63 accepted papers
As the population continues to age, a shortage of caregivers is expected in the future. Dressing assistance, in particular, is crucial for opportunities for social participation. Especially dressing close-fitting garments, such as socks, remains challenging due to the need for fine force adjustments
The demand for personal mobility devices (PMDs) has increased, prompting studies on various control interfaces such as joysticks and handlebars. However, these interfaces remain external to the PMD, and no system has been developed in which the PMD itself functions as the interface. This study propo…
Gas pipelines damaged by aging or earthquakes need a robotic system that can quickly inspect 50-mm-diameter service lines, consisting of horizontal and vertical pipes connected by elbow joints, tees, or sockets, from the inside. However, conventional pipe inspection robots do not target 50-mm pipes …
Humans can achieve diverse in-hand manipulations, such as object pinching and tool use, which often involve simultaneous contact between the object and multiple fingers. This is still an open issue for robotic hands because such dexterous manipulation requires distinguishing between tactile sensatio…
Tactile sensors are indispensable in robotic systems because they deliver vital contact information during environmental interactions. In our work, we leverage the variable compliance of a porous material—where different interaction forces induce varying degrees of compliance—to achieve self-adaptin
The application of humanoid robots is gaining attention as a solution to the caregiver shortage caused by an aging population. In this study, we automated the process of changing a patient’s body position from supine to lateral, a key aspect of nursing care. We proposed a method for recognizing a pa
Caregiving is a vital role for domestic robots, especially the repositioning care has immense societal value, critically improving the health and quality of life of individuals with limited mobility. However, repositioning task is a challenging area of research, as it requires robots to adapt their
Fatal accidents caused by the overturning of heavy machines still happen, so the prediction and prevention of overturns are urgently needed. Indicators to evaluate overturn, such as the energy stability margin (ESM), have been proposed but are limited to a non-slip ground surface. Even if ESM is abo
Direct teaching is a straightforward way of teaching new motion to robots. Active methods with torque sensors, for example, can be used so that the robot can follow the movements of the human, but such methods introduce delays. Alternatively, series clutch actuators are easily backdrivable without d…
Tactile sensors are crucial in robotics as they enable robots to perceive and interact with their environment through touch, akin to the human sense of touch. Adjustable sensors that can adapt to various tasks by functional or structural modification have not been extensively explored. In terms of s…
Collaborative robots that operate safely close to workers without fences have attracted attention, but few examples of such human-robot collaboration (HRC) have been seen in factories. The main reason is the difficulty in balancing safety and productivity. Current fenceless HRC systems stop the robo
Intelligent robots are expected to do manipulation tasks relying on real-time sensing feedback. Especially, tactile sensing plays a more and more important role in precise manipulation tasks. For example, a 1 mm error while inserting a USB stick, which is hard to perceive visually, will result in a…
Handovers play a key role in human-robot interactions. However, current research focuses on visible-hand handovers, thereby heavily relying on hand detection. Large objects in human-robot interactions present a unique challenge: they inherently block the person’s hands and arms from the robot's view…
Performing dexterous tasks with a multi fingered robotic hand remains challenging. Tactile sensors provide touch states and object features for multifingered tasks, yet the variety in shapes, sizes, textures, deformabilities and masses of everyday objects makes the task conditions diverse. Despite t
For assisting humans in their daily lives, robots need to perform long-horizon tasks, such as tidying up a room or preparing a meal. One effective strategy for handling a long-horizon task is to break it down into short-horizon subgoals, that the robot can execute sequentially. In this paper, we pro…
Recently, tactile sensing has attracted increasing attention for robotic manipulation. Predicting the grasping stability before lifting objects and detecting the ongoing/onset of slip after lifting objects are two critical and widely studied tasks in robotic tactile manipulation. Previous methods fo
In both teleoperation in real space and exploration in virtual space, ‘passive’ and ‘active’ haptic feedback can help to improve the performance of the task, especially in object handover and exploring. However, the current wearable haptic devices are hard to display continuous omnidirectional motio…
Detecting the onset/ongoing of slip, i.e. if a grasped object is slipping or will slip from the gripper while being lifted, is crucial. Conventionally, it is regarded as a tactile sensing related problem. However, recently multi-modal robotic learning has become popular and is expected to boost the…
A surface microstructure that mimics the surface of a gecko's foot can exert a large gripping force with a small contact force. If such a structure is applied to the fingertips of a two-fingered parallel gripper, stable grasping can be achieved independent of the wetting and frictional state of the…
Multi-fingered hands could be used to achieve many dexterous manipulation tasks, similarly to humans, and tactile sensing could enhance the manipulation stability for a variety of objects. However, tactile sensors on multi-fingered hands have a variety of sizes and shapes. Convolutional neural netwo
A treadmill system has a large potential to provide humans with an augmented walking experience in real-life without a spatial limitation. However, a treadmill gait is different from walking on level ground. In previous studies, the adaptive belt speed control of a treadmill was developed to achieve…
