Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life

Volume 9, Issue 4, March 2023

Research Article
1.Modeling of Finger Motions Measured by Leap Motion Controller Using State-Space Model with Step Input
Ryuichi Usami, Hideyuki Tanaka
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima city, Hiroshima, 739-8524 Japan
pp. 309–315
ABSTRACT
Modeling the motion of experts in sports is important in demonstrating their motion to beginners. A primary approach to this objective is to study the dynamics of a transient response from one position to another. Hence, finger-motion analysis is a primitive but crucial step to be considered. The state-space representation with a step input is used to eliminate the personal habits of experts from their motion and to present simple models to learners according to their learning stages. Based on the deterministic realization and N4SID algorithms, two algorithms are developed to demonstrate simple motions according to the order of the state-space representation. They are applied to the finger motion captured by the Leap Motion Controller

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 24 November 2021
Accepted 24 September 2022

Keywords
Leap motion controller
Modeling of finger motions
State-space representation
Step response
N4SID

JRNAL9401

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Research Article
2.Attention-guided Low light enhancement CNN Network
Xiwen Liang¹, Xiaoning Yan², Nenghua Xu², Xiaoyan Chen¹, Hao Feng^1
1Tianjin University of Science and Technology, No. 1038 Dagu Nanlu, Hexi District, Tianjin, China, 300222
²Shenzhen softsz co. ltd, Shenzhen, China
pp. 316–320
ABSTRACT
Low illumination image enhancement is a difficult but scientific task. With the image brightness increasing, the noises are amplified, and with the contrast and detail increasing, the false information is generated. To solve this problem, a multi-branch attention network is proposed to process low-light images directly without additional operations. The proposed network is composed with enhancement module (EM) and Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM). The attention module can make the CNN network structure gradually focus on the weak light area in the image, and the enhancement module can fully highlight the multi-branch feature graph under the guidance of attention. In this way, the overall quality of the picture will be greatly improved, including contrast, brightness, etc. Through a large number of experiments, our model can produce better visual effects, and also achieve good results in quantitative indicators.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 19 October 2022

Keywords
Low-light image enhancement
Deep learning
Multi-branch fusion
Convolutional neural network

JRNAL9402

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Research Article
3.Design of local linear models using PID Tuning According to error
Shinichi Imai
Graduate school, Tokyo Gakugei University, 4-1-1, Nukuikita-machi, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan
pp. 321–325
ABSTRACT
PID control is widely used in process systems represented by chemical processes and petroleum refining processes. The reason is that PID control has a simple structure. However, most of the existing systems are non-linear systems, and it is difficult to always obtain good control results with fixed PID control. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method of tuning the PID gain according to the deviation (control error) of the control result, and verify the effectiveness of this method through experiments. For self-tuning PID control using a local linear model, we propose a program that performs PID tuning only when the deviation occurs with a certain magnitude. A simulation is performed on the Hammerstein model, which is a non-linear system. As a result of the experiment, the number of PID gain changes could be significantly reduced.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 11 November 2021
Accepted 24 October 2022

Keywords
Local linear models
PID controller
Control error

JRNAL9403

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Research Article
4.Tank Experiment of a Seabed Walking Platform Model for Subsea Mining Exploration
Keisuke Watanabe
Department of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering, Tokai University, 3-20-1 Orido Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, 424-8610, Japan.
pp. 326–330
ABSTRACT
In the near future, deep-sea mineral resource development will be possible to be commercialized. To minimize the CAPEX of the project, estimation of deposit quality is critically important and exploratory drilling is indispensable for estimating the amount of resources. To reduce the cost of exploratory drilling, we are going to develop a system of seabed drilling which can move on the seabed by itself without a support vessel on the sea. This exploration platform must be able to move along with the undulations of the seafloor and have a structure that supports the reaction force of the drilling. The authors have been studying an eight-legged drilling platform. This paper introduces our tank test system and some results of tank experiment.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 06 November 2022

Keywords
Deep sea mining
Exploration phase
In-situ drilling.
Sea bed walking robot

