Although programming is part of primary school curricula in many countries, barriers persist for elementary students learning programming such as an insufficient understanding of the underlying mathematics, complex concepts, and purpose of programming. These challenges often lead to disinterest. Herein we present an innovative game-design-based programming education tool. Students progressively enhance a classic game, Puyo Puyo, using fundamental programming concepts and selecting the appropriate code. This engaging approach improves students' computational thinking abilities as they transform code into a functional game. Here, we describe the tool's background and structure. Then we detail a workshop using the tool, including analyzing the changes in students' programming skills, computational thinking, and interest in programming. Finally, we summarize the findings and future research directions.

Successful digital transformation (DX) requires not only technology, but also an understanding of the importance of business agility. In addition, without careful traceability, software engineering projects can be not based on business and social values. To address these issues, we categorize useful methods, practices, and models in software development and operations that make connections and traceability from business ideas incorporating business agility to software products, services, and user experiences. Then we propose a typical value-driven process stemming from business and social perspectives as new software engineering necessary for the DX era.

In this paper, we present an unobtrusive cuffless blood pressure (BP) monitoring system based on pulse arrival time (PAT) for facilitating long-term home BP monitoring. The proposed system consists of an electrocardiograph (ECG), a photoplethysmograph (PPG), and a control circuit with a Bluetooth module, all of which are mounted on a common armchair to measure ECG and PPG signals from users while sitting on the armchair in order to calculate continuous PAT. Considering the good linear correlation of systolic BP (SBP) and the nonlinear correlation of diastolic BP (DBP) with PAT, a new BP estimation method was proposed. Ten subjects underwent BP monitoring experiments involving stationary sitting on a chair, lying on a bed, and pedaling using an ergometer in order to assess the accuracy of the estimated BP. A cuff-type BP monitor was used as reference in the experiments. Results showed that the mean difference of the estimated SBP and DBP was within 0.2 ± 5.8 mmHg ( p < 0.00001) and 0.4 ± 5.7 mmHg ( p < 0.00001), respectively, and the mean absolute difference of the estimated SBP and DBP were 4.4 and 4.6 mmHg, respectively, compared to references. Additionally, five subjects participated in data collections consisting of sitting on a chair twice a day for one month. Compared to the reference, the difference did not obviously increase along with time, even though individualized calibration was executed only once at the beginning. These results suggest that the proposed system has quite the potential for long-term home BP monitoring.

Within this paper a modeling, identification and control technique for an antagonistically actuated joint consisting of two pneumatically actuated muscles is presented. The antagonistically actuated joint acts as a test bench for control architectures which are going to be used to control an exoskeleton within a telerobotic system. A static and dynamic model of the muscle and the joint is derived and the parameters of the models are identified using a least-squares algorithm. The control architecture, consisting of a inner pressure and an outer position controller is presented. The pressure controller is evaluated using switching valves compared against proportional valves.

This paper presents a new heroic computing method for unstructured, low-order, finite-element, implicit nonlinear wave simulation: 1.97 PFLOPS (18.6% of peak) was attained on the full K computer when solving a 1.08T degrees-of-freedom (DOF) and 0.270T-element problem. This is 40.1 times more DOF and elements, a 2.68-fold improvement in peak performance, and 3.67 times faster in time-to-solution compared to the SC14 Gordon Bell finalist's state-of-the-art simulation. The method scales up to the full K computer with 663,552 CPU cores with 96.6% sizeup efficiency, enabling solving of a 1.08T DOF problem in 29.7 s per time step. Using such heroic computing, we solved a practical problem involving an area 23.7 times larger than the state-of-the-art, and conducted a comprehensive earthquake simulation by combining earthquake wave propagation analysis and evacuation analysis. Application at such scale is a groundbreaking accomplishment and is expected to change the quality of earthquake disaster estimation and contribute to society.

