Development and motion control of a biped walking robot based on passive walking theory

This research aims to develop the biped walking robot that can walk on the horizontal ground and improve walking efficiency by utilizing the theory of the passive walking robot, namely the pendulum principle. For that, two motors were installed on the hip of the robot to generate the control torques to perform a walking motion. The computer simulations with dynamic model were carried out to investigate the walking capability of the system. Experimental robot was developed considering the calculated results. The proportional control law was used in walking experiment. The robot can walk on the horizontal ground with the proposed method.     

安装在台北101建筑工程中的1010m／min电梯

台北101建筑工程于2004年12月开业．该建筑高508m．为世界最高建筑。建筑内安装有2台额定速度为1010m／min的超高速电梯．也是世界上速度最快的电梯。该电梯采用了许多新的技术．如空气压力控制系统、动量减振器等。电梯的开发完全是基于数字虚拟系统．因为采用我们目前的技术设备还不能检验该电梯。本文现介绍这些先进技术的性能。     

A new cluster-ion-beam source for secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) using the electrospray of a pure ionic liquid under high vacuum

Electrospray characteristics were studied using a pure room-temperature molten salt (i.e., an ionic liquid) at pressures around 10^?5 Pa as well as at atmospheric pressure. The ionic liquid N,N-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide was tested, which has negligible vapor pressure and high conductivity. During electrospray, the ionic liquid was introduced at a constant flow rate into a stainless-steel capillary (i.d. 30 μm). It was demonstrated that stable electrosprayed currents exceeding ±1 μΑ were continuously produced in both positive and negative modes. The electrosprayed currents in a high vacuum were twice those at atmospheric pressure. It was found that gas pressure rose slightly with increasing electrosprayed currents. Residual gas analysis revealed that gas component at negative mode was different from that at positive mode. Experimental results indicate that vacuum electrospray of pure ionic liquids is applicable to a massive-cluster beam source for SIMS.     

Synthesis of poly(1,3-phenyleneethynylenes) membranes having one-handed helical conformation without any chiral side groups by in-situ desubstitution of d-menthoxy groups

In this study, we synthesized four chiral helical poly(phenyleneethynylenes) having optically active menthoxycarbonyl groups and desubstituted the chiral groups in membrane state. Polycondensations of (+)-menthyl 3,5-diethynylbenzoate with (+)-menthyl 3,5-diiodobenzoate, 1,2-diiodobenzenen, 1,3-diiodobenzene, and 1,4-diiodobenzene using PdCl₂(PPh₃)₂–PPh₃–CuI were afforded helical polymers in good yields (named as PMtMt, o-PMtH, m-PMtH, and p-PMtH, respectively). Among them, PMtMt in a mixture of chloroform/benzene showed the largest Cotton effect in absorption region and gave self-supporting membrane by solvent-casting method. PMtMt membrane also showed a Cotton signal similar to that observed in solution. Desubstitution of PMtMt proceeded quantitatively by immersing the membrane into alkaline solution at room temperature for 3 days. The desubstituted PMtMt membrane showed circular dichroism (CD) signals similar shape to that of the original membrane in the UV region in despite of the polymer having no chiral moieties except for helical conformation. This is the first example of synthesis of chiral helical poly(phenyleneethynylenes) without the coexistence of any other chiral moieties.     

Thermochemical two-step water-splitting for hydrogen production using Fe-YSZ particles and a ceramic foam device

Fe₃O₄ supported on cubic yttria-stabilized zirconia (Fe₃O₄/c-YSZ) is proposed as a promising redox material for the production of hydrogen from water via a thermochemical two-step water-splitting cycle. In this study, the evolution of oxygen and hydrogen during the cyclic reaction was examined using Fe₃O₄/c-YSZ particles in order to demonstrate reproducible and stoichometric oxygen/hydrogen production through a repeatable two-step reaction. Subsequently, a ceramic foam device coated with Fe₃O₄ and c-YSZ particles was prepared and examined as a thermochemical water-splitting device in a directly irradiated receiver/reactor hydrogen production system. The Fe₃O₄/c-YSZ system formed a Fe-containing YSZ (Fe-YSZ) by high-temperature reaction between Fe₃O₄ and the c-YSZ support at 1400 °C in an inert atmosphere. The reaction mechanism of the two-step water-splitting cycle is associated with the redox transition of Fe²⁺–Fe³⁺ ions in the c-YSZ lattice. The Fe-YSZ particles exhibit good reproducibility for reaction with a hydrogen/oxygen ratio of approximately 2.0 throughout repeated cycles. The foam device coated with Fe-YSZ particles was also successful for continual hydrogen production through 32 repeated cycles. A 20–27% ferrite conversion was obtained using 10.5 wt% Fe₃O₄ loading over an irradiation period of 60 min.     

Few-experiential learning system of robotic picking task with selective dual-arm grasping

Recently, robots are introduced to warehouses and factories for automation and are expected to execute dual-arm manipulation as human does and to manipulate large, heavy and unbalanced objects. We focus on target picking task in the cluttered environment and aim to realize a robot picking system which the robot selects and executes proper grasping motion from single-arm and dual-arm motion. In this paper, we propose a few-experiential learning-based target picking system with selective dual-arm grasping. In our system, a robot first learns grasping points and object semantic and instance label with automatically synthesized dataset. The robot then executes and collects grasp trial experiences in the real world and retrains the grasping point prediction model with the collected trial experiences. Finally, the robot evaluates candidate pairs of grasping object instance, strategy and points and selects to execute the optimal grasping motion. In the experiments, we evaluated our system by conducting target picking task experiments with a dual-arm humanoid robot Baxter in the cluttered environment as warehouse.     

Phase and Formation/Dissolution of Precipitates in Biomedical Co-Cr-Mo Alloys with Nitrogen Addition

The precipitates in as-cast and heat-treated biomedical Co-28Cr-6Mo-(0 to 0.35)C-(0.15 to 0.25)N alloys (mass pct) were investigated. Heat treatment was carried out at temperatures of 1473?K to 1573?K (1200???C to 1300???C) for holding periods of 0 to 43.2?ks. In the as-cast and heat-treated Co-Cr-Mo-N alloys, no precipitates were detected; nitrogen effectively inhibited the formation of the ??-phase and stabilized the face-centered cubic (fcc) metallic ??-phase. The precipitates observed in the as-cast and heat-treated Co-Cr-Mo-C-N alloys were of the M₂₃X₆ type, M₂X type, ??-phase (M₂T₃X type with a ??-Mn structure), and ??-phase (M₆X-M₁₂X type). Complete precipitate dissolution was detected in the alloys with carbon contents of less than 0.3 mass pct regardless of the nitrogen content. The main precipitates were of the M₂X and M₂₃X₆ types after heat treatment for 1.8 to 43.2?ks. The ??-phase precipitate was detected in the early stage of heat treatment at high temperatures. The formation of the M₂X-type precipitate was enhanced by the addition of nitrogen, although the constitution of the precipitates depended on the balance between the nitrogen and carbon contents and the heat-treatment conditions.     

Organic dyes with oligo-n-hexylthiophene for dye-sensitized solar cells: Relation between chemical structure of donor and photovoltaic performance

Organic dyes with the oligohexylthiophene linkage having several donor parts, carbazole, indole, and indoline, were newly synthesized as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells. The carbazole was most efficient donor moiety for DSSCs among these dyes with the oligothiophene linkage. Carbazole dyes were adsorbed with larger amount of molecules on the TiO₂ film than both indole dyes and indoline dyes. Therefore, both the V_OC and the electron lifetime of DSSCs with the carbazole dyes were highly observed. The decreasing of J_SC of DSSCs with indole and indoline dyes also caused by the reducing the adsorption amount of dyes.