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A wheeled mobile robot is expected of a high speed exploration and low production costs compared with a crawler type of mobile robot. A four wheeled mobile robot has especially a simple driving mechanism and good maintenance characteristics. In the field of the farm machine, the four wheeled mobile robot on a rough terrain is expected as the farming autonomous robot. In this paper, a four wheeled reconfigurable mobile robot is developed for use on the rough terrain slope like a grassy slope. The developed mobile robot is composed of a four-wheels drive mechanism and active four legs by parallel linkage mechanism. The effectiveness of the developed mobile robot is shown in experimental results by grassy slope movement.

Standing-up motion training has been practiced as a highly effective rehabilitation for strengthening lower limb muscles by Physical Therapist in hospitals and the like. Meanwhile, elderly persons and patients with recovery tendency desire to execute this standing-up motion training at ordinary households. In this paper, we develop a simple type of a standing-up motion training aid for cordless and non-electric source driving uses in order to repeat standing-up motions by a simple mechanism.

The Human Robotics Research Center at Kyushu Sangyo University was established in 2013 as a practical center for the study of robots designed for rehabilitation and care-support. The HRRC seeks to implement robots intended for the medical and care fields to address problems in those fields. We have focused on the development of rehabilitation robots for spinal cord injury patients. Here, we present three different robots we have developed for standing-motion training, primary-walking-pattern training, and practical-walking training.

As super aged society advances, the need of the rehabilitation using a robot grows big year by year. The current rehabilitation device only includes some kind of rehabilitation support movement functions in place of a doctor and a physical therapist for a body function paralyzed by a cerebropathy, and the function reviving a lost brain function positively does not comprise it. A purpose of this study is to develop the bilateral/haptics control unit with the function to give an illusion in brain. Brain stimulus data are measured using NIRS, and the data analysis is carried out by deep learning. If the improvement of the rehabilitation effect of the person with cerebropathy by the brain illusion is expected as for this device, and, furthermore, not only the patient with the cerebropathy but also the normal elderly person uses it, the health maintenance prevention of the dementia is expected.

Recently, attention has been focused on incomplete-type spinal cord injury to the central spine caused by pressure on parts of the white matter conducting pathway such as the pyramidal tract. In this paper, we focus on a training robot designed to assist with primary walking pattern training. The target patient of this training robot is one who is relearning the basic functions of the usual walking pattern, especially for patients with the incomplete type SCI to the central spine, who are capable of standing by themselves but are not capable of performing walking motions. From the perspective of human engineering, we monitored the operator’s actions to the robot and investigated the movement of joints of the lower extremities, the circumference of the lower extremities and the exercise intensity with the machine. The concept of the device is to provide mild training without any sudden changes in heart rate or blood pressure, which will be particularly useful for the elderly and disabled.

We have been developing a series of robots to apply for each step of spinal cord injury (SCI) training. We describe the standing up and sitting assisting robot, the preliminary walking pattern assisting robot, and the practical walking assisting robot. The project, aimed at robotizing the training process, may change the SCI rehabilitation process, which may in turn promote the practical realization of the robots. First, a new standing up and sitting training robot is proposed. Second, especially in the case of incomplete SCI to the central spine, the robot assisting the coordinated motions of the lower extremities is proposed. Third, we have developed the assisting robot for dynamic practical walking. The preliminary experimental results are discussed to verify the basic functions of the robot assisting.

Thispaper proposesaTwoWheelsCaster(TW-Caster)typeof odometerfordeadreckoningof Omni-DirectionalMobileRobots (ODMRs). The proposed TW-Caster is composed of two passive wheels and one passive rotational axis with a dual shaft. The two wheels rotate independently, and the rotational axis changes orientation of the TW-Caster as the ODMR motion. Angular velocitiesofthetwo wheelsand rotationalaxisare measuredbythreerotary encodersusingagear train.Amechanismofthegear train is proposed to prevent the encoder from being entangled with itself. Using measured values of the three encoders, the current velocityvectorof the ODMRis calculatedby kinematicsof theTW-Caster. The current position and orientationof the ODMR are estimated by the dead reckoning of the TW-Caster.