In the recent years, attention has been gathered in the research field of electric airplanes (EAs), which have electric motors as a power source. EAs have many advantages including low environmental impact and safety. The flight range per charge, however, is shorter than that of conventional airplanes. This paper proposes a range extention control system (RECS) which extends the flight range of EAs by control. It is shown that the power consumption can be minimized by optimizing thrust distribution on multiple propellers with different properties. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulations and experiments.

Electrical airplanes (EAs) have become practical in the recent years. Considering the increase of demand on smaller aircraft and the attention to environmental issues, the demand on small EAs is expected to grow in the coming decade. However, the accident rate of small aircrafts is higher than that of larger aircrafts, so ensuring higher safety of EA is very urgent. Modeling and thrust control of EAs have been proposed previously by the authors' research group. However, this model and control method is not suitable when the propeller revolution speed is near and below zero. In this paper, the improved thrust control method based on new EA propeller plant is proposed. This method is necessary for design of airspeed control method, which can be expected to improve the safety of EA. A towing test method which allows plane's dynamical experiment on ground is also proposed. Real flight experiment was the only conventional method test a plane's dynamics. However, the test piece needs to be a complete airplane to conduct a real flight. Moreover, it is impossible to observe the response a particular input without interferes from other factors. The proposed method allows component technology to be tested in dynamical situations. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified through simulations and experiments.

With the aim of dramatically improving the reliability of urban earthquake response analyses, we developed an unstructured 3-D finite-element-based MPI-OpenMP hybrid seismic wave amplification simulation code, GAMERA. On the K computer, GAMERA was able to achieve a size-up efficiency of 87.1% up to the full K computer. Next, we applied GAMERA to a physics-based urban earthquake response analysis for Tokyo. Using 294,912 CPU cores of the K computer for 11 h, 32 min, we analyzed the 3-D non-linear ground motion of a 10.7 BlnDOF problem with 30 K time steps. Finally, we analyzed the stochastic response of 13,275 building structures in the domain considering uncertainty in structural parameters using 3 h, 56 min of 80,000 CPU cores of the K computer. Although a large amount of computer resources is needed presently, such analyses can change the quality of disaster estimations and are expected to become standard in the future.

Communication robots are hard to interact with humans autonomously in everyday environment due to lack of intelligence even though robots can perform certainly only in limited environments and limited situations. However, since intelligence of robots is handled by an operator, tele-operated robots are useful to investigate functions required for robots and effects of robots in real-environment. This paper proposes an educational system with a tele-operated android robot that has human-like appearance. The developed android robot, named SAYA, is able to express human-like facial expressions and performs some communicative functions with its head and eye movements, and it is utilized as a roll of a teacher in the proposed educational system. In addition, SAYA's utterances and behaviors are controlled remotely by an operator so that it is able to not only conduct the class but also interact with students. A field trial was carried out at an elementary school, and SAYA conducted the class concerning the principle of leverage as a topic of science classes while interacting with students. Also, how it affected students' interest and motivation was investigated. As results, the trial verified that some students became interested in science class more than before the trial, and its positive effects in educational field, especially elementary schools, were verified.

An advanced CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance) system incorporating total precedence transmission of all CA and MAC frames (known as a full-flying synchronous CSMA/v-MCA system in Japan, where v- MCA means a variable multiple CA) was developed to minimize the time wasted for upstream channels. In this system, the CA procedures and the controls of the MAC frame transmission run independently of each other by adopting out-of-band signaling (OBS) in order to achieve flexible access control. However, in highly offered traffic, MAC frames, that have completed the CA procedure, queue to be transmitted, causing latency to increase rapidly. To solve this problem, the CA and MAC channels are properly distributed, and flow control is added to the CA procedure. In this study, the performance of this system was evaluated and confirmed using a theoretical calculation and a computer simulation. Maximum throughput of approximately 0.9 was observed regardless of network length (up to tens of kilometers) and physical transmission speed, maintaining the low latency that is characteristic of contention systems.