JRNAL9404

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Research Article
5.A perfect play in 4×12 board of Othello
Satoshi Ikeda¹, Tomoyasu Toshimori², Makoto Sakamoto¹, Takao Ito^3
1Department of Computer Science and System Engineering, Miyazaki University, Japan
²Graduate School of Engineering, Miyazaki University, Japan
³Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Japan
pp. 331–336
ABSTRACT
In 1993, Joel Feinstein found one of perfect plays for Othello (Reversi) with board size of 2n×2n (n = 2,3) , which showed that the second player(White) is the winner, respectively. We have been analyzing Othello with a board size of 4×2n (n = 3,4,…) since 2015. As results, we found one of perfect plays for each on the 4×2n (n = 3,4,5) boards, which showed that the first player (Black) is the winner, respectively. Recently, we have finished the analysis of the 4×12 board. In this paper, we will introduce the analysis results of 4×12 board Othello and summarize the results that have been found so far.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 10 October 2022

Keywords
Combinatorial game theory
Perfect information
Perfect play
Othello (Reversi)

JRNAL9405

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Research Article
6.Proposal for a Robotics Class using 3D Printer and Development of a Robotics Arm for Education of Design, Manufacturing and Control
Jonghyun Ahn
Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, 2-1-1 Miyake, Saeki-ku, Hiroshima, 731-5193, Japan
pp. 337–342
ABSTRACT
In the field of robotics education, understanding the design, manufacturing, and control of robots is an important aspect of understanding the development of robots. Therefore, various university-level robotics education courses have been created to cover these topics. However, students typically learn about design, manufacturing, and control in different classes. This can potentially lower their understanding of robotics development. There are various reasons why these topics are taught in different classes, but the main reason is the difficulty of manufacturing. Manufacturing education parts often requires a machine such as a CNC, and in the case of a class for many students, it takes a lot of time to manufacture objects designed by students. Recently, low-cost 3D printers have become available, which are considered a solution for reducing manufacturing time. In this paper, I propose a year-round robotics class that covers design, manufacturing, and control. Then I introduce the developed 5-axis robotic arm for education, which can be manufactured using 3D a printer, as a result of the proposed class. The evaluation of the developed arm showed that the maximum payload (with a safety factor of 2.5) was 2.2 [kg], and the maximum repeatability was ± 0.201 [mm].

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 15 November 2022
Accepted 05 January 2023

Keywords
Robotics education
Robotics arm design
Robotics arm control
3D printer education

JRNAL9406

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Research Article
7.A Method to Estimate Reflection Coefficient of Ultrasonic Wave at a Boundary of Two Media
Ryuugo Mochizuki¹, Yuya Nishida², Kazuo Ishii^2
1Center for Socio-Robotic Synthesis, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsuku, Kitakyushu, 808-0196, Fukuoka, Japan
²Department of Human Intelligence Systems, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsuku, Kitakyushu,808-0196, Fukuoka, Japan
pp. 343–348
ABSTRACT
In food industry, shortage of workers is one of a serious problem. Automation of food handling is a critical nowadays. To alleviate the damage caused by food picking operation by robotic hand, we propose non-contact acoustic impedance estimation with ultrasonic wave, which should be preceded before the picking for optimization of grasp stiffness. We assume the correlation between hardness and acoustic impedance. That is, the harder the medium is, the larger the impedance should be. As cooked food, the unevenness of hardness should be considered. We made samples with media of different acoustic impedances, and experimented with ultrasonic to find the relation between reflection coefficient and hardness. As the result, reflection coefficient increased by 0.03-0.15 at the boundary of two media as the bottom medium is switched from urethane to Aluminum.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 27 November 2021
Accepted 01 February 2023

Keywords
Acoustic impedance
Ultrasonic
Hardness estimation
Internal reflection
Reflection coefficient

JRNAL9407

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Research Article
8.Fall Risk Estimation for Visually Impaired using iPhone with Li-DAR
Daigo Katayama¹, Kazuo Ishii¹, Shinsuke Yasukawa¹, Yuya Nishida¹, Satoshi Nakadomari²,
Koichi Wada², Akane Befu², Chikako Yamada^2
1Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka, 808-0196, Japan
²NEXT VISION, Kobe Eye Center 2F, 2-1-8, Minatojima, Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo, 650-0047, Japan
pp. 349–357
ABSTRACT
We have developed a fall risk alert sys-tem using a smartphone with a LiDAR sensor, Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro, as an electronic travel aid (ETA) for visually impaired to reduce fall risks from the edge of station platform and the stairs. The proposed system generates the height grid map generated from 3D point clouds and posture from the smartphone, and classify the walking area to four areas, walkable, positive obstacle, negative obstacle and occlu-sion areas. In this paper, we describe the algorithm and the experimental re-sults of the environmental recognition system for the fall risk alert. In the ex-periments, the accuracy, stability, and time delay are evaluat-ed in approach-ing a fall risk area, such as stairs. The results show the smartphone has the possibility to be the ETA to support the visually impaired and reduce the fall risks.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 26 January 2023

