Kensuke Takita

Expliner - Robot for inspection of transmission lines

The inspection of high-voltage transmission lines is a dangerous and time-consuming job, that relies on especially trained workers operating tens of meters above the ground, and close to live lines with thousands of volts. This paper presents the development of a tele-operated robot designed for preventive maintenance of high-voltage lines. The robot was designed with mobility in mind, so that cable spacers, suspension clamps and other obstacles, which so far have prevented the use of robots for inspection of high-voltage lines, would not hamper the operation of the machine. After careful considerations on mobility, the robot was designed, and a prototype was built. Results of tests, performed on facilities reproducing real field conditions, are also presented in this paper.

Quadruped Walking Robot Centered Demining System - Development of TITAN-IX and its Operation-

This paper presents a quadruped-walking robot for demining mission. Robot that can adapt any landscape and handle various tasks by utilizing the legs as manipulator is useful one to ensure the safety of local residents and people engaged in the demining mission. However, it is known that mine removing by human workers is progressing slowly because of the risk of their lives. The proposed robot has various features, such as 1) much wider working area than conventional walking robots, 2) unique drive mechanism, 3) high modularity and cooling mechanism and so on. It is expected to give the workers safety to accelerate the demining.

HELIOS system: A team of tracked robots for special urban search and rescue operations

Fire brigades and special agencies are often demanded to operate for search and aid of human lives in extremely dangerous scenarios. It is very important to first verify the safety of the environment and to obtain remotely a clear image of the scenario inside buildings or underground spaces. Several studies have been addressing the possibility of using robotic tools to carry out safe operations.

HELIOS IX tracked vehicle for urban search and rescue operations: Mechanical design and first tests

Fire brigades and special rescue agencies are often demanded to operate for search and aid of human lives in extremely dangerous scenarios. The use of robotic tools can make those operations safer for the operators and more efficient in terms of time and allocation of resources. This contribution describes the development of the newest tracked vehicle HELIOS IX. This mobile platform equipped with a manipulator represents the first stage of a Japanese national founded project. It aims to the development of a robotic system to be utilized in extreme environments such as rescue operations in heavily stricken urban areas. With respect to the previous prototypes the mechanical design and the system architecture is described. A new gripper is also introduced and tested together with few mobility experiments of the platform.

Fundamental mechanism of dinosaur-like robot TITRUS-II utilizing coupled drive

The mechanism design and the fundamental concepts of the dinosaur-like robot called TITRUS-II are reported. It is based on practical concepts so that it can be applied in the real world. The design features include: 1) realizing high dynamic stability by using a neck and a tail as an active damper when the robot walks; 2) standing with the tail to compose a stable supporting triangle so that the robot can work stably; and 3) enabling it to do various tasks by applying a manipulator as a neck. The mechanism of the legs is also distinctive, using a coupled drive to compose four degrees of freedom.

HELIOS carrier: Tail-like mechanism and control algorithm for stable motion in unknown environments

Mobile platforms when negotiating steps and stairs should be able to control theirs posture in order to avoid sudden tilting or falls. In particular, when considering applications for search and rescue operations where users have a very limited time of operation, the motion on stairs should be automated as much as possible. In this way operators can concentrate on their tasks (i.e. search of survivors and/or exploration of dangerous environments) rather than having to focus on the stability of the vehicle. A simple but very effective mechanism called “tail” is introduced. The mechanical design and its control method is presented together with several tests and experiments carried out with a simple tracked vehicle in real environments.

Robotics-assisted demining with Gryphon

The threat and consequences of landmines have led to a multitude of alternative research activities in the field of demining. While mine sensor-focused research has been intensive, there has been relatively less attention given to the problem of automating the detection and removal procedure. Understandably, autonomous robot operation and interaction in unstructured field environments are difficult. This paper addresses this by presenting a robot meant to assist humanitarian demining by providing a cheap, fast, reliable and safe alternative to human deminers risking their lives on a daily basis. The robot, named Gryphon, is able to autonomously scan 2 m2 at a time with any type of mine sensor payload. It then presents acquired sensor images to the operator who selects which spots need further investigation or prodding. The robot then appropriately marks the terrain with paint or marking plates. Gryphon has been extensively field tested in Japan, Croatia and Cambodia.

The efficacy of the neck and tail of miniature dinosaur-like robot TITRUS-III

In this paper the fundamental concepts of the dinosaur-like robot called TITRUS and the mechanism design of the miniature prototype robot TITRUS-III are explained. TITRUS is based on the concept to realize a practical mobile working platform. ne explanation addresses its availability with two physical models: a particle system and a rigid body system The features of TITRUS are (1) realizing high dynamic stability by using a neck and a tail as an active dumper when the robot walks, (2) standing with the tail to compose a stable supporting triangle so that the robot can work stably and (3) enabling it to do various tasks by applying a manipulator to the neck. Finally, the fundamental walking experiments to examine usability of the neck and tail on TITRUS-III are reported.

Sensor-Arm — robotic manipulator for preventive maintenance and inspection of high-voltage transmission lines

There have been several works proposing mobile robots for inspection of high-voltage transmission lines. Those studies addressed mostly locomotion issues, with little attention paid to the sensing task. However, the deployment of sensors around the cables is not an elementary operation. This work indicates which sensors may be most suitable for the inspection of transmission lines, and describes their assembly in a simple and compact structure (Sensor-Unit). In addition, it proposes several manipulator mechanisms (Sensor-Arm) to deploy sensors around the cables and to remove them when necessary. The mechanisms are compared taking into account practical aspects such as assembly, reliability, functionality and results of field experiments. Finally, the design of a high-quality camera for detailed inspection is also described.

Guidelines for Human Interface Design of Rescue Robots

In this paper, we summarize the findings and know-hows in the individual developments and try to establish guidelines of human-interface design of rescue robots. These guidelines would be useful for the future development of rescue robots. Preliminary guidelines were set from some case studies of the DDT project and RoboCup Rescue. A trial towards the standardized interface is also shown