Noboru Tsunashima

Spatiotemporal Coupler: Storage and Reproduction of Human Finger Motions

Currently, the development of a leading-edge technology for saving and reproducing human motions in terms of haptic information is required for various fields. To address these requirements, a motion-copying system has already been proposed. This system is a key technology that enables the realization of the acquisition, preservation, and reproduction of real-world haptic information. In order to apply this system to various fields, the use of the concept involving two types of coupling is important: that involving spatial and temporal couplings. In this paper, the use of the concept mentioned earlier is proposed, and the related system is named “spatiotemporal coupler.” The proposed coupler is divided into two couplers. One is a spatial coupler, and the other is a temporal coupler. The spatial coupler connects human motions that are saved by haptic devices with different configurations according to the information for a human model. On the other hand, the temporal coupler integrates the saved motions temporally, and the integrated motion is reproduced as a single motion. The proposed concept is applied to finger motion in the experiments. The experimental results validate the proposed technology.

Reproduction of human motion using motion-copying system based on coordinate modification

Recently, the development of “haptic recording” is demanded, and a motion-copying system is one of good methods for realization haptic recording. The haptic recording is the technology for saving and reproducing human motion based on haptic information which is constructed by position and force information. One of the problems of the motion-copying system is that the saved human motion is reproduced in the only case when the environmental location of acquisition step and reproduction step is completely same. In this paper, the method which considers the case when the environmental location is different is proposed. If environmental location is change, there is the error between the coordinate of the position control and it of the force control. In the proposed method, the coordinate of position controller is modified by the force error between the acquisition and reproduction steps. The availability of the proposed method is shown by experiments. By the proposed method, the motion-copying system is more useful for preservation and reproduction of human motions.

Bilateral control based on human model for haptic communication

This paper discusses about a haptic communication system. Recently the haptic information is attracted attention as the third sense of communication information. And the real world haptics is the key technology for the haptic communication. However, the present approach of the teleoperation system postulates that human touches the remote object via the device like as the remote surgery. Considering using the real world haptics for person-to-person haptic communication tool, the exoskeleton-endoskeleton haptic system is necessary. Thus in this paper, we focus the exoskeleton-endoskeleton haptic system and bilateral control in the human modal space is proposed. The availability of the proposed method is shown by experiments.

Reproduction of 2-DOF motion adapting to environmental angle change

Recently, technology which deals with tactile sense has attracted attention in various fields. In particular, researches about storing and reproducing human motion are one of important fields for the haptic technology. A motion-copying system is known as one of efficient methods to achieve storing and reproducing human motion. However, it is known that environmental condition change is serious problem for the motion-copying system. To resolve this problem, many methods have been proposed. However, most of them are not sufficient because these methods deal with only 1-DOF motion and they are for adapting only environmental position change. In this paper, a reproduction method adapting environmental angle change is proposed using 2-DOF system. Validity of the proposed method is confirmed by experiment. By the proposed method, adaptivity of the motion-copying system is improved.

Design method for motion reproduction system including time scaling based on robot dynamics

The robotic technology which can save and reconstruct complicate and dexterous motion of human is required to solve skill preservation and skill transfer problems. A motion copying system is a candidate of the robotic technology. The motion copying system is composed of a motion saving system and a motion loading system. By using the motion saving system, human motion can be saved as haptic information. The motion loading system reconstructs the saved haptic data in chronological order. By using the motion loading system, spacelike pattern (trajectory) and timelike pattern (time cycle) of the saved motion can be reconstructed. When the reproduction speed of the loading system can be changed arbitrarily, the working efficiency can be improved. Therefore, in this paper, the motion reproduction system including the time scaling is proposed. The time scaling is defined as expansion and reduction of the motion timelike pattern. The proposed reproduction system enables to change the timelike pattern arbitrarily while the spacelike pattern is unchanged. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by experiments.

Preservation and reproduction of real-world haptic information

Artificial acquisition and reproduction of human sensations are basic technologies of industrial applications. Recently, haptic sensation is attracted attention as the third multimedia information. Such sensation is kind of bilateral sensation since it is subject to the law of action and reaction in the real world. From the point of view, real-world haptics is the key technology for future haptic technology. Bilateral connection of haptic systems with force feedback ability realizes telecommunication between remote human operators. The paper shows a “real-world haptic system (RHS)” as a spatiotemporal coupler of real-world haptic information. Once human motion is stored using RHS, it is possible to reproduce it at anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, the stored motion components are integrated and reproduced in one motion. It will be useful for digital preservation of motions by skilled experts as the haptic database. The experimental results show the viability of the proposed method.