A "muscle suit" that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The muscle suit consists of a mechanical armor-type frame and McKibben artificial muscle. Using a new link mechanism for the shoulder joint which consists of two half-circle links with four universal joints in total mounted at both ends of each link, all motion for the upper limb has been realized. Applying the muscle suit to non-healthy people such as elderly people and/or disable one requires very high-level safety and usability, from the practical point of view. We then in the first place for the practical use, apply the muscle suit to the manual worker. In this paper, we introduce how we can apply the muscle suit for a manual worker.

Android robots that have a human-like appearance have been developed recently. The purpose of android robots is to realize realistic communication between human and robot by implementation of human-like behaviors. Then knowledge and techniques for generating human-like natural motions and behaviors with android robot are required. In face-to-face communication, we can observe that the speaker nods during his utterance, and we call this behavior "Speaker's nod". Thus, in this study, we tried to realize realistic "Speaker's nod" as a natural interpersonal behavior with receptionist robot SAYA that has human-like appearance. Therefore we experimentally investigated expression-timing, angle and angular velocity of the human "Speaker's nod", and we implemented "Speaker's nod" to SAYA based on the investigation results. Then we have verified that "Speaker's nod" at appropriate timing affected the humanity of SAYA, and it greatly enhanced emotional impression of human by subjective experiment.

A "muscle suit" that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The muscle suit consists of a mechanical armor-type frame and McKibben artificial muscle. Using a new link mechanism for the shoulder joint which consists of two half-circle links with four universal joints in total mounted at both ends of each link, all motion for the upper limb has been realized. Applying the muscle suit to non-healthy people such as elderly people and/or disable one requires very high-level safety and usability, from the practical point of view. We then in the first place for the practical use, apply the muscle suit to the manual worker. In this paper, we introduce how we can apply the muscle suit for the manual worker.

A "muscle suit" that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. Using a new link mechanism for the shoulder joint which consists of two half-circle links with four universal joints in total mounted at both ends of each link, all motion for the upper limb has been realized. Since five McKibben artificial muscles are employed for controlling the shoulder joint which has three DOF, nonlinear control method is required for posture control compensating load changes. Neural network is applied and posture control is well undertaken

This study quantitatively evaluates a new feeding support system developed to assist the disabled in eating. The system was particularly designed to have smooth coordinative movements between the dishes and the robot arm, by elaborating the robot arm motion, which will allow the disabled to eat all the contents on a plate as fast as the non-disabled without spills with the assist of an LED display. This study confirmed that this proposed feeding robot can successfully assist the disabled as well as the non-disabled in eating with respect to time, quantity, and manner

BACKGROUND: Spatio-temporal dynamics within cells can now be visualized at appropriate resolution, due to the advances in molecular imaging technologies. Even single-particle tracking (SPT) and single fluorophore video imaging (SFVI) are now being applied to observation of molecular-level dynamics. However, little is known concerning how molecular-level dynamics affect properties at the cellular level. RESULTS: We propose an algorithm designed for three-dimensional simulation of the reaction-diffusion dynamics of molecules, based on a particle model. Chemical reactions proceed through the interactions of particles in space, with activation energies determining the rates of these chemical reactions at each interaction. This energy-based model can include the cellular membrane, membranes of other organelles, and cytoskeleton. The simulation algorithm was tested for a reversible enzyme reaction model and its validity was confirmed. Snapshot images taken from simulated molecular interactions on the cell-surface revealed clustering domains (size approximately 0.2 microm) associated with rafts. Sample trajectories of raft constructs exhibited "hop diffusion". These domains corralled the diffusive motion of membrane proteins. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that our approach is promising for modelling the localization properties of biological phenomena.

A "muscle suit" that provides muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The lack of a metal frame and use of McKibben artificial muscle allow the muscle suit to be lightweight, making it realistic to use in daily life. Although all motion for the upper limb by the armor-type muscle suit with the mechanical joints and hard frame is realized, shoulder joints has difficulty in smooth motion because of DOF limitation. To overcome the limitation, new link mechanism is proposed and smooth motion for shoulder is achieved.

