Describes an interface for multi modal human robot interaction, which enables people to introduce a newcomer robot to different attributes of objects and places in the room through speech commands and hand gestures. The robot makes an environment map of the room based on knowledge learned through communication with human and uses this map for navigation. The developed system consists of several sections including: natural language processing, posture recognition, object localization and map generation. This system uses a combination of multiple sources of information and model matching to detect and track a human hand so that the user can point toward an object of interest and guide the robot to go near to it or locate that object's position in the room. The position of objects in the room is located by a monocular camera vision and depth from focus method.

The system introduced in the paper estimates the 3D position of a human's head and face by using the depth from focus method. First the system locates the human's head and face by using motion detection, Hough transform and a statistical color model. Then by changing pan, tilt and zoom of camera we put the face in the center of the camera's field of view. Then we use information from focusing the ring of an autofocus camera to measure the distance between the human face and the camera. By having information about the absolute position of the camera and its pan and tilt angles we can compute the absolute position of the person in the room. In the case of a person with small motions, this system measures distance with less than a 10 cm error. The measurable distance range is from 90 cm up to 340 cm.

In order to design emotional actions of computer graphic characters, the authors analysed the actions of a Bunraku puppet which is manipulated by an expert of puppet manipulation. The puppet's action is decomposed into a main part which is the motion of the puppet's axis and the accompaniment which is the relative motion with respect to the motion of the axis. The emotional actions of the puppet are explained by the phase factor and the amplitude factor of the motion of the puppet's axis. Based on this analysis, a simple method to design emotional actions are obtained.

A redundant wire-driven parallel robot, the WARP manipulator, is a new robot mechanism which is suitable especially for high speed assembling of lightweight objects such as semiconductors. In this paper, a WARP manipulator was designed from the viewpoint of working space by considering conditions that the travelling plate must be abbe to generate arbitrary amounts of force and moment and the wires are not to be in contact. Simulation results of working space proved the validity of the design procedure described. A prototype of WARP manipulator was constructed. The kinematic parameters were calibrated for position control.

Time series is composed of many pairs of values and times. The time means when the value appears. Suppose that we observe same phenomena plural times and obtain plural time series. Although the same values happen plural times, their appearing times fluctuate. The problem to correct these time fluctuation is called "time normalization". We propose a new method of time normalization and apply it to action time series of a Bunraku puppet.

The ionic conducting polymer gel film (ICPF) actuator is a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane plated with platinum on its both surfaces. It bends in water and in wet condition by applying a low voltage of 1.5 V to its surfaces. This phenomenon was discovered in 1992. The principle of the motion is still unknown. This paper discusses 2-dimensional linear approximate modelling of the ICPF actuator. The authors are proposing a dynamic model of the actuator consisting of an electrical stage, a stress generation stage and mechanical stage. In the stress generation stage, time derivative of current generates the internal stress with a second degree delay. Expansion and contraction of each surface induce bending motion in the mechanical stage. Simulation results were in agreement with actual responses.

The ICPF (ionic conducting polymer gel film) actuator, which has advantages such as low driving voltage, high speed, and capability for underwater motion, was discovered in 1992. This paper presents a new actuator element using an ICPF which generates an elliptic motion, as used in ultrasonic motors, to drive objects by friction. A method of forming a pattern of ICPF on a membrane was developed for production of the element. The experimental elements effectively functioned as driving devices and successfully drove a rotary motor as an application. Experiments and modeling revealed the relation of the resultant elliptic motion to control signals and design parameters.

Home robots must have actions with emotion, in order to cooperate with human being. To clarify "what is the emotional factor of actions", the actions of a Bunraku puppet are analyzed. The hypothesis that "the action is decomposed into the functional factor, the emotional factors and the random factors" is presented. This hypothesis is examined based on the experimental data of real actions of the puppet.