To achieve high-speed, high-precision position control for semiconductor product machines and industrial robots, full-closed feedback control is applied. Many control methods have been proposed for such a system. In general, proportional position control and proportional plus integral velocity control or integral plus proportional velocity control (P,PI/I-P), which is a type of proportional plus integral plus differential control (PID), is applied in many industrial applications. However, in the case of changing mechanical characteristics of the control target, the parameters of P,PI/I-PI control must also change in order to maintain good motion performance. In this paper, we propose a new P,PI/I-P control method that includes a nonlinear compensator. The algorithm of the nonlinear compensator is based on sliding mode control with chattering compensation. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is evaluated using a full-closed single-axis slider system via point-to-point control and contour control in the case of changing load. The experimental results indicate that the proposed control method is robust in the case of changing acceleration/deceleration of control reference, changing load, and low-velocity contour motion. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 174(2): 65–71, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.21011

We describe a unique competition based on the novel concept of robotics and mechatronics products that included evaluation of the products' engineering function and interface design. Fifteen teams from six universities joined the competition, whose subject was “Health, care and communication aids for the elderly.” Many of the plans presented ideas that balanced function and design, showing the results of collaboration among students studying engineering and students studying product design.

To achieve high-speed and high-precision position control for semiconductor product machines and industrial robots, the full-closed feedback control is applied. Many control methods have been proposed for such a system. In general, P,PI/I-PI control which is one of PID control is applied to a lot of industrial applications. However, in case of changing mechanical characters of control target, the parameters of P,PI/I-PI control have to be changed for keeping a good motion performance. In this paper, we propose a new P,PI/I-P control method which is with nonlinear compensator. The algorithm of nonlinear compensator is based on sliding mode control with chattering compensation. The effectiveness of proposed control method is evaluated by using full-closed single axis slider system via point to point control and contour control in the case of changing load. From the experimental results, the proposed control method has robustness in the case of changing acceleration/deceleration of control reference, changing load and low velocity contouring motion.

