In this paper we propose a remote touch screen (RTS) as an application for flexible tactile array units. RTS is a combination of a flexible tactile display, a camera, a conventional touch screen and a monitor. While the user may press a button shown on the monitor under the touch screen in a conventional touch monitor configuration, in RTS, the user may press a button that is felt and shown. For visual guidance the user's hand motion is captured by an overhead camera, and is merged with the screen menu image and shown on the monitor. For tactual guidance, a tactile pattern is provided at the center of the button locations shown on the monitor. Hence the user's button pressing motion is visually as well as tactually guided in RTS configuration. To confirm the effectiveness of tactile display units in RTS, experiments were performed with and without the tactile display units

This paper describes a robotic-head system as a multimodal communication device for human-robot interaction, and the system's potential application in home environments. Most robotic systems for natural user interaction have facial expressions, since facial expressiveness is regarded as a key component to developing personal attachment along with prosodic expressiveness. In the first part of the paper is the description of our robotic head system Character Robot Face (CRF). A deformation approach and a parametric normalization scheme are proposed to produce facial expressions of nonhuman face models with high recognition rates. In the second half of the paper, CRF is endowed with artificial emotions and assigned tasks conceivable in home environments. A coordination mechanism between the robot's mood (an activated emotion) and its task is proposed so that the robot can, by referring to the emotion-task history, select a task depending on its current mood if there is no explicit task command from the user. When the robot performs a task, a particular emotion value gets boosted according to the same emotion-task history so that the emotion is more likely to be activated.

Many entertainment and healing robots have been developed. These robots have synthetic emotions so that they select behavior based on their current emotional state. On the contrary conventional robots which have designed to perform repetitive factor or office jobs do not have such emotions. Usually human operators assign tasks in explicit manner using keyboard or voice commands. In this paper we propose a coordination mechanism between robot mood (an activated emotion) and its task. On one hand, referring to the emotion-task history of the mechanism, the robot selects a task depending on its current mood if there is no explicit task command from the user. On the other hand, when it performs a task, a particular emotion gets boosted based on the same emotion-task history so that this emotion is more likely to be activated by external stimuli.

Presents the mobility augmentation method to provide omnidirectional mobility to nonomnidirectional wheeled bases. First, the kinematic model of a nonomnidirectional wheeled base and a link combined by an extra revolute/prismatic joint to the base is derived in a matrix-vector form. Then it is shown that, if the kinematic model satisfies some structural conditions, the link motion can be omnidirectional. The structural conditions for omnidirectional motion are derived and several examples are provided to demonstrate the method.

In this paper a novel wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot, the OmniKity-III (OK-III), is developed and its kinematic model and control laws are derived. A special gear train with omnidirectional mechanism was developed using conventional tire wheels. Several control laws are provided by considering the robot as a redundantly actuated wheeled mobile robot on the plane. Since the robot has three degrees of freedom in motion, failure in any one of the motor can be compensated by the other two motors in posture control although the omnidirectional mobility is lost. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed omnidirectional mechanism.

A fuzzy logic controller (FLC) for mobile robots is designed in a hierarchical structure. The designed FLC consists of two levels: the planner level and the motion control level. The planner level generates a path to the destination with obstacle avoidance. The singleton outputs of the planner are obtained using line and arc methods. The lower motion control level calculates the robot's wheel velocity so as to follow the path generated by the planner as to the current robot posture. The fuzzy singleton outputs are obtained by heuristics and tuned by evolutionary programming. The applicability of the controller is demonstrated using a robot soccer system.

OmniKity-II (OK-II) is a mobile base which is developed as an omnidirectional mobile robot. In this paper the structure of OK-II including actuators, vision and infrared sensors is described. As an application shooting behavior in robot soccer is demonstrated. Fuzzy logic controller from the authors' previous result is used for the shooting action control. The omnidirectional mobility makes the motion control much easier as shown in the experimental results.

The structure of OmniKity-I (OK-I), the miniature omni-directional mobile robot, and its kinematics and dynamics models are presented. OK-I has three DOFs in the plane. A conventional two wheeled mobile robot (2-WMR) serves as the base of OK-I for translational motion. The robot body is on top of the base. The third motor controls angular motion of the body as the base turns according to the translational motion. The circular surface connector (CSC) is devised to transfer signals from the base to the body without constraining angular motion of the body. Experimental results show proper omni-directional features of OK-I.

The soccer robot system consists of multi agents, with highly coordinated operation and movements so as to fulfill specific objectives, even under adverse situation. The coordination of the multi-agents is associated with a lot of supplementary work in advance. The associated issues are the position correction, prevention of communication congestion, local information sensing in addition to the need for imitating the human-like decision making. A control structure for a soccer robot is designed and several behaviors and actions for a soccer robot are proposed. Modified zone defense as a basic strategy and several special strategies for fouls are applied to SOTY and MIRO teams for MIROSOT (Micro-Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament).