This paper presents a soft manipulator which mimics the muscle structure of an octopus arm and its operation by the master-slave method by using a wearable interface. The soft manipulator consists of a rubber structure and McKibben artificial muscles arranged in axial and oblique directions. This manipulator has high safety and shape adaptability and realizes smooth and continuous movement like the octopus arm such as bending and twisting. For the intuitive operation of the manipulator, the wearable interface using flexible strain sensors is developed. It is easy to wear on the human arm with high comfortability because it consists only of soft materials and stretches easily with following the arm motion. We can operate the soft manipulator by using the motions of the wrist and forearm as an operation input. The soft manipulator can move following the arm motion of the operator, and it shows the high possibility to conduct actual tasks.

Pneumatic actuators have been widely utilized in industrial robots and in welfare apparatuses, for example with their advantages of light weight, low cost, safety, and high compliance. However, driving them needs not only the air supply line from compressor but also many electrical lines from controller to valve, making the pneumatic drive system complicated. This research proposes a new control method for the deletion of electrical control lines in pneumatic mechatronics. This method needs two technical challenges; acoustic communication system and power supply device for each local module. First, we explain the outline of a multiplex pneumatic actuator drive method. Secondly, acoustic communication system using a microcomputer (PSoC) is shown, where carrier frequency is optimized with a basic experiment. Thirdly, the design of a power supply device is shown with experimental results. Finally, a multiplex pneumatic actuator drive method is constructed with the acoustic communication system and power supply device. This prototype system works very well to show the great potential of this proposed control method. It controls successfully three pneumatic cylinders independently which are connected with an air supply line of 10[m].

We have developed a hydraulic McKibben artificial muscle which realizes great force density approximately ten times larger than the other conventional actuators. In this paper, we have applied this muscle to a power robot hand. The hand finger consists of metal links and the muscles. The contraction of the muscles generates the bending motion of the fingers. This hand has large holding capacity and shape adaptability to grasp objects. The experiments show that maximum holding force of the hand is 5000N. It can hold three types of different shaped objects; cylindrical objects of φ 267mm and φ 165mm in diameter and a square cross section of width 200mm in side. This hand can be applied to various applications, for example rescue robots in disaster area and forestry industry.

Pneumatic actuators have several advantages such as light weight, safety, low cost and high compliance. They have been used in many areas such as industrial robots, rehabilitation tools, haptic devices, and medical/welfare robots. Pneumatic actuators are generally used in multi-DOF pneumatic system and have complicated systems that include a compressor, air tubes, and pneumatic valves with electrical wires. This research proposes a new control method for a multiplex pneumatic transmission constructed with special resonant valves and driven independently with air vibration in air supply tube without electrical wires. The control method simplifies the driving system and is effective for pneumatic systems having many degrees of freedom. In this paper, the development of a prototype model of the resonant valve is described. In addition, two control methods, which are a superimposing method and a time-sharing method for multi-valve control, are proposed and evaluated. Independent control of four pneumatic cylinders is realized.

A low-profile micro ultrasonic motor has been designed and fabricated. This motor has two sector shaped vibrators. The vibrators generate elliptical motion by the 1stlongitudinal mode and 2ndbending mode. They are supported by planar elastic structure that combined with preload mechanism. Three types of preload systems were designed and evaluated. The thickness of one type was 0.6 mm. These vibrators have been oscillated around 340 kHz. The maximum rotation speed was 2.4 x 103rpm and the maximum starting torque was 98.8 muNm when the applied voltage was 20 Vp-p.

