Takashi Ogura

Humanoid motion generation system on HRP2-JSK for daily life environment

This paper describes software system for a humanoid robot viewed from a motion generation aspect by taking kitchen helping behaviors as an example of a real world task. Our software consists of high level reasoning modules including 3D geometric model based action/motion planner and runtime modules contains 3D visual processor, force manipulation controller and walking controller. We discuss how a high level motion and action planner based motion generation functions contribute to various real world humanoid tasks and a role of perception based motion generation using a vision sensor and force sensors.

The Acidic Glycosaminoglycans in Leukocytes: An Application of Enzymatic Methods

Acidic glycosaminoglycans (AGAG) in bovine leukocytes were studied by an enzymatic approach with the chondroitinases and streptomyces hyaluronidase. The appearance of a single spot corresponding to the unsaturated 4-sulfated disaccharide after digestion of leukocyte AGAG with chondroitinases indicated that chondroitin sulfate in leukocyte AGAG consists of chondroitin 4-sulfate only. Dowex 1-X2 column fractionation, followed by electrophoretic identification and thin layer chromatography, as well as enzymatic digestion of intact AGAG followed by gel filtration indicated that small amounts of hyaluronic acid and possibly heparan sulfates are also present in leukocyte AGAG. The present studies showed that the content of chondroitin 4-sulfate, hyaluronic acid, and heparan sulfates in leukocyte AGAG is 75-80%, 10-15%, and approximately lo%, respectively.

Integrated system software for HRP2 humanoid

This paper describes the design and development of system software for humanoid robots such that researchers who specialize not only in biped walking but also in various fields are able to use humanoid robots as a research tool. For this purpose, the system for a humanoid must integrate and organize each subsystem such as control, recognition, dialogue, planning and so on, and it must provide efficient full-body motion control by specifying fewer degrees of freedom than all joints. Our system design provides a common interface among subsystems by implementing each function as a method call through a three-dimensional model of the robot for good integration, and it also provides a motion planning technique based full-body posture sequence and walking pattern generation. Finally, we show integrated behavior experiments with vision, planning and motion control using the developed system software for a life-sized humanoid robot, HRP2.

Autonomous 3D walking system for a humanoid robot based on visual step recognition and 3D foot step planner

This paper describes vision-based 3D walking system of a humanoid robot by combining a precise 3D planar surface detection method and a practical 3D footstep planner method. The walking control system requires vision system with 10[mm] accuracy. Then we developed the precise 3D planar surface recognition system by combining the 3D Hough transformation method and the robust estimation method. We also developed practical 3D foot step planner by considering kinematics and dynamics restriction of robot hardware. Finally, we realized vision based 3D walking experiments that a humanoid robot steps upon an unknown obstacle are shown.

Studies on the disaccharide subunits of chondroitin sulfates in human plasma.

Abstract 1. 1. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of isomeric chondroitin sulfates were performed in normal human plasma at the disaccharide subunit levels after the digestion with chondroitinases. 2. 2. The data obtained by the enzymatic assay indicated that chondroitin sulfate A is a major constituent of plasma glycosaminoglycans, as evidenced by the determination of the unsaturated 4-sulfated disaccharide after the digestion with chondroitinase-AC. In addition, chondroitin sulfate C was demonstrated, in a lesser quantity, as the unsaturated 6-sulfated disaccharide subunit. 3. 3. Unsaturated nonsulfated disaccharide was also detected in relatively large amounts in human plasma with small quantities of unsaturated disulfated disaccharides. The finding indicates the presence of under-sulfated and oversulfated chondroitin sulfate isomers in human plasma and the heterogeneous structures of plasma chondroitin sulfate isomers in terms of the degree of sulfation.

The intrinsic stability of the second intermediate following the dioxygen-bound form in the O2 reduction by cytochrome c oxidase

Aeration of a two‐electron reduced cytochrome c oxidase provides a species with two Raman bands at 804 and 356 cm−1, identifying it as the second intermediate following the O2‐bound species in the enzymatic O2 reduction process. It degrades directly to the fully oxidized form with a half‐life time of 70 min at pH 8.0. The stability suggests an effective insulation for the active site in an extremely high oxidation state (Fe4+ with one oxidative equivalent nearby) against spontaneous electron leaks, which would dissipate proton motive force. The formation and degradation of the second intermediate are pH‐dependent.

Realization of Dynamics Simulator Embedded Robot Brain for Humanoid Robots

This paper proposes the new robot programming environment in which robot motion programming environment and dynamics simulator are integrated. This allows robot motion programs to include simulation descriptions. Additionally, a new implementation of simulation that is composed by simulation modules is presented, on the other hand, conventional simulators are monolithic and implanted every function. This makes it difficult to add new simulation functions such as new sensors on a simulator by its users. In the new method, the users of the environment can add new modules easily. The simulation function of this system is evaluated by showing new robot motion simulations like brooming, seesaw and so on. The experiment that shows how the simulation embedded brain changes the motion planning of block moving problem is illustrated in the end this paper.

Device Distributed Approach to Expandable Robot System Using Intelligent Device with Super-Microprocessor

Conventional robot system design is either classified as a built-in centralized approach in which one processor on a robot controls all devices or as a module distributed approach in which several processors in a built-in network communicate and each processor controls several devices. The built-in centralized approach is limited by the number of devices on the robot. The module distributed approach has no such limitation, but requires changes in software or built-in network topology when devices are added. This paper describes a device distributed approach to realize a simple, expandable robot system that enables a number of devices to be attached or added to a built-in robot without significant changes to software and hardware. The robot system based on a device distributed approach consists of a serial bus connected to intelligent devices. Each device such as sensors and actuators has a processor for communication and calculation, so devices are added by connecting them to the serial network. We developed intelligent servos and intelligent sensors as prototypes of intelligent devices using super microprocessors with a 3 ́ 3 mm footprint, and build small humanoid robots to confirm the expandability of a robot, in which intelligent servos realize a wiring saving robot, a many DOF robot, and easy device addition.

Behavior network acquisition in multisensor space for whole-body humanoid

This paper presents a design and the development of a robot system, which has the ability to acquire a behavior description by network representation called StateNet. In the StateNet, arcs represent whole-body motions of a robot, and nodes represent robot states, or multi-sensor body images. Also, there is another network where each node has attentions to the sensors. The system uses stored sensor information to determine attentions. This autonomous acquisition has diffuse nodes and lacks arcs. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a method to integrate nodes with clustering method and to create arcs by generating robots motions using GA-based (genetic algorithm) learning method. Finally, we show an experiment with a small whole-body humanoid.

On-site humanoid navigation through hand-in-hand interface

In order to realize humanoid robots that support people in their daily lives, on-site humanoid behavior navigation system which a robot behaviors autonomously as well as a robot reacts to the intentions of a human. This paper proposes new on-site navigation interface method for humanoid robots which a human navigate a humanoid robot hand-in-hand. Previous humanoid researches aim to realize an autonomous intelligence, which is able to survive in a real environment without any help from a person. However to utilize a humanoid robot in a real world, it is necessary to take a robot to various locations or make a robot to manipulate and use various kinds of objects and tools, on-site navigation that a person is able to induce a humanoid behavior. In the experiment the operator takes a humanoid robot to a kitchen and teaches holding a kettle using this interaction kernel, and played back the motion sequence by planning in different environments