Takeo Oomichi

Development of Dismantling Robot for Ceiling Boards – Human-Robot Cooperative System and System Design of the Robot –

Dismantling robot was developed for ceiling boards. The system design of dismantling robot includes cooperative system between human-workers and robots. Besides, it has hierarchical system of the independent robot. Indeed, we carried out the dismantlement of ceiling boards by the new method of cutting ceiling boards, and verified the effectiveness of the robot system.

Open system architecture for robotics and mechatronics with modulated component (MHS2005 & Micro-Nano COE)

Practical intelligent robot covers wide application field and also various mechanisms or control software without high cost. If the system architecture or component of robot is developed based on standardized concept, it makes the robot easy design, easy application or easy maintenance and reduces the robot costs hugely. Now, we are developing the hardware component named NPA (network plug in actuator) and outdoor mobile robot econo-vehicle designed by open-arts and software frame work named Open RTM-AIST. This paper shows the concept and out line of NPA and econo-vehicle.

Stable impact and contact force control by UAV for inspection of floor slab of bridge

ABSTRACT This paper describes the contact force control on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed to inspect the floor slabs of bridges. Our UAV is equipped with a three degree-of-freedom manipulator on top of the UAV body. To control the UAV for stable contact with the slab surface, the impact force should be considered. The impact force is modeled based on Hertzian contact stress. The control strategy of the UAV is cascade control separated into attitude control and position-force control. The attitude, position and force feedback are PID control. The force feedback is integrated into the position feedback seamlessly, and the output of the force feedback is added to the desired end-point position of the manipulator. This paper focuses on contact of the UAV and the floor slab. Therefore, the UAV is modeled considering the impact force in the vertical direction. The control method in the vertical direction is described, and then the altitude control and the contact force control are assessed. The altitude of the UAV was controlled with a 0.45u2009[sec] delay during ascending and 1.76u2009[sec] during descending. The UAV could control the contact force with mean error 1.61 ± 1.08u2009[N] while the desired contact force was 3u2009[N]. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Practical design of robots operating in radiation environments

Nuclear robots must be hardened against radiation for effective operation in high-radiation environments. These robots require special components that usually have few functions, high costs and long delivery times. In the present study, we propose a modulated and hierarchical electrical circuit system for robot components such as actuators. The hierarchical system is set into a design that can withstand radiation without reducing or limiting the functionality of the robot. The hierarchical system is achieved by minimizing the variety of integrated circuit (IC) components to be used and selecting specific ICs that require radiation testing. These ICs are defined by spotted ICs with regard to the integration density and operational speed. In some cases, it is possible to select off-the-shelf IC components, but certain key IC components are needed for on-line irradiation tests, depending on robot operation reliability and the radiation environment. Since the serial numbers of off-the-shelf IC components are random, it is important that a sufficiently large number of IC components are tested under the operating conditions for statistical evaluation. If the radiation lifetime is random, then the radiation lifetime of the sorted IC components can be estimated statistically. Here, the robot user decides the operation based on this lifetime. By doing so, the experimental cost can be minimized in accordance with the proposed method at the users operational risk. Of course, if on-line irradiation tests are performed for various types of IC components, the radiation lifetime of the robot can be predicted with a relatively high accuracy. As a result, the design of a robot that operates under certain radiation conditions, while having a certain lifetime and cost, is possible. This design technique was applied to a nuclear disaster prevention robot and the radiation lifetime of the spotted IC components was shown to be distributed randomly, indicating the validity of the proposed method.