Automation of the food handling process is not an easy problem. Grasping irregular-shaped objects with varying stiffness by robot hands is challenging, especially when the objects frequently change in a short time like Bento box packing lines. This paper proposes a robot finger with an automatic grasping completion mechanism by balancing the force from the objects and the restoring force of installed springs. This mechanism makes the gripper grasp various objects without any setting changes or complicated control algorithms for detecting objects’ shapes and positions even though handling objects may change frequently. We present of the design a robot hand with four proposed fingers and show the effectiveness of the hand by experiments thirteen kinds of food.

We developed a robot that can guide visually impaired people and elderly people as they walk around in large hospitals. In relation to this, a previous report described the structure of a guidance robot and the comparison of its use with that of a white cane. It was shown that with the use of the robot, participants could move more easily, safely, and confidently than with a white cane. However, to solve the problems encountered with the use of the previous robot, a new guidance robot was fabricated. This paper describes the structure of the new robot and the results of the demonstration examination of the robot in the Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center. The robot navigates to reach a destination set by using the touch panel, whereas velocity depends on the force exerted by the user on the robot. The questionnaire answered by the participants were evaluated using the system usability scale, which showed that the acceptability range of the robot is "Acceptable" and its usability is high.

Small and lightweight actuators that generate high force and high energy are strongly required for realizing powerful robots and tools. By applying ultra-high-strength p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole fiber sleeves to McKibben artificial muscles, new hydraulic artificial muscles have been developed. While conventional McKibben muscles are driven by a maximum pneumatic pressure of 0.7 MPa, the newly developed muscles are driven by a maximum water hydraulic of pressure of 4 MPa, resulting in very high force capability. This paper presents the materials and structure of the new artificial muscle and the experimental results. The developed muscles are evaluated by four parameters — force density per volume (FDV), force density per mass (FDM), energy density per volume (EDV) and energy density per mass (EDM) — for comparisons with other conventional linear actuators. The prototype artificial muscle, which is 40 mm in diameter and 700 mm in length, can achieve a maximum contracting force of 28 kN, FDV of 32.3 × 10–3 N/mm3, FDM of 9.44 × 103 N/kg, EDV of 2600 × 10–3 J/mm3 and EDM of 762 × 103 J/kg. These values are 1.7 to 33 times larger than those of the typical conventional actuators. As the result, a high force artificial muscle of 40 mm in diameter that generates 28-kN contracting force has been developed successfully.

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.

We have developed a slim hydraulic artificial muscle for jack-up tools. This muscle has the advantage at the ratio between generated force and mass, compared to the hydraulic artificial muscle which we developed preciously. The maximum force is 10700[N], and contraction ratio is 20%. By applying the slim hydraulic artificial muscles to tensile parts, new tensegrity stage was realized. Advantages of this stage are light weight, high force, and multi degrees of freedom. Two types of the Tensegrity stages were developed; 1-modure type and 2-modure type. Driving tests of these stages were carried out and their characteristics were evaluated.

By applying ultra high strength PBO fiber sleeves to McKibben artificial muscle, new hydraulic artificial muscles have been developed. While conventional McKibben muscles are driven by maximum pneumatic pressure of 0.7 MPa, the newly developed muscles are driven by water hydraulic of maximum pressure of 4 MPa, resulting in very high force capability. This paper shows the new artificial muscle, its performance and application to shape-adaptable power hand. The developed muscles were evaluated by four parameters, namely force density per volume (FDV), force density per mass (FDM), energy density per volume (EDV) and energy density per mass (EDM) for comparisons with other conventional linear actuators. The prototype artificial muscle, which is 40 mm in diameter and 700 mm in length can achieve the maximum contracting force of 28 kN, FDV of 32.3×10 -3 N/mm 3 , FDM of 9.44×10 3 N/kg, EDV of 2600×10 -3 J/mm 3 and EDM of 762×10 3 J/kg. These values are 1.7 to 33 times larger than these of the typical conventional actuators. The developed muscles have been applied to a power hand which has shape adaptability to grasped objects. This hand can generate high force and grasp objects, which weighs about 230 kg both in horizontal and vertical direction.

