Sociable Robots Research Articles

Controlling the Operation of a Robot Society Through Distributed Environment Sensing

Societies are formed as collaborative structures to execute tasks that are not possible or are otherwise difficult for individuals alone. There are many types of biological societies, but societies formed by machines or robots are still rare. The concept offers, however, interesting possibilities especially in applications where a long term fully autonomous operation is needed and/or the work to be done can be executed in a parallel way by a group of individuals. The control system for a distributed autonomous robotic system can easily become highly complex. It is normally based on extensive bi-directional communication with a central controller and a guidance of individual robots. When the number of robots increases, the operator’s task becomes difficult. A concept, called robot society, with a flexible operator interface is presented, allowing easy handling of large amount of robots. The operation of the whole society with exploring and foraging as its task is controlled by varying the autonomousity level according to the environment information received from the society members.

Evolving of a Fitness Based Operation Strategy for a Robot Society

An evolving fitness based foraging and exploration strategy for a robot society formed by cooperative autonomous mobile robots in a spatially and temporally dynamic environment is presented. The operation of multiple behaviour-based robots is controlled by an outside operator through modifications in members’ fitness functions. With a certain type of function formulation a collective society behavior will emerge and improve the society’s operation. The suggested concept is verified with simulations and some near future physical realizations are also presented.

The 12th Annual Conference of Robotics Society of Japan

The 12th Annual Conference of Robotics Society of Japan

Communication in reactive multiagent robotic systems

Multiple cooperating robots are able to complete many tasks more quickly and reliably than one robot alone. Communication between the robots can multiply their capabilities and effectiveness, but to what extent? In this research, the importance of communication in robotic societies is investigated through experiments on both simulated and real robots. Performance was measured for three different types of communication for three different tasks. The levels of communication are progressively more complex and potentially more expensive to implement. For some tasks, communication can significantly improve performance, but for others inter-agent communication is apparently unnecessary. In cases where communication helps, the lowest level of communication is almost as effective as the more complex type. The bulk of these results are derived from thousands of simulations run with randomly generated initial conditions. The simulation results help determine appropriate parameters for the reactive control system which was ported for tests on Denning mobile robots.

The 11th Annual Conference of Robotics Society of Japan

The 11th Annual Conference of Robotics Society of Japan

A Study on a Dynamically Reconfigurable Robotic System. 9th Report, Numerical Analysis and Optimal Structurization of Self-Organizing Distributed Intelligence System.

The robotic system (CEBOT), which has been studied by the authors, can carry out a variety of tasks by an optimal structurization. CEBOT consists of various kinds of components called cells. A cell, which has a basic function and its own knowledge base and database, forms a group called a cellular robotic society. In order to organize many kinds of structures for task execution and the robotic society, each cell should genetically have algorithms similar to a living creature. This paper deals with a self-organizing method based on the genetic algorithm proposed by the authors. We report system organization methods (horizontal-and vertical-organization), and discuss how to organize the system effectively by using the proposed numerical analysis. As one example of the self-organizing system, a self-organizing distributed intelligence system based on the concept of CEBOT is reported. Some simulations of the self-organization and numerical analyzing results are also reported.