Keywords
Electronic travel aids
Negative obstacle detection
Point cloud
LiDAR sensort

JRNAL9408

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Research Article
9.An Empirical Investigation on the Association Among Tourists and Japanese Tourism Destinations
Tsutomu Ito¹, Seigo Matsuno¹, Takao Ito², Makoto Sakamoto³, Satoshi Ikeda³, Rajiv Mehta^4
1Department of Business and Administration, Ube National College of Technology,　2-14-1 Tokiwadai, Ube, Yamaguchi, 755-0096, Japan
²Graduate School of advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-4-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8527, Japan
³Faculty of Engineering, University of Miyazaki, 1-1 Gakuen Kibanadai-Nishi, Miyazaki, 889-2192, Japan
⁴Martin Tuchman School of Management, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, New Jersey, 07102-1982, U.S.A
pp. 358–362
ABSTRACT
Currently, Japan is facing serious headwinds from declining birthrates as well as an aging society, and their economic consequences are widely known. Among many possible strategies to address the aging and shrinking population, the revitalizing the local economy in each prefecture become more prominent with an emphasis on spurring tourism. To shed light on this issue, this manuscript focuses on determining empirically the interrelationship between tourists and tourism destination characteristics using regression modelling. More specifically, the inter-linkages among tourists and tourism destinations is conducted by developing a 4-cell model. The results finds support for the importance of the development of public traffic among different tourism destinations as a promising economic revitalization strategy

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 24 November 2021
Accepted 07 February 2023

Keywords
Regional revitalization
Touristic destination
Tourism resource
Travel time
Four-cell model

JRNAL9409

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Research Article
10.Performance Evaluation of a Developed Haptic Device that Presents Sensation Corresponding to the Palm on the Back of the Hand for Robot Hand Teleoperation
Noritaka Sato, Kyosuke Ushimaru, Yoshifumi Morita
Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8555, Japan
pp. 363–368
ABSTRACT
We proposed a new tactile presentation device for a palm to tele-operate a robot hand mounted on a rescue robot. The proposed device presents a tactile sensation on the back of the operator’s hand rather than the palm to avoid interference. The required specification for the device were determined through subject experiments conducted in our previous studies. In particular, we developed a prototype device through suction stimulation with the required specifications, confirmed that the device can present tactile sensation correctly, and discussed the results.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 05 March 2023

Keywords
Rescue robot
Haptic device
Teleoperation
Robot hand

JRNAL9410

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Research Article
11.Establishing the Service Quality Indicators for the Counseling Service System: Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach
Li-Min Chuang¹, Hsiu-Hao Liu^2
1The Department of International Business, Chang Jung Christian University, No. 1, Changda Rd., Gueiren District, Tainan City, 711301, Taiwan
²The Ph.D. Program in Business and Operations Management, College of Management, Chang Jung Christian University, No. 1, Changda Rd., Gueiren District, Tainan City, 711301, Taiwan
pp. 369–373
ABSTRACT
The counseling service system is a case management tool used by professional guidance counselors and full-time teacher-counselor. However, even after multiple maintenances, system satisfac-tion and willingness to use it cannot be improved. This study used the modified Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process to construct the service quality index of the counseling service system by adding expert suggestions from different backgrounds. The study found that the service quality indicators of the coun-seling service system can be divided into five criteria and 21 sub-criteria to explore, among which were "perfect confidenti-ality mechanism", "web design & layout meet the needs of the work", and "func-tional operation is simple and conven-ient" most valued by experts and users. Based on the research results, this study puts forward substantive implications for academics and management.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 24 October 2022

Keywords
Service quality
Counseling service system
Case management
Modified delphi method
Analytic hierarchy process

