Intelligent Robot Laboratory, University of Tsukuba

To be able to correspond with various tasks, a system to replace the end-effectors required for respective task is developed. Instead of installing all the functions to a single robot, the robot only moves around with the task specific function provided by the end-effector. With this, generalization of robot capable of multiple tasks by exchanging the end-effector is realized. Example of effectors are charging end-effector and floor cleaner.

A control system is developed for the trolley to move following a person's operation while reducing the burden of the load on the operator during the delivery. After the delivery is completed, the trolley is able to return to where it is original placed automatically. The operation and control of electric trolley is realized via control interface using grip lever and the maximum speed setting dial. In addition, the self-returning function is realized through playback navigation.

A control system by simply pointing to the object to make the robot move is achieved using a controller developed from a combination of camera flash and laser pointer. With the flash, the approximate location of the object can be detected using an omnidirectional camera on the robot. With the usage of an omnidirectional camera, object in any direction can be detected disregarding the robot orientation. Then the laser pointer irradiates the object and the object's 3D position can be acquired through stereo camera. The robot has Active Stereo Vision system with the camera mounted on a pan-tilt mechanism, enabling the camera to move its position.

A driving control system is developed for a large 2 coaxial wheeled inverted pendulum robot where a rider can drive the robot as it is in inverted control.In order to control the driving direction with the rider's center of gravity, a control system is developed with the robot and rider modelled as 2 links, and the relative angle between the 2 links are reflected as velocity command value.

This is a system which enables discovery of disaster victims using a "Multisensor head", which is constructed with a camera to take in the wide view of the situation, LED lighting capable to irradiate wide area, and a laser range sensor to acquire the sensor position. The multisensor head is inserted intot he debris attached the end of a stick, viewing and taking in view of the near-global situation at once by using a camera equipped with fisheye lens and all direction mirror.

A trolley with omni directional moving mechanism is developed. With a goal of path following, the key functions associated with it such as inverse kinematics, speed control wheel driver, motor torque controller, kinematics and odometry (dead reckoning) for mobility with redundant degrees of freedom are implemented.

A mobile robot system for carrying out routine inspections from a remote location is developed for the facilities of which the environment is difficult to be managed in person. Basically the robot moves autonomously, but when problems could not be solved autonomously occur, the operator can control and perform maintenance remotely. In this system, autonomous patrolling of the facilities, capturing image of the site with the camera mounted on the robot, control interface showing the current location of the robot are developed.

The Ultra-compact laser scanning range sensor 'URG' is developed in collaboration with Hokuyo Automatic Co. Ltd. In this research, in order to evaluate the usefulness of the URG sensor for mobile robot environment sensing, the URG sensor is mounted on a mobile robot and compared with other existing optical distance scanning sensors. In the movie, The robot performs wall-following in the hallway with real-time wall detection using URG sensor and Hough Transform algorithm. Without a representation of the environment, the robot perform real time wall following path planning. The robot can avoid obstacles when they are detected too.