For the purpose of improving the deterioration diagnosis accuracy of lithium-ion batteries, we aim to establish a model-based deterioration diagnosis method. An equivalent circuit model is derived using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy that can accurately represent the dynamic characteristics of lithium ion batteries. By estimating the parameters of the model by the particle swarm optimization method, it is possible to follow the change of the parameter due to deterioration considering the relationship with deterioration from the parameter change.

Riding a unicycle is good exercise to enhance and keep rider's sense of equilibrium, reflexes and quickness. But a lot of people can not ride a unicycle because its stability. And there are no theoretically to be able to ride a unicycle. A way to do so is that, at first, the model of riding unicycle is simply considered as the cart-pendulum model, then using inputs and outputs obtained by measured data of Motion Capture System (MCS), its controller is able to derived. But a relationship between rider's body manipulations and movements of center of gravity are not unique. because there a lot of way to make same trajectory of center of gravity by different body manipulations. Therefore, in this paper, to understand a way to ride a unicycle by the relationship, a way to decide the similarity of movements of center of gravity is described.

The purpose of this paper is motion analysis by experiment and simulation for riding bicycles with children. It is very important to think about stability when the bicycle is driving with children. However, such a research is not so performed. Therefore, analysing human motions in the such case by some experiments and simulations, dynamic characteristics of the such case are shown. The modeling of bicycle is performed, and the model is used for the simulations.

The unicycle operation is a good exercise for training of the sense of balance, the agility and the ability to coordinate the body according to situations. This paper aims to give an interpretation of the relationship between the moment balancing point (MBP) and the center of pressure (CP) in a riding a unicycle from the human motion viewpoint. This paper shows derivations of Human-Unicycle model motion equations according to the Projection Method, and represents the relationship between the MBP and the CP of the the model by considering structure and constraint reaction forces of the model.

A purpose of this study is analyzing a human's controller to understand a mechanism of skill acquation processes for riding a unicycle. In order to analyze the controller, inputs which an operator gives to the unicycle and states of the unicycle are measured and a human-unicycle model as same as the experiment is derived. A weighting matrix to the state is obtained from the states, the inputs and the model solving inverse regulator problem. The human's controller for riding the unicycle is discussed by the obtained weighting matrix.

The shortage of nurses in large hospitals of developed countries has become a major problem. Especially, the shortage of scrub nurses, who assist operating surgeons exchange surgical instruments, has been chronically severe. To compensate for this shortage, we have been proposing the scrub nurse robot (SNR) system that is capable of functioning as a skilled human scrub nurse in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. We developed the 2nd version of SNR, and achieved smooth and wide movement of its arms each with 4 DOF. The 2nd SNR is able to speak several sentences and recognize some words as well as the names of surgical instruments, and is also capable of recognizing a surgeon's intraoperative actions by its real-time visual recognition system (RTVRS). The RTVRS is basically composed of both a commercially-available 3D position tracking system and the algorithm that we developed to recognize surgeons' actions during exchange of instruments from the above-mentioned positional data. In this paper, we evaluated how quickly and timely the RTVRS-driven SNR helped surgeon's stand-ins exchange instruments in a laboratory, in comparison with human scrub nurses in real surgical operations. We found two problems about the current RTVRS-driven SNR: one is its response time and the other is chiefly related to the design and mechanism of the part storing the surgical instruments. 1) Concerning the first problem, the RTVRS-driven SNR took 2.11 sec until it finished holding out its hand with an instrument after it had detected a surgeon's stand-in's motions observed during extraction of a surgical instrument. However, a skilled real surgeon took 1.90 sec until he got the requested instrument in the clinical cases although he had to wait for as long as 1.24 sec until receiving it. Therefore, we must speed up the SNR's performance at least by 0.2 sec to assist the real surgeon as human scrub nurses did. Especially, since 0.68 sec out of the 2.11 sec was spent in data processing within the current RTVRS, we conclude that the performance of the RTVRS must be improved rather than speed-up of its arm movement. 2) The other problem was highlighted by measurement of the time during which the stand-ins and the real surgeon had to take their eyes from the monitor displaying the operative field within the abdomen. We termed this period of time 'eyes-off time. The existence of 'eyes-off' time observed during his actions of returning an instrument after use and of waiting for the next instrument was regarded as unfavorable. The 'eyes-off' time was 2.34 sec in the laboratory whereas it was 0.19 sec in the clinical cases. The much longer 'eyes-off' time in the laboratory was partly due to inexperienced stand-ins' performances, but mainly because of the design and mechanism of the part storing the instruments (a tool changer). To overcome these two problems, we are now developing the next version of SNR.

The main purpose of this study is to develop a way in order to measure laparoscopic skills using center of pressure (COP). This study is intended to contribute for the development of a Scrub Nurse Robot (SNR) system. SNR is an alternative of a human scrub nurse which hands surgical instruments to surgeons and receives them back. One of the important ideas of the SNR system is based on the concept of “Human Adaptive Mechatronics (HAM)”. In the case of surgical applications, the HAM system will allow every surgeons to accomplish faster, safer and more precise surgery irrespective of his skill level by changing its manner of operations according as his skill level. In this scenario, it is very important to estimate the operator’s skill level correctly. In the laparoscopic surgery, an operating surgeon does not move his position widely, so a force platform which measures fluctuations of his COP is good candidate for a device to estimate his skill level in the operating room. In order to show the relation, three different training tasks were performed by three subjects who have never performed laparoscopic operations, and COP data were measured simultaneously. Then, two experts and two novices perform another experiment to show the possibility of constructing a HAM-SNR system using COP as a laparoscopic skill level measurement system.

The COE acrobat robot, called SMB (Super Mechano-Boy), is considered as a model of a gymnast with a horizontal bar. Our final objective is to perform skillful motions with the system same as a gymnast. In this paper, we consider the landing control after actions on the horizontal bar using a linear complementarity problem. We also consider a parameter estimation using the relationship between Lagrange multiplier and sensitivity of the constrained system.

The Super Mechano Boy (SMB), a nine-link eight-actuator mechanical system is considered as a model of a gymnast with a horizontal bar. This paper deals with a landing control of SMB as the final motion of a performance of various skillful motions such as swinging from pendant state, forward upward circling, handstand on the horizontal bar, giant swing, flying off, somersault. This motion is very important for the completion of the series of the gymnastics motions with horizontal bar. The proposed control method consists of several control algorithms and the control is switched according to contact conditions. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed control methods.