We have been developing a "muscle suit" that provides muscular support to the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided, as well as to manual workers. The muscle suit is a garment without a metal frame and uses a McKibben actuator driven by compressed air. Because actuators are sewn into the garment, no metal frame is needed, making the muscle suit very light and cheap. With the muscle suit, the patient can willfully control his or her movement. The muscle suit is very helpful for both muscular and emotional support. We propose an armor-type muscle suit in order to overcome issues of a prototype system and then show how abduction motion, which we believe, is the most difficult motion for the upper body, is realized.

The goal of this study was to investigate communication with an intelligent machine such as a human-friendly robot in an environment where human and robot coexist. The face and its expressions are crucial for communication, so we have developed a face robot, which has a human-like face and can express facial expressions similar to a human being. We used air cylinders with pressurized air for the Mark I face robot, which was 1.5, times bigger than human face. In order to realize human face size, we then decided to use electrical shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators to produce facial expressions (Mark II). We realized the human size face robot though; SMA did not have enough durability and power for expressing facial expressions. For mark II we then selected McKibben-type pneumatic actuator to display facial expressions. In this paper we show the history of the face robot we have developed, discuss how to build the face robot by using McKibben-type pneumatic actuator, and show the basic ability for expressing facial expressions.

We have been developing a "muscle suit" that provides muscular support to the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided, as well as to manual workers. The muscle suit is a garment without a metal frame and uses a McKibben actuator driven by compressed air. Because actuators are sewn into the garment, no metal frame is needed, making the muscle suit very light and cheap. Most medical and welfare apparatuses have been developed for the caregiver rather than for the patient in need of nursing, detracting from the patient's sense of self-sufficiency and generally discouraging the patient. With the muscle suit, the patient can willfully control his or her movement. The muscle suit is very helpful for both muscular and emotional support. In this paper, we propose an armor-type muscle suit in order to overcome issues of a prototype system and then show how abduction motion, which we believe is the most difficult motion for the upper body, is realized. Moreover, we propose an easy control method in which the wearer uses pressure differential signals.

In order to enable people who can not move to move, we have been developing "muscle suit" by wearing which muscular force can be supported. Muscle suit consists of wear and Mckibben type actuator driven by compressed air. Because actuators are sewed in wear, it is no need to use metal frame and thus muscle suit comes to very light and cheap. Most of medical and welfare apparatus have been developing for dare giver and then there is few apparatus for people in need of nursing care. As the result, they lost their own identity and positive attitude. It is possible for them, by wearing the muscle suit, to enable their body such as arms and legs to control by their own will. The muscle suit thus are very useful and helpful not only for muscular force support but also mental support.

Sensor-based navigation is one of the most important researches for mobile robots domain and then there are many research works for sensor-based navigation. We propose the insects inspired landmark navigation to pinpoint the target position in this paper. There exist several research works such as snapshot model and average landmark model which request the absolute bearing information (compass) and visual one. Whereas our method called relative angle model (RAM) need only visual information in order to extract relative positions of 3 landmarks. By simulation and experiment using 3D blimp-type flying robot, we find that the pinpoint 3D navigation works out well by RAM.

Effective robot functions emerge from not only according to the level of system control, i.e., intelligence, but also according to the conformity between morphology, intelligence, task and environment. This paper investigates the relationship between robotic morphology and intelligence against task and/or environmental conditions and the characteristics of functions emerging in evolutionary robotic systems. The robotic system used in the study has a reconfigurable morphology and intelligence, which were designed by genetic programming. The robotic morphology is represented as a graph structure constructed from cells with motor and visual sensors, and the intelligence is a computer program defined by a parse tree. In this study, a simulation of a task in which the robot had to maintain a certain distance from an object was executed. The results clarify the importance of conformity between morphology and intelligence, and show that effective functions emerge as the result of such conformity between morphology, intelligence, task and environment.

