Abstract
Abstract The social need for robotic technology is rapidly increasing to prepare for the aging society in Japan. Many political action plans concerning Japan’s robot strategy have been proposed and carried out nationwide. This project focused on the social implementation of life support robots and developing corresponding robotic technology. The project’s participants were mainly selected from four laboratories in the department of Mechanical Engineering of Kanagawa University. In addition to robotic technology, there was participation and collaboration in this project from several specialized fields of mechanical engineering, such as material properties, material development, and mechanical vibration. Developing academia–industry–government collaboration was another key project aim. Prior to this project, joint research on dynamics and design concerning mechanical vibration and noise has been undertaken since 2011 by Kanagawa University and Kanagawa Industrial Technology Center. Based on this experience in project-based research, we extended our collaborative research, and the joint research project “Robot development project with human- and eco-friendly smart materials” started in April 2012 and ended in March 2014. In this paper, we report the research activities and results for this collaboration within the regional research community. First, we introduce the project planning. We discuss the relationship between the main theme of robotic technology and the subthemes, determined by the expertise of the members. We considered the safety and reliability of robotic technology in addition to developing materials and robot mechanics. In particular, we decided to pursue participation from fields that do not always engage directly with robotic technology. Second, we outline how we determined the subthemes of the project and we examine the contribution of each subtheme to the results of the main project. Moreover, we discuss our future development work. Finally, as a first step to implementing robotic technology in the regional social system, we report a recognition survey about the practical use and materials of robots that was performed among small and medium-sized enterprises related to robotic technology in the Kanagawa area. Through the survey, we improved the development and direction of the project. Furthermore, the exhibition “Robot Innovation 2012” held in the Tokyo International Exhibition Center communicated our project results to the public.
Highlights
The social need for robotic technology is rapidly increasing to cope with the aging society in Japan
We examine the contribution of the results of each subtheme to the main project result, and we discuss the future development of the project
Outline of research results for each subtheme Subtheme 1: development of human‐friendly robotic technology for coexistence and collaboration in a common space This subtheme focused on the core robotic technology of the project and it was investigated by the Lim laboratory
Summary
The social need for robotic technology is rapidly increasing to cope with the aging society in Japan. Service robots, including life support robots, must coexist and collaborate with humans in a common space. New challenges arise from the coexistence of robots with humans that have never been considered for industrial robots because safety barriers usually separate them from humans. Situations in which service robots work with humans could pose risks for humans and result in serious accidents. Collisions between humans and robots, robots falling, and mechanical and electrical malfunction of robots could occur. These problems must be addressed during innovation and social implementation to ensure that robots are safe and reliable [1]
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