EUIJ WASEDA

30/03/2010

 

EUIJ Waseda 

Research Scholarship Report

Takao Watanabe

Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering

 Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

 

1.      Research objectives

In March 2010, I visited research institutes in Netherlands, Germany, and Italy for the purpose of investigation on their trend in robotics research and collaborative study.  The details are as follows:

 

(1)    Investigation of robotics research institutes

University of Twente, Netherlands^[1], University of Karlsruhe, Germany^[2]

(2)    Collaborative study on surgical robot

Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy ^[3]

 

2.      Schedule

 

Period: 2/3/2010 - 20/3/2010

2^nd March          Departure from Narita International Airport

                            Arrival at Schipole Airport

3^rd March           Visit at University of Twente, Netherlands

4^th March           Visit at University of Karlsruhe, Germany

6^th March           Moving day

8^th March           Visit and stay at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy

19^th March         Departure from Galileo Galilei International Airport 

                              via Charles de Gaulle International Airport

20^th March         Arrival at Narita International Airport.

 

3.      Findings

(1)  University of Twente

   On 3^rd March, I visited at University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands. There has been researcher level interaction between University of Twente and Waseda University robotics group. In June 2009, delegates from Waseda University robotics group has visited University of Twente, and in November 2009, a student group from University of Twente visited TWIns^[4], where Tokyo Women's Medical University and Waseda University cooperate in the operation of a single research/educational facility and its activities. In order to expand exchanges with University of Twente, it is significant to understand their research content in detail and survey the possibility for future collaboration.

First of all, I visited Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory^[5]. This laboratory has been developed a remarkable gait training robot called LOPES (LOwer-extremity Powered ExoSkeleton), which produces several research achievements ^{[6] [7]}. After a brief explanation of the researches conducted in the laboratory from Dr. Asseldonk and LOPES's demonstration, we exchanged views and discussed further possibilities of collaborative research utilizing LOPES. Since my current research topic is robotics for gate training, this exchange of views was very informative. 

Fig. 1 eXp Lab.   (c) Takao Watanabe

After visiting Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory, I met with Prof. Stramigioli, the leader of Control Engineering Group. From Prof. Stramigioli I received explanation on his research trend and current EU project. Then, I toured Control Engineering Laboratory, where robot for detecting the damage of sewage or walking robot has been developed. Furthermore, I visited Creative Technology course^[8], which utilize technology for education or expression and Smart eXperience Lab^[9], which has a studio for experiments in specific surrounding, and Technical Medicine course^[10], which foster human resources with interdisciplinary in the medical and engineering field.

(2) University of Karlsruhe

On 3^rd March, I visited at Humanoids and Intelligence Systems Laboratories^[11] at University of Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2008, Waseda University signed an agreement called "InterACT^[12]" with three universities including University of Karlsruhe and two other universities. In February 2010, I had an opportunity to meet a researcher from Karlsruhe at Waseda University and received explanation of conducted research. This time, the purpose is to understand their research content in detail and survey the possibility for future collaboration.

First of all, lab tour was held by Dr. Stefanie. In Intelligence Systems Laboratories,, there are several research groups such as humanoid robot group and medical system group^[14]. In humanoid robot group, humanoid robot ARMAR^[13] developed mainly by their group was demonstrated. In medical system group, Dr. Stefanie made a presentation for their activity in detail^[14]. After that, I explained the activities of medical group in my laboratory, and then, we exchanged views. Their request for collaborative research was to be able to utilize their strength, image processing technology for surgery. This result of discussion was reported to my research group later for considering any future possibilities.

(3) Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

　On 8^th March, I visited Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy and stayed until 19^th March. Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna is an international partner of a research institute of Waseda named Global Robot Academia, which was selected for the 2008 Global COE Program by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna is a postgraduate school and its main campus is located in Pisa, but Polo Sant'Anna Valdera (PSV), where robotics researches are conducted, is located in Pontedera, 15 minute away from Pisa by bus. In PSV, there are two robotics laboratories called ARTS (Advanced Robotics Technology and Systems) Lab. ^[16], and CRIM (Center for Applied Research in Micro and Nano Engineering) Lab. ^[17], both of which are organized by Prof. Dario.

In ARTS-Lab, researches on humanoid or service robot have been conducted. I visited ROBO-CASA ^[18], satellite laboratory of Waseda University, and received an explanation of humanoid robot "Sabian". During lab tour, researches on robot hand, robot system for urban health "Dustbot", exoskeleton were introduced. Some of their researches were based on observation of biological mechanism and application of the findings to robot mechanism or control system, with the concept of "bio-inspired." In addition, some of their research has been conducted as EU project. One of their research was collaborative research with University of Twente, where I visited, or EPFL in Switzerland.

In CRIM-Lab, researches in a relatively new frontier such as medical robotics or microrobot have been conducted. During lab tour, researches on movable robot in bowel or salamander robot were introduced. This time, I belonged to CRIM-Lab, and conduct a research on module type surgical robot system. The detail will be explained in the next chapter.

