Interactive learning and management of visual information via human-like software robot

To achieve smooth real-world interaction between people and computers, we developed a system that displays a three-dimensional computer-graphic human-like image from the waist up (anthropomorphic software robot: hereinafter “robot”) on the display, that interactively sees and hears, and that has fine and detailed control functions such as facial expressions, line of sight, and pointing at targets with its finger. The robot visually searches and identifies persons and objects in real space that it has learned in advance (registered space, which was our office in this case), manages the history information of the places and times it found objects and/or persons, and tells the user, indicating their three-dimensional positions with line of sight and its finger. It interactively learns new objects and persons with line of with their names and owners. By using this function, the robot can engage in simple dialogue (do a task) with the user. Osamu Hasegawa, Ph.D.: He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from the Science University of Tokyo, in 1988, 1990 respectively. He received Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo, in 1993. Currently, he is a senior research scientist at the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan. His research interests include Computer Vision and Multi-modal Human Interface. Dr. Hasegawa is a member of the AAAI, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Japan (IEICE), Information Processing Society of Japan and others. Katsuhiko Sakaue, Ph.D.: He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees all in electronic engineering from the University of Tokyo, in 1976, 1978 and 1981, respectively. In 1981, he joined the Electrotechnical Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and engaged in researches in image processing and computer vision. He received the Encouragement Prize in 1979 from IEICE, and the Paper Award in 1985 from Information Processing Society of Japan. He is a member of IEICE, IEEE, IPSJ, ITE. Satoru Hayamizu, Ph.D.: He is a leader of Interactive Intermodal Integration Lab. at Electrotechnical Laboratory. He received the B.E., M.E., Ph.D. degrees from Tokyo University. Since 1981, he has been working on speech recognition, spoken dialogue, and communication with artifacts. From 1989 to 1990, he was a visiting scholar in Carnegie Mellon University and in 1994 a visiting scientist in LIMSI/CNRS.     

GigaE PM: a high performance communication facility using a Gigabit Ethernet

A high performance communication facility, called theGigaE PM, has been designed and implemented for parallel applications on clusters of computers using a Gigabit Ethernet. The GigaE PM provides not only a reliable high bandwidth and low latency communication, but also supports existing network protocols such as TCP/IP. A reliable communication mechanism for a parallel application is implemented on the firmware on a NIC while existing network protocols are handled by an operating system kernel. A prototype system has been implemented using an Essential Communications Gigabit Ethernet card. The performance results show that a 58.3 μs round trip time for a four byte user message, and 56.7 MBytes/sec bandwidth for a 1,468 byte message have been achieved on Intel Pentium II 400 MHz PCs. We have implemented MPICH-PM on top of the GigaE PM, and evaluated the NAS parallel benchmark performance. The results show that the IS class S performance on the GigaE PM is 1.8 times faster than that on TCP/IP. Shinji Sumimoto: He is a Senior Researcher of Parallel and Distributed System Software Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership, JAPAN. He received BS degree in electrical engineering from Doshisha University. His research interest include parallel and distributed systems, real-time systems, and high performance communication facilities. He is a member of Information Processing Society of Japan. Hiroshi Tezuka: He is a Senior Researcher of Parallel and Distributed System Software Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership, JAPAN. His research interests include real-time systems and operating system kernel. He is a member of the Information Processing Society of Japan, and Japan Society for Software Science and Technology. Atsushi Hori, Ph.D.: He is a Senior Researcher of Parallel and Distributed System Software Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership, JAPAN. His current research interests include parallel operating system. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Waseda University, and received Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. He worked as a researcher in Mitsubishi Research Institute from 1981 to 1992. Hiroshi Harada: He is a Senior Researcher of Parallel and Distributed System Software Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership, JAPAN. His research interests include distributed/parallel systems and distributed shared memory. He received BS degree in physics from Science University of Tokyo. He is a member of ACM and Information Processing Society of Japan. Toshiyuki Takahashi: He is a Researcher at Real World Computing Partnership since 1998. He received his B.S. and M.S. from the Department of Information Sciences of Science University of Tokyo in 1993 and 1995. He was a student of the Information Science Department of the University of Tokyo from 1995 to 1998. His current interests are in meta-level architecture for programming languages and high-performance software technologies. He is a member of Information Processing Society of Japan. Yutaka Ishikawa, Ph.D.: He is the chief of Parallel and Distributed System Software Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership, JAPAN. He is currently temporary retirement from Electrotechnical Laboratory, MITI. His research interests include distributed/parallel systems, object-oriented programming languages, and real-time systems. He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering from Keio University. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, ACM, Information Processing Society of Japan, and Japan Society for Software Science and Technology.     

Feasibility Study on an Excavation-Type Demining Robot

In this study, we propose a design of an excavation-type demining robot that rids a farm of mines efficiently and safely. In the dangerous area, the robot automatically takes in soil in which mines are laid. The entire soil surface, including mines, is crushed, separated and discharged. Therefore, the demining ratio is high; also, the soil becomes clean and cultivated. The robot has a large bucket on its front. The robot moves forward, maintaining the height of the bucket from the ground by the vertical motion of the bucket and the forward motion of the body. The possibility of that motion is confirmed through simulations and experiments. The crush process and the proper depth of the excavation are also discussed.Yoshikazu Mori has a Ph.D. degree in information science from Tohoku University (Japan). he is a research associate in the Department of Precision Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University. His research focuses on a welfare robot, and won the 2004 Presentation Award from The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Robotics and Mechatronics Division. He is also interested in an autonomous agent that lives with the human.Kazuhiro Takayama has a Masters Degree from the Department of precision Engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University. He is an acoustic engineer of Honda R&D Co., Ltd., Tochigi R&D Center.Takeshi Adachi has a Bachelors Degree from the Department of Precision Engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Currently he is studying a bipedal robot with jack legs for carrying a heavy load.Shintaro Omote has a Bachelors Degree from the Department of Precision Engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University. He is currently studying a partner robot and trying to let it recognize human mental characters.Tatsuya Nakamura received the B.E. degree in aeronautics, the M.S. degree in physics and D. E. degree in robotics in 1965, 1967 and 1983, respectively, from Nagoya University. He joined the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, AIST, MITI in 1967. He was engaged in advanced robotics project there. In 1992, he became a professor at Mie University. Since 1997, he has been a Professor in the Department of Precision Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University. His research topics include micromanipulation using magnetic technologies and intelligent welfare robots.     

View-based virtual learning and recognition of 3D object using view model obtained by motion-stereo

View-based approach for learning and recognition of 3D object and its pose detection was proved to be affective and efficient, except its high learning cost. In this research, we propose a virtual learning approach which generates learning samples of views of an object from its 3D view model obtained by motion-stereo method. From the generated learning sample views, features of high-order autocorrelation are extracted, and discriminant feature spaces for object recognition and pose detection are built. Recognition experiments on real objects are carried out to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Caihua Wang, Ph.D.: He received his B.S. in mathematics and M.E. in electronic engineering from Renmin University of China, Beijing, China in 1983 and 1986, and his Ph. D. from Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan in 1996. He is a JST domestic fellow and is doing his post doctoral research at Electrotechnical Laboratory. His research interests are computer vision and image processing. He is a member of IEICE and IPSJ. Katsuhiko Sakaue, Ph.D.: He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees all in electronic engineering from University of Tokyo, in 1976, 1978 and 1981, respectively. In 1981, he joined the Electrotechnical Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and engaged in researches in image processing and computer vision. He received the Encouragement Prize in 1979 from IEICE, and the Paper Award in 1985 from Information.     

A study on effects of market systems in an artificial market

In an artificial market approach with multi-agent systems, the static equilibrium concept is often used in market systems to approximate continuous market auctions. However, differences between the static equilibrium concept and continuous auctions have not been discussed in the context of an artificial market study. In this paper, we construct an artificial market model with both of them, namely, the Itayose and Zaraba method, and show simple characteristic differences between these methods based on computer simulations. The result indicates the further need to model the market system by studying artificial markets. Hidenori Kawamura, Ph.D.: He received Ph.D. degree from Division of Systems and Information Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan in 2000. He is currently an instructor in Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan. His research interests include multiagent systems, mass user support, artificial intelligence, complex systems, and tourism informatics. He is a member of IPSJ, JSAI, IEICE, ORSJ, JSTI and AAAI. Yasushi Okada, Ph.D.: He is a master course student in Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan. He studies multiagent systems. Azuma Ohuchi, Ph.D.: He received his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from Hokkaido University. He is currently the professor in Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University Japan. His research interstes include systems information engineering, artificial intelligence, complex systems, tourism informatics and medical systems. He is a member of the IPSJ, JSAI, IEEJ, ORSJ, Soc. Contr. Eng., Jap. OR Soc., Soc. Med. Informatics, Hosp. Manag., JSTI and IEEE-SMC. Koichi Kurumatani, Ph.D.: He received his Ph.D. Degree in 1989 from The University of Tokyo. He is currently a leader of Multiagent Research Team in Cyber Assist Research Center (CARC), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan. His research interests include multiagent systems and mass user support. He is a member of JSAI, IPSJ, JSTI and AAAI.     

RHiNET-2/SW: a high-throughput, compact network-switch using 8.8-gbit/s optical interconnection

We have developed a high-throughput, compact network switch (the RHiNET-2/SW) for a distributed parallel computing system. Eight pairs of 800-Mbit/s×12-channel optical interconnection modules and a CMOS ASIC switch are integrated on a compact circuit board. To realize high-throughput (64 Gbit/s) and low-latency network, the SW-LSI has a customized high-speed LVDS I/O interface, and a high-speed internal SRAM memory in a 784-pin BGA one-chip package. We have also developed device implementation technologies to overcome the electrical problems (loss and crosstalk) caused by such high integration. The RHiNET-2/SW system enables high-performance parallel processing in a distributed computing environment. Shinji Nishimura: He is a researcher in the Department of Network System at the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd., at Tokyo. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1989, and his M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1991. He joined a member of the Optical Interconnection Hitachi Laboratory from 1992. His research interests are in hardware technology for the optical interconnection technologies in the computer and communication systems. Katsuyoshi Harasawa: He is a Senior Enginner of Hitachi Communication Systems Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Tokyo Denki University. He is a chief of development of the devices and systems for the optical telecommunication. He was engaged in Development of Optical Reciever and Transmitter module. He joined RWCP project from 1997. His research interests are in hardward technology for optical interconnection in distributed parallel computing system (RHiNET). Nobuhiro Matsudaira: He is a engineer in the Hitachi Communication Systems, Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Mercantile Marine Engineering from the Kobe University of Mercantile Marine in 1986. He was engaged in Development of Optical Reciever and Transmitter module at 2.4 Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s. He joined RWCP project from 1998. His reserch interests are in hardware technology for the optical interconnection technology in the computer and communication systems. Shigeto Akutsu: He is a staff in Hitachi Communication Systems Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electronics from Kanagawa University, Japan in 1998. His research interests are hardware technology for the optical interconnection technology in the computer and communication systems. Tomohiro Kudoh, Ph.D.: He received Ph.D. degree from Keio University, Japan in 1992. He has been chief of the parallel and distributed architecture laboratory, Real World Computing Partnership since 1997. His research interests include the area of parallel processing and network for high performance computing. Hiroaki Nishi: He received B.E., M.E. from Keio University, Japan, in 1994, 1996, respectively. He joined Parallel & Distributed Architecture Laboratory, Real World Computing Partnership in 1999. He is currently working on his Ph.D. His research interests include area of interconnection networks. Hideharu Amano, Ph.D.: He received Ph.D. degree from Keio University, Japan in 1986. He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Computer Science, Keio University. His research interests include the area of parallel processing and reconfigurable computing.     

Biologically inspired control of quadruped walking robot

In this paper, we present a control method for a quadruped walking robot inspired from the locomotion of quadrupeds. A simple and useful framework for controlling a quadruped walking robot is presented, which is obtained by observing the stimulus-reaction mechanism, the gravity load receptor and the manner of generating repetitive motions from quadrupeds. In addition, we propose a new rhythmic pattern generator that can relieve the large computational burden on solving the kinematics. The proposed method is tested via a dynamic simulation and validated by implementation in a quadruped walking robot, called AiDIN-I (Artificial Digitigrade for Natural Environment I). Recommended by Editorial Board member Sangdeok Park under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2005-D00031). Ig Mo Koo received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Myongji University, Yongin, Korea, in 2003, the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2005, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include artificial muscle actuators, haptics, tactile display, biomimetics and quadruped walking robots systems. Tae Hun Kang received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, in 2000, 2002, and 2006, respectively. His current research interests focus on biomimetics and quadruped walking robot. Gia Loc Vo received the B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering form Ha Noi University of Technology in Vietnam 2003, the M.S. degree Mechanical Engineering form Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2006, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include legged locomotion, walking and climbing robot. Tran Duc Trong received the B.S degree in Mechatronics from HoChiMinh City University of Technology in Vietnam in 2005, where he is currently working toward a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include biological inspired control and adaptive control of quadruped walking robot. Young Kuk Song received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2006, where he is currently working toward a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include biomimetics, hydraulic robotics system and quadruped walking robot. Hyouk Ryeol Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984, the M.S. degree from the Korea Advanced Technology of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea, in 1994. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He was an Associate Engineer with LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory, Seoul, Korea, from 1986 to 1989. From 1993 to 1995, he was with Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, as a grantee of scholarship funds from the Japanese Educational Administry. He visited the Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a JSPS Fellow from 1999 to 2000. He is now an Associate Editor in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics, International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS). His interests includes dexterous mechanisms, field application of robots, and artificial muscle actua tors.     

