This paper reports the results of a survey on introducing robots and other new technologies to care services, such as care for older adults. Demographic data show that the ratio of older adults in Japan has already exceeded 23.3%. Japan also is facing a severe shortage of the working-age population, which could lead to a reduction in the quality of care services for older adults; therefore, robots and the provision of new forms of information technologies are expected to be utilized in such care services. The purpose of this study is to help facilitate the introduction of novel technologies in care services, such as in long-term care facilities. We focus on information-related costs that are incurred prior to the purchase of technologies such as attending exhibitions and conducting Internet searches. This report shows the results of an investigation into such information-related costs for three different products, and discusses the importance of the appropriate management of information costs from the development phase through to the introduction phase of such products.

Recently, with the development of life science field, micromanipulation technology has attracted attention. A two-fingered microhand system, that has been developed as a micro manipulator, can perform dexterous cell manipulation such as grasping, rotating, and transferring using two end effectors in a chopstick-like motion. The automated manipulation uses processing results based on all-in-focus (AIF) images and depth map obtained from the vision system; however, errors in the results still reduce the efficiency of the system. In this study, we introduce an automated grasping system that corrects the image processing error using the reaction force from the target object during grasping maneuvers. In our improved microhand system, micro force sensors that comprises strain gauge are attached to the two fingers of microhand. The two fingers with micro force sensor are set to be able to measure the horizontal and vertical forces to detect grasping state, precisely. Using the sensor information and the image processing results, we demonstrate that this system improves the accuracy and success rate of automated grasping.

In the fields of medicine and biology, it is essential to realize fine manipulation. Therefore, micromanipulation techniques and micromanipulators such as microgrippers and optical tweezers have been developed. We have developed a two-fingered microhand which is using the parallel mechanism to realize precise and stable micromanipulation. However, the previous microhand has problems about workspace and vibration. In this paper, the development of a new microhand which solves problems of previous microhand. The characteristic of new microhand is to enlarge the workspace utilizing the singularity of the parallel mechanisms. Inverse kinematics and structural analysis are used to analyze the workspace, and we show that results of two analyses match. Vibration analysis simulates transportation task and grasping task for manipulation. The new microhand has a potential to reduce the vibration by vibration analysis results.

In the field of bioscience, such as regeneration medicine and cloning, the manipulation and analysis for cells are performed by many researchers. However, manual operation for such micro objects is not feasible and practical for beginner operators. As for the problem, we have developed a two-fingered microhand supporting manual operation. Using the microhand, we can manipulate cells i.e., grab, rotate, carry, and so on - like when using chop sticks. The stiffness measurement of a cell is a key approach in single cell analysis techniques. It is important in indicating cell condition, because the stiffness of a cancer cell is lower than that of a normal cell as an example. However, measuring stiffness is very difficult, because deformations of cell are plasticly, and many researches to measure the stiffness of cell don't deal with plastic deformation. So, in this paper, the cell hardness is calculated instead of cell stiffness by measuring the reaction force caused in the process of cell deformation via a micro force sensor attached to the end-effector of the microhand. Our results point out that this can be one efficient measurement method for acquiring cell hardness. In this paper, three topics are discussed. First one is the fabrication of the end-effector with micro force sensor. Second one is the method of measuring hardness of cell. As a last one, the hardness of the fibroblastic cell is measured by proposed method and the effectiveness of the proposal technique is shown.

We have developed a novel technique for fluorescent monitoring of a bovine oocyte nucleus for an automatic cloning device. Animal cells that have been chemically softened by cytochalasin and stained with Hoechst dye are aspirated into a thin microchannel of a microfluidic chip and stretched thin, allowing the nucleus of the expanded oocyte to be monitored. Half the volume of the oocyte is aspirated into the thin microchannel and a high-velocity fluid flow is generated in the wide microchannel to bisect the oocyte. Then, the half-oocytes are monitored to determine which contains the nucleus. To control flow velocity with high accuracy and rapid response, we also developed a syringe pump that is small, has no backlash, and has highly-accurate volume control and a good response for automatic cutting. In this report, we describe the monitoring method and construction of the syringe pump.