Recently attention has been focused on incomplete spinal cord injuries (SCI) to the central spine caused by pressure on parts of the white matter conduction pathway, such as the pyramidal tract. In this paper, we focus on a training robot designed to assist with primary walking-pattern training. The target patient for this training robot is relearning the basic functions of the usual walking pattern; it is meant especially for those with incomplete-type SCI to the central spine, who are capable of standing by themselves but not of performing walking motions. From the perspective of human engineering, we monitored the operator's actions to the robot and investigated the movement of joints of the lower extremities, the circumference of the lower extremities, and exercise intensity with the machine. The concept of the device was to provide mild training without any sudden changes in heart rate or blood pressure, which will be particularly useful for the elderly and disabled. The mechanism of the robot is modified to be simple and lightweight with the expectation that it will be used at home., {"references":["A. Hanafusa, J. Sasaki, T. Fuwa and T. Ikeda, \"Self-Aided Manipulator\nSystem for Bed-Ridden Patients -Evaluation of Psychological Influence\nfor the Generated Approach Motion-,\" in Proc. of 2009 IEEE 11th Int.\nConf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2009, USB memory.","S. Peng, F. Lian and L. Fu, \"Development of Multi-Functional Robotic\nTest-Bed for Post-Surgical Healthcare Room,\" in Proc. of 2009 IEEE\n11th Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2009, USB memory.","T. Rofer, C. Mandel and T. Laue, \"Controlling an Automated Wheelchair\nvia Joystick/Head-Joystick supported by Smart Driving Assistance,\" in\nProc. of 2009 IEEE 11th Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2009,\nUSB memory.","T. Sakaki, T. Iribe, T. Kurogi, T. Koga, K. Ushijima, M. Sakuragi and K.\nMiyanaga, \"Robotic Stretcher for SMA Patient: Preliminary Tests on\nControllability and Safety,\" in Proc. of IFAC World Congress 2011,\n2011, CD-ROM.","Y. Sankai et al. \" Study on Hybrid Power Assist HAL-1 for Walking Aid\nusing EMG,\" in Proc. of the JME on Ibaraki Symp., 2000, pp. 269-272.","Y. 3Stauffler, Y. Allemand, M. Bouri, J. Fournier, R. Clavel, \"Pelvic\nMotion Measurement During Over Ground Walking, Analysis and\nImplementation on the WalkTrainer Reeducation Device,\" in Proc. IEEE\nInt. Conf. Intel. Rob. Syst. (IROS), 2008, pp. 2362-2367.","A. Konig, \"Design principles to transfer basic neuroscience into gait\nrehabililation rehabilitation robots,\" in Proc. 2011 IEEE 11th Int. Conf.\non Rehabilitation Robotics, 2011, CD-ROM.","R. Rupp, \"Engineering robots for an effective locomotion therapy –\nThere's more than joint angles!,\" in Proc. 2011 IEEE 11th Int. Conf. on\nRehabilitation Robotics, 2011, CD-ROM.","S. Hesse, D. Uhlenbrock, Sarkodie-Gyan \"Gait pattern of severely\ndisabled hemiparetic subjects on a new controlled gait trainer as\ncompared to assisted treadmill walking with partial body weight support,\"\nin Clin Rehabil May 1999, 1999, vol.13, no.5, pp. 401-410.\n[10] M. Peshkin et. al, \"KineAssist: A robotic overground gait and balance\ntraining device,\" in Proc. 2005 IEEE 11th Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation\nRobotics, 2005, CD-ROM.\n[11] T. Sakaki, N. Ushimi, K. Aoki, K. Fujiie, R. Katamoto, A. Sugyo, Y.\nKihara, \"Rehabilitation robots assisting in walking training for SCI\npatient,\" in IFAC BMS2012, 2012, CD-ROM.\n[12] K. Hachisuka et. al., \"A prototype walking assist robot and its clinical\napplication for stroke patients with severe gait disturbance,\" Advances in\nPhysical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2003, pp. 23-26.\n[13] B. H. Dobkin, \"Strategies for stroke rehabilitation,\" Lancet Neul., 2004,\nNo.3, pp. 528-536.\n[14] P. Langhone et. al., \"Motor recovery after stroke: a systematic review,\"\nLancet Neurol., 2009, No.8, pp. 741-754.\n[15] J. Hidler et. al., \"Multicenter randomized clinical trial evaluating the\neffectiveness of the Lokomat in subacute stroke,\" Neurorehabil. Neural\nRepair, 2009, No.23, pp. 5-13.\n[16] G. Colombo, J. Matthias, S. Reinhard, and D. Volker, \"Treadmill training\nof paraplegic patients using a robotic orthosis,\" J. Rehabil. Res. Dev.,\nVol. 37, No. 6, pp. 693-700, 2000.\n[17] M. R. Dimitrijevic, Y. Gerasimenko, and M. M. Pinter, \"Evidence for a\nspinal central pattern generator in humans,\" Ann. NY Acad. Sci., No. 860,\npp.360-376, 1998.\n[18] T. Sakaki, N. Ushimi, K. Aoki, K. Fujiie, R. Katamoto, A. Sugyo and Y.\nKihara, \"Rehabilitation robots assisting in walking training for SCI\npatient,\" in Proc. of Ro-Man 2013, 2013, USB memory.\n[19] Taisuke Sakaki, Nobuhiro Ushimi, Koji Murakami, Yong-Kwun Lee,\nKazuhiro Tsuruta, Kanta Aoki, Kaoru Fujiie, Ryuji Katamoto, Atsushi\nSugyo, Yoshimitsu Kihara and Kenji Tateishi, \"Rehabilitation robot in\nprimary walking pattern training for SCI patient,\" in Proc. of ICNR 2014,\n2014, USB memory."]}

Recently, attention has been focused on incomplete-type spinal cord injury (SCI) to the central spine caused by pressure on parts of the white matter conducting pathway such as the pyramidal tract. In this paper, we focus on a training robot designed to assist with primary walking pattern training. The target patient of this training robot is one who is relearning the basic functions of the usual walking pattern, especially for patients with the incomplete type SCI to the central spine, who are capable of standing by themselves but are not capable of performing walking motions. We investigated the movement of joints of the lower extremities, the circumference of the lower extremities and the exercise intensity with the machine. From the experimental results the training robot for home-use based on the experiments on the hospital-use type is proposed. The operating panel, accessibility from wheel chair to the robot and the mechanism were modified for the home-use.