An enhanced force and contact position sensor for micro-manipulations

In micro-manipulations, force sensing devices play an important role in the control and the assembly of micro-objects. To protect these micro-objects from damage, we must have the ability to detect the value of the minute amount of interactive force (about a few μN) upon contact between the tip and the object. To detect this micro-force, we need an optimized design of force sensor to increase the strain values at the positions we place sensing components. Stress concentration can effectively amplify the strain values measured by the force sensors. This paper investigates the effect that the notches have on increasing the strain values at the positions we attach the sensing elements. In addition, the optimal design with a flexible structure improves the sensitivity of the sensor. An algorithm that can calculate both contact force and contact position on the sensor tip is also mentioned. Besides, an optimal location of strain gauges will ensure the accuracy and stability of the measurement. Finally, analysis and experiment are done to verify the proposed idea. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This research was supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korean Industrial Technology Foundation through the Human Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology. Tri Cong Phung received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the HCM University of Technology, Vietnam in 2004 and the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2007. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronic System Laboratory (IRMS Lab), Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include dexterous manipulation and touch sensors. Seung Hwa Ha received the B.S. degree in Korean University of Technology and Education, Korea in 2004. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2008. He is currently working in Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd. His research interests are about strain gauge and high precision control. Yong Seok Ihn received the B.S. degree in School of Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Korea in 2006. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, in 2008. He is currently working toward a Ph. D. degree in the Computer Aided Modeling & Simulation Laboratory (CAMAS Lab), School of Mechanical Engineering at the Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His research interests are precision mechatronics, dynamic system modeling, and control. Byung June Choi received the B.S. degree in School of Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Korea in 2002. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineer-ing from the Sungkyunkwan University, in 2005. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronic System Laboratory (IRMS Lab), School of Mechanical Engineering at the Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His research interests are mechanisms design, multi-robot system control, cooperation, path planning and task allocation algorithm. Sang Moo Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and educated in Seoul. He received the Ph.D. degree from the Seoul National University in Korea, in 1999. He is currently a Principal Researcher of Division for Applied Robot Technology at Korean Institute of Industrial Technology. His research interests include high-precision robot control, motion field network, and location system in outdoor environment for robots. Ja Choon Koo is an Associate Professor of School of Mechanical Engineering in Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His major researches are in the field of design, analysis, and control of dynamics systems, especially micro precision mechatronic systems and energy transducers. He was an Advisory Engineer for IBM, San Jose, California, USA and a Staff Engineer for SISA, San Jose, CA, USA. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the B.S. from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Hyouk Ryeol Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984, the M.S. degree from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea, in 1994, all in Mechanical Engineering. From 1986 to 1989, he was an Associate Engineer at LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory, Seoul. From 1993 to 1995, he was at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, as a Grantee of scholarship from the Japanese Educational Ministry. From 2000 to 2001, he visited Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Fellow. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics and International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS), and IEEE Transactions on Robotics. His current research interests include dexterous mechanism, field application of robots, and artificial muscle actuators.     

A separation method for DNA computing based on concentration control

A separation method for DNA computing based on concentration control is presented. The concentration control method was earlier developed and has enabled us to use DNA concentrations as input data and as filters to extract target DNA. We have also applied the method to the shortest path problems, and have shown the potential of concentration control to solve large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. However, it is still quite difficult to separate different DNA with the same length and to quantify individual DNA concentrations. To overcome these difficulties, we use DGGE and CDGE in this paper. We demonstrate that the proposed method enables us to separate different DNA with the same length efficiently, and we actually solve an instance of the shortest path problems. Masahito Yamamoto, Ph.D.: He is associate professor of information engineering at Hokkaido University. He received Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University in 1996. His current research interests include DNA computing based the laboratory experiments. He is a member of Operations Research Society of Japan, Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Information Processing Society of Japan etc. Atsushi Kameda, Ph.D.: He is the research staff of Japan Science and Technology Corporation, and has participated in research of DNA computing in Hokkaido University. He received his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University in 2001. For each degree he majored in molecular biology. His research theme is about the role of polyphosphate in the living body. As one of the researches relevant to it, he constructed the ATP regeneration system using two enzyme which makes polyphosphate the phosphagen. Nobuo Matsuura: He is a master course student of Division of Systems and Information Engineering of Hokkaido University. His research interests relate to DNA computing with concentration control for shortest path problems, as a means of solution of optimization problems with bimolecular. Toshikazu Shiba, Ph.D.: He is associate, professor of biochemical engineering at Hokkaido University. He received his Ph.D. from Osaka University in 1991. He majored in molecular genetics and biochemistry. His research has progressed from bacterial molecular biology (regulation of gene expression of bacterial cells) to tissue engineering (bone regeneration). Recently, he is very interested in molecular computation and trying to apply his biochemical idea to information technology. Yumi Kawazoe: She is a master course student of Division of Molecular Chemistry of Hokkaido University. Although her major is molecular biology, she is very interested in molecular computation and bioinformatics. Azuma Ohuchi, Ph.D.: He is professor of Information Engineering at the University of Hokkaido, Sapporo, Japan. He has been developing a new field of complex systems engineering, i.e., Harmonious Systems Engineering since 1995. He has published numerous papers on systems engineering, operations research, and computer science. In addition, he is currently supervising projects on DNA computing, multi-agents based artificial market systems, medical informatics, and autonomous flying objects. He was awarded “The 30th Anniversary Award for Excellent Papers” by the Information Processing Society of Japan. He is a member of Operations Research Society of Japan, Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Information Processing Society of Japan, Japan Association for Medical Informatics, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE System, Man and Cybernetics Society etc. He received PhD from Hokkaido University in 1976.     