In addition to ARTS-lab and CRIM-Lab, IIT (The Italian Institute of Technology) is also located at PSV. Because this was a newly established institute, their presentation was mainly on the concept of future research on Micro-Biorobotics.

               

                 Fig. 2 Dustbot                          Fig. 3 Exoskeleton arm with novel control method

           (c) Takao Watanabe                                         (c) Takao Watanabe 

4.      Collaborative research

From 8^th March to 19^th March, I stayed at CRIM-Lab. and conduct collaborative research. This research was proposed at Summer School^[20] in 2009 held by Waseda University "Global Robot Academia." The topic was evaluation on operatively of input device for module type surgical robot. CRIM-Lab. has developed Assembling reconfigurable endoluminal surgical systems (ARES) ^[21], which is able to be reconfigured in the stomach. This concept itself was so innovative that other related researches such as suitable input device for this modular robot have yet to be  conducted. On the other hand, Prof. Fujie laboratory I belong to has developed 3D-simulator and has established evaluation method for master-slave surgical robot ^[22]. In this research, 3D-simulator connected with the input device of ARES was developed, and evaluated operatively for each topology of modules.

With developed 3D-simulator and proposed evaluation method mentioned above, operatively for each topology of modules were evaluated through experiment with 5 subjects. This result will be presented at an academic conference in the near future.

This collaborative research was supported by Dr. Harada at CRIM Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, and Dr. Kawamura at Prof. Fujie's laboratory, Waseda University. 

5.      Conclusion

The investigation was accomplished at University of Twente, Netherlands and University of Karlsruhe, Germany and collaborative research on surgical robot was achieved at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

From the investigation, I understand not only research contents in each research institute but also differences in research trends between countries and actual situation of international research collaboration such as EU project. In Japan, research group is also organized with other laboratories for funded project research. However, it seems to be different in the diversity of the group and collaboration style; In Japan, the member's research area tends to be similar and their researches tend to be conducted separately without any common goals. In EU, the diversity of the group seems to be high and they aim at common goal by cooperating in development of common system.

As for collaborative research, an experiment was accomplished in a brief period of 9 days. The result of this experiment will be published at academic conference at a later date. In addition, it was very useful to understand laboratory's culture or philosophy and to build a network of personal contacts, which would have been difficult if my stay had been shorter.

6. References

[1] University of Twente

http://www.universiteittwente.nl/

[2] Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/

[3] Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

http://www.sssup.it/

[4] Tokyo Women's Medical University - Waseda University Joint Institution for Advanced Biomedical Sciences

     http://www.twmu.ac.jp/ABMES/en/twins/

[5] Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory at Twente University

http://www.bw.ctw.utwente.nl/research/projects/lopes.doc/index.html

[6] Vallery H, Van Asseldonk EHF, Buss M, and Van der Kooij H. Reference Trajectory Generation for Rehabilitation Robots: Complementary Limb Motion Estimation. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 17: 23-30, 2009

[7] van Asseldonk EH, Wessels M, Stienen AH, van der Helm FC, and van der Kooij H.  Influence of haptic guidance in learning a novel visuomotor task. Journal of physiology, Paris 103: 276-285, 2009

[8] Creative Technology

http://www.bachelor.utwente.nl/create/

[9] Smart eXperience Lab

      http://smartxp.ewi.utwente.nl/pub/NIRICTcongresposter_SEL.pdf

[10] Institute of Technical Medicine

       http://www.tnw.utwente.nl/itm/

[11] Humanoids and Intelligence Systems Laboratories

       http://wwwiaim.ira.uka.de/

[12] Inter-ACT

 http://isl.ira.uka.de/

[13] Research on humanoid robot "ARMAR"

       http://wwwiaim.ira.uka.de/dilepis2/index_id-360_nav-53.html

[14] Medical research at the IAIM

       http://wwwiaim.ira.uka.de/dilepis2/index_id-365.html

[15] Global Robot Academia

       http://www.rt-gcoe.waseda.ac.jp/

[16] ARTS Lab

       http://www-arts.sssup.it/

[17] CRIM Lab

       http://www-crim.sssup.it/

[18] ROBOCASA

  http://www.robocasa.net/

[19] IIT@SSSA

       http://www.iit.it/en/resources/openings/iit-centres/iitsssa.html

[20] WSK-TNg2009 Summer School in Autumn

http://www.rt-gcoe.waseda.ac.jp/research/seminar/host_wsk-  tng2009_summer_school_in_autumnfrom_communication_to_collaboration.html

[21] Oetomo, D.; Daney, D.; Harada, K.; Merlet, J.-P.; Menciassi, A.; Dario, P.; , "Topology design of surgical reconfigurable robots by interval analysis," Robotics and Automation, 2009. ICRA '09. IEEE International Conference on, vol., no., pp.3085-3090, 12-17 May 2009

[22] Kawamura, K.; Kobayashi, Y.; Fujie, M.G.; , "Operability evaluation using an simulation system for gripping motion in robotic tele-surgery," Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE , vol., no., pp.5106-5109, 3-6 Sept. 2009