9 accepted papers
Retinex theory, which treats an image as a composition of illuminance and reflectance, has made significant progress in low-light image enhancement. Previous methods attempt to refine the impractical Retinex theory by introducing deviations in estimated illumination and reflectance to develop more p
The effective fusion of infrared and visible images could enhance environment perception during robot rescue mission by combining complementary information from both sensors. However, most existing fusion methods are developed for images captured under normal conditions, which limits their performan
In this paper, we consider the case of carrying an object with a quadruped-wheeled robot and examine and verify the angle planning method for the robot’s base link (load section) that suppresses the relative tilt of the carried object. It is important to suppress the tilt of the carried object relat
For building a disaster response robot, WAREC-l's fully-automated system for manipulating a valve, this paper proposes a method for (1) detecting a valve which is far away from the robot, (2) estimating the position and orientation for grasping the valve by the robot at a closer position. Our method…
In this paper, we propose an end-effector for realizing various locomotion modes and simple work of a legged robot. The locomotion modes include climbing a vertical ladder, crawling, and walking. The simple work includes grasping and switching motions required at a disaster site. The developed end-e…
This paper describes a novel four-limbed robot having high mobility capability in extreme environments. At disaster sites, there are various types of environments where a robot must move such as rough terrain with possibility of collapse, narrow places, stairs, vertical ladders and so forth. In this…
Cats have protractible claws to fold their tips to keep them sharp. They protract claws while hunting and pawing on slippery surfaces. Protracted claws by tendons and muscles of toes can help cats anchoring themselves steady while their locomotion trends to slip and releasing the hold while they ret…
We developed a four-arm four-crawler advanced disaster response robot called OCTOPUS. Disaster response robots are expected to be capable of both mobility, e.g., entering narrow spaces over very rough unstable ground, and workability, e.g., conducting complex debris-demolition work. However, convent
This letter describes the development of a humanoid arm with quick-and-wide motion capability for making humans laugh. Laughter is attracting research attention because it enhances health by treating or preventing mental diseases. However, laughter has not been used effectively in healthcare because