From: rick@cs.arizona.edu (Rick Schlichting)
Newsgroups: comp.research.japan
Subject: Kahaner Report: Assorted computer/hi-tech odds and ends
Date: 15 Dec 92 19:52:07 GMT


  [Dr. David Kahaner is a numerical analyst on sabbatical to the 
   Office of Naval Research-Asia (ONR Asia) in Tokyo from NIST.  The 
   following is the professional opinion of David Kahaner and in no 
   way has the blessing of the US Government or any agency of it.  All 
   information is dated and of limited life time.  This disclaimer should 
   be noted on ANY attribution.]

  [Copies of previous reports written by Kahaner can be obtained using
   anonymous FTP from host cs.arizona.edu, directory japan/kahaner.reports.]

To: Distribution
From: 
 David K. Kahaner
 US Office of Naval Research Asia
 (From outside US):  23-17, 7-chome, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 Japan
 (From within  US):  Unit 45002, APO AP 96337-0007
  Tel: +81 3 3401-8924, Fax: +81 3 3403-9670
  Email: kahaner@cs.titech.ac.jp
Re: Assorted computer/hi-tech odds and ends
15 Dec 1992
This file is named "misc12.92"

ABSTRACT. Miscellaneous computer and policy items.

These summaries have been languishing for several months while I tried
to decide how to organize them. Eventually it seems best to distribute
them as unconnected. I hope to send out several more over the next few
weeks in an effort to clean up a great deal of unfinished business.

--------------------------------

Hitachi's new QED

Hitachi has announced a prototype quantum effect device that is claimed 
to combine superconducting and semiconducting electrodes, and which can 
perform simple calculations at 2.2K. It consists of two superconducting 
Niobium electrodes with a polycrystalline silicon gate between them. One 
electrode has a needle-like shape and is 0.08microns wide; the opposite 
electrode is planar, separated by 01micron. Both are placed on a 
monocrystalline silicon substrate. The device uses the Andreev reflection 
principle, a quantum effect occurring at the boundary between 
superconductors and semiconductors. The phase difference between waves 
passing between the electrodes is controlled by  the gate voltage (200 
milivolts).  Hitachi is hoping that future research in this area could 
significantly reduce the size of future computers, and that computation 
speeds of 10-100 picoseconds per gate (equivalent to that of Josephson 
devices) with power consumption of microwatts per gate will be possible.  

------


Industrial Technology Council To Propose Doubling of Government Outlays
for R&D in Five Years

 NIHON KEIZAI SHIMBUN (Japanese) 10 Jun 92 p 5

The Industrial Technology Council, (ITC), an advisory organ to the 
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), has firmed up its 
proposals on science and technology development for the 21st century and 
international cooperation based on: 1) doubling the government's 
investment in research and development within 5 years, 2) fundamentally 
reorganizing the current national project system, and 3) promoting 
international research cooperation and technology transfer.  The 
Council's recommendations were released in a final report at a 10 June 
'92 meeting of the Planning Committee of the ITC's General Affairs 
Department.  

The Planning Committee, touching on overseas criticism that Japan is a 
"free rider on basic research" and the weakening of the foundation for 
basic research with the fall in the percentage of R&D investment 
accounted for by government spending, has indicated that contributing to 
the world is important for Japan.  

The Council has requested doubling government spending for research and 
development (now approximately Y2 trillion per annum) within 5 years in 
order to upgrade government laboratories and universities and conduct 
substantial international research exchange.  The science and technology 
policy outline approved by cabinet resolution in 4/92 also called for "a 
doubling as early as possible," but the Council's report incorporating a 
concrete 5-year goal is to press for its implementation.  

In addition to reorganizing such joint projects as the large-scale 
projects that MITI's Agency for Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
conducts into the three areas of 1) basic, original research, 2) public,
social, welfare R&D, and 3) energy/environment, the report again
proposed the creation of an "International Joint Research and
Development System." The aim, in calling for foreign participation from
the project planning stage, is to promote broad research exchanges
including domestic and foreign corporations.

In addition, the Council has requested that Japan actively propose new
programs while keeping in mind cooperation between the advanced nations
in the fields of advanced science and the transfer of energy and
environmental technology to developing countries.

