Surgeons, during a medical intervention, perform different kinds of manual tasks with dexterity and precision. In order to assure the success of the intervention, medical students are trained several years using training models so that they can perform such tasks with accuracy to avoid any possible risk to patients. However, current training models are merely designed to imitate the surgical procedure without providing any further information about the how well the task was done. For that reason; in this paper, the development of a suture/ligature training system is proposed to imitate surgical procedures as well as provide quantitative information of the learning progress of trainees. As a first approach, a training system was designed to simulate the suture and ligature tasks. The proposed training system includes a skin dummy with an array of embedded photo interrupters to detect the movement of the skin dummy; without requiring any modification on the surgical instrument. In this paper, different task parameters were proposed to understand trainees' learning progress and different experiments were carried out to identify the evaluation parameters that may provide useful information about how well the task was performed. As a result from the experiments, the evaluation parameters for the suture and ligature were determined. Finally, an evaluation function was proposed and further experiments were proposed to verify its effectiveness. From the results of the experiments, we could effectively distinguish quantitatively the differences of skill levels between surgeons and unskilled persons as well as identifying the learning progress of trainees by plotting the learning curve

Airway management is provided by emergency medical technicians or anesthetists in order to save unconscious patients who are unable to breathe. Even though it is a basic technique, many accidents may occur when the procedure is not provided followed. In order to avoid any risks to patients, emergency medical technicians are required to practice airway management using training devices such as mannequins; which are designed to accurately reproduce the human anatomy. However, such training devices do not provide any quantitative information about the learning progress of trainees (passive training). For that purpose, we have proposed the development of a airway management training system which is designed to embed array of sensors so that quantitative information of trainees' performance can be acquired. In this paper, we are presenting the Waseda-KyotoKagaku airway No. 1 (WKA-1). The WKA-1 consists of three different kinds of array of sensors which are embedded into a conventional mannequin. In order to embed the array of sensors, we have simplified the design of some of the simulated organs (upper airway, oral cavity, tongue and teeth) of the mannequin. A set of evaluation parameters were proposed based on the information collected through the sensors. A set of experiments were proposed to experimentally verify the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation parameters to quantitatively detect differences among different levels of skills (anesthetists and unskilled persons).

Authors have proposed as a long-term goal, since 2004, the development of a patient robot which could serve for both training purposes as well as an evaluation tool of medical procedures. As a first approach, we have developed last year a suture and ligature training system named Waseda Kyotokagaku Suture No. 1 (WKS-1), which is composed by a commercial skin dummy with arrays of embedded sensors designed to acquire quantitative data of the task. The WKS-1 was designed to reproduce realistically the task conditions as well as providing objective assessment of the task performance. In particular, the proposed evaluation function considered the following performance indexes: time, displacement and force levels. By performing experiments with medical doctors and unskilled persons, we confirmed the effectiveness of WKS-1 to provide objective assessments of the task performance. However, the functionalities of WKS-1 were too restricted as few automatic procedures were implemented for the acquisition and processing of the collected data. Therefore; in this paper, we are presenting the Waseda Kyotokagaku Suture No. 2 (WKS-2). The WKS-2 has been designed to provide more detailed information of the task performance as well as improving its portability, connectivity, and usability. In addition, thanks to the design improvements on the WKS-2, we have proposed additional evaluation parameters to measure the quality of the suture (after the task has been completed). For this purpose, we proposed a image processing algorithm to automatically measure the width of sutures, the distance among them and the wound area. Preliminary experiments were carried out to verify its effectiveness.

A new humanoid robot-WABIAN-2- that can be used as a human motion simulator is proposed in this paper. Its trunk is designed in order to permit rotation, and forward, backward, and sideway movement. Further, its arms are designed to support its complete weight when pushing a walk-assist machine. Moreover, it can lean on a walk-assist machine by forearm control using trunk motion. Basic walking experiments with WABIAN-2 are conducted with and without a walk-assist machine, thereby confirming its effectiveness

A humanoid robot, WABIAN-2R, capable of human-like walk with stretched knees and heel-contact and toe-off motions is proposed in this paper. WABIAN-2R has two 1-DOF passive joints in its feet to enable it to bend its toes in steady walking. Further, it has two 6-DOF legs, a 2-DOF pelvis, a 2-DOF trunk, two 7-DOF arms with 3-DOF hands, and a 3-DOF neck. In addition, a new algorithm for generating walking patterns with stretched knees and heel-contact and toe-off motions based on the ZMP criterion is described. In this pattern generation, some parameters of the foot trajectories of a biped robot are optimized by using a genetic algorithm in order to generate a continuous and smooth leg motion. Software simulations and walking experiments are conducted, and the effectiveness of the pattern generation and mechanism of WABIAN-2R, which have the ability to realize more human-like walking styles in a humanoid robot, are confirmed

This paper describes the evaluation of three different walking patterns of a biped humanoid robot. Stretch-walking patterns with straight legs for a biped robot are compared with conventional walking patterns with bent legs in terms of energy consumption. This paper discusses walking pattern generation for various walks. To confirm the walking pattern evaluation, we have developed a biped robot, WABIAN-2/LL, whose leg mechanism differs from the conventional leg mechanism that has 3 DOF (degrees of freedom) in each ankle, 1 DOF in each knee, 3 DOF in each hip, and 2 DOF in the waist. Walking experiments are conducted with WABIAN-2/LL, and the results demonstrate that stretch walking patterns are effective in terms of energy consumption.

Almost all conventional biped humanoid robots have difficulties in realizing various walking motions such as knee stretch walking like a human because of an insufficiency of DOF. Therefore, we have developed a 16-DOF biped humanoid robot without a trunk: 3-DOF in each ankle, 1-DOF in each knee, 3-DOF in each hip and 2-DOF in the waist. Using the biped robot, basic experiments are conducted and the effectiveness of the leg mechanism is confirmed.

This paper describes a method of motion pattern generation for biped humanoid robot to walk like humans or walk with various kind of motions. To realize biped walking avoiding singularity at stretching leg, pattern generation uses predetermined knee joint trajectories. Reduction of DOF by predetermination is complemented by waist motion. The effectiveness of generated dynamic walking patterns is confirmed by using a 16-DOF biped robot WABIAN-2/LL.

In this paper, we describe an anthropomorphic flutist robot that it's expected to have human-like organs from the mechanical hardware and control functions. We developed a "General Position" searching algorithm, which is based on the relative distance between the robot's mouth and the flute mouthpiece. It is possible for the robot, using the General Position, to blow a whole tone. Thereafter, we developed an autonomous searching algorithm for the lip part parameters after setting the General Position, and an algorithm for evaluating the blowing sound. The robot could stably play a flute using these algorithms.

This paper describes the knee stretch walking of the biped robot that has three degrees of freedom (DOF) in the ankle, one DOF in the knee and three DOF in the hip. To create the stable stretch walking pattern, a walking pattern generation method capable of specifying arbitrarily the knee joint angle is introduced. The motion of the waist avoids the singularity of the swing leg that can exist in single support phase. A compensatory motion algorithm to cancel the moments generated by the motion of the lower-limbs calculates the waist motion. Through stretch walking simulations, the effectiveness of the pattern generation method is confirmed.