In-pipe robot based on selective drive mechanism

This paper presents an in-pipe robot, called MRINSPECT V (Multifunctional Robotic crawler for In-pipe inSPECTion V), which is under development for the inspection of pipelines with a nominal 8-inch inside diameter. To travel freely in every pipeline element, the robot adopts a differential driving mechanism that we have developed. Furthermore, by introducing clutches in transmitting driving power to the wheels, MRINSPECT V is able to select the suitable driving method according to the shape of the pipeline and save the energy to drive in pipelines. In this paper, the critical points in the design and construction of the proposed robot are described with the preliminary results that yield good mobility and increased efficiency. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Research Program of Sungkyunkwan University (2008). Se-gon Roh received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D degrees in Mechatronics Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, in 1997, 1999, and 2006 respectively, and is currently a Researcher of the School of Mechanical Engineering also at Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include mechanism design, applications of mobile robots, and in-pipe robots. Do Wan Kim received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, in 2007. He is currently working toward a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering also at Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include field robotics, in-pipe robots, and autonomous mobile robots. Jung-Sub Lee received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently working toward a M.S. degree in mechatronics engineering. His research interests include robot mechanism design, automation, and in-pipe robot. Hyungpil Moon received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from POSTECH in 1996 and 1998 respectively, and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan in 2005. He joined the faculty of School of Mechanical Engineering in Sungkyunkwan University as a Full-time Lecturer in 2008. He was a Post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute until November 2007. His research interests include distributed manipulation, multiple robot navigation, SLAM, and biomimetic robotics. Hyouk Ryeol Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University in 1984, the M.S. degree from Korea Advanced Technology of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 1994, Korea. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, where he is currently a Professor of the School of Mechanical Engineering. He worked as an Associate Engineer with LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory from 1986 to 1989. From 1993 to 1995, he was with Kyoto University as a grantee of a scholarship from the Japanese Educational Ministry. He visited Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Japan as the JSPS Fellow, from 1999 to 2000. He is now an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics, International Journal of Control, System, Automation(IJCAS), and International Journal of Intelligent Service Robots (JISR). His interests include dexterous mechanisms, field applications of robots, and artificial muscle actuator.     

User-independent gesture recognition by relative-motion extraction and discriminant analysis

We propose a new method for user-independent gesture recognition from time-varying images. The method uses relative-motion extraction and discriminant analysis for providing online learning/recognition abilities. Efficient and robust extraction of motion information is achieved. The method is computationally inexpensive which allows real-time operation on a personal computer. The performance of the proposed method has been tested with several data sets and good generalization abilities have been observed: it is robust to changes in background and illumination conditions, to users’ external appearance and changes in spatial location, and successfully copes with the non-uniformity of the performance speed of the gestures. No manual segmentation of any kind, or use of markers, etc. is necessary. Having the above-mentioned features, the method could be successfully used as a part of more refined human-computer interfaces. Bisser R. Raytchev: He received his BS and MS degrees in electronics from Tokai University, Japan, in 1995 and 1997 respectively. He is currently a doctoral student in electronics and information sciences at Tsukuba University, Japan. His research interests include biological and computer vision, pattern recognition and neural networks. Osamu Hasegawa, Ph.D.: He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Science University of Tokyo, in 1988, 1990 respectively. He received Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo, in 1993. Currently, he is a senior research scientist at the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan. His research interests include Computer Vision and Multi-modal Human Interface. Dr. Hasegawa is a member of the AAAI, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Japan (IEICE), Information Processing Society of Japan and others. Nobuyuki Otsu, Ph.D.: He received B.S., Mr. Eng. and Dr. Eng. in Mathematical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1969, 1971, and 1981, respectively. Since he joined ETL in 1971, he has been engaged in theoretical research on pattern recognition, multivariate data analysis, and applications to image recognition in particular. After taking positions of Head of Mathematical Informatics Section (since 1985) and ETL Chief Senior Scientist (since 1990), he is currently Director of Machine Understanding Division since 1991, and concurrently a professor of the post graduate school of Tsukuba University since 1992. He has been involved in the Real World Computing program and directing the R&D of the project as Head of Real World Intelligence Center at ETL. Dr. Otsu is members of Behaviormetric Society and IEICE of Japan, etc.     