This paper proposes a tracking control method for Omni-Directional Vehicles (ODVs) along desired trajectories using a new type of odometer, called a Two Wheels Caster Type (TWCT) odometer, specially designed for ODV dead-reckoning. Driving wheels of conventional ODVs slip easily. When an odometer is connected directly to a driving wheel shaft, such a slip causes large dead-reckoning error. The TWCT odometer we proposed is attached independently to the driving wheel of the ODV to avoid the influence of the slip. The TWCT odometer passively follows the omni-directional motion of the ODV. The current position and orientation of the ODV are estimated accurately by dead-reckoning from TWCT odometer measurement. The proposed control method uses the estimated current position and orientation that allow accurate tracking control of the ODV along a desired trajectory. Tracking control is improved by the TWCT odometer. Experimental results show effectiveness of the proposed control method using the TWCT odometer.

This paper proposes a two wheels caster type odometer to estimate the current position and orientation of omnidirectional vehicles. The proposed odometer is composed of two passive wheels and one passive rotational axis. The two passive wheels rotate independently, and the passive rotational axis changes the odometer's orientation. Angular velocities of the two wheels and rotational axis are measured by three rotary encoders. In order to solve an encoder's wiring problem by increasing rotation of the rotational axis, a mechanism of a gear train is proposed. Using measured values of the three encoders, the current velocity vector of an omni-directional vehicle is calculated by kinematics of the proposed odometer. Using the velocity vector, the position and orientation of the omni-directional vehicle are estimated by dead-reckoning. An experimental two wheels caster type odometer is developed. Experimental results of localization by the developed odometer are shown in this paper.

Recently, attention has been focused on incomplete-type spinal cord injury to the central spine caused by pressure on parts of the white matter conducting pathway such as the pyramidal tract. In this paper, we focus on a training robot designed to assist with primary walking pattern training. The target patient of this training robot is one who is relearning the basic functions of the usual walking pattern, especially for patients with the incomplete type SCI to the central spine, who are capable of standing by themselves but are not capable of performing walking motions. From the perspective of human engineering, we monitored the operator’s actions to the robot and investigated the movement of joints of the lower extremities, the circumference of the lower extremities and the exercise intensity with the machine. The concept of the device is to provide mild training without any sudden changes in heart rate or blood pressure, which will be particularly useful for the elderly and disabled.

This paper proposes a sensor system to identify mobile robot's current position by measuring target direction angles. Basic component of the sensor system is constructed with a revolutionary sensor head to detect a landmark. The sensor head tracks the direction of landmark using a characteristic of directivity for sensor unit. Two of the component are combined to measure horizontal and vertical angles corresponding to the direction of the landmark. Using two measured values by the sensor system, mobile robot's current position is calculated by a geometrical relation of the mobile robot and the landmark. An experimental target direction sensor system for the mobile robot is developed. Basic characteristics of the developed sensor system is shown in this paper.

Sensor-based navigation used a target direction sensor for mobile robots among unknown obstacles in work space is discussed. The advantage of target direction information is robustness of measurement error for online navigation, compared to robot location information. Convergence of navigation using target direction information is discussed. An actual sensor system using two CdS sensors to measure target direction is proposed. Using target direction information, we present a new sensor based navigation algorithm in unknown obstacle environment. The navigation algorithm is based on target direction information, unlike sensor-based motion planning algorithms based on mobile robot location information. Using a sensor-based navigation system, we conducted a navigation experiment and simulations in unknown obstacle environment.

This paper proposes a sensor-based navigation algorithm for mobile robots using information of target direction. The mobile robot moves from an initial position to a desired target position in obstructed environment by the navigation algorithm, where the robot does not know positions and shapes of obstacles, but only knows local information on obstacle's wall and target direction by it's sensor. The algorithm uses target direction instead of robot's position information which is used in other sensor-based navigation algorithm. This navigation method has robustness on the measurement error of target direction, while other navigation algorithms may not be able to work if the robot's position has measurement error. The main point of the algorithm is using the rotational angle of the robot based on topological characteristic of obstacles. Some simulations using the sensorbased navigation algorithm show an effectiveness by comparison of the proposed method and a conventional position based algorithm. Experimental navigation system using the proposed algorithm is developed for confirming the validity of the simulation study.

In this paper, the load carrying capacity, in particular, the surface durability of gear pairs with a combination of Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) gear and hardened steel one is investigated using a power-circulating type gear testing machine. The surface durability of cermet-hobbed ADI gears approaches to that of hardened steels if an adequate tooth profile modification is made. The surface durability of shot-peened ADI gears is lower than that of cermet-hobbed ADI ones. This difference is caused by the difference in surface roughness. Furthermore, the impact strength of ADI is investigated with a impact testing machine for gears. It is found that the impact strength of ADI for the gears is as same as that of steel with almost the same hardness as ADI.