JRNAL9411

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Research Article
12.A Distributed Optimal Formation Control for Multi-UAV System
Jichao Zhao¹, Fengzhi Dai¹, Yunzhong Song^2
1College of Electronic Information and Automation, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, 300222, China;
²School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Henan Polytechnic University, 454003, China
pp. 374–378
ABSTRACT
In this paper, the distributed optimization problem for multi-agent system (MAS) formation control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is suggested here. The situation that the internal states of a single UAV can be made fully available was aimed at, the internal optimal control law of a single UAV is designed using the optimal control theory. To cope with the obstacle that each agent in the system can only communicate with its neighbor agents, the distributed formation control law of the system is introduced based on the communication topology of the system, and further the stability of the system is analyzed in helps of graph theory. The validity of the suggested scheme is verified by both the numerical simulation and UAV platform.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 22 November 2021
Accepted 23 October 2022

Keywords
Multi-agent system
UAV
Optimal control
Distributed formation control

JRNAL9412

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Research Article
13.Story Units of Japanese Folktales Based on the Combination with the Noun Conceptual Dictionary in an Integrated Narrative Generation System
Jumpei Ono¹, Motoki Kumagai², Takashi Ogata^3
1Faculty of Software and Information Technology, Aomori University, 10-1 Seishincho, Edogawa, Tokyo, 134-0087, Japan
²Graduate School of Software and Information Science, Iwate Prefectural University, 152-52 Sugo, Takizawa, Iwate, 020-0693, Japan
³Faculty of Software and Information Science, Iwate Prefectural University, 152-52 Sugo, Takizawa, Iwate, 020-0693, Japan
pp. 379–384
ABSTRACT
The story units in this study are the units described in Common Lisp based on the types of folktales analyzed by Seki et al. We have been developing story units for our integrated narrative generation system (INGS) as a type of narrative technique that generates a new narrative based on the synthesis, transformation, expansion, and so on, of a narrative structure. The story units function in the INGS with conceptual dictionaries. In this paper, we combine these story units with a verb conceptual dictionary and a noun conceptual dictionary. The constitutional elements of each story unit are verb and noun concepts; therefore, combining them with a noun conceptual dictionary enables the substantial function of story units based on the types of Japanese folktales as a group of narrative techniques in the INGS.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 02 December 2021
Accepted 03 April 2023

Keywords
Narrative generation
Noun conceptual dictionary
Story generation

JRNAL9413

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Research Article
14.Exploring Features of the Unconscious in Quality Inspection in Manufacturing
Jun Nakamura¹, Nozomi Komiya^2
1Chuo University, Faculty of Global Management, 742-1 Higashinakano, Hachioji-City, Tokyo, 192-0393, Japan
²Institute of Policy and Cultural Studies, Chuo University, 742-1 Higashinakano, Hachioji-City, Tokyo, 192-0393, Japan
pp. 385–389
ABSTRACT
In quality inspection, which is the final stage of the manufacturing process, there is an operational manual on how the object should be inspected. In this study, we followed the gaze of the workers to search for the "way of looking" at the objects to be inspected, which is not described in the manual. As a result of experiment, we found a difference of the reciprocating eye movements between skilled worker and the beginner. It is suggested that this indicates a way of looking at inspection that has been unconscious until now.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 13 December 2021
Accepted 08 April 2023

Keywords
Skill transfer
Experienced worker
Reciprocal motion
Quality inspection
Manufacturing

JRNAL9414

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Research Article
15.A Design of Multifunctional Smart Window with Large Angle Opening and Closing
Zilong Liu¹, Haoyang Gui¹, Luqi Shen¹, Longyu Gao¹, Fengzhi Dai^1,2
1Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China
²Tianjin Tianke Intelligent and Manufacture Technology CO., LTD, China
pp. 390–395
ABSTRACT
With the vigorous advancement of intelligent manufacturing, smart home has gradually entered people's daily life. At present, smart window always have the problem of low intelligence and a few functions. And almost all kinds of traditional windows have the problem of inconvenient cleaning outside. The paper proposed a new mechanical structure design of the window, so that the window can be turned by nearly 160 degrees, which is convenient for cleaning the both sides of the window. In terms of intelligent systems, a variety of sensors combined with Internet modules are used to realize the remote intelligent control (turning with the wind, and automatically closing windows when there is no one at home when bad weather). Window adds a child mode, which is based on machine vision. In this mode, when the window detects that there is a child nearby, the window will be automatically closed to effectively avoid the accident of children falling from the building caused by climbing the window.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 22 November 2021
Accepted 16 April 2023

Keywords
Smart window
New structure
Machine vision

JRNAL9415

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