Cooperation of categorical and behavioral learning in a practical solution to the abstraction problem

Real robots should be able to adapt autonomously to various environments in order to go on executing their tasks without breaking down. They achieve this by learning how to abstract only useful information from a huge amount of information in the environment while executing their tasks. This paper proposes a new architecture which performs categorical learning and behavioral learning in parallel with task execution. We call the architectureSituation Transition Network System (STNS). In categorical learning, it makes a flexible state representation and modifies it according to the results of behaviors. Behavioral learning is reinforcement learning on the state representation. Simulation results have shown that this architecture is able to learn efficiently and adapt to unexpected changes of the environment autonomously. Atsushi Ueno, Ph.D.: He is a research associate in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Graduate School of Information Science at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST). He received the B.E., the M.E., and the Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Tokyo in 1991, 1993, and 1997 respectively. His research interest is robot learning and autonomous systems. He is a member of Japan Association for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI). Hideaki Takeda, Ph.D.: He is an associate professor in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Graduate School of Information Science at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST). He received his Ph.D. in precision machinery engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1991. He has conducted research on a theory of intelligent computer-aided design systems, in particular experimental study and logical formalization of engineering design. He is also interested in multiagent architectures and ontologies for knowledge base systems.     

An algorithm for similar utterance section extraction for managing spoken documents

This paper proposes a new, efficient algorithm for extracting similar sections between two time sequence data sets. The algorithm, called Relay Continuous Dynamic Programming (Relay CDP), realizes fast matching between arbitrary sections in the reference pattern and the input pattern and enables the extraction of similar sections in a frame synchronous manner. In addition, Relay CDP is extended to two types of applications that handle spoken documents. The first application is the extraction of repeated utterances in a presentation or a news speech because repeated utterances are assumed to be important parts of the speech. These repeated utterances can be regarded as labels for information retrieval. The second application is flexible spoken document retrieval. A phonetic model is introduced to cope with the speech of different speakers. The new algorithm allows a user to query by natural utterance and searches spoken documents for any partial matches to the query utterance. We present herein a detailed explanation of Relay CDP and the experimental results for the extraction of similar sections and report results for two applications using Relay CDP. Yoshiaki Itoh has been an associate professor in the Faculty of Software and Information Science at Iwate Prefectural University, Iwate, Japan, since 2001. He received the B.E. degree, M.E. degree, and Dr. Eng. from Tokyo University, Tokyo, in 1987, 1989, and 1999, respectively. From 1989 to 2001 he was a researcher and a staff member of Kawasaki Steel Corporation, Tokyo and Okayama. From 1992 to 1994 he transferred as a researcher to Real World Computing Partnership, Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Itoh's research interests include spoken document processing without recognition, audio and video retrieval, and real-time human communication systems. He is a member of ISCA, Acoustical Society of Japan, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Information Processing Society of Japan, and Japan Society of Artificial Intelligence. Kazuyo Tanaka has been a professor at the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, since 2002. He received the B.E. degree from Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan, in 1970, and the Dr. Eng. degree from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1984. From 1971 to 2002 he was research officer of Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan, and the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, where he was working on speech analysis, synthesis, recognition, and understanding, and also served as chief of the speech processing section. His current interests include digital signal processing, spoken document processing, and human information processing. He is a member of IEEE, ISCA, Acoustical Society of Japan, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, and Japan Society of Artificial Intelligence. Shi-Wook Lee received the B.E. degree and M.E. degree from Yeungnam University, Korea and Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1995, 1997, and 2001, respectively. Since 2001 he has been working in the Research Group of Speech and Auditory Signal Processing, the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a postdoctoral fellow. His research interests include spoken document processing, speech recognition, and understanding.     