This paper shows a new design and prototyping method for a bending pneumatic rubber actuator and its application to a soft-bodied manta swimming robot. The design is based on optimal design using non-linear finite element method, in which geometrical and material non-linearity are considered and fabrication process is based on a rapid and efficient prototyping system using a CAD/CAM based rubber molding process. In this paper, the characteristics of several possible actuators are analyzed and evaluated to lead to an optimal actuator design. The actuator works very well with smooth and soft motion. The manta swimming robot in which the developed actuators are embedded is also designed based on non-linear finite element method. The developed manta swimming robot is made only of rubber and it swims in water smoothly as if it was a living fish. The experimental results of the manta robot motion show that good agreement with those of analytical results.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the driving performance of a cylindrical micro ultrasonic motor which has a casing diameter of 1.8 mm. The micro ultrasonic motor is driven by a cylindrical piezoelectric vibrator, which has a diameter of 0.8 mm. We evaluated the driving performance of the cylindrical piezoelectric vibrator when two different types of rotors were used and two different vibration modes were oscillated. When the frequency and the applied voltage were 314.5 kHz and 30 Vp-p, the maximum revolution speed and the starting torque were 9.6times103rpm and 5.5 muNm, respectively.

A new pneumatic linear actuator made of a thin flexible rubber is developed for locomotion in narrow paces. The actuator is named “tetra chamber actuator”. This new actuator has an ability of object transportation and locomotion. The actuator was designed based on non-linear FEM analysis considering geometrical and material nonlinearity, fabricated and evaluated. The working principle of this actuator is based on a traveling elastic deformation wave drive and the actuator was designed to generate large track of the deformation and to have an ability of bidirectional propelling. The actuator shape was designed in detail using nonlinear FEM analysis and was fabricated by CAD/CAM system based on the results of analysis. The prototype is 107#x00D7;10mm in size. The experiments were made about its basic characteristics and object transportation ability. The prototype generates the motion about six times larger than that of conventional similar actuators to show its great potential.

Recently, a variety of soft actuators have been developed. However, applicable sensors such as potentiometers and optical encoders generally have high stiffness. Therefore, a soft actuator loses its compliance when these sensors are used with the actuator. Thus, in this research, we have developed a flexible displacement sensor that can keep the compliance of a soft actuator. The fabricated flexible displacement sensor is composed of piezoelectric polymer, conductive paste and base rubber. Piezoelectric polymer: poly(vinylidene fluoride- trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF/TrFE)] was used for the detection of displacement and conductive paste was used for electrodes. An intelligent FMA (flexible microactuator) was developed by attaching these sensors. Displacement of the intelligent FMA and the sensor output voltage were compared, and sensing features were evaluated. Furthermore, servo control of the intelligent FMA using the sensor was performed. As a result, high positioning accuracy was verified.

Recently, a variety of soft actuators have been developed. However, applicable sensors such as potentiometers and optical encoders generally have high stiffness and when they are used in a soft actuator, the actuator loses its compliance. To solve this problem, a flexible displacement sensor has been developed. This sensor was fabricated by depositing a conductive paste onto a rubber seat. Paste injection was utilized in the fabrication process of the sensor, and precise control of thickness, width and pattern of the conductive film and deposition onto a curved surface was realized by this system. Firstly, an experiment on a flat-type flexible displacement sensor was conducted to evaluate and improve the sensor. The experimental results showed sufficient linearity and detecting range. Then, an intelligent FMA (Flexible Microactuator) was fabricated by depositing the conductive paste onto the surface of an FMA. A servo control system for the intelligent FMA was set up, and high positioning accuracy was confirmed by a servo driving experiment.�

The goal of this research is to develop a new type of haptic interface termed "active polyhedron", which realizes a physical human-machine interaction with virtual continuum objects in PCs. Active polyhedrons are polyhedron-shaped linkage mechanisms. In this paper, we deal with an active icosahedron consisting of 30 intelligent cylinders, which were specially developed for this purpose. In previous reports, the mechanism and kinematics of an active icosahedron and a simple force-presentation method using on/off pneumatic valves were given. In this report, a new force-presentation pneumatic-control system using pressure-control valves, which allows a highly accurate force presentation capable of handling complex continuum objects, and a new force-presentation algorithm, which applies to an apex of the polyhedron are described. These were applied to the active icosahedron. The experimental results showed that the active icosahedron was successful in realizing physical human-machine interaction, with which operators could change the shape, feel and compliance of virtual objects in a PC as if they actually touched them

