Hayato Kaetsu

After the earthquake, it is very important to grasp the situation of the disaster area as soon as possible. This research, aims to develop a novel sensor node for gathering disaster information. Developed sensor node equips a double-spherical mechanism for setting the direction of build-in camera uniformly. It also has a small Linux computer, with GPS adaptor, wireless LAN and omni-directional camera an&so on. Therefore, the sensor node can transfer captured images with location and time information. In this paper, developed sensor node is introduced and its performance is experimented using prototype.

We are conducting research and development in technology for unifying the information of a large number of intelligent sensors distributed in a disaster-stricken area. Operating effectively as a system in real time, network household electric appliances, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a robot, etc. provided information and an action plan for a stricken area's situation. In this paper we introduce ubiquitous device "intelligent data carriers for rescue (IDC-R)" and formation of a dynamic network, and development of a means of disaster information communication (a group of people, a robot, an adhoc network, a home network, etc.). Target experiment for actual proof is also introduced

In our current research, we are developing a holonomic mobile system which is capable of running over the step. This system realizes omni-directional motion on flat floor using special wheels and passes over non-flat ground in forward or backward direction using the passive suspension mechanism. In order to realize the high mobile performance during step climbing, it is required to reduce wheel slippage for maximizing wheel traction. This paper proposes a new plural wheel control method based on wheel slip estimation. Our key idea is estimation of wheel slippage comparing with the loads and rotation velocities of all actuated wheels, and using this result for wheel control of the vehicle for reducing wheel slippage. The controller can adjust control tractions of plural wheels when the wheel begins to slip and can improve the mobile performance of the vehicle. The performance of our proposed control scheme is experimented by computer simulations and experiments

In our current research, we are developing a force assistance system for standing up motion. Our developing system realizes the standing up motion using the support bar with two degrees of freedom and the bed system which can move up and down. In this paper, we develop the force assistance system which realizes the natural standing up motion using remaining strength of the patient. Our key ideas are two topics. The first topic is distributed system which controls the support bar and the bed system with coordination among them. The second topic is the combination of force and position control. According to the patient's posture during standing up, our control system selects more appropriate control method from them. We use the reference of standing-up motion which is based on the typical standing up motion by nursing specialist for realizing the natural assistance. The performance of our proposed control scheme is experimented by computer simulations