Akihisa Okino

Integrated dental robot system for mouth opening and closing training

Conventional medical/dental systems have developed only doctor or patient models. However, two models are needed to quantify the dental/medical therapy; these are the patient model and the doctor model. The authors focus on the mouth opening and closing training done for the patients who have disorders on their jaw joints. The mastication robot as a patient model and the mouth opening-closing training robot as a doctor model are developed. The paper describes two robots that quantitatively evaluate the mouth opening and closing training. Force data using these two robots showed that robot trainings force acting on the patient is smaller than the conventional training using a wooden device.

A clinical jaw movement training robot for lateral movement training

This paper describes a jaw movement training robot system implementing a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel mechanism, and its application for lateral movement raining. Temporomandibular joints (TMJ) problem is a disorder, whereby patients are not able to open their mouths nor move their jaws easily because of the problems with the mandibular joints, mastication muscles, and other organs concerning food chewing. Conventional therapy has been done with simple mouth opening apparatuses based on a doctors technique through their own experiences, while this is still common. The authors have developed and improved a jaw movement training robot system, which provides not only jaw open and close training but also consists of a 6-DOF slave manipulator as a patient working manipulator and a 3-DOF master manipulator as a doctor commanding manipulator.

Jaw training robot that manipulates patient's jaw to sideway

This paper describes the 6-degrees of freedom (6-DOF) jaw training robot that manipulates the patients jaw to move sideway. Patients with jaw disorders who can not only control the opening/closing of their jaws, but also sideway movements are the target of this research. The authors developed a 6-DOF slave manipulator and 3-DOF master manipulator for these patients. The natural jaws sideway motion was simulated by changing the center of rotation according to the rotational direction of the mandible. A real training for a jaw disorder patient using the robot was done, and the resulting distance to sideway was increased 9 to 15 mm in the right jaw joint and 7 to 12 mm in the left.

Human skull robot as a mechanical patient simulator for mouth opening and closing training

Describes a skull robot as a patient simulator for mouth opening and closing training. The rehabilitation for patients who have problems on the jaw joint have been done primarily based on the doctors qualitative experience and technique that is unknown to other people. The authors developed a skull robot WOJ-1R as a mechanical patient simulator This skull robot will be useful for the doctor to develop the strategy of training for the real human patient. Also, it will quantitatively clarify the effectiveness of the robots therapy compared with therapy by human. Experimental results of biting force comparison show that robot therapy force data acting on the skull robot was smaller than the conventional therapy by human.

Stiffness analysis for 6-DOF mouth training parallel robot WY-5

In this paper a mouth opening and closing training robot, named WY-5 (Waseda Yamanashi version 5), is analyzed in terms of stiffness characteristics. The basic models and formulation are proposed in order to deduce the stiffness matrix as a function of the most important stiffness parameters of the WY-5 architecture. A numerical simulation is also presented to discuss main features of the system.

Stable impact and contact force control by UAV for inspection of floor slab of bridge

ABSTRACT This paper describes the contact force control on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed to inspect the floor slabs of bridges. Our UAV is equipped with a three degree-of-freedom manipulator on top of the UAV body. To control the UAV for stable contact with the slab surface, the impact force should be considered. The impact force is modeled based on Hertzian contact stress. The control strategy of the UAV is cascade control separated into attitude control and position-force control. The attitude, position and force feedback are PID control. The force feedback is integrated into the position feedback seamlessly, and the output of the force feedback is added to the desired end-point position of the manipulator. This paper focuses on contact of the UAV and the floor slab. Therefore, the UAV is modeled considering the impact force in the vertical direction. The control method in the vertical direction is described, and then the altitude control and the contact force control are assessed. The altitude of the UAV was controlled with a 0.45 [sec] delay during ascending and 1.76 [sec] during descending. The UAV could control the contact force with mean error 1.61 ± 1.08 [N] while the desired contact force was 3 [N]. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Patient Simulator for Mouth Opening and Closing Training

This paper describes the skull robot as a patient simulator for the mouth opening and closing training. The rehabilitation for the patients who have problems on the jaw joint have been done primarily based on the doctor’s qualitative experience and technique that is unknown to other people. The authors developed a skull robot WOJ-1R as a mechanical patient simulator. This skull robot will be useful for the doctor to develop the strategy of training for the real human patient. Also, it will quantitatively clarify the effectiveness of the robot’s therapy compared with therapy by human. Experimental result of biting force comparison, robot therapy’s force data acting on the skull robot was smaller than the conventional therapy by human.