Inserting an endoscope into colon requires very technical procedure and it is difficult in some cases even for experienced doctors. Although active colonoscopes have been researched, these instruments are still in the development stage. Mechanisms for this application are required to be soft enough not to injure the colon wall and being deformable enough to adapt to the curves of the colon. In addition, the mechanisms must generate distributed force adequate for traveling. These requirements are difficult to be satisfied using conventional mechanisms and actuators. We have designed and developed two types of new driving mechanism using pneumatic rubber actuators and made their feasibility tests. One mechanism is "thin tube wave generator": introducing pulse pneumatic flows to a thin rubber tube causes traveling deformation waves on the tube surface, which drives an object placed on the tube. The other mechanism is "round bubbler": a rubber tube which has four chambers in it is wound around the colonoscope to cause traveling deformation waves on the scope surface by sending pneumatic pressures to each chamber sequentially. In this paper, first, we discuss the driving mechanisms, pneumatic control systems, and basic characteristics of these two mechanisms. Then, based on the basic experimental discussions, we fabricated special rubber mechanisms to fit around a conventional colonoscope, and conducted insertion experiments using an intestinum model and an existing colonoscope under various conditions. The experimental results are very promising

We developed rescue robots and tools that are driven by hydraulic actuators. They are small-sized, have simple mechanisms, and are suitable for heavy-duty rescue operations. This report shows the results of field tests carried out to verify the possibility of the two rescue robots we developed; we named them the Jack Robot and the Cutter Robot. We classified disaster situations into three categories: collapsed house cases, collapsed building rubble cases, and traffic accidents. We used the two robots in test situations that simulated these three disaster scenarios. As part of the experimental results, we found that there is a great potential for the use of these high-powered small rescue robots in disaster areas.

The aim of this study is to develop an intelligent McKibben actuator with an integrated soft displacement sensor inside, so that displacement of this actuator can be controlled without having any extra devices attached. In addition, the high compliance which is a positive feature of the McKibben actuator is still conserved. This paper consists of four main parts. First of all, different types of soft displacement sensors made out of rubber were composed, and tested for their functional characteristics. Secondly, the intelligent McKibben actuator was developed with the soft displacement sensor incorporated within. Then, experiments of the position servo control with a single intelligent McKibben actuator were carried out. At last a robot arm mechanism was designed with two intelligent McKibben actuators, and those experimental results showed a great potential for its future applications.

A new type of stepping motor, named electric nutation motor was developed. The aim of this research is to develop a new stepping motor with high torque. Based on the magnetic field analysis using finite element method, theoretical value of the electromagnetic force was obtained. Magnetic path was designed and optimized. The force of the electromagnet was 60 N with the current of 0.3 A. The motor was found to have the maximum torque of 0.64 N/spl middot/m, the maximum speed of 4.3 rpm, and positioning accuracy of 1,248 step/rev.

In this paper, we propose a new type of haptic interface, named active link mechanism. This device realizes physical man-machine interaction (PMI) between machines and persons. Two prototypes were developed to demonstrate the potential of the active link mechanisms. Developed interface devices are an active tetrahedron and an active icosahedron. Nine-DOF micro spherical joints and pressure control pneumatic cylinders were developed to realize the active tetrahedron, while fifteen-DOF micro spherical joints and intelligent pneumatic cylinders were developed for the active icosahedron. The tetrahedron successfully realizes "virtual touch"; the operators feel actions, forces, and shapes of the virtual objects in PC and also move and deform them. Real time PMI is realized by building the developed devices into MSC.Visual-Nastran4D. MSC.VisuaI-Nastran4D is a mechanism analysis software, which can make motion analysis in real time. The active icosahedron also realized dynamic interaction with virtual objects in PC, showing the potential of the devices as a haptic interface.