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This paper presents a blind multichannel speech enhancement method that can deal with the time-varying layout of microphones and sound sources. Since nonnegative tensor factorization (NTF) separates a multichannel magnitude (or power) spectrogram into source spectrograms without phase information, it is robust against the time-varying mixing system. This method, however, requires prior information...
This study proposes a self-locking-type expansion mechanism for in-pipe robots. Previously, we proposed a highspeed locomotion mechanism using pneumatic hollow-shaft actuators; however, this mechanism lacked holding force and could not pass through a bent pipe. The proposed mechanism generates a large holding force and can easily pass through a bent pipe by invoking a self-locking phenomenon. We conceptualize...
In large industrial plants, the inspection of production lines is a heavy and costly task that puts human inspectors at high risk. In order to overcome these challenges, we have developed an autonomous plant inspection system using a mobile tracked vehicle. In this paper, we propose an autonomous navigation method for tracked vehicles based on a contact force model that enables the robot to compensate...
Tethered robots often experience entangling of their cables with obstacles in uncertain disaster environments. This paper proposes a spherical tether handling device that unfastens a robot's tether during surveys by releasing the tether and carrying it aside. By using a differential mechanism, the device drives shells and rollers that hold the tether. On flat surfaces, the device moves forward by...
This paper presents a human-voice enhancement method for a deformable and partially-occluded microphone array. Although microphone arrays distributed on the long bodies of hose-shaped rescue robots are crucial for finding victims under collapsed buildings, human voices captured by a microphone array are contaminated by non-stationary actuator and friction noise. Standard blind source separation methods...
This study proposes a high-speed locomotion mechanism for a pipe-inspection robot. As a result of the narrow and complex structures of pipeline networks, it is difficult for robots to move quickly within the pipes. The new pneumatic mechanism proposed here realizes high-speed locomotion along with advantageous features for pipe inspection including a small diameter, flexibility, and low weight. First,...
Remote robotic explorations for collapsed buildings in a severe disaster are demanded. However, rescue robots cannot approach the rubble due to safety risks. This study proposes a remote vertical exploration system for collapsed buildings with a robotic inspection system hoisted by a crane. An Active Scope Camera (ASC) has many advantages for the vertical exploration such as a light and flexible continuum...
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident that occurred in 2011 eastern Japan has created local spots with a high dose level in residential areas in eastern Japan. It is necessary to build a map of the distribution of radiation activities that shows the locations and intensities of radiation sources to assist in decontamination work. The proposed method estimates the intensities of point-like sources...
A novel flexible pneumatic linear actuator is proposed in this paper. The proposed actuator realizes high-speed reciprocating motion by the moving part which has multiple rollers moves smoothly along the flexible hollow shaft. An effective application of this actuator is its use in endoscope robots and tether robots because cables of cameras or sensors can be passed inside the actuator by using the...
On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit eastern Japan, particularly the Tohoku area. Since then, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been facing a crisis. To respond to this situation, we began a project to redesign our mobile robots for disaster response missions. A key issue to be addressed was to check the radiation hardness of the electric components of our robot. Initially,...
Remote transmission of high quality sense of touch requires the representation of multiple tactile properties and compensation of communication delay. We developed a real-time remote transmission system that can deliver multiple tactile properties using a master-slave robot system. First, we assessed what type of tactile properties should be transmitted and how to connect them in real time. Three...
The authors aim at the development of a 3D laser scanner that can measure uniform and dense 3D shape of static objects in dynamic environment. The 3D scanner was composed of a 2D Laser Range Finder (LRF) and Pan-Tilt base. 3D shape is measured by rotating 2D LRF that is tilted around the two axes. The laser point trajectory shows cross scan. Use of cross scan achieved the wide view angular and the...
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