Kosei Demura

The Concept of Matto

This paper describes our research interests and technical information of our team for RoboCup-99. Our robots have been developed to have advantages for playing soccer. That is, the capability of kicking a ball and high mobility. We developed pneumatic kickers and omnidirectional bases.

A Navigation Method Using the Mutual Feedback of Waypoints and Self-Positions

Abstract The purpose of this article is to solve a significant problem faced by waypoint-based robot navigation: the positions of the waypoints can be located in unreachable areas due to errors in self-localization, the map, or in the waypoint data. Much research has focused on self-localization, but few studies have focused on estimating waypoints. The method presented in this paper estimates waypoints and self-positions using information from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) processed using particle filters. If waypoints are placed in unreachable areas, the weights of the particles around the waypoint are decreased according to a geometric constraint, and the weights of other particles in reachable areas are increased. Because the waypoint is the expectation value of all particles, this process relocates the waypoint at a reachable location. Another characteristic of this method is the mutual feedback between the probability density functions (PDFs) of the waypoint and the self-position. This method first alters the PDFs of the self-positions using the PDFs of the waypoints, and then changes the PDFs of the waypoints using the PDFs of the self-positions, thus implementing mutual feedback and improving the accuracy of self-localization and the robustness of the waypoint navigation. This method was used for a trial run of the Tsukuba Challenge 2010, and a 240 m run was successfully finished using only dead reckoning information. Other experiments show that this simple, unique method is very useful in waypoint-based robot navigation.

Innovative engineering design practice in robotics: A case study at Kanazawa Institute of Technology

This paper focuses on the innovative engineering design practice of the department of robotics at Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan.

Yumekobo: An Effective Educational System for RoboCup

Recently, student teams in Yumekobo, the factory for dreams and ideas, in Kanazawa Institute of Technology obtain remarkable results in various domestic and world championships. As an example, the WinKIT team in the middle-size league won the vice champion at the RoboCup 2002, 2003, and 2004 world championship. The educational system in Yumekobo attracts attention very much among people who engage in the educational system reform in many universities in Japan. Yumekobo is not also the place that only learns knowledge and skill but the place of character building. Students develop their good character, which include independence, creativity, morals, teamwork, international nature and so on.

KENSEI-chan: Design of a Humanoid for Running

This paper presents the design of the humanoid robot KENSEI-chan for RoboCup Humanoid League. Many humanoids have been developed,but no humanoids have a capability of running. Because running needs huge torque,s hock tolerance, and weight reduction. KENSEI-chan was designed with these things. KENSEI-chan is planed to have 12 degrees of freedom (DOFs) in two legs,4 DOFs in two arms, 2 DOFs in the neck,a nd 1 DOFs in the trunk. Totally KENSEI-chan has 19 DOFs. 2DOFs in the knees and the ankles are Rotary Elastic Joints, which provide shock tolerance and force control.