People come to have a strong interest in the rapid and certain rescue operation. In this research, a hydraulically-powered artificial McKibben muscle has been developed and improved. It is applied to Artificial Muscle Spreader (AMS) using the high hydraulic pressure for the rescue operation support. Two kinds of AMS have been developed to use the AMS properly in the situation. Each AMS is 300mm×30mm×180mm, and 630mm×40mm×270mm in size, 1.5kg, and 6.0kg in weight, 10kN, and 14kN in spread power and 70mm, and 300mm in the spread stroke. They are lighter than conventional spreaders and more excellent in the operability and portability. The field tests of AMS have been carried out in imitative fields of disaster sites with rescue workers. In consequence of those tests, their practical performances in the space securing operation at the disaster sites are verified.

Small and light-weighted actuators which generate high force and high energy are strongly required for realizing powerful robots. We have developed a new hydraulic artificial muscle generating very high force and high energy by applying an ultra high strength PBO fiber sleeve to McKibben type artificial muscle. While conventional McKibben muscles are driven by pneumatic pressure about 0.7[MPa] at a maximum, the newly developed muscles are driven by water hydraulic pressure of 2[MPa], resulting in very high force. This report shows materials and structure of the new artificial muscle with PBO fiber sleeve. Muscles are evaluated by two parameters in this paper, force density per volume (FDV) and energy density per volume (EDV) with the comparisons with other linear actuators. The prototype is 40[mm] in diameter and 700[mm] in length. It achieves the maximum contraction force of 12096[N], FDV of about 18000[N/mm^3], and EDV of 2484[J/mm^3], which are 5 to 20 times bigger than those of typical conventional actuators with the same volume.

We develop a new jack up rescue tool with rensegrity structure, which are light-weight and realizes long stroke. The design is based on tensegrity structure consisting of triangulated tension networks; the number of parts composing this tool is very small, resulting in light-weight and ling stroke. We use this structure for a jack up tool, and develop the prototype tool. This tool is activated by dragging tensional line such as a lope. The prototype shows, the maximum stroke of 370[mm]. This stroke is approximately five times longer than the initial height.

We aim at the development of rescue robots which have small-sized and achieve heavy-duty rescue operations. In this paper, we report the improvement of the rescue robots for practical use and the field experiment for verification of practical performances and evaluation of the improvement. First, we designed the case to caver the robots for waterproofing and protection against dust. And we improved the controller of the robots and made the controller box which realizes easy operations. Then we improved the crawler and cutter part of the Cutter Robot. Additionally, we evaluated these improvement points by field experiment on simulated fields of real disaster area. By the result, we proved the practical performances of these rescue robots.

We aim at the development of rescue robots which are driven by ultra high pressure hydraulic small actuators. They are small-sized and have simple mechanisms, and can realize high-powered operations. This report shows the designs of two high powered small rescue robots-Jack Robot and Cutter Robot-and the results of the field tests carried out to verify in the possibilities. We carried out the field tests in the three types of field; collapsed house type, rubble type and traffic accident type. As the experimental results, the potential of high-powered small robots in disaster areas were shown.

We aim at the development of high power rescue robots with compact and simple structure using a high pressure hydraulic actuator. In this paper, we report the compact Jack Robot, which can jack up 17 [kN] (1.7 ton). Using this robot, it is made possible to keep the space and rescue victims by jacking up the rubbles in narrow space. By the field test, we verified the jack up performance of the robot. Additionally, cooperated operations with two jack robots, we verified to make enough space to search in the rubble by other robots or search tools.

We aim at the development of rescue robots and tools which are driven by hydraulic actuators. They have small and simple mechanism and achieve heavy-duty rescue operations. This report shows the results of the field tests carried out to verify the possibility of three developed rescue robots which we are named the Jack Robot, the Compact Jack Robot and the Cutter Robot, respectively. We classified the disaster situations to three categories ; the collapsed house cases, the rubble collapsed cases and the traffic accident cases. We applied the three robots to test fields which simulated these three disaster cases. As the experimental results, we founded the great potential of the high-powered small rescue robots in disaster areas.

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