Yasunori Takemura

A System Design Concept Based on Omni-Directional Mobility, Safety and Modularity for an Autonomous Mobile Soccer Robot

In this paper, we describe the concept, design and implementation of a series of autonomous mobile soccer robots, named Musashi robots, which are designed referring ISO safety standards and have mechatronics modular architecture. The robots are designed to participate in the RoboCup Middle Size League. Using a modular design philosophy, we show that the selection of a proper moving mechanism, a suitable vision system and a mechatronics modular architecture design can lead to the realization of a reliable, simple, and low cost robot when compared with most car-like robots that include many kinds of sensors and have a complex design structure.

Tomato Harvesting Robot Competiton

Tomato is one of important fruit vegetables and most tomatoes are produced in the greenhouses, or large-scale farms, where the high temperature and humidity, and long harvest age force the farmers heavy works. With an aim to promote the automation of tomato harvesting, we have organized the tomato harvesting robot competition. In this paper, we report on the results of tomato harvesting robot competition.

Development of SOM algorithm for relationship between roles and individual's role adaptation in rugby

Victory or defeat in team sports depends on each players technique, physical strength, and psychological condition. It follows that team performance depends on the players adaptation to (suitability for) a certain role (position in the team) and the relationships between different roles. We assume that team performance is related to physical and psychological features. Many researchers have proposed that physical features determine a players suitability for a position. Psychological features have also been researched as factors of position adaptation. However, each feature has been investigated independently. The present research aims to develop a clustering method that considers both physical and psychological features in judging an individuals role and adaptation in the game. This paper reports the concept of the algorithm and result of psychological data analysis using self-organizing maps and principal component analysis.

Evaluation and Analysis of Relationship between Roles and Individual’s Role Adaptation in Team Sports Using SOM

Victory or defeat in team sports depends on each player’s technique, physical strength, and psychological condition. It follows that team performance depends on the player’s adaptation to (suitability for) a certain role (position in the team) and the relationships between different roles. We assume that team performance is related to physical and psychological features. Many researchers have proposed that physical features determine a player’s suitability for a position. Psychological features have also been researched as factors of position adaptation. However, each feature has been investigated independently. The present research aims to develop a clustering method that considers both physical and psychological features in judging an individual’s role and adaptation in the game. This paper reports the concept of the algorithm and result of psychological data analysis using self-organizing maps and principal component analysis.

Color Constancy in RoboCup Robot Vision

One of the important subjects for mobile robots concerns about vision based decision-making system, where color constancy is a big problem for robots, as color property is often used to recognize their environments. Creatures can recognize color and shape of objects even if large changes of lighting conditions happen in such as outdoor environments. Biomimetic software and hardware attract attentions from the possibility to realize flexible and adaptive systems like creatures. We have been working on color constancy vision algorithms using bio-inspired information processing technique. In this paper, we evaluate the performances of color recognition using bio-inspired information processing algorithms: Self-Organizing Map (SOM), modular network SOM (mnSOM) and Neural Gas (NG), and discuss the experimental results in various light conditions.

An Adaptive Controller System Using mnSOM (2nd Report: Implementation into an Autonomous Underwater Robot)

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have great advantages for activities in deep oceans [1], and are expected as the attractive tool for underwater development or investigation near future. However, AUVs have various problems which should be solved such as motion control, acquisition of sensors’ information, behavioral decision, navigation without collision, self-localization and so on. Therefore, the AUVs should be autonomous and adaptive to their environment.

Development of the color constancy vision algorithms using bio-inspired information processing

One of important subjects for mobile robots is the vision based decision-making system with environmental recognition. In order to extract features from obtained images, how to realize color constancy by adjusting color property is the important technical issue. We have been working on color constancy vision algorithms using bio-inspired information processing methods as Self-Organizing Map (SOM), modular network SOM (mnSOM) and Neural Gas (NG). In this paper, we introduce the color constancy algorithms to a mobile robot platform for RoboCup middle size league and evaluate the performances through a vision based self-localization problem in various light conditions.

Evaluation of Color Constancy Vision Algorithm for Mobile Robots

One of important subjects for mobile robots is the vision based decision making system, where the color constancy is big problem for robots which use color property to recognize environments. We have been working on color constancy vision algorithms using bio-inspired information processing as creatures can recognize color and shape of objects even if there exits a large change of light conditions in outdoor environments. In this paper, we evaluate the performances of color recognition using bio-inspired processing algorithms such as Self-Organizing Map (SOM), modular network SOM (mnSOM) and Neural Gas (NG). The experimental results in various light conditions are discussed.

Concept of mechatronics safety and modularity design for an autonomous mobile soccer robot

In this paper, we describe the concept, design and implementation of a series of autonomous mobile soccer robots, named ldquoMusashirdquo robot, which have safety design which is based on ISO and a mechatronics modular architecture, to participate in the RoboCup middle-size league. In modularity design methodology, we show that the selection of a proper moving mechanism, a suitable vision system and a mechatronics modular architecture design can lead to realize a reliable, simple, and low cost robot comparing with most of car-like robots including many kinds of sensors and a complex design structure.