intact rock and rock classification indexes, which have some drawbacks. In this study, it is aimed to propose a new rock mass quality rating system designated as Rock Mass Quality Rating (RMQR). This new rock mass rating system is used to estimate the geomechanical properties of rock masses. In the first part of this paper, the input parameters of RMQR and their ratings are given and discussed. In the second part, the unified formula proposed by the first author is adopted for the new rock mass rating system for estimating the rock mass properties and compared with the results of the in situ tests carried out in Japan and those estimated from some empirical relationships developed by other investigators, and the outcomes of these studies are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]