Understand human tool-use in motion and contact for robotic tooling

• Project/Area Number: 18K18130
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 61050:Intelligent robotics-related
• Research Institution: NTT Communication Science Laboratories (2019-2020); Tokyo Institute of Technology (2018)
• Principal Investigator: Takagi Atsushi 日本電信電話株式会社NTTコミュニケーション科学基礎研究所, 人間情報研究部, 特別研究員 (70802362)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2020)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,730,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥630,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
• Keywords: interaction robot / motor control / motor adaptation / interaction control / motor learning / robotic tooling / grasp force / endpoint stiffness / precision control / movement precision / force control / trajectory control / handheld tooling / computational modeling / robotics

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Even the most advanced robots are nowhere close to achieving the speed or robustness of human workers, especially when contact with the environment is necessary to the task like fitting an object into a hole. We analyzed human strategies when inserting a tool or peg into a hole, and attempted to replicate the strategy to develop a new robot for contact tasks.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

With the population rapidly declining in Japan, there is a need to automate the workforce. Our study revealed the key planning process enabling humans to rapidly complete interaction tasks, thereby pushing us one step closer to realizing interaction robots capable of rapidly assembling components.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Analogous adaptations in speed, impulse and endpoint stiffness when learning a real and virtual insertion task with haptic feedback (2020)
  • Author(s): Takagi Atsushi、De Magistris Giovanni、Xiong Geyun、Micaelli Alain、Kambara Hiroyuki、Koike Yasuharu、Savin Jonathan、Marsot Jacques、Burdet Etienne
  • Journal Title: Scientific Reports Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Pages: 22342-22342
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79433-5
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Independent control of cocontraction and reciprocal activity during goal-directed reaching in muscle space (2020)
  • Author(s): Takagi Atsushi、Kambara Hiroyuki、Koike Yasuharu
  • Journal Title: Scientific Reports Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Pages: 22333-22333
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79526-1
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] Endpoint stiffness magnitude increases linearly with a stronger power grasp (2020)
  • Author(s): Takagi A.、Xiong G.、Kambara H.、Koike Y.
  • Journal Title: Scientific Reports Volume: 10 Issue: 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57267-0
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] Increase in Grasp Force Reflects a Desire to Improve Movement Precision (2019)
  • Author(s): Takagi A.、Kambara H.、Koike Y.
  • Journal Title: eneuro Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: ENEURO.0095-19.2019
  • DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0095-19.2019
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] Reduced Effort Does Not Imply Slacking: Responsiveness to Error Increases With Robotic Assistance (2018)
  • Author(s): Takagi Atsushi、Kambara Hiroyuki、Koike Yasuharu
  • Journal Title: IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering Volume: 26 Issue: 7 Pages: 1363-1370
  • DOI: 10.1109/tnsre.2018.2836341
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research