MITI will take the proposals into consideration in beginning the
reorganization of its national projects for the  next fiscal year.  In
addition, there is the thought of having the report's themes of double
budget for research and development and enrichment of university
facilities reflected - in conferring with the Science and Technology
Agency (STA) - in policy starting with the next fiscal year.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


U Tokyo Professor Conducting Leading-Edge R&D on Autonomous Marine Robot
NIKKEI SANGYO SHIMBUN (Japanese) 1 Jun 92 p 5

Some countries are actively engaged in R&D on marine robots which can 
swim freely like fish, differing from the "tethered type" connected via 
cable to the mother ship at sea.  These smart, free-swimming robots can 
avoid impediments by themselves and swim around in a wide area.  Seven 
years ago, after performing some studies concerning the safety of ships, 
Assistant Professor Ura of the Institute of Production Technologies, 
University of Tokyo, plunged into this new generation robot field.  

Although there are many groups studying robots, the Ura group is the only 
(sic) one among university researchers which is fully engaged in the
study of marine robots.  "In the study of robots, it is important to be
creative; and while I am creating I am also thinking about applications
for them." This is a theory held by Ura.  He put together a project team
consisting of university researchers from various fields.  With the
cooperation of the Ministry of Education and private corporations, the
team has created a unique marine robot.

It is a "whale type," 1.5 meters in length, short and stumpy.  Because it 
can move under  water like a glider, without an engine, it is named 
"Pteroa, which comes from "pterous," meaning to have wing-like fins.  Ura 
laughs, saying: "Foreign researchers sometimes call it Peter, maybe 
because its name is so difficult to remember." 

At the end of 1990, they successfully carried out underwater experiments 
off the coast of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture.  Pteroa moves to the target 
area by gliding; but it uses its own engine when it goes to work.  If its 
ultrasonic wave sonar detects an obstacle, a neural net will recognize
it as such and avoid it.  Pteroa can move along an irregular seabed at a
fixed height.  Up until now, a human being had to teach the robot this
form of control.  Recently, however, the robot is able to study and
learn by itself.

Pteroa is only the first step in the study.  Today, together with Mitsui 
Engineering and Shipbuilding Company, the team is engaged in the study of 
sea-mine type robots, which have a length of seven meters.  The ultimate 
objective is the development of a marine robot which can "make its own 
judgment based on the situation, and study and grow." 

Ura has a high reputation among researchers in Japan; some say he is very 
dynamic, but with a sensitive side.  Ura, who graduated from the 
Department of Shipbuilding and Engineering, analyzes himself by saying: 
"My concept comes from that of a shipbuilding engineer who absorbs the 
knowledge of other people and constructs a ship, making concessions as 
necessary." 

The impetus to start research on robots (7 years ago) was a statement by 
Toshi Asada, chairman of the Earthquake Prediction Liaison Association, 
who said: "In the future we will require robots which can study the 
oceans." 

Ura has so far significantly changed his research theme twice.  The first 
theme was "anchor."  He was known as "Ura of anchor" when he was an 
instructor at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Production 
Technology.  "In those days there were a succession of strange incidents 
surrounding anchors," said he.  Normally an anchor has claws at its end 
which dig into the seabed and prevent the ship from drifting away; but 
for some reason a certain type of anchor turns upside down.  If it does 
so during a storm, the ship will drift away, in some cases causing it to 
crash against a pier.  

By repeated experiments, Ura figured out what happened on the seabed 
where the anchor was located.  The results of the research, entitled 
"Will anchors work?" was announced in a scientific journal, causing 
ripples.  As a result of that announcement, this type of anchor is no 
longer used.  

The next theme was "load shift."  At the end of 1981, in the middle of 
winter on the Japan Sea off the coast of Hokkaido's Okujiri Island, the 
4,000 ton freighter Shokal Maru sank.  Of the 17-man crew, 15 died.  It 
was carrying pulverized coal.  The cause of sinking appeared to be the 
shifting of the load; but they did not know why the load had shifted.  It 
was some time later, after research had begun, that they discovered that 
the shifting of the load appeared to have resulted from a process similar 
to the liquefaction phenomena which occurs to the earth's foundation 
during earthquakes.  

"In our field, research usually reaches its peak after 5 years.  The 5 
years following that will witness the research on maturing of the 
studies," says he.  When the anchors reached the mature stage, he 
launched into a study of load shifting.  After he found out the cause for 
load shifting, he initiated the study of marine robots.  However, 
research on marine robots is in the heavy-weight class, compared to 
previous research themes, so it should last longer.  

-----------------

Melco Develops Autonomous Robot With Neural Networks 
NIKKEI SANGYO SHIMBUN (Japanese) 21 May 92 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation's Central Research Laboratory (Melco)
has developed an autonomous robot that can select and grasp certain
objects from among a number of objects that are moving.  The robot
employs three neural nets to recognize the shapes of articles it wishes
to grasp, analyze the direction and speed of moving objects, and to
accurately control a manipulator (so-called "magic hand").  This robot
is thought to have applications in recovering artificial satellites from
space and in deep-sea operations.

