Due to the growing elderly population in many developed countries like Japan, assistive devices are increasingly needed to overcome the difficulties of their activities of daily living (ADL). The motion of standing up places a particular burden on the ankle and knee joints and connects static motions (e.g., sitting and lying) and kinetic motions (e.g., walking and climbing up/down the stairs). In our previous research, two types of standing-up assistance apparatuses were introduced according to the suitable standing-up motions. However, these devices are bulky and cannot be widely used in practical settings such as bus terminals. Regarding the suitable standing-up motions of the elderly in the previous literature, a standing-up apparatus with a pantograph mechanism is introduced to diminish the size of the mechanism based on three design principles: (1) the trajectory of the user's COG is an arc
(2) the trajectory of the user's hip joint while standing up is a straight line at an angle of 45 [deg] from the horizon
and (3) the user is supported until the knee angle reaches 60 [deg]. Simulations showed that the load on knee and ankle joint is decreased, and user may stand up easily with our proposed apparatus. A prototype of the apparatus that may be installed on various chairs in public was fabricated. Considering that the apparatus may be used in places without electric power supply, the apparatus is made simply with links and a gas spring instead of electric actuators. Experimental measurements of the trajectories of the center of gravity (COG) and hip joints show that the proposed apparatus may help users to stand in a way that minimizes stress on their lower-body joints.

A novel control method for the walking assistance device using predefined walking trajectory used to walk for the elderly or the patients with weak leg muscle on stairs from plain more safely and naturally is proposed in this paper. Two control method, torque control and impedance control, used per their usage purpose are introduced, and the later one is focused in this paper. To make sure the use of safety, two situations, putting swing leg in front of stair too close or too far, while a user wearing assistance climbing up on the stairs through even ground is considered. If the user faces these situations walking with the apparatus using impedance control, falling or collision between apparatus and stair are happened more easily than level walking because of lