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For future medical microrobotics, we have proposed the concept of the electroosmotic self-propulsive microswimmer powered by biofuel cell. According to the derived theoretical model, its self-propulsion veloci...
A worm gear has the advantages of a large reduction ratio and non-backdrivability. Because of this non-backdrivability, it can maintain a joint angle without energy consumption. Today, many robots have large w...
Spatial change detection is a fundamental technique for finding the differences between two or more pieces of geometrical information. This technique is critical in some robotic applications, such as search an...
To achieve quantitative palpation in vivo, we developed a catheter-type tactile sensor composed of a polyvinylidene fluoride film for minimally invasive surgery. We evaluated the fundamental performance of the...
In supermarkets or grocery, a shopping cart is a necessary tool for shopping. In this paper, we have developed an intelligent shopping support robot that can carry a shopping cart while following its owners an...
In this paper, toward robotic gait assistance, we investigate the feasibility of a cane-type assistive mobile robot accompanying the user autonomously through a clinical pilot experiment. As widely known, gait...
In this study, the novel approach of real-time video stabilization system using a high-frame-rate (HFR) jitter sensing device is demonstrated to realize the computationally efficient technique of digital video...
Slippage occurrence has an important roll in stable and robust object grasping and manipulation. However, in majority of prior research on soft finger manipulation, presence of the slippage between fingers and...
Brain damage due to stroke often leaves survivors with lateral functional motor deficits. Bimanual rehabilitation of the paretic arm is an active field of research aimed at restoring normal functionality by ma...
Automation and labor saving in agriculture have been required recently. However, mechanization and robots for growing fruits have not been advanced. This study proposes a method of detecting fruits and automat...
This study introduces injury risk curves for the lumbar spine for use in the risk assessment of low back pain (LBP) caused by manual lifting of heavy loads. LBP has been a longstanding problem among industrial...
This paper presents fabrication and actuation methods for a soft microrobot with a hybrid structure composed of soft microactuators and a rigid supporting body. This hybrid structure enables actuation of the m...
Breast cancer diagnosis has been mostly accomplished through imaging. These methods have great advantages in being able to detect the presence and location of breast cancer. However, it is difficult to disting...
One of the recommended post-stroke gait rehabilitation treatments is the use of an ankle–foot orthosis. In clinical practice, it is important to adjust the torque of the ankle–foot orthosis assistance to suit ...
This paper reports negative effects on runner’s motions which are supported by an exoskeleton attached to his/her lower limbs. A wearable assistive device has generally been developed to support motions of a w...
Recently, wearable extra robotic limbs that aim to enhance the functionality and capability of human operators as extra arms or fingers have become an active research subject among robotics researchers. Improv...
This paper proposes a navigation system of a personal mobility robot in informationally structured and unstructured environments. First, we introduce a group of robots named Portable Go, which are equipped wit...
A long-reach robotic arm is useful for applications such as nuclear plant decommissioning, inspection, and firefighting. However, for such arms, a small external reaction force can result in large loads on pro...
There has been an increasing interest in mobile manipulators that are capable of performing physical work in living spaces worldwide, corresponding to an aging population with declining birth rates with the ex...
In this paper, we present a novel method for caging-based grasping of deformable objects. This method enables manipulators to grasp objects simply with geometric constraints by using position control of roboti...
Generation of stable and realistic haptic feedback during mid-air gesture interactions have recently garnered significant research interest. However, the limitations of the sensing technologies such as unstabl...
Laparoscopic surgery, which is also called minimally invasive surgery, is a surgical technique that is associated with accelerated post-operative recovery. However, it can only be performed by surgeons possess...
Numerous studies have developed in-pipe locomotive devices to inspect pipes. However, it is difficult to achieve selective locomotion in a branched piping system. In this study, a novel steerable in-pipe locom...
We present a facial wearable robot to support eyelid movement for patients with hemifacial paralysis. People with facial paralysis are not able to blink, which leads to dry eyes and could cause permanent damag...
Providing an accurate count of total leukocytes and specific subsets (such as T-cells and B-cells) within small amounts of whole blood is a rather challenging ordeal due to the lack of techniques that enable t...
