Junya Tatsuno

Macro-micro Tele-operation System based on Body Image Embedding for Bio-manipulation under Microscope

In this paper, in order to provide with an inexpensive solution to efficient bio-manipulation under microscope, we propose a macro-micro tele-operation system based on body image embedding. It is known in neuroscience that we could feel our body image for the object which is not our own body in certain conditions. Our idea is to utilize the body image illusion for generating high immersive feelings in bio-manipulation under microscope, instead of aiming at the perfect transparency, the conventional target of tele-manipulation system, which is difficult to attain. Our proposed system has two additional components as well as the conventional system where micro manipulators hydraulically connected to joysticks or dials handled by an operator are used for fine bio-manipulation under a microscope. The one component is for the body position/orientation consistency between proprioception and vision. In this component, due to appropriate use of a camera for a microscope, a visual display, mirrors and tiny dummy hands, an operator can see the magnified visual image of the tiny dummy hands similar to his/her own hands in shape at the position and orientation where he/she feel them proprioceptively. The other component is for the contact consistency between touch and vision. In this component, the contact between a tool grasped by an operators hands and a manipulated object observed by eyes should coincide to the contact felt by his/her hand skin. To do this, haptic stimulators such as piezo actuators are activated at the timing of contact which is detected, for example, by the vision processing from the microscopic images.

Micro-macro tele-manipulation system

In recent years, robotic manipulator system have been developed in various fields for various purposes. Today there are many systems in practical use. However most of them are considered on the assumption that the size of slave manipulator is nearly equal to the size of master manipulator. We have developed a bilateral controlled master-slave manipulator system to manipulate targets of quite different size from our body. We can not manipulate such size of targets by conventional ways. Thus, we try to make the target scale equal to our scale virtually. In this paper we describe the basic control structure, and report the primary experimental results.<<ETX>>

Reducing whole-body vibration exposure of occupants in autonomous car by intelligent behavior

Unlike other autonomous working vehicles such as farm and construction machinery, autonomous cars have at least one occupant inside, even if driving operations are automated. Thus, the whole-body vibration problem must continue to be a research topic for autonomous vehicles. We believe that an autonomous vehicle can mitigate whole body vibration by utilizing autonomous functions such as lane change control. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to verify the effectiveness of lane change control in reducing the whole-body vibration exposure of occupants in autonomous cars. We performed numerical simulations with experimental data obtained using the measurement techniques of ISO2631-1. Thus, we observed that if an autonomous car could skirt rough road surfaces using a lane change function, the degree of ride comfort would be enhanced during travel and the maximum acceptable exposure time as health effect evaluation would be lengthened.

Macro-micro tele-manipulation system based on body image embedding with contact feel, spatial motion and stereo vision

In this paper, we propose a novel macro-micro tele-manipulation system based on body image embedding with contact feel, spatial motion and stereo vision for micro-manipulation under a microscope. The basic concept of body image embedding for macro-micro tele-manipulation has been already proposed by the authors. The system proposed here has three new realization ideas. The first idea is the realization of realistic contact feeling which is attained by driving a voice coil motor according to the binary on/off information of the switch between micro-tools. The use of a voice coil motor not only saves the cost of the system, but also generates clearer tactile and auditory stimuli than a piezo actuator for sending contact information in a micro world to an operator. The switch between micro-tools does not detect the contact between the object to be manipulated and the tool for manipulation directly, but can be useful for some tasks. The second idea is the realization of spatial motion of the manipulation tool relative to the object to be manipulated, which is realized by the appropriate coordination of the 2-degree-of-freedom motions of the slave manipulators. The third idea is the realization of stereo vision under the constraint of the position/orientation consistency of an operators body image between proprioception and vision, which is achieved by the special placement of the dual joysticks of the dual micro-manipulators. The effectiveness of the proposed realization method is verified experimentally by micro-drawing tasks where we need appropriate hybrid position/force control of the micro-tool for manipulation in a three-dimensional space.

