Makoto Mizukawa

ORiN: open robot interface for the network - the standard and unified network interface for industrial robot applications

The main objective of ORiN project is the standardization of networking software used as API that provides standard methods for accessing robot system information based on technologies that have already been designed for information infrastructures that are commonly used in the PCs and telecommunication services. In this paper, we describe the objective of ORiN first, then the architecture and key technologies. The applications developed according to ORiN specification that have been tested during the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo held in 2001 are reported. This paper concludes with the future plan about the ORiN consortium.

ORiN: Open Robot Interface for the Network, a proposed standard

The Japan Robot Association (JARA) has been conducting standardization activities (ORiN: Open Robot Interface for the Network) in which the main subject is the network interface in the robot controller. In the 1999 international robot exhibition, our activities and results were opened and demonstrated to the public. In this demonstration, industrial robots from 13 Japanese domestic robot manufacturers, that had different specifications and structures, were connected to each other with a communication network. Using ORiN API, applications for production system management and 3‐D robot motion monitoring were demonstrated. The purpose of this demonstration is to verify the openness of the networked robot and to certify the proposed de facto standard protocol and robot model. The background of those activities, the outline of the design guidelines, the demonstration for verification, a schedule and plan towards the de facto and/or ISO standard are all mentioned.

Estimation of Basic Activities of Daily Living Using ZigBee 3D Accelerometer Sensor Network

Recently, how to support and care elderly people is serious problem. Modern approach is trying to support to keep health (body and mental) seniors living alone, but it is hard to keep a health by oneself. Our aim is monitoring a users life for providing suitable services to keep his/her health. To providing suitable service, life log is very useful information. However, traditional monitoring system is only focusing elementary motion, walking, sleeping, and so on. We deal with recognizing advanced motions by using transportation data from an area to other areas in a house. These advanced motion logs support not only elderly but also care stuff or family who plans supports. In daily life, our motion is very variety. Therefore we focused on Basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) which categories normally doing in daily life such as feeding, bathing, homemaking, and so on. In this research, we pick up 11 motion from ADL for recognition.

Robot technology (RT) trend and standardization

In the near future, the RT is embedded and distributed in the daily life environment and various equipments to provide not only information services but physical services such as physical assistance in our daily life. For this service integration, the development of the RT components and the middleware service are inevitable. In this paper, the RT (robot technology) application extension and the RT middleware are overviewed and discussed.

Model-Based Development and Simulation for Robotic Systems with SysML, Simulink and Simscape Profiles

In system-level design, it is difficult to achieve a system verification which fulfils the requirements of various stakeholders using only descriptive system models. Descriptive system models using SysML alone are insufficient for system behaviour verifications and engineers always use different simulation tools (e.g., the Mathworks Simulink or Modelica Dymola) to analyze systems behaviour. It is a good idea to combine descriptive and simulation models. This paper presents the development of a collaborative design framework which brings SysML, Simulink, and Simscape profiles within the domain of robotics. A conceptual design method is proposed to support execution models for simulation. In brief, the descriptive SysML system-level model is interpreted into the system-level simulation models (e.g., Simulink and Simscape). We then use a plugin-based model integration technique to keep both models in sync for automatic simulation. A simulation study is performed to evaluate the system. To illustrate the design of this system, we present a simulated closed-loop system.

Picking up operation of thin objects by robot arm with two-fingered parallel soft gripper

One of the tasks which we expect executing by home service robots is a handling of thin objects like papers or plastic cards. It is a difficult task for the home service robots to pick up a thin object placed on the table, because it needs high dexterity. To achieve this motion by home service robots, we used a two-fingered parallel soft gripper with a soft nail, and constructed a sequence of picking up operation of a paper or a plastic card by a robot arm. The constructed sequence consists of sliding motion and raising motion. The robot slides a paper or a card and hooks its nail at the side of it, and raises one side of it, and picks it up like humans. In this paper, we propose a sequence of picking up operation of a paper or a plastic card on the table derived from the analysis of human motions, and confirm its availability through experiments.

Hands free micro operation for protein crystal analysis

The goal of this paper is to realize a hands free operating system for analytical work on protein crystal using a micro hand and an integrated vision system. At first, the operation for the protein crystal analysis is summarized to make it clear what kind of tasks should be necessary for automatic operation. Secondly, the proposed system is briefly reviewed, which is constructed with a two-fingered micro hand system and an all-in-focus microscopic system. Thirdly, a new localization criterion for transparent objects with the all-in-focus system is proposed for the protein crystal operation. Finally, experimental results show the validity of the proposed system and algorithm.

An open experiment of mobile robot autonomous navigation at the pedestrian streets in the city — Tsukuba Challenge

We have been organizing the “Tsukuba Challenge, ” every year since 2007 in Tsukuba, Japan. The “Tsukuba Challenge” is a Real World Robot Challenge which aims at intelligent robot technology for realizing a practical autonomous robot that works in the real environment of daily life. As the objective task of the Tsukuba Challenge, the robots were required to make their way, safely and autonomously, over 1 km down a pedestrian street and through a park in Tsukuba. In 2010, more than 60 autonomous mobile robots participated in this challenge, and seven robots completed the autonomous navigation of the designated course at the center area in Tsukuba City.

Development of the Robot Power Management System Adapting to Tasks and Environments -The design guideline of the Power Control System Applied to the Distributed Control Robot

Efficient energy usage is crucial issue because energy consumption increases with the spread of RT (robot technology) application fields. Power consumption in a robot system changes according to a task and its operating environment. To adapt these conditions, we have proposed the CEPC (component for electric power control). This paper describes the electric-power design guideline of a robots subsystem and investigation on the power consumption data obtained from experiments

Development of Light-Weight RT-Component (LwRTC) on Embedded Processor -Application to Crawler Control Subsystem in the Physical Agent System-

Because the RT middleware is only supported by ORBs implemented on PCs, application to a small-scale system and the small-size robot seems to be difficult. To reduce power consumption and developing distributed RT-components on micro processors, application of the RT middleware to the embedded processing system and arbitrary network system are important. In this paper, we report the LwRTC that is the implementation of the RT-component on embedded micro-processors, and the prototype system for the mobile robot using LwRTC