To smoothly and efficiently enable autonomous mobile robots to move in human crowd environments, path planning based on human movement-prediction, reactive movement toward human movement, and active motion-inducing physical interaction to avoid getting stuck are required. In this study, we developed
There has been an increasing demand for housework robots to handle various objects. It is, however, difficult to achieve object-shape-oriented tasks in conventional research owing to the requirement for dealing with multiple surfaces, invisible area, and occlusion; moreover, robots must perceive sha
This paper presents the design and evaluation of the low-cost capacitive proximity-force-fusion sensor "safe skin", which can measure simultaneously the proximity of humans as well as the contact force. It was designed such that the force and proximity sensing functions can work concurrently without…
The skin is an important organ which enables humans to interact with the unstructured environment around. It is perfectly soft and covers the entire body providing immediate feedback even when that part is not directly in the field of vision. With the human skin as an inspiration, in this paper, we…
Conventional soft robotic grippers have been developed based on soft pneumatic actuators or using smart soft materials, but they need external pressure sources, are easily deteriorated or used in millimetric-scale, which leads to increase of the independency, instability, and vulnerability. In this
Selection of appropriate tools and use of them when performing daily tasks is a critical function for introducing robots for domestic applications. In previous studies, however, adaptability to target objects was limited, making it difficult to accordingly change tools and adjust actions. To manipul
Object picking with two-fingered grippers is widely used in practice. However, the deformability and slipperiness of the target object still remain a challenge, and not resolving them might lead to breaking or dropping of the grasped objects. To prevent such instances, tactile sensing plays an impor…
Recently, tactile sensing has attracted great interest for robotic manipulation. Predicting if a grasp will be stable or not, i.e. if the grasped object will drop out of the gripper while being lifted, can aid robust robotic grasping. Previous methods paid equal attention to all regions of the tacti…
Synthetic fibre ropes have high tensile strength, a lower friction coefficient and are more flexible than steel ropes, and are therefore increasingly used in robotics. However, their characteristics are not well studied. In particular, previous work investigated the long-term behaviour only under st…
We consider the design of under-actuated articulated mechanism that are able to maintain stable static balance. Our method augments an user-provided design with counter-weights whose mass and attachment locations are automatically computed. The optimized counterweights adjust the center of gravity s…
Future robots are expected to share their workspace with humans. Controlling and limiting the forces that such robots exert on their environment is crucial. While force control can be achieved actively with the help of force sensing, passive mechanisms have no time delay in their response to externa…
Tactile feedback is a key sensory channel that contributes to our ability to perform precise manipulations. In this regard, sensor skin provides robots with the sense of touch making them increasingly capable of dexterous object manipulation. However, in applications like teleoperation, the complex
Adaptive assistance of gait training robots has been determined to improve gait performance through motion assistance. An important control role during walking is to avoid tripping by controlling minimum toe clearance (MTC), which is an indicator of tripping risk, to avoid its decrease among gait cy…
The use of tactile information is one of the most important factors for achieving stable in-grasp manipulation. Especially with low-cost robotic hands that provide low-precision control, robust in-grasp manipulation is challenging. Abundant tactile information could provide the required feed-back to…
Performing various in-hand manipulation tasks, without learning each individual task, would enable robots to act more versatile, while reducing the effort for training. However, in general it is difficult to achieve stable in-hand manipulation, because the contact state between the fingertips become…
We propose a deep learning model for a robot to wipe 3D-objects. Wiping of 3D-objects requires recognizing the shapes of objects and planning the motor angle adjustments for tracing the objects. Unlike previous research, our learning model does not require pre-designed computational models of target…
Statically balanced spring mechanisms are used in many applications that support our daily lives. However, creating new designs is a challenging problem since the designer has to simultaneously determine the right number of springs, their connectivity, attachment points, and other parameters. We pro
Distributed tactile sensors on multi-fingered hands can provide high-dimensional information for grasping objects, but it is not clear how to optimally process such abundant tactile information. The current paper explores the possibility of using a morphology-specific convolutional neural network (M…
An end-effector such as a gripper or multi-fingered hand is essential to enable robots to grasp and manipulate objects of various size and shape. Soft skin increases the grasp stability and can provide space for tactile sensors. However, covering the joints with skin is challenging, typically causin…
The sense of touch is often crucial for humans to perform manipulation tasks. Providing tactile feedback during teleoperation or for users of prosthetic devices would be beneficial. However, the representation of tactile information constitutes a major technical challenge, since the numerous and pos…