The goal of this study is to investigate the intelligence necessary for a machine such as a human-friendly robot working in an environment where humans and robots coexist. It seems to be required to manufacture a human-friendly robot that can communicate with human beings as a test bed or platform. Since face and facial expressions are crucial factors for communication, we have been developing a face robot which has a human-like face and can express facial expressions similar to human being. The important factors of the face robot for coexistence and communication with humans are: 1. human size and compactness; and 2. ease of control. While we have used air cylinders with pressurized air for the first-generation of face robot, to accomplish these two factors, we decided to use a SMA (shaped memory alloy) actuator driven by electricity and built the second-generation of face robot. Although we succeeded in making a human size face robot, it came to clear that the SMA does not have enough power and speed. To overcome these issues, we developed an air-tube-actuator driven by pressurized air and manufactured the third-generation of face robot. In the paper, we show how to build the third-generation of face robot and its basic ability.

Robotic behavior emerges from not only intelligence but also the relationship between morphology, intelligence and the environment. We investigate and analyze the relationship between morphology and intelligence acquired from different tasks, and the characteristic differences of functions emerges from this relationship. Robotic morphology and intelligence are encoded using genetic programming: GP operations, and robot dynamics are handled using a two-dimensional dynamics simulation. As the robotic morphology, we utilize position-changeable visual sensors through evolution by GP operations, and as the robotic intelligence, we use a decision tree which is able to evolve by GP operations. A task of the robot is to keep a certain distance from an object. The simulation results clarify the importance of harmony and/or balance between morphology and intelligence, and show that a new function emerges as the result of harmony and/or balance between morphology, intelligence and a task.

We are attempting to introduce a 3-dimensional realistic human-like animate face robot to interactive communication modality. The face robot can recognize human facial expressions as well as produce realistic facial expressions. For the face robot to communicate interactively, we propose a new concept of "Active Human Interface"; and we investigate the performance of real-time recognition of facial expressions by neural network (NN) and the expressionability of facial messages on the face robot. We find that the NN recognition of facial expressions and face robot's performance in generating facial expressions are of almost same level as that in humans. This implies a high potential for the animate face robot to undertake interactive communication with human.

Point-to-point operation of a flexible structure mounted manipulator systems (FSMS) is discussed. Four operation strategies: (1) straight-line path in joint space, (2) high-coupling path, (3) low-coupling path obtained from the coupling map concept, and (4) 3-phase motion obtained from the reactionless path are examined and compared in terms of a minimum oscillation of the supporting flexible structure, using an FSMS test bed, TREP, developed at Tohoku University.

To expand software easily, the construction of large-scale widely distributed systems should be based on the concept of autonomous decentralized systems. It is proposed that the software expansion methods should be variable, according to the characteristics of software. Two types of software, online control software and human service software, are derived from the analysis of software characteristics. The software expansion process is then derived, and online replacement is discussed.>

In this paper, we establish criteria for the optimality of routing and flow control solutions. More precisely, we investigate the convexity of the network delay function in closed queueing networks and show it exists in single chain networks. Then we derive the derivative of the network delay function with respect to relative throughput and show it can be easily obtained from the MVA algorithm. Finally, we propose a closed-network version of the FD algorithm to find the exact optimal routing solution in single chain closed queueing networks. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the correctness and efficiency of the optimization algorithm.

article Free Access Share on Optimal routing in closed queuing networks Authors: Hiroshi Kobayashi 16 Suwazaka, KDD-211, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230, Japan 16 Suwazaka, KDD-211, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230, JapanView Profile , Mario Gerla BH 3732H, Computer Science Dept., U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, CA BH 3732H, Computer Science Dept., U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, CAView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Transactions on Computer SystemsVolume 1Issue 4Nov. 1983 pp 294–310https://doi.org/10.1145/357377.357381Online:01 November 1983Publication History 35citation612DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations35Total Downloads612Last 12 Months20Last 6 weeks4 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my Alerts New Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF