| 1. |
Shouta Okunami, Koki Honda, Ayato Kanada, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto, The vibration-induced kinesthetic illusion enhanced by functional electrical stimulation for neurorehabilitation, World Automation Congress Proceedings, 10.23919/WAC50355.2021.9559448, 2021-August, 296-301, 2021.08, The final goal of this study is to propose a method to increase the sensory feedbacks for the neurorehabilitation of post-stroke patients. As the rehabilitation method for the post-stroke patients, the neurorehabilitation has been studied to reconstruct the neural network. However, in a post-stroke patient, since sensory feedbacks are weakened, the effect of the neurorehabilitation may be reduced. To increase the sensory feedbacks, some studies have tried to use the kinesthetic illusion induced by vibration stimulation on a human body. On the other hand, it is also known that there is a dead time (latency) to generate the kinesthetic illusion. Furthermore, there is an individual variation of the amount of illusion. To use the kinesthetic illusion in the neurorehabilitation, it is necessary to propose a method to shorten the dead time and increase the amount of illusion. In this study, we propose a method to increase the amount of illusion and reduce the dead time by applying electrical stimulation to human muscles in addition to vibration stimulation. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, two experiments were carried out. One is the experiment using vibration stimulation only to create the wrist kinesthetic illusion, and the other is using a combination of vibration stimulation and the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to create the illusion. The experimental results showed that the dead time was reduced by 16% and the angular velocity of the illusion (i.e. the amount of illusion) was increased by 250% compared with the only-vibration stimulation condition. These results suggest that the proposed method is useful as a method to increase sensory feedbacks in neurorehabilitation.. |
| 2. |
Ujjal Mavinkurve, Ayato Kanada, Seyed Amir Tafrishi, Koki Honda, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto, Geared Rod-Driven Continuum Robot with Woodpecker-Inspired Extension Mechanism and IMU-Based Force Sensing, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10.1109/LRA.2023.3331650, 9, 1, 135-142, 2024.01, Continuum robot arms that can access confined spaces are useful in many applications, such as invasive surgery, search and rescue, and inspection. However, their reach is often limited because their extension mechanism relies on elastic deformation or folding structures. To address this challenge, we propose a continuum robot with a novel extension mechanism inspired by the impressive ability of woodpeckers to extend and bend their long tongues to catch insects in tree holes. The proposed mechanism can change the effective length of the robot from almost zero to any length by moving the robot's body back and forth. Our prototype robot demonstrated a maximum extension of 450 mm and a minimum bending radius of 125 mm. In addition, we developed a Gaussian process regression model to predict an external force applied to the robot's tip using inertial measurement units. This enabled us to determine the magnitude and direction of the force with an error rate of 4.8 percent and 11.1 percent, even when the robot's length was varied between the training and test data. The unrestricted extension capability of the proposed approach has the potential to increase the application prospects of continuum robots.. |
| 3. |
Ujjal Krishnanand Mavinkurve, Seyed Amir Tafrishi, Ayato Kanada, Koki Honda, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto, An experimental study on energy-based control of rigid parallel series elastic actuator, World Automation Congress Proceedings, 10.23919/WAC50355.2021.9559477, 2021-August, 26-31, 2021.08, Parallel elastic actuators (PEA) find a growing interest in many research areas ranging from rehabilitation devices to industrial robots on account of their ability to save energy as well as providing passive impact absorption. PEAs are actuators with elements of compliance, such as springs connected in parallel between the actuator and the load. The majority of these PEA mechanisms rely on clutches that require a high amount of power in a short amount of time. Furthermore, these PEA can only switch between a state of complete rigidity to constant stiffness. We consider the emerging design of rigid parallel series elastic actuators (RPSEA) which, in addition to the advantages provided by parallel elastic actuators, uses a motor instead of a clutch-based mechanism to manipulate the stiffness. We develop an experimental setup of the RPSEA and compare an Energy-based control method with a conventional PID control. The response of the two controllers is evaluated under disturbance and presented in this paper.. |
| 4. |
Ryota Matsuda, Ujjal Krishnan Mavinkurve, Ayato Kanada, Koki Honda, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto, Design of 3D-printed Flexible Robotic Arm with Bendable and Extendable Capacity, 2023 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), 10.1109/sii55687.2023.10039169, 2023.01.  |
| 5. |
Yunosuke Sato, Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, A Palm-Sized Omnidirectional Mobile Robot Driven by 2-DOF Torus Wheels, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10.1109/lra.2022.3223296, 8, 1, 105-112, 2023.01. |
| 6. |
Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, Tetsuto Minami, Kazuhiko Terashima, High response master-slave control eye robot system using gaze tracking data, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 10.1109/iros.2015.7353483, 2015.09. |
| 7. |
Kanada Ayato, Mashimo Tomoaki, Terashima Kazuhiko, Study of Rotary-Linear Ultrasonic Motor Output Shafts (Special Issue on Innovative Actuators), International journal of automation technology, 10.20965/ijat.2016.p0549, 10, 4, 549-556, 2016.07. |
| 8. |
Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, Kazuhiko Terashima, Flexible ultrasonic motor using an output coil spring slider, 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 10.1109/iros.2017.8206449, 2017.09. |
| 9. |
Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, Mobile Continuum Robot with Unlimited Extensible Sections, 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 10.1109/iros.2018.8594340, 2018.10. |
| 10. |
ayato kanada, Reachability Improvement of a Climbing Robot Based on Large Deformations Induced by Tri-Tube Soft Actuators, Soft Robotics, 10.1089/soro.2018.0115, 6, 4, 483-494, 2019.08. |
| 11. |
ayato kanada, Design and Experiments of Flexible Ultrasonic Motor Using a Coil Spring Slider, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 10.1109/tmech.2019.2959614, 25, 1, 468-476, 2020.02. |
| 12. |
Yunosuke Sato, Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, Self-Sensing and Feedback Control for a Twin Coil Spring-Based Flexible Ultrasonic Motor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10.1109/lra.2020.3008118, 5, 4, 5425-5431, 2020.10. |
| 13. |
Ujjal Krishnanand Mavinkurve, Seyed Amir Tafrishi, Ayato Kanada, Motoji Yamamoto, An Energy Based Control for Vibration Suppression in a Rigid Parallel Series Elastic Actuator, 2021 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), 10.1109/ieeeconf49454.2021.9382723, 600-605, 2021.01, Elastic actuators find a growing interest in many research areas ranging from rehabilitation robotics to industrial robotics. Elastic actuators are actuators with elements of compliance, such as springs connected in different configurations between the actuator and the load. In particular, Rigid Parallel Series Elastic Actuators (RPSEA) is an emerging design that, in addition to the advantages provided by parallel elastic actuators, provides the ability to actively control the storage and release of spring energy. Owing to the spring element in these actuators, they often face the problem of oscillations. In this study, we propose an energy-based control strategy for vibration suppression by using only one motor of the RPSEA. The analytical findings are substantiated with simulations of the mechanism subjected to an impulse disturbance.. |
| 14. |
Ayato Kanada, Tomoaki Mashimo, Switching Between Continuum and Discrete States in a Continuum Robot With Dislocatable Joints, IEEE Access, 10.1109/access.2021.3062284, 9, 34859-34867, 2021.02. |
| 15. |
Ryota Matsuda, Ujjal Mavinkurve, Ayato Kanada, Koki Honda, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto, A Woodpecker’s Tongue-Inspired, Bendable and Extendable Robot Manipulator With Structural Stiffness, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10.1109/lra.2022.3146954, 7, 2, 3334-3341, 2022.04. |
