2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of a robotic covering mechanism autonomously adapting its shape and stiffness based on tactile response

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24760201
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
Research Institution	The University of Electro-Communications
Principal Investigator	SUZUKI Yosuke 電気通信大学, 情報理工学(系)研究科, 助教 (20582331)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	モジュラーロボット / 適応変形 / ソフトメカニクス
Research Abstract	This study aimed to develop a mechanism which covers robotic surfaces, e.g. robotic hands, with a function to change its shape and stiffness autonomously and adaptively to an object being to contact. The mechanism consists of multiple sensing elements to detect contact state with the object and multiple actuators to transform the configuration of the mechanism. By introducing a method for generating the transformation according to the output distribution of the sensor elements, the mechanism fits to the object without a control unit such as CPU. We designed the mechanism in a framework of modular robots. We proposed a method that each module has the same sensors for detecting its surrounding condition and for communicating with the neighboring modules, and that the module can determine the next motion based on integrated processing the information with only using an analog computation circuit.