Within the larger task of renovating an office building, there are many repetitive tasks that are suitable for automation. With the decreasing availability of skilled labour and increasing emphasis on reuse of materials, there is an opportunity to introduce robots that can replace labour for the simpler tasks. This paper describes a robot to perform the task of removing tile screws from suspended ceiling beams. The robot uses a specially-designed tool mounted at the end of an arm. This tool removes screws by turning them between two rollers. The tool is moved down the beam in a single motion, allowing it to remove many screws fast with little operator interaction. RT-Middleware is used as the implementation architecture, which facilitated development by simplifying testing of individual components.

We have developed a novel technique for injecting and cutting animal cells for an automatic cloning system. Animal cells that have been chemically softened are aspirated into a narrow teflon tube, which is then inserted into a microfluidic chip. The tube's tip is inserted into a microchannel and releases the aspirated cells in the microchannel. The microfluidic chip contains two orthogonal channels. One is a narrow microchannel that aspirates and fixes a cell; in the other channel, a fluid flows at high velocity for cutting the aspirated cell. The thickness of the aspiration channel can be adjusted to fix the aspirated cell. Half the volume of the cell is aspirated into the narrow microchannel and high-speed flow is then generated to cut the cell into two. In this report, the cutting method and the injection method are described. Then an imaging process is also investigated for an automatic cutting.

In this paper, connecting physical world and events schedule in the smart environment and ubiquitous robots are proposed to implement symbiotic robotic systems. Symbiotic robotic systems consist of humans, robots, and smart environment that cooperate symbiotically to perform a given task. An embedded element to develop smart environment called UFAM (Ubiquitous Functions Activation Module) is introduced. Physical hyperlink is also implemented for object recognition and localization based on the RFID system. We use Gdata as a syndication format, to manage events on user calendar and communicate with ubiquitous robots. Finally, an example of symbiotic robotic application for weather forecast is described.

In this paper, a novel approach of knowledge management for the space/location perceiving capacity of robots is proposed. First, the ubiquitous function services composed of smart object, smart logic, and smart discovery service are proposed in order to distribute knowledge flexibly and reliably to changing environment and also for a robot to invoke and merge the distributed knowledge more freely. Next, physical and virtual spaces are merged by RFID tags. Through this, it is shown that ambient intelligence is realized and the space localization and mapping problem of robots can be more easily solved. Finally, the experiment based on an example scenario is carried out to verify the proposed method in the informative space named u-RT space which has two kinds of RFID tags, a virtual space with ubiquitous function services realized by Web services, and a networked robot system which works in these spaces

The goal of this paper is to realize a hands free operating system for analytical work on protein crystal using a micro hand and an integrated vision system. At first, the operation for the protein crystal analysis is summarized to make it clear what kind of tasks should be necessary for automatic operation. Secondly, the proposed system is briefly reviewed, which is constructed with a two-fingered micro hand system and an all-in-focus microscopic system. Thirdly, a new localization criterion for transparent objects with the all-in-focus system is proposed for the protein crystal operation. Finally, experimental results show the validity of the proposed system and algorithm.

This paper describes the technique to grasp the micro transparent objects, such as crystal and cell, using the integrated vision system. At first, several 3D modeling techniques for transparent object are surveyed, which were mainly applied to use the polarization technique. Secondly, polarization characteristics on micro transparent object are evaluated. Thirdly, integrated vision system for micro objects is briefly reviewed. Then, to solve the problem of the transparent object with this integrated vision system, several new methods based on the volume rendering and edge methods information using the integrated vision system is proposed. Finally, the modeling and handling technique are proposed.

An automated calibration for micro-hand is proposed to obtain high quality micromanipulation system. The calibration is based on automatic focusing of micro-object and its position detection in the microscope frame using microscope images. The automatic focusing works well even in the tracking of moving target using chromatic aberration. The finger position can be detected automatically by integrating focusing and identification of the micro-hand finger wherever it is in the microscope view. These automated processes are implemented in the actual system. The experiment shows the system can attain around 2[/spl mu/m] in absolute positioning accuracy.