The MEC laboratory had previously tested an autonomous robot system that
used two neural nets to analyze the position, speed, and direction of
movement of a moving object, control the joints in a manipulator, and
extend an arm to grasp moving objects.  Now, by adding a third net, the
lab has succeeded in having the robot accurately recognize the shapes of
objects it wishes to grasp.

When a toy animal that carries three objects, namely a cylinder, three-
sided column, and four-sided column, each having a size or thickness of 
2-3 cm, is made to travel, the autonomous robot can recognize any one of 
these from the other two and grab it.  

A camera is fixed at a height of 2 meters, and the toy animal's movement 
is watched from above. An object having the same shape as the one which 
the robot is supposed to grasp is placed standing so that it is within 
the camera's view.  The manipulator itself has an arm length of 60 cm.  
When the toy animal is made to travel at a speed of 6 cm per second, the 
robot can grasp the designated object.  

Mitsubishi claims that by using a high-speed arm and more than one 
camera, so that the designated object can be recognized three-
dimensionally, moving objects can be picked out even more quickly.  

The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavor had to do a space walk to 
manually recover the Intersat satellite which could not be used because 
it failed to reach the proper orbit. Using this newly developed 
technology, however, the autonomous robot might be made to memorize the 
hook or whatever that needed to be grasped, so that the human crew would 
not have to engage in such a dangerous activity.  Satellites that were 
made at great cost can often be reused if only their fuel gas can be 
replenished.  Hence there is strong demand for recovery operations.  

According to a spokesperson for the MEC laboratory, "This robot can be 
put into actual use if only the necessary hardware improvements are made 
to protect the LSI's in the robot's computer from the influence of 
radiation encountered in space." 

--------------------------------

AIST To Strengthen  Regional  Technology  Centers
NIKKAN KOGYO SHIMBUN (Japanese) 15 Jul 92 p 7

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry's Agency of Industrial 
Science and Technology (AIST), on the basis of the substantial 
development of regional high-technology industries, will develop new 
regional technology policies and strengthen the research functions of the 
seven regional Government Industrial Research Institutes (GIRI) under 
AIST's umbrella in FY93.  The policies are to correct industrial 
overconcentration.  At the same time, the promotion of regional factory
siting is judged insufficient to invigorate the regions; the upgrading
of unique R&D bases is seen as indispensable.  AIST's aim is to make
active use in particular of the various regional research resources
centering on the regional GIRIs and, while marshalling the public
testing and research institutes [kohsetsushi], third-sector research
organs, and private companies, to play a guiding role in the regional
development of technology and personnel by linking them with local
universities.

The regional GIRIs account for 24% of the staff for the 16 research 
institutes under AIST's umbrella.  However, with the demand for a shift 
in research to leading-edge fields, it is certain that there will be 
personnel and budgetary problems with the past system and that the 
institutes will not be able to play their roles fully.  There are also 
many problems, such as the aging of institute facilities, in need of 
rapid response.  

On the one hand, the full strengthening of public examination and 
research organs, kohsetsushi centers, and third-sector and private 
laboratories by local governments is outstanding.  On the other hand, 
there are said to be many problems in such areas as research themes, 
achievements, information gathering, and personnel.  Therefore, the 
importance of exchanges between GIRIs and kohsetsushi centers has been 
indicated before now.  But it would be difficult to say that such 
exchanges have been necessarily conducted in a sustained fashion.  

AIST will use supplementary budgets to bring the GIRI facilities up to
full strength.  Taking into account local requests through meetings with
local industry and administrative organs, AIST will also develop
supporting research fields by conducting intensive, joint research
through tie-ups between kohsetsushi centers, private companies,
universities, and other organizations.  The change of kohsetsushi
centers into industrial technology centers in particular, as well as the
renovation of facilities and systems is moving ahead.  In addition, the
research potential of both public and private universities is growing.
AIST, taking notice of this, will utilize a system of mobile researchers
through the revised law to promote research exchange.  Linking them to
local universities, the policy will open the way for researchers at
GIRIs to earn doctorates by their research achievements there.  By this
and other means, AIST will create attractive research institutes for
local public and private researchers.  AIST will also reexamine the
names of the GIRIs and review the organization of the various branch
offices and annexes.  AIST aims to build clearing houses of regional
research resources and a system matched to needs of the times.  The
Agency will gather local opinions on concrete policies through regional
technology forums for each GIRI, put together concrete policies, and
draft budgetary measures.

----------------------------END OF REPORT------------------------------





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