This paper describes a octo-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with one degree of freedom (DoF) manipulator for bridge inspection. The UAV has an ability to contact bridge pier to conduct hammering test. To control contact force applied by the UAV to the bridge pier, one DoF is enough for the manipulator implemented on the UAV. A preliminary experiment shows that the force is proportional to the pitch angle of the UAV when it contacts the bridge pier. A bridge pier contact experiment shows that our developed UAV can control contact force between its end-effector and the bridge pier; mean error of the contact force is 4.27 ± 3.64 [N] against 20[N] desired force.

Presently, the simple head model (hereinafter referred to as phantom for practical training) with dentition models is used for dental therapy training. We suggested the patient robot for dental therapy training (hereinafter referred to as patient robot) as one of the practical applications of the humanoid robot technology, and we actually developed patient robots. One of them is the general model provided with 14 degrees of freedom (DOF) in addition to a tongue and lips that may interfere with treatment, allowing reflection of any change in simple expression. Also, active motions of the neck or hand allow various impediments so as to interfere with the actual potential treatment. The robot allowed trainees to do dental therapy training closer to the actual practice involving avoidance of these risks

We developed a jaw movement training robot system implementing a 6-degree of freedom (DOF) parallel mechanism, and applied it to jaw opening and closing training, which is one of the therapies for temporomandibular joint disorders. As one application of this system, we developed an intermaxillary traction therapy system that provides non-physiological movements, whereby the patients' jaws receive traction to regenerate healthy temporomandibular joint tissue. This therapy is especially effective for patients with a symptom called "open bite", i.e. those who cannot completely close their jaws. Additionally, the previously developed mastication robot was applied to this robot system as a patient model, and the training movements of the training robot were evaluated.

This paper describes a jaw movement training robot system implementing a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel mechanism, and its application for lateral movement raining. Temporomandibular joints (TMJ) problem is a disorder, whereby patients are not able to open their mouths nor move their jaws easily because of the problems with the mandibular joints, mastication muscles, and other organs concerning food chewing. Conventional therapy has been done with simple mouth opening apparatuses based on a doctor's technique through their own experiences, while this is still common. The authors have developed and improved a jaw movement training robot system, which provides not only jaw open and close training but also consists of a 6-DOF slave manipulator as a patient working manipulator and a 3-DOF master manipulator as a doctor commanding manipulator.

Conventional medical/dental systems have developed only doctor or patient models. However, two models are needed to quantify the dental/medical therapy; these are the patient model and the doctor model. The authors focus on the mouth opening and closing training done for the patients who have disorders on their jaw joints. The mastication robot as a patient model and the mouth opening-closing training robot as a doctor model are developed. The paper describes two robots that quantitatively evaluate the mouth opening and closing training. Force data using these two robots showed that robot training's force acting on the patient is smaller than the conventional training using a wooden device.

This paper describes the 6-degrees of freedom (6-DOF) jaw training robot that manipulates the patient's jaw to move sideway. Patients with jaw disorders who can not only control the opening/closing of their jaws, but also sideway movements are the target of this research. The authors developed a 6-DOF slave manipulator and 3-DOF master manipulator for these patients. The natural jaw's sideway motion was simulated by changing the center of rotation according to the rotational direction of the mandible. A real training for a jaw disorder patient using the robot was done, and the resulting distance to sideway was increased 9 to 15 mm in the right jaw joint and 7 to 12 mm in the left.

Describes a skull robot as a patient simulator for mouth opening and closing training. The rehabilitation for patients who have problems on the jaw joint have been done primarily based on the doctor's qualitative experience and technique that is unknown to other people. The authors developed a skull robot WOJ-1R as a mechanical patient simulator This skull robot will be useful for the doctor to develop the strategy of training for the real human patient. Also, it will quantitatively clarify the effectiveness of the robots therapy compared with therapy by human. Experimental results of biting force comparison show that robot therapy force data acting on the skull robot was smaller than the conventional therapy by human.

This paper describes the remote training between Tokyo and Yamanashi with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel robot that is designed for the mouth-opening and -closing training. Remote training is useful for the patients who have difficulties to go to hospitals frequently. The authors have developed a master-slave training system using ISDN lines because ISDN is not difficult to come by in patients home. Mouth-opening and -closing training robot WY-5R (Waseda Yamanashi-5 Refined) realized the remote training via two ISDN lines with 128 kbps. As a result of remote therapy using WY-5R, two patients' mouth-opening and -forward distances increased.