The authors have developed the Geo CPS platform, which incorporates the advantages of cyber-physical systems, geographic information systems, and tangible user interfaces, and provides a platform to connect the three components for interactive sensing, processing, and actuation in smart city development. It can be also applied for education in environmental and disaster management, as a tool for technical training, or as a testbed for business solutions.

This paper describes a design of six-axis force sensor that measures ground reaction force of human or humanoid robot. The key concept is parallel support mechanisms, that allow large torques and forces which are caused when foot is hitting to the environment. Basic concept and design of parallel support mechanisms are denoted. Finally ground reaction force measurement system for human walking, and application to humanoid robot walking are described.

With the increase in the number of senior citizens, there is a growing demand for human-friendly wheelchairs as mobility aids. One of the main issues in the robotic wheelchair research is autonomous obstacle avoidance for safety. However, this is difficult because most moving obstacles in the real world are human beings. They sometimes change their motion abruptly. The paper presents an intelligent wheelchair that can avoid collisions with such human pedestrians safely and comfortably for each other. We assume that the information whether or not a pedestrian has noticed the wheelchair and which direction he/she wants to go can appear in the face direction. Thus our intelligent wheelchair is continuously observing the pedestrian's face in its front area, realizing smooth passing by changing its collision avoidance strategy based on the face information and the range data from the ultrasonic sensors. Experimental results show the effectiveness and comfortableness of the proposed method.

With the increase in the number of senior citizens, there is a growing demand for human-friendly wheelchairs as mobility aids. One of the main issues in robotic wheelchair research is autonomous obstacle avoidance for safety. However, this is difficult because most of the moving obstacles in the real world are human beings, and they sometimes change their motion abruptly. This paper presents an intelligent wheelchair that can avoid collisions with such pedestrians (and each other) safely and comfortably. We assume that the information as to whether or not a pedestrian has noticed the wheelchair and which direction he/she wants to go can appear in the direction of the pedestrian's face. Thus, our intelligent wheelchair continuously observes the pedestrian's face in its frontal area, realizing smooth passing by changing its collision-avoidance strategy based on the face information and the range data from ultrasonic sensors. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by a comparative experiment with a method using only ultrasonic sensors.