RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for
Human-Interactive Robot Research (RTC) finished
its scheduled research term and dissolved at the end
of March 2015.
RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research (RTC), established on August 1, 2007 as a joint collaboration project of RIKEN and Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd. (TRI), seeks to develop a human interactive robot that will come in direct contact with humans at care unit facilities or houses and help reducing physical burdens of care-givers/care receivers.
It is based upon a robot "RI-MAN" developed for helping nurse elderly people in their daily lives by RIKEN's Bio-Mimetic Control Research Center (BMC).
BMC’s knowledge of motor systems control technology and sensing technology, combined with TRI's new functional materials technology such as smart rubbers and the applications to soft sensors and soft actuators as well as product development know-how, brought together in cooperation under one roof, it is expected that the center will contribute to improve people’s lives with scientific technologies.
Robot Control Reserch Team[TL：Tatsuya SUZUKI]In the development of robots for nursing and care, which support care workers with strong force, we focus on fundamental researches and their applications on robust and flexible control, e.g., interaction control between human and robot, simultaneous optimization of structure and control, control for smart materials, etc. |
Robot Motion Research Team[TL：Ryojun IKEURA]It is expected to use robots in the task of nursing because of the nursing task is too heavy a burden for nursing workers in as aging society. The target of this team is to develop a motion model for a nursing robot developed in this collaborative center based on analyzing a human motion in a nursing task. |
Robot Sensor Systems Research Team[TL：Toshiharu MUKAI]We are conducting research on robotic sensor devices, sensor information processing and computer vision, aiming to give intelligence and autonomy to robots that will be developed in the collaboration center. It requires to conduct research in wide areas from materials to robot motion control and planing. We are developing new sensors that can actually be used in our robots, by collaborating with the other teams in the center. |
Robot Implementation Research Team[TL：Shijie GUO]
The team’s work includes development (design and trial production) of nursing-care robots which can hug a care receiver kindly and move him/her from one location to another (e.g., from a bed to a wheelchair), as well as development of rubber-based soft sensors and actuators and the implementation to the robots. |
