Worldwide R&D

Area of Intelligent Systems, Division of Systems Science, Department of Systems
Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University
Tatsuo Arai, Professor
When the laboratory was first established in 1997, we
conducted research on micro-hands and mobile manipulation
robots focusing on parallel mechanisms and the mechanisms
and control of arms, as well as their industrial applications.
After later getting more personnel in the laboratory, we
expanded our studies on mobile manipulation of humanoid
robots, human interface, and information processing.
Beginning in 2001, our laboratory was selected to head theGrant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research Project entitled"Initiative of Systems and Human Science for a Safe, Secure,and Reliable Society," and we are now engaged in research
aimed at establishing a new academic field for engineering andhumanities. In addition, we have been working on many R&D
projects, primarily within a large national project framework
involving close cooperation with participating businesses. We
have received research aid from the Micromachine Center for astudy on micro-hands, which has greatly advanced research on
automated handling. Currently, we are participating in METI's
IMS Project, the Project for Destruction of Abandoned
Chemical Weapons under the Prime Minister's Office, and theNEDO Project for Developing Next-Generation Robots and are
implementing commissioned and joint research with related
businesses.
The current organization of the laboratory includes one
each of a professor, associate professor, research associate,
post-doctoral fellow, and technical official; two secretaries;
four doctor course students (three of whom work for a living);
thirteen master course students; and eight bachelor course
students with whom we are conducting research anddevelopment focusing on robot hardware. We are
implementing a robot system by studying the mechanisms andprocessing functions of humans and other organisms in order
to coordinate information processing and the functions ofthese mechanisms in robots through studies of new sensors,mechanisms, and control techniques. We are also establishinga basic policy for education and research in an effort topropose a system to achieve the coexistence of humans androbots in order to build a safe and secure society. Throughthese educational studies, we hope to contribute to society
with robotics by addressing the difficult problems facing theworld today.

Fig. 1 Two-finger micro-hand still under development

Our current research focuses on nano- and micro-robotics
and monitoring and support systems for assuring safety andsecurity. The former field of research involves manipulation of
micro-objects using a two-finger micro-hand developed
together with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology, automated focusing and handling ofobjects in motion using visual information, evaluating
operability of interface devices in the manipulation of microobjects, handling and processing cells and tissue, measuring
micro-forces, and the like. In the area of safety and security, abasic concept of merging system science with human scienceis employed in tracking humans with a moving camera tounderstand human behavior, providing humanoid robots toassist wheelchair users in movement and manipulation,
evaluating humans' sense of security in response to robots, andconducting research on applications for humanoid robots.
In addition, we are working on a haptic interface forreproducing soft objects, integrated control of information andobjects using RFID, improvements in the accuracy of a parallelmechanism, development of a limb mechanism for a robot
having arms and legs, and applications for these robots inrescue operations. The limb mechanism was selected as one
theme in NEDO's Project for Achieving a Practical NextGeneration Robot (Project to Support Prototype
Development). We plan to perform a demonstration at next
year's World Expo in Aichi.
In the future, we hope to continue concentrating our efforts
on education about and research on robots that can be integrated
into society. Since we apply great importance to our collaboration
with the Micromachine Center and everyone in the industry, wehope that you will continue to provide us with this support.

Arai Laboratory Homepage:
http://www-arailab.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp

Fig. 2 Automated handling using automated focusing and object
recognition functions (the object is a glass particle 2 µm in diameter)

MICROMACHINE No. 48
MICROMACHINE is published quarterly by Micromachine Center (MMC) to promote the international exchange ofinformation related to micromachines, R&D and other technical topics, and is circulated free of change. Please send
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