Tactile sensing is one important element that can enable robots to interact with an unstructured world. By having tactile perception, a robot can explore its environment by touching objects. Like human skin, a tactile sensor that can provide rich information such as distributed normal and shear forc
Human training data can scaffold robot imitation learning. However, most datagloves only record joint angles, but for many tasks, force control is more important. They also cover the human skin, thereby making a natural interaction of the human with the object impossible. This letter suggests a wear
Typically, the range and sensitivity of force sensors are determined during production. However, to be able to do both delicate and high-force demanding work, adjustable force sensitivity would be beneficial. The current paper proposes such a sensor by implementing a planar electromagnet above a 3-a…
Gas pipeline requires to be inspected regularly for leakages caused by natural disaster. Robots are widely used for pipeline inspection since they are more convenient than manual inspection. Several problems, however, exist due to the restriction by complex pipe networks. The most significant one is…
Continuous, easy-to-implement, accurate inference of intended joint angles is important for effectively controlling powered prosthetic devices that can improve the lives and capabilities of upper-limb amputees. Estimation of intended joint angles is difficult because conventional biosignals are not…
Distributed tactile sensing is crucial to perform stable, subtle, and precise manipulation so that a robot can recognize and handle objects properly. However, currently existing skin sensors still have common problems such as complex and expensive production or are difficult to integrate into robot
For robots that act outside of tightly controlled environments, force control is often better suited than position control. Series clutch actuators, used without an elastic element, can achieve excellent position control or can be used as a force/torque source. Clutches based on different physical p
Impedance shaping is a fundamental requirement for physical human-robot interaction. In order to achieve a large range impedance capability, light quantity measurement based torque feedback regulation has been introduced, based on which a stiff actuator design can be realized with reliable torque me
Some electric-powered wheelchairs are recently redefined as personal mobility devices. Their users are not only elderly or handicapped people, but also passengers with large baggage or pedestrians going from station to destination, i.e., last-mile transport. Consequently, people with different opera…
This paper investigates tactile object recognition with relatively densely distributed force vector measurements and evaluates what kind of tactile information is beneficial for object recognition. The uSkin tactile sensors are embedded in an Allegro Hand, and provide 240 triaxial force vector measu…
Disaster response crawler robot OCTOPUS has four arms and four flippers for better adaptability to disaster environments. To further improve the robot mobility and terrain adaptability in unstructured terrain, we propose a new locomotion control method called compound motion pattern (CMP) for multi-…
Effective design and fabrication of 3-D electronic circuits are among the most pressing issues for future engineering. Although a variety of flexible devices have been developed, most of them are still designed two-dimensionally. In this letter, we introduce a novel idea to fabricate a 3-D wiring bo
We propose a practical state-of-the-art method to develop a machine-learning-based humanoid robot that can work as a production line worker. The proposed approach provides an intuitive way to collect data and exhibits the following characteristics: task performing capability, task reiteration abilit
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
The advantages of mechanical compliance have driven the development of devices using new smart materials. A new kind of magnetorheological piston based on a toroidal array of magnetorheological valves, has been previously tested to prove its feasibility. However, being an initial prototype its poten…
In-hand manipulation is often needed to accomplish a practical task after grasping an object. In-hand manipulation of variously sized and shaped objects in multi-fingered hands without dropping the object is challenging. In this paper we suggest a combined strategy of force control and passive adapt…
In laparoscopic surgery, numerous devices have been developed to allow surgeons to manipulate the laparoscope by themselves. Some previously adopted approaches include hands-free strategies, such as eye tracking. In this letter, we propose a new approach for the control of an endoscopic manipulator
This paper presents the design, development and magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) compatibility evaluation of a small size, compact and adjustable different finger phalange lengths rehabilitation device. This device employs ultrasonic motor as its actuator and adopts a novel six-link mechanism to d…
A new design of a magnetorheological piston prototype intended for passive or active force control in robotic applications for human robot interaction is introduced. It is based in a novel toroidal array of valves, contained within the piston head, which are used to control the output force of the a…
We propose a method for realizing effective dynamic motion learning in a flexible-joint robot using motor babbling. Flexible-joint robots have recently attracted attention because of their adaptiveness, safety, and, in particular, dynamic motions. It is difficult to control robots that require dynam…
Unmanned construction machines are used after disasters. Compared with manned construction, time efficiency is lower because of incomplete visual information, communication delay, and lack of tactile experience. We have developed an autonomous camera control system to supply appropriate visual infor…
Moving objects within the hand is challenging, especially if the objects are of various shape and size. In this paper we use machine learning to learn in-hand manipulation of such various sized and shaped objects. The TWENDY-ONE hand is used, which has various properties that makes it well suited fo…