A dexterous micro manipulation system was developed for applications such as assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We (1996, 1999) have proposed a concept of a two fingered micro hand, and designed and built a prototype. We succeeded in performing basic micro manipulations, including the grasp, release, and rotation of a microscopic object. The two-fingered micro hand prototype needs to be more miniaturized for higher accuracy and use in the small chamber of SEM. In this paper, we propose a new 3-DOF parallel mechanism for the micromanipulator in order to achieve low cost and small size. The new mechanism is only used for punching holes and bending a thin plate. The two-fingered micro hand with the mechanism was designed and a prototype developed. An experiment shows the excellent micro capability of the mechanism.

A dexterous micro-manipulation system was developed for applications such as assembling micro-machines, manipulating cells, and micro-surgery. We proposed a concept of a two-fingered micro-hand, and designed and built a prototype. We succeeded in performing basic micro-manipulations, including the grasp, release, and rotation of a microscopic object. The micro-hand is controlled by a position controller only. The accuracy of the micro-manipulation depends on the skill of the operator. For automatic manipulation, it is necessary to measure the micro-forces between the finger and the object. A micro force sensor has developed for the force control in micro-manipulation. In this paper, we describe the micro force sensor and perform an automatic micro-manipulation and force control with the sensor. The basic experiment performed shows excellent micro-capability.

We apply the matrix method to kinematic analysis of our translational 3-DOF micro parallel mechanism for an instance of general flexure mechanisms. The matrix method has been well developed in architecture to analyze a frame structure. We found that this method is well applicable to such a flexure mechanism with circular notched hinges as our micro parallel mechanism because it is approximate to the Rahmen structure. Our matrix method can calculate a compliance matrix with less nodes of matrix than conventional finite element method. First, the compliance matrices of a circular notched hinge and some other beams are defined and the coordinate transformations of compliance matrix are introduced. Next, an analysis of our micro parallel mechanism is demonstrated.

A unique design for a 3-DOF micromanipulator is presented. The new design contains only revolute joints, and it incorporates rotation of the upper platform of the mechanism, which effectively uses the length of the end-effector to increase workspace volume. The forward and inverse kinematics problems for the device are solved, and a method for calculating the Jacobian is presented. Finally, a prototype of the manipulator was fabricated and tested experimentally to compare with the theoretical results.

A compact and economical 3-DOF finger module for micro manipulation is developed; it is designed for a two-finger micro manipulator which can manipulate micrometer-size objects dexterously like chopsticks. A 3-DOF parallel mechanism for this finger is proposed, and its inverse kinematics between the end effector position and the actuator displacements is formulated. The design parameters are determined so that its workspace volume may be as large as possible. A prototype using three piezo-electric actuators and two types of flexure joints, which are proposed for realizing a compact finger, is developed. The Jacobian matrix used for calculating the actuator displacements corresponding to the given end effector position is obtained by experiments. The repeatability and absolute positioning accuracy-about 2.0 /spl mu/m-of this prototype are evaluated.

A dexterous micro manipulation system was developed for applications such as assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-fingered microhand, and designed and built a prototype. We succeeded in performing basic micro manipulations, including the grasp, release, and rotation of a microscopic object. The two-fingered micro hand prototype should be more miniaturized for higher accuracy and combination in small chamber of SEM. In this paper, we will propose a small-sized 3-DOF finger module with a parallel mechanism. An optimized link mechanism for miniaturization is used to the finger module. A photo fabrication system is used to fabrication of the finger module. Basic experiment shows excellent micro capability.

A dexterous micro-manipulation system has been developed for applications in assembling micro-machines, manipulating biological cells, and performing micro-surgery. We have proposed a micro-hand having two fingers, a prototype of which has been designed and built using parallel mechanisms. We discuss the structure of our micro-hand and its operation system. The structure of the two-fingered micro-hand is strongly related to its effective workspace. The design of the micro-hand has been influenced by consideration of the usage of chopsticks. A calibration method based on least-square error is proposed for three degrees of freedom (DOF) translational motion in task coordinates fixed under a microscope. Development of a useful operational device to control the micro-hand is important for achieving dexterous micro-manipulation. A force feedback system would be ideal for such manipulation. In the case of micro-manipulation, though, a sensor with high resolution and multiple sensing axes is needed. There is no sensor meeting this demand currently. In order to achieve micro-manipulation without the force feedback system, an operational system which can be controlled with natural operational feeling like manipulation of actual human hand, is important. We have developed an operational device which is controlled by one hand. The forefinger and thumb are used to manipulate microscopic objects in tele-operation. However, due to kinematic dissimilarity between the master and the micro-hand, the motion of the fingers cannot be directly used as operational signals to move the micro-hand. We have therefore developed an operational strategy which compensates for this dissimilarity, thus providing for easy manipulation.

A dexterous micro manipulation system was developed for applications such as assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-fingered micro hand, and designed and built a prototype. We succeeded in performing basic micromanipulations, including the grasp, release and rotation of a microscopic object. If a bonding technique for microscopic parts can be applied to our current system, the assembly of various micro 3D structures will be achieved. Various bonding techniques have been researched for assembly of micro 3D structures, including anodic bonding, direct bonding, adhesive bonding, and others. We apply the adhesive bonding technique to micro parts with micro assembly, since this method can be applied to micro parts with various material qualities. In adhesive bonding, one difficulty is how to obtain a microscopic drop of adhesive agent smaller than the micro parts. In this paper, we will propose a method to obtain a micro drop by applying the capillary phenomenon. By using this technique, a micro drop only a few microns in size could be obtained. Combining the micro drop method with our current micromanipulation system, we succeeded in building a 3D structure "Micro scarecrow".

A dexterous micro manipulation system is developed for application in assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-fingered micro hand, and designed and built a prototype. In the micro manipulation, the system to observe microscopic objects is important as well as a system for actually manipulating a microscopic object. An optical microscope or SEM (scanning electron microscope) is typically used to observe micro motion of fingers in the micro hand. In high scale magnification, its focusing range is limited and the finger tip may often go out of the sight. We propose and develop a vision system using auto focus by processing CCD image data in order to obtain a fine image of the finger tip and microscopic object in a micro task.

A 3 DOF micro finger, that has pure translational motion, is proposed. The finger will be applied in the two finger micro manipulation in order to manipulate micrometer size objects dexterously. The possible configurations are considered based on the group theory. Then, the optimal configuration is proposed by taking simple machining of joint structures into account. Kinematics analysis is made in order to describe the relation between end effector and actuator displacements. The design parameters are examined by evaluating the force capability of the actuator and the work space volume. Basic experiments are made by a prototype finger module that show excellent micro motion capability.

A dexterous micro manipulation system is developed for the application in assembling micro machine, manipulating cell, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-finger micro hand, and designed and built two types of hand modules based on parallel mechanisms. In this paper, we mainly discuss the structure of a two-finger micro hand. The structure of the two-finger micro hand is strongly related to the effective work space, or the common work space of two fingers as well as its cooperation control algorithms. We design a structure to be suitable for a two-finger micro hand and made a prototype. Development of useful master device to operate the two-finger micro hand is important issue for the dextrous micro manipulation system. We developed a master device which is operated by one hand. The forefinger and thumb is generally used to manipulate objects by one hand. However, motion of each finger cannot be directly used to move the micro manipulator operational signal. We observed difference between the manipulation by two-finger hand like chopsticks and the manipulation by forefinger and thumb in human hand, and discuss operational algorithm for easy manipulation. By using this system for the micro manipulation, we evaluated effectiveness of the two-finger micro hand. In the actual micro manipulation, we succeeded to pick up, place and rotate a micro glass ball having size of 2 microns. The positioning accuracy is less than 0.1 micron.

The dexterous micro manipulation system is developed for application in assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-finger micro hand, and designed and built two types of hand modules based on parallel mechanisms. In this paper, we mainly discuss the structure of a two-finger micro hand. The structure of the two-finger micro hand is strongly related to the effective work space, or the common work space of two fingers as well as its cooperation control algorithms. Therefore we design the structure to be suitable for a two-finger micro hand, and made a prototype. And the control system for the micro hand should be robust in some disturbance for accurate position control. A H/sub /spl infin// controller is applied to the control system of the micro hand. The controller has a tuning parameter. By tuning the parameter, the characteristic of the control system is changed like a PID controller. In a general H/sub /spl infin// controller, the characteristics are conservative, however, good stability and fast response are obtained easily in our controller.