A Concept of Mechatronics

In Celebration of the Appearance of the New Journal Ichiro Kato Ex-President, Robotics Society of Japan., Professor, Waseda University It is a great honor for me to extend my congratulations on the occasion of the foundation of this new journal of robotics and mechatronics. Although several academic societies and industrial associations in Japan publish periodicals dealing with robotics and mechatronics, there is no English edition in these fields. It is thus a breakthrough for such an English journal to be published in this country. Since I believe that the development of robotics and mechatronics will be best attained by close international cooperation, I hope this journal will contribute to the promotion of cooperation in these fields. H ere, let me introduce my commitment to robotics. I started a study on artificial hands in 1963. But as a matter of fact, I did not know then that the first industrial robots had appeared in the United States in 1962. Just after the first symposium on robotics held in Tokyo in 1967, certain kinds of robots for industrial use developed in the United States were exhibited in the Harumi Trade Centre in Tokyo. These matters ignited the research and development of robots in Japan. Robots are based on the combined technology of mechanisms and electronics, and robotics has come to play a leading role in the present industrialized world. Industrial robots now have an important place in industrial fields. I forecast that robots will coexist with mankind and assist us not only in industrial fields but also in almost all situations such as welfare and our personal lives. As is well known, Japan is one of the centers in the world for robotics and mechatronics. That is the reason why I celebrate the new publication of this journal in Japan. It will be of significance to achieve greater international exchange of information and ideas by overcoming the barrier of the Japanese language. For the prospects of future robots - my robot, a personal or domestic robot - which will appear in the 21st century, I expect that this journal will play an important role. In Celebration of the Foundation of the ""Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics"" Makoto Kajitani Professor, The University of Electro-Communications It goes without saying that most manufactured products sustammg the recent Japanese industrial growth depend on mechatronics-based technology. Born in Japan in the middle of the 1970's, ""Mechatronics"" has now become a common word in the world, attaining the concept of a central or leading technology in today's industries with its progress. To our regret, however, no mechatronics-professed journal was found either in Japan or worldwide. It is a feat of planning in order to meet the expectations of engineers and researchers engaged in the study of mechatronics in all countries that the first international journal is being published for the world in Japan from which mechatronics originated. As one of the researchers looking forward to the development of mechatronics, I wish to express my gratitude and pleasure. Mechatronics is a technology contriving to create value added through composition and fusion. Mechatronics-like conception is seen in the recent trends of industrial fields to search for new germs of alternation and fusion among different technologies or industries. We are in a time of creating new value through international fusion not only in the branch of technology but also in the spheres of politics and economy. The ultimate aim of developing mechatronics is to be of help to people's mental sufficiency and serenity. For this purpose, grounds are wanted for spiritual fusion among mechatronics engineers or researchers. I hope that this journal will not only be destined for the scientific phase but carry out an interphasic role for international intercourse among engineers and researchers. It is an undeserved honor for me to be favored on the occasion of the foundation of this journal with the opportunity to offer my congratulations. I express my heartfelt wish that this journal will play a pivotal role in interchanging information related to robotics and mechatronics. Congratulatory Messages Russell H. Taylor Editor, IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation Congratulations on the establishment of the International Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics. I am confident that your new journal will make a significant contribution to the wider dissemination of the considerable body of excellent research that has hitherto been published in Japanese. I am looking forward to reading it.

A review of: “Proceedings of the '85 International Conference on Advanced Robotics”. Organized by the Robotics Society of Japan, the Society of Biomechanics, Japan, and the Japan Industrial Robot Association. (IFS Publications, 1985.) [Pp. 603.] Price £6800.

A review of: “<i>Proceedings of the '85 International Conference on Advanced Robotics</i>”. Organized by the Robotics Society of Japan, the Society of Biomechanics, Japan, and the Japan Industrial Robot Association. (IFS Publications, 1985.) [Pp. 603.] Price £6800.

The 4th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan

(1987). The 4th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan. Advanced Robotics: Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 401-403.

Adaptive Dynamical Control of Robots - Nonlinear Approach

In the following paper we discuss several concepts of dynamical position control for rigid manipulator am. Some of them e.g. feedforward compensation or computed torque method are quite familiar to the members of robotics society. Some other, growing quickly in number during last few years, are resulting from the constant development of the modern control theory. They are ranging from different mutations of MRAS control concepts to purely differential-geometrical problem fomulations. Our aim is to point out most important facts about robot arm dynamics in order to show a common basis for the majority of methods recently proposed. Many interesting control concepts once considered to be unfeasible are gaining back their relevance due to the impresive growth of the computational throughput of modern microprocessors. One of these concepts which relies on permanent up-dating of exact inverse model of the arm dynamics will be disscussed in the paper.

Process of the foundation and inauguration of the Robotics Society of Japan

Process of the foundation and inauguration of the Robotics Society of Japan

The Third Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan

The Third Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan

History of the Japan Industrial Robot Association A Corporate Institution

Under the guidance of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and supported by the Japan Oil Hydraulics Association, the Electronic Industry Promotion Association, and the Japan Pneumatics Association, “The Industrial Robot Society” was established on March 17, 1971 and Hikoo Ando was elected its president.

‘Rinri’: An Incitement towards the Existence of Robots in Japanese Society

Known as the “Robot Kingdom”, Japan has launched, with granting outstanding governmental budgets, a new strategic plan in order to create new markets for the RT (Robot-Technology) Industry. Now that the social structure is greatly modernized and a high social functionality has been achieved, robots in the society are taking a popular role for Japanese people. The motivation for such great high-tech developments has to be researched in how human relations work, as well as in the customs and psychology of the Japanese. With examining the background of the Japanese affirmativeness toward Robots, this paper reveals the Animism and the Japanese ethics, “Rinri”, that benefit the Japanese Robotics. First the introduction describes the Japanese social context which serves in order to illustrate the term “Rinri”. The meaning of Japanese Animism is explained in order to understand why Rinri is to be considered as an incitement for Japanese social robotics.