Tomoichi Takahashi

RoboCup Rescue: search and rescue in large-scale disasters as a domain for autonomous agents research

Disaster rescue is one of the most serious social issue which involves very large numbers of heterogeneous agents in the hostile environment. RoboCup-Rescue intends to promote research and development in this socially significant domain by creating a standard simulator and forum for researchers and practitioners. While the rescue domain intuitively appealing as large scale multi-agent domains, it has not yet given through analysis on its domain characteristics. In this paper, we present detailed analysis on the task domain and elucidate characteristics necessary for multi-agent systems for this domain.

Hand gesture coding based on experiments using a hand gesture interface device

It would be ideal for computer-human interaction if a computer could understand human gestures. Hand gestures are one means of interaction between computers and humans[1][2]. A hand gesture interface device, the VPL Data Glove TM, provides real-time information on a users hand movement[3].

The RoboCup-Rescue project: a robotic approach to the disaster mitigation problem

This paper introduces the RoboCup-Rescue Simulation Project, a contribution to the disaster mitigation, search and rescue problem. A comprehensive urban disaster simulator is constructed on distributed computers. Heterogeneous intelligent agents such as fire fighters, victims and volunteers conduct search and rescue activities in this virtual disaster world. A real world interface integrates various sensor systems and controllers of infrastructures in the real cities with the virtual world. Real-time simulation is synchronized with actual disasters, computing complex relationship between various damage factors and agent behaviors. A mission-critical man-machine interface provides portability and robustness of disaster mitigation centers, and augmented-reality interfaces for rescue parties in real disasters. It also provides a virtual reality training function for the public. This diverse spectrum of RoboCup-Rescue contributes to the creation of the safer social system.

Robotic assembly operation based on task-level teaching in virtual reality

The authors propose a robot teaching interface which uses virtual reality. The teaching method provides a user interface with which a novice operator can easily direct a robot. The operator performs the assembly task in a virtual workspace generated by a computer. The operators movements are recognized as robot task-level operations by using a finite automation. The system interprets the recognized operations into manipulator-level commands using task-dependent interpretation rules and a world model. A robot executes the assembly task in the workplace by replicating the operators movements in the virtual workspace.<<ETX>>

A hand gesture recognition method and its application

If information concerning speech and hand gestures is handled in an integrated way, a more user-friendly interface will be realized. These are defined here as the “hand gesture” as the “shape and motion of hands to transmit the intention of the speaker.” They aim at the realization of the hand gesture interface. Using the hand shape input device Data GloveTM, we investigate the coding of the hand shape/motion information, a series of hand shapes in a continuous motion and the recognition method for the hand motion. For the case of hand shape/motion in the alphabet gesture in the sign language, a recognition experiment is executed. It is verified that some 20 hand gestures can be recognized, including the dynamic hand gestures. As the interface for the map guidance system, the instruction by speech and hand gesture is realized.

Agent Based Approach in Disaster Rescue Simulation - From Test-Bed of Multiagent System to Practical Application

We apply multi-agent approach to search and rescue in a large-scale domain. The simulator is designed to simulate various domain specific simulation and human behaviors. Kobe-Awaji earthquake data is used as disaster scenarios and a prototype system was made open at RoboCup 2000. A rescue team composed of heterogeneous agents, - fire brigades, ambulances, and polices -, takes active part in the disastrous situation where about 100 civilian agents move autonomously. By comparing with rescue operations of two teams, we showed that the search and rescue in disasters can be used as a test-bed for multi-agent systems. The comparing experiments made clear that rescue task is not well defined in spite of its practical importance, and planning based on multi-perspectives on disaster losses is necessary. It points that the rescue problem is not only a test-bed for multi-agent system but also for laboratory work for practical system.

Teaching robot's movement in virtual reality

The authors propose a robot teaching method which uses virtual reality. An operator wearing a VPL DataGlove performs a task in a virtual workspace which simulates a real workspace. The operators movements are recognized that interpreted task-dependently using interpretation rules and a world model. A robot executes the task in the real workspace using sensors. The overall system architecture and experiments are presented.<<ETX>>

A method for analyzing human assembly operations for use in automatically generating robot commands

A method for describing human movements in symbolic manner converts a human workers movements into sets of parameters (state, movement, rotation). These parameter sets are used to program a robot to perform several tasks. Dextrous movements (extra movements the worker uses to complete a specific task properly) are derived as the difference between the parameter set for the task and the set of parameters common to similar tasks. Experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of this method, and show that some dextrous movements can be automatically generated from human movements.<<ETX>>

An overview of RoboCup-2002 Fukuoka/Busan

This article reports on the Sixth Robot World Cup Competition and Conference (RoboCup-2002) Fukuoka/Busan, which took place from 19 to 25 June in Fukuoka, Japan. It was the largest Robo-Cup since 1997 and held the first humanoid league competition in the world. Further, the first ROBOTREX (robot trade and exhibitions) was held with about 50 companies, universities, and institutes represented. A total of 117,000 spectators witnessed this marvelous event. To the best of our knowledge, this was the largest robotic event in history.

A study of symbol segmentation method for handwritten mathematical formula recognition using mathematical structure information

Symbol segmentation is very important in handwritten mathematical formula recognition, since it is the very first portion of the recognition process. This paper proposes a new symbol segmentation method using mathematical structure information. The base technique of symbol segmentation employed in the existing methods is dynamic programming which optimizes the overall results of individual symbol recognition. The new method we propose here improves symbol recognition performance by using correction values together with evaluation values of symbol recognition. These correction values are calculated from the relations among handwritten stroke positions and mathematical structure. There is no report which takes account of mathematical structure information for symbol segmentation in the handwritten mathematical formula recognition. Our experiments have proven that the recognition rate of symbol segmentation by existing methods is between 90.2% and 93.3%, while our proposed method gives correct recognition rate of 97.1%.