Takahiro Sasaki

Application of robot arm using fiber knitted type pneumatic artificial rubber muscles

In the restoration work from disasters, the remote control of construction machine is required to ensure the workers safety. However, conventional remote-controlled construction machine is larger than ordinary ones and limited in types and numbers, so there is a problem that the transportation to the destructed sites takes time and is troublesome. We have been developing the pneumatic humanoid type robot arm, which can be installed in any models of construction machine. In consideration of portability, the lightweight fiber knitted type pneumatic artificial rubber muscle (FARM) was adopted as the actuator. In this paper, we developed the static and dynamic characteristic models of the FARM taking the effect of elasticity of rubber and frictional force into consideration. Then we realized the remote control of the construction machine using the pneumatic robot that has 6 degree of freedom using the FARM. Moreover, we did some experiments on the remote control of the construction machine. Experimental results show that the developed system is available in remote control of a construction machine.

Development of remote control system of construction machinery using pneumatic robot arm

In the restoration work from disasters, the remote control of construction machinery is required to ensure the workers safety. However, only limited numbers of remote controlled construction machinery exist and they are typically larger than conventional machinery. After a disaster, the transportation of such machinery takes additional times and is often troublesome. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop a remote control system that could easily be installed on ordinary construction machinery. We have been developing a pneumatic robot system, which can be installed in any models of construction machinery, with the aim of easy installation and portability. In consideration of portability, the lightweight pneumatic artificial rubber muscle (PARM) was adopted as the actuator of the robot arm. In this research, we developed a remote control system of construction machinery using the 6-DOF pneumatic robot arm. We used a wireless LAN for the remote control. We did experiment on the remote control of construction machinery and showed that the developed system is available for remote control of construction machinery.

Development of a remote control system for construction machinery for rescue activities with a pneumatic robot

Rescue activities at disaster sites often require the remote control of construction machinery to ensure the safety of the workers. A pneumatic 6-d.o.f. robot arm was developed to achieve the remote control of construction machinery. A lightweight fiber-knitted-type pneumatic artificial rubber muscle was selected as the actuator for the arm after considering portability and installation issues. A control system was then designed to remotely operate the pneumatic robot arms. The system consists of the slave and master side. The slave side is composed of two robot arms, a control box, a power generator and an air compressor. The master side consists of two joysticks and a laptop PC. A wireless LAN was employed to achieve the remote control. Construction machinery was retrofitted with the pneumatic robot and field tests were performed at a real construction site. The operation times using remote control and direct operation were compared. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed system.

Remote control of backhoe for rescue activities using pneumatic robot system

In this paper, we describe the development of master-slave pneumatic robotic system and its ability to remotely control some functional tasks of backhoe machines during operation on construction sites. The functional tasks include (i) excavating (loading), (ii) lifting, (iii) transporting loads, and (iv) unloading. Pneumatic actuators and grippers, CCD cameras and a control box containing power source, PC and wireless LAN boards are integral part of our pneumatic robot system. During operation, images from the CCD cameras are transported to the master side with a wireless LAN, and then display visually on the laptop PC. Using joysticks, an operator can manipulate the synchronized activities of the system and backhoe machines with or without the CCD cameras. Tests were conducted on some local construction sites to evaluate the effectiveness of the system to control the functional tasks of the backhoe machines. It was found that the use of CCD cameras by the operator to monitor the synchronized activities was more effective than having a direct face to face operator contact with the activities. Disasters caused by environmental changes and man-made actions are increasing worldwide. The safety for rescued workers and investigative officials in disaster areas is a growing concern. Our system provides an opportunity to improve safety

On-Rubble Robot Systems for the DDT Project

Intelligent rescue systems with advanced information and robot technology have been expected to mitigate disaster damage, particularly in Japan after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. It is important that the robots developed for search and rescue tasks can actually work at a real disaster site. Several robots were used for the search and detection operation in the collapsed World Trade Center building in September 2001. In 2002, the DDT Project (Special Project for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Urban Areas, III-4 Development of Advanced Robots and Information Systems for Disaster Response) was launched by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan). It was a 5-year project for 2002–2007. It aimed at developing necessary technologies for mitigating the damage caused by large-scale earthquakes of the scale of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, occurring in densely populated areas in big city regions such as the Tokyo metropolitan area and Keihanshin area. In this paper, we introduce the activities of the mission unit for the information collection by on-rubble mobile platforms.