To achieve high-speed, high-precision position control for semiconductor product machines and industrial robots, full-closed feedback control is applied. Many control methods have been proposed for such a system. In general, proportional position control and proportional plus integral velocity control or integral plus proportional velocity control (P, PI/I-P), which is a type of proportional plus integral plus deferential control (PID), is applied in many industrial applications. However, in the case of changing mechanical characteristics of the control target, the parameters of P, PI/I-PI control must also change or a disturbance observer is applied, to maintain good motion performance. In this paper, we propose a nonlinear observer to suppress the vibration for a table positioning system. The algorithm of the nonlinear observer is based on sliding mode control with chattering compensation. The effectiveness of the proposed observer is evaluated using a full-closed 2mass system model via point-to-point control in the case of changing load. The simulations and experiments indicate that the proposed observer is effective for vibration suppression in the case of changing load.

This paper presents new vibration suppression control method for multiaxis table drive system. In multiaxis table drive system, the synchronization error disturbs high precision and a fast response time to cause serious vibration. It is caused by a motion error due to a characteristics change of a table slide system. In the case of synchronization error suppression, the model of motion characteristics of a table slide system is necessary and the time delay in a servo controller has to compensate. The proposed method consists of two steps. The first step is the identification of moment of load inertia, viscous friction coefficient and coulomb friction for each axis in an independent state by offline identification method to make a table slide system. The second step is new predictive synchronization error compensation algorithm (PSEC) to reject of the transfer delay time influence of servo controller in a state with the axis interference. PSCA is designed by using synchronization torque error, velocity error and position error. The proposed method is verified by the simulations and the experimental results that PSEC is robust as compared to the without predictive function on the twin axes drive system.

In the machine tool industry and the semiconductor manufacture fields, the necessity of high precision and fast response is rapidly spreading. In general, it is well known that a positioning control system contains nonlinear friction force; it may cause a serious disadvantage on control performances such as tracking errors, limit cycles and undesired stick-slip motion at very low motion velocity. In order to achieve the high level control performance, the frictional effects have to be removed. This paper presents a novel nonlinear friction compensation approach based on the idea of P,PI/I-P+FF control with sliding mode compensator for a high precision stage using a synchronous piezoelectric device driver. P,PI/I-P+FF control consists of Proportional position control and Proportional-Integral/Integral-Proportional velocity control with velocity Feed-Forward compensator. Experimental results are given to show the effectiveness of our proposed control method compared to the conventional P,PI/I-P+FF control method. Especially, the positioning error of our proposed control was reduced by more than 2/3 compared to the case of the conventional control at a stepping motion.

This paper proposes a realistic on-line navigation method of the mobile robot in dynamical environment where multiple obstacles are always changing their velocities. Considering characteristics of actual sensor system, a method to estimate the velocity of moving obstacles is presented. The estimated velocity and measured distance from the nearest obstacle are used to plan a velocity of mobile robot based on a new idea of Collision Possibility Cone(CPC). Then an on-line navigation method is proposed by using CPC and feasible velocity space of mobile robot. Simulational examples show an effectiveness of the new navigation.

This paper describes an omni-directional vertical stereo vision system for an autonomous mobile robot. The system is composed of two omni-directional cameras and enables both the localization with wide range of view and the obstacles detection by 3D measurement of arbitrary direction. The system architecture and an experimental result are shown.

This paper proposes a realistic on-line navigation method of mobile robot in dynamical environment where multiple obstacles (many people) are always changing their velocities and the robot does not know the velocities in advance. Considering characteristics of actual sensor system for mobile robot, a method to estimate the velocity of moving obstacles is presented. The estimated velocity and measured distance from the nearest obstacle are used to plan a velocity of mobile robot based on a new idea of Collision Possibility Cone. Then an on-line navigation method is proposed by using Collision Possibility Cone and feasible velocity space of mobile robot. By considering the dynamical constraints of mobile robot and moving obstacles, the mobile robot using the navigation method can move to it’s destination without collision in the existence of multiple moving obstacles, even for the case that the moving obstacles change their velocities between sensor cycle of mobile robot. Simulational examples of on-line navigation show an effectiveness of the new navigation method. Finally a developed mobile robot to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method is shown.