Flexible manipulators have numerous advantages such as lightweight, high operation speed, and low power consumption. However, they suffer from link vibrations, especially when operated at high speeds followed ...
Absolute counting of total leukocytes and specific subset (such as T-cells and B-cells) within small amounts of whole blood is difficult due to the lack of techniques that enables separation of leukocytes from...
In this paper, we propose two gait strategies for a limb mechanism robot, called ASTERISK, to move on narrow spaces. Specifically, we describe two types of locomotion, namely, vertical-body climbing gait and h...
We are developing a robot that can play an outdoor game with children. In realizing such a robot, the person detection and tracking methods play an important role. In this paper, we propose methods for improvi...
An informationally structured environment (ISE) is a key technology for realizing service robots in daily life in the near future. In ISE, the information of the service robot and its surroundings is structure...
This paper focuses on robot picking of objects in warehouses and stores. Objects are often regularly stacked or aligned in specific arrangement patterns to increase storage efficiency. There are typical patter...
Estimating the distance of a target object from a single image is a challenging task since a large variation in the object appearance makes the regression of the distance difficult. In this paper, to tackle su...
The motion of the robot to realize assembly work includes the part where the reuse of the motion adjusted for the real objects is effective and the part where automatic generation in the simulator is suitable....
When using a wearable robot, the interaction force applied to the area of contact may cause skin injuries over time. Therefore, validating the contact safety of wearable robots is important for their practical...
This paper describes a hardware-in-the-loop simulation of massive-payload manipulation on orbit using a master–slave teleoperation system. The main problems in teleoperating a space robot arm from the earth to...
This paper addresses a reference gait speed generator for limit-cycle-based bipedal gait of humanoid robots in order to achieve secure and efficient acceleration and deceleration without falling down at respec...
This paper proposes a low-cost infrared (IR) LED system with a novel arrangement that enables the self-localization of an indoor mobile robot. The proposed system uses only low-cost IR LED emitters installed o...
This article reports on a newly designed thermal walker that can walk on a hot horizontal surface without any motor or battery. The walker converts heat energy from the hot surface into mechanical motion by us...
In the current study, we tested a prototype of an isokinetic exercise device for the lower limbs, named the ERIK. The ERIK enables a type of single-limb squat exercise with a translational load on the swing le...
This study presents a novel approach for processing motion data from a six-degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit (IMU). Trajectory estimation through double integration of acceleration measurements resul...
In recent years, the total number of physical therapists is increasing in Japan. However, it is not sufficient to nurse of patients requiring long-term care. In order to cope with the shortage of manpower, it ...
Baseball has been enjoyed by many generations and there are many people who play the game. Swing speed increases are generally required to develop ideal batting skill; nevertheless, no study has proposed a sys...
In this paper, we aimed to establish a novel method for surface condition measurement for the indoor floor. To measure the surface condition, we proposed wiping motion that to stroke the target surface with chang...
Surpassing the world record in athletic performance requires extensive use of kinematic and dynamic motion analyses to develop novel body usage skills and training methods. Performance beyond the current world...
Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported that one of the authors’ name is spelled incorrectly. In this Correction the incorrect and correct author name are shown. The original pu...
The original article was published in ROBOMECH Journal 2018 5:7
For household humanoid robots, reaching as much workspace as possible with their hands is an important issue because the locations of target objects may range from the floor to above the robot’s head. At the s...
The objective of this study was to achieve simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of firefighter robots for petrochemical complexes. Consistency of the SLAM map is important because human operators compa...
The Correction to this article has been published in ROBOMECH Journal 2018 5:9
A visual assistance system has become attractive as a technique to improve the efficiency and stability of remote control. While an operator controls a working robot, another autonomous monitoring robot evalua...
Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive surgery that accelerates postoperative recovery, but it can only be performed by surgeons with advanced surgical skills. One of the main difficulties in laparoscopi...
This paper presents an occlusion-handling method for a target-tracking robot with a stereo camera. One of the main challenges with the robot is to continue tracking when the illumination changes and occlusion ...
