Development of a pulse control-type MEMS microrobot with a hardware neural network

This article presents the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microrobot which demonstrates locomotion controlled by hardware neural networks (HNN). The size of the microrobot fabricated by the MEMS technology is 4 × 4 × 3.5 mm. The frame of the robot is made of silicon wafer, and it is equipped with a rotary-type actuator, a link mechanism, and six legs. The rotary-type actuator generates rotational movement by applying an electrical current to artificial muscle wires. The locomotion of the microrobot is obtained by the rotation of the rotary-type actuator. As in a living organism, the HNN realized robot control without using any software programs, A/D converters, or additional driving circuits. A central pattern generator (CPG) model was implemented as an HNN system to emulate the locomotion pattern. The MEMS microrobot emulated the locomotion method and the neural networks of an insect with the rotary-type actuator, the link mechanism, and the HNN. The microrobot performed forward and backward locomotion, and also changed direction by inputting an external trigger pulse. The locomotion speed was 0.325 mm/s and the step width was 1.3 mm.     

Replica Exchange Light Transport

We solve the light transport problem by introducing a novel unbiased Monte Carlo algorithm called replica exchange light transport, inspired by the replica exchange Monte Carlo method in the fields of computational physics and statistical information processing. The replica exchange Monte Carlo method is a sampling technique whose operation resembles simulated annealing in optimization algorithms using a set of sampling distributions. We apply it to the solution of light transport integration by extending the probability density function of an integrand of the integration to a set of distributions. That set of distributions is composed of combinations of the path densities of different path generation types: uniform distributions in the integral domain, explicit and implicit paths in light (particle/photon) tracing, indirect paths in bidirectional path tracing, explicit and implicit paths in path tracing, and implicit caustics paths seen through specular surfaces including the delta function in path tracing. The replica‐exchange light transport algorithm generates a sequence of path samples from each distribution and samples the simultaneous distribution of those distributions as a stationary distribution by using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Then the algorithm combines the obtained path samples from each distribution using multiple importance sampling. We compare the images generated with our algorithm to those generated with bidirectional path tracing and Metropolis light transport based on the primary sample space. Our proposing algorithm has better convergence property than bidirectional path tracing and the Metropolis light transport, and it is easy to implement by extending the Metropolis light transport.     

Multi-contact vertical ladder climbing with an HRP-2 humanoid

We describe the research and the integration methods we developed to make the HRP-2 humanoid robot climb vertical industrial-norm ladders. We use our multi-contact planner and multi-objective closed-loop control formulated as a QP (quadratic program). First, a set of contacts to climb the ladder is planned off-line (automatically or by the user). These contacts are provided as an input for a finite state machine. The latter builds supplementary tasks that account for geometric uncertainties and specific grasps procedures to be added to the QP controller. The latter provides instant desired states in terms of joint accelerations and contact forces to be tracked by the embedded low-level motor controllers. Our trials revealed that hardware changes are necessary, and parts of software must be made more robust. Yet, we confirmed that HRP-2 has the kinematic and power capabilities to climb real industrial ladders, such as those found in nuclear power plants and large scale manufacturing factories (e.g. aircraft, shipyard) and construction sites.     

Magnetic Behavior of Some Rare-Earth Transition-Metal Perovskite Oxide Systems

Magnetic properties were investigated for the rare-earth 3d-transition metal oxides with the perovskite structure. Intriguing magnetic phenomena were reviewed for a few systems:magnetization peak effect in the titanates, magnetization reversal in the chromites and metallic ferromagnetism in the cobahites. The results suggest an important role of the rare-earth ions for the magnetic properties of such complex oxides.     

Psychological Stress Exacerbates Inflammation of the Ileum via the Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone-Mast Cell Axis in a Mouse Model of Eosinophilic Enteritis

The effects of psychological stress on eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders have not been elucidated. This study investigated the effects of psychological stress in a mouse model of eosinophilic enteritis (EoN). BALB/c mice were treated with ovalbumin (OVA) to create an EoN model and subjected to either water avoidance stress (WAS) or sham stress (SS). Microscopic inflammation, eosinophil and mast cell counts, mRNA expression, and protein levels of type 2 helper T cell (Th2) cytokines in the ileum were compared between groups. We evaluated ex vivo intestinal permeability using an Ussing chamber. A corticotropin-releasing hormone type 1 receptor (CRH-R1) antagonist was administered before WAS, and its effects were analyzed. WAS significantly increased diarrhea occurrence and, eosinophil and mast cell counts, and decreased the villus/crypt ratio compared to those in the SS group. The mRNA expression of CRH, interleukin IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, eotaxin-1, and mast cell tryptase β2 significantly increased, and the protein levels of IL-5, IL-13, and OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) also significantly increased in the WAS group. Moreover, WAS significantly increased the intestinal permeability. The CRH-R1 antagonist significantly inhibited all changes induced by WAS. Psychological stress exacerbated ileal inflammation via the CRH-mast cell axis in an EoN mouse model.     

Ultrashort X-ray pulse generation using subpicosecond electron linac

As a promising tool for ultrafast material analyses, we propose to utilize the X-ray pulse which may be generated in a quite simple manner using subpicosecond electron linacs. The properties of the X-ray were numerically studied with the EGS4 code. Verification of the X-ray generation was also conducted at the Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory (NERL) linac and clear diffraction patterns of characteristic X-ray were obtained for typical single crystals.     

Multi-fluid multi-phase subchannel analysis of subassembly accidents of LMFRs

Analyses of experiments simulating hypothetical subassembly accidents such as a large-scale inlet blockage in a Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactor (LMFR) have been performed with computer program KAMUI. With the use of relatively simple but reasonable constitutive models, the code has been applied to the SCARABEE experiments BE+1 and APL1 to validate the analytical capability against the accident conditions under the multi-pin geometry. The results show that the key events such as sodium boiling, clad melting, molten clad relocation, molten clad freezing were adequately simulated taking into account the effect of heat loss to the coolant flow in the outside channel of the test section.     

Improvement of poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) blended hydrogel by radiation crosslinking

1IntroductionHydrogelisapolymericmaterial(syntheticornaturaJ)whichswellswhenplacedincontactwithwaterbutisnotsolubleandhastheabililtytoretainwaterwithinitsstructare.InIecentyears,muchattentionhasbeenfocusedontheresearchanddevelopmentofthepolymerhydIogelsforbiomaterials,suchascontactlenses,wounddressing,enzymeimmunoassay,cathetersanddIugdeliverysystems[1~3].Adressingisoftencoveredonthewotmdtoaccelerateitshealing.TheIearetwokindsofdiessings:drytypeandwettype.Ithasbeenreportedthatheallngwithawe…     

Locomotion Control of MEMS Microrobot Using Pulse‐Type Hardware Neural Networks

This paper presents the locomotion control of a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microrobot. The MEMS microrobot demonstrates locomotion control by pulse‐type hardware neural networks (P‐HNN). P‐HNN generate oscillatory patterns of electrical activity like those of living organisms. The basic component of P‐HNN is a pulse‐type hardware neuron model (P‐HNM). The P‐HNM has the same basic features as biological neurons, such as the threshold, the refractory period, and spatiotemporal summation characteristics, and allows the generation of continuous action potentials. P‐HNN has been constructed with MOSFETs and can be integrated by CMOS technology. Like living organisms, P‐HNN has realized robot control without using software programs or A/D converters. The size of the microrobot fabricated by MEMS technology was 4 × 4 × 3.5 mm. The frame of the robot was made of a silicon wafer, equipped with rotary actuators, link mechanisms, and six legs. The MEMS microrobot emulated the locomotion method and the neural networks of an insect by rotary actuators, link mechanisms, and the P‐HNN. We show that the P‐HNN can control the forward and backward locomotion of the fabricated MEMS microrobot, and that it is possible to switch its direction by inputting an external trigger pulse. The locomotion speed was 19.5 mm/min and the step size was 1.3 mm. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 186(3): 43–50, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22473     

Durability of radiation-sterilized polymers III. Oxidation layer determined by chemiluminescence

Chemiluminescence (CL) analysis was used for determining the oxidation layer formed by the irradiation of polypropylene for medical supplies. The depth of the oxidation layer from the surface depended on dose rate and increased with decreasing dose rate. The oxidation occurred remarkably at a region near the surface area of the film where the diffusion of oxygen is more sufficient. On the contrary, there was very little oxidation in the interior portion. The oxidation layers of polypropylene samples irradiated with electron beam showed U-shaped profiles in the cross-section of film as did as a sample irradiated with γ-rays. However, the degree of oxidation by irradiation with electron beam was very small; CL intensity at the surface area was only one-third that for the γ-irradiated samples.