Locomotion Control of a Biped Robot Using Nonlinear Oscillators

Recently, many experiments and analyses with biped robots have been carried out. Steady walking of a biped robot implies a stable limit cycle in the state space of the robot. In the design of a locomotion control system, there are primarily three problems associated with achieving such a stable limit cycle: the design of the motion of each limb, interlimb coordination, and posture control. In addition to these problems, when environmental conditions change or disturbances are added to the robot, there is the added problem of obtaining robust walking against them. In this paper we attempt to solve these problems and propose a locomotion control system for a biped robot to achieve robust walking by the robot using nonlinear oscillators, each of which has a stable limit cycle. The nominal trajectories of each limb's joints are designed by the phases of the oscillators, and the interlimb coordination is designed by the phase relation between the oscillators. The phases of the oscillators are reset and the nominal trajectories are modified using sensory feedbacks that depend on the posture and motion of the robot to achieve stable and robust walking. We verify the effectiveness of the proposed locomotion control system, analyzing the dynamic properties of the walking motion by numerical simulations and hardware experiments. Shinya Aoi received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyoto University. Since 2003, he has been a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). His research interests include dynamics and control of robotic systems, especially legged robots. He is a member of IEEE, SICE, and RSJ. Kazuo Tsuchiya received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan in 1966, 1968, and 1975, respectively. From 1968 to 1990, he was a research member of Central Research Laboratory in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Amagasaki, Japan. From 1990 to 1995, he was a professor at the Department of Computer Controlled Machinery, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. Since 1995, he has been a professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyoto University. His fields of research include dynamic analysis, guidance, and control of space vehicles, and nonlinear system theory for distributed autonomous systems. He is currently the principal investigator of “Research and Education on Complex Functional Mechanical Systems” under the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program (COE program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan).     

Object-spatial layout-route based hybrid map and global localization for mobile robots

This paper presents new object-spatial layout-route based hybrid map representation and global localization approaches using a stereo camera. By representing objects as high-level features in a map, a robot can deal more effectively with different contexts such as dynamic environments, human-robot interaction, and semantic information. However, the use of objects alone for map representation has inherent problems. For example, it is difficult to represent empty spaces for robot navigation, and objects are limited to readily recognizable things. One way to overcome these problems is to develop a hybrid map that includes objects and the spatial layout of a local space. The map developed in this research has a hybrid structure that combines a global topological map and a local hybrid map. The topological map represents the spatial relationships between local spaces. The local hybrid map combines the spatial layout of the local space with the objects found in that space. Based on the proposed map, we suggest a novel coarse-to-fine global localization method that uses object recognition, point cloud fitting and probabilistic scan matching. This approach can accurately estimate robot pose with respect to the correct local space. Recommended by Editor Jae-Bok Song. This research was performed for the Intelligent Robotics Development Program, one of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Programs funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea. Soonyong Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea, in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Since 2001, he has been a student researcher in the Center for Cognitive Robotics Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, Korea. His research interests include mobile robot navigation and computer vision. Mignon Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronics from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1973 and 1977, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in University of Tokyo, Japan, 1982. He was a researcher with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan, from 1972 to 1982, as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and the University of California Berkeley, in 1982. He was a visiting researcher in Robotics Division, Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Tsukuba, Japan, from 1986 to 1987. He has been a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in Yonsei University, since 1982. His research interests include fuzzy control and application, robotics, and fuzzy biomedical system. Sung-Kee Park is a principal research scientist for Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1987 and 1989, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree (2000) from Korea Advanced Institue of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, in the area of computer vision. Since then, he has been working for the center for cognitive robotics research at KIST. During his period at KIST, he held a visiting position at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in 2005, where he did research on object recognition. His recent work has been on cognitive visual processing, object recognition, visual navigation, and human-robot interaction.     

A method of model improvement for spotting recognition of gestures using an image sequence

We have developed a real-time gesture recognition system whose models can be taught by only one instruction. Therefore the system can adapt to new gesture performer quickly but it can not raise the recognition rates even if we teach gestures many times. That is because the system could not utilize all the teaching data. In order to cope with the problem, averages of teaching data are calculated. First, the best frame correspondence of the teaching data and the model is obtained by Continuous DP. Next the averages and variations are calculated for each frame of the model. We show the effectiveness of our method in the experiments. Takuichi Nishimura: He is a researcher of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Laboratory at the Real World Computing Partnership. He has engaged in motion image understanding, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval, and mobile robot navigation. He completed the master’s course of the University of Tokyo in 1992. Hiroaki Yabe: He is from SHARP corporation working as a researcher of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Tsukuba Laboratory at the Real World Computing Partnership. He has engaged in motion image understanding, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval. He completed the master’s course of the University of Tokyo in 1995. Ryuichi Oka, Ph.D.: He is a chief of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Laboratory at Tsukuba Research Center of the Real World Computing Partnership (RWC Japan) which started in 1992. His research interests include motion image understanding, spontaneous speech understanding, self-organisation information base, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval, mobile robot, integration of symbol and pattern, and super parallel computation. He received his Ph.D degree in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.     

Group Theoretical Structure of Spectral Spaces

It is known that for every selection of illumination spectra there is a coordinate system such that all coordinate vectors of these illumination spectra are located in a cone. A natural set of transformations of this cone are the Lorentz transformations. In this paper we investigate if sequences of illumination spectra can be described by one-parameter subgroups of Lorentz-transformations. We present two methods to estimate the parameters of such a curve from a set of coordinate points. We also use an optimization technique to approximate a given set of points by a one-parameter curve with a minimum approximation error. In the experimental part of the paper we investigate series of blackbody radiators and sequences of measured daylight spectra and show that one-parameter curves provide good approximations for large sequences of illumination spectra.Reiner Lenz is associate professor at the Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Sweden. He held positions as invited researcher at the ZEISS, Germany, the Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute (ATR), Kyoto, Japan, the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Tsukuba, Japan, Rutgers University, USA and AIST, Tsukuba, Japan. He received an honorable mention for the Pattern Recognition Society Award and the SAAB-Combitech Award. He is associated editor for Pattern Recognition and the IEEE-Transactions on Image Processing. He is interested in the application of group-theoretical methods in signal-, color-processing.Thanh Hai Bui is currently a Ph.D. student at Media group, Institute of Science and Technology, Linköping University. He obtained his B.Sc. in Computer Science from Hanoi University of Technology in 1995, Post-graduate diploma in Manufacturing System Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology in 1999, Master of Applied Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2000, and Ph. Licentiate in Media Technology from Linköping Universitet in 2003. His work has mainly focused on multispectral database analysis, and applications of group theoretical methods.Javier Hernández-Andrés received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Granada, Spain, in 1999. Since 2003 he is an associate professor in the Department of Optics at the same University. His research interests are color-image processing, multispectral color science, applied colorimetry, color vision and atmospheric optics.     

Time complexity analysis of an evolutionary algorithm for finding nearly maximum cardinality matching

Most of works on the time complexity analysis of evolutionary algorithms have always focused on some artificial binary problems. The time complexity of the algorithms for combinatorial optimisation has not been well understood. This paper considers the time complexity of an evolutionary algorithm for a classical combinatorial optimisation problem, to find the maximum cardinality matching in a graph. It is shown that the evolutionary algorithm can produce a matching with nearly maximum cardinality in average polynomial time.     

A Variational Approach to Reconstructing Images Corrupted by Poisson Noise

We propose a new variational model to denoise an image corrupted by Poisson noise. Like the ROF model described in [1] and [2], the new model uses total-variation regularization, which preserves edges. Unlike the ROF model, our model uses a data-fidelity term that is suitable for Poisson noise. The result is that the strength of the regularization is signal dependent, precisely like Poisson noise. Noise of varying scales will be removed by our model, while preserving low-contrast features in regions of low intensity. Funded by the Department of Energy under contract W-7405ENG-36. Triet M. Le received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2006. He is now a Gibbs Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at Yale University. His research interests are in applied harmonic analysis and function spaces with application to image analysis and inverse problems. Rick Chartrand received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1999, where he studied functional analysis. He now works as an applied mathematician at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research interests are image and signal processing, inverse problems, and classification. Tom Asaki is a staff member in the Computer and Computational Science Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He obtained his doctorate in physics from Washington State University. His interests are mixed-variable and direct-search optimization, applied inverse problems, and quantitative tomography.     

Seam tracking and visual control for robotic arc welding based on structured light stereovision

A real-time arc welding robot visual control system based on a local network with a multi-level hierarchy is developed in this paper. It consists of an intelligence and human-machine interface level, a motion planning level, a motion control level and a servo control level. The last three levels form a local real-time open robot controller, which realizes motion planning and motion control of a robot. A camera calibration method based on the relative movement of the end-effector connected to a robot is proposed and a method for tracking weld seam based on the structured light stereovision is provided. Combining the parameters of the cameras and laser plane, three groups of position values in Cartesian space are obtained for each feature point in a stripe projected on the weld seam. The accurate three-dimensional position of the edge points in the weld seam can be calculated from the obtained parameters with an information fusion algorithm. By calculating the weld seam parameter from position and image data, the movement parameters of the robot used for tracking can be determined. A swing welding experiment of type Ⅴgroove weld is successfully conducted, the results of which show that the system has high resolution seam tracking in real-time, and works stably and efficiently.