Ball sport partner robot using human anticipation skill

• Project/Area Number: 18K18087
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 61020:Human interface and interaction-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University (2021); The University of Tokyo (2018-2020)
• Principal Investigator: Nishikawa Satoshi 九州大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (50761144)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
• Keywords: 知能機械 / ヒューマンロボットインタラクション / 予測 / スポーツ / 人模擬

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aims to realize a humanoid ball-sports robot that can interact with humans as a practice partner. On a hardware side, we developed a badminton robot arm with seven degrees of freedom using structure integrated pneumatic-electric hybrid actuators. On a software side, we generated a competitive physical interaction by two reinforcement learning agents in a dynamics simulator.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ロボットが人の生活環境に進出する際には周囲の人の状況に応じた素早い行動決定が求められる。球技スポーツは相手の運動の予測やフェイントが重要であることから、人相手に相互に予測的にやり取りする方法を導くための良い題材である。本研究で開発したロボットはこうした研究を進める上でのプラットフォームとしての活用が期待できる。さらに、スポーツの練習パートナーとして使用できるように発展させていくことで、これまでの補助機械ではできなかったより実戦的な練習を行えることでスポーツの練習法についても影響を与えることが期待できる。

Research Products

• [Int'l Joint Research] University of Cambridge(英国)
• [Journal Article] Competitive physical interaction by reinforcement learning agents using intention estimation (2021)
  • Author(s): Hiroki Noda, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi
  • Journal Title: In Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2021) Volume: 1 Pages: 649-656
  • DOI: 10.1109/ro-man50785.2021.9515411
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Immediate Generation of Jump-and-Hit Motions by a Pneumatic Humanoid Robot Using a Lookup Table of Learned Dynamics (2021)
  • Author(s): Kazutoshi Tanaka, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi
  • Journal Title: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 5557-5564
  • DOI: 10.1109/lra.2021.3076959
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] Control of Pneumatic Cylinders using Iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator with Deep Local Linear Dynamics for Explosive Motions (2019)
  • Author(s): Yuki Nakamura, Izumi Karino, Shotaro Mori, Kazutoshi Tanaka, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
  • Journal Title: In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR 2019) Volume: 1 Pages: 125-132
  • DOI: 10.13180/clawar.2019.26-28.08.13
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] High-Speed Humanoid Robot Arm for Badminton Using Pneumatic-Electric Hybrid Actuators (2019)
  • Author(s): Shotaro Mori, Kazutoshi Tanaka, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
  • Journal Title: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 3601-3608
  • DOI: 10.1109/lra.2019.2928778
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] High-speed flexible arm to reduce the effect of spinning ball in table tennis (2019)
  • Author(s): Mitsuru Takeda, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
  • Journal Title: In Proceedings of 30th International Symposium on Micro-NanoMechatronics and Human Science (MHS 2019) Volume: 1 Pages: 127-131
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Ready Posture for Rapid Reaction of Badminton Robot Arm (2019)
  • Author(s): Satoshi Nishikawa, Fumiya Iida and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
  • Journal Title: In Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2019) Volume: 1 Pages: 569-574
  • DOI: 10.1109/robio49542.2019.8961788
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] High-Speed and Lightweight Humanoid Robot Arm for a Skillful Badminton Robot (2018)
  • Author(s): Shotaro Mori, Kazutoshi Tanaka, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama, Yasuo Kuniyoshi
  • Journal Title: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 1727-1734
  • DOI: 10.1109/lra.2018.2803207
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] 予測を利用した強化学習エージェントによる競技型接触インタラクション (2020)
  • Author(s): 野田裕貴, 西川鋭, 新山龍馬, 國吉康夫.
  • Organizer: 日本機械学会 ロボティクス・メカトロニクス講演会2020 (Robomech2020)
• [Presentation] しなりを活用した高速な卓球スイングアームによるボールの回転の影響の低減 (2019)
  • Author(s): 竹田恭, 西川鋭, 新山龍馬, 國吉康夫.
  • Organizer: 日本機械学会 ロボティクス・メカトロニクス講演会2019 (Robomech2019)
• [Presentation] ダイナミックな脚式ロボットのための吸着機構活用法の検討 (2019)
  • Author(s): 西川鋭, 國吉康夫.
  • Organizer: 第37回 日本ロボット学会学術講演会 (RSJ2019)
• [Remarks] 個人ページ（業績）
  • URL: http://www.isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~nisikawa/pub.html
• [Remarks] 研究室ページ（業績）
  • URL: http://www.isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/publication/