Micro-macro manipulator with haptic interface-2nd report: control by using virtual model

This paper treats a basic system which realizes a scaled manipulation environment. Tools for scaled manipulation are necessary when one manipulates an extremely large or small size target. In the case of manipulation without scaling, it is possible to let the slave-manipulators have the same configuration as the master-manipulators. But in the case of different scale, it is difficult to design these manipulators with the same configuration. Thus different configurations with some intelligent control is necessary for such master-slave manipulators. In this paper the authors propose a control method for different scale master-slave manipulator.<<ETX>>

Driving Simulator Experiment on Ride Comfort Improvement and Low Back Pain Prevention of Autonomous Car Occupants

Unlike other autonomous working vehicles such as farm and construction machinery, autonomous cars have at least an occupant, even if the driving operations are automated. Thus, the whole-body vibration problem continues to be a research topic with respect to autonomous vehicles. Several technologies have been developed to decrease whole-body vibration exposure. Most of technologies have focused on the development and improvement of automotive components such as the suspension system, automotive seats and tires. This paper examines the reduction in whole-body vibrations using autonomous functions such as lane-change control. In this paper, a subject experiment with a driving simulator is reported so as to discuss the influence of decreasing the whole-body vibration exposure on ride comfort improvement and low back pain prevention.

Bio-manipulation with a robotic straw

In this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of the micro-manipulation system with a robotic straw proposed by the authors for the microorganism isolation task. Isolating microorganism is one of the fundamental bio-manipulation tasks. This task has been conventionally achieved with a straw connected with a rubber tube. However, some skill is required by an operator for this isolation task, because it is difficult for a naive operator to place the tip of pipette at a desired position under a microscope. We show that the microorganism isolation task is successfully achieved with the proposed system even by a naive operator of the conventional microorganism isolation task without long-term training.

Networked cellular motion detection system by using pyroelectric infrared sensor for surveillance

In this paper, we propose a networked cellular motion detection system for surveillance by using pyroelectric infrared sensors. The networked sensor technology has a potential to solve some of our most important scientific and societal problems. However, the distributed vision system makes it difficult to process the information acquired in such considerable amount. The proposed method gets a hint from the information processing of human hearing organs and compound eyes of insects. By constructing the testbed as a motion detection cell, we confirmed that the proposed method can be utilized to detect human behavior in a real situation.

Suck-and-blow master-slave system for micro-manipulation based on body image embedding

In this paper, we propose a novel master-slave system for micro-manipulation of the mechanical contact type. In the proposed system, suck and blow movements in the master side are scaled and transmitted to the slave side, i.e., we generate the air flow at the tip of the micro-straw in the slave side according to operators suck and blow in the master side. The air flows by operators suck and blow are detected by a series of two flow sensors opposite in direction each other. The output air flow at the micro-straw is controlled by switching a series of two solenoid valves whose three inputs are connected to an air compressor, a vacuum pump, and the atmosphere respectively. The switching law is calculated based on the data from the flow sensors. Moreover, by vibrating the straw at an operators mouth according to the detected contact between the micro-straw and a micro-object, we also expect immersive feel as if the operator sucks or blows the micro-object directly with the straw. The suck-and-blow master-slave system proposed here is compatible with the master-slave system based on the body image embedding the authors proposed previously. By combining the two systems, we expect to realize the rapid pick-and-place in a micro-world. We show some results on very basic experiments, i.e., measurement of air flows by operators suck and blow, and picking a micro-particle by suction, to prove the potential of the proposed micro-manipulation system.

A Scaled Tele-Operation Powered by Haptic Illusion

This paper proposes a method to improve the operability of micro-macro tele-operations in biological researches and developments. In such fields, there are lots of labor intensive works and the smooth execution of the works requires some trained human skills. Thus, if we can improve the operability of the equipments, the efficiency of the researches and developments will be improved remarkably. The idea is to add a pseudo haptic feedback and artificial responding sounds beside the real magnified image. The image itself has enough information to operate, but adding other sensory information may ease the operation. Naturally, the real magnified haptic feedback must be helpful, but its realization is not so easy. Even pseudo or artificial sensory feedback may help enough to improve the operability. As a start of our research, this paper shows a simple experiment to ensure the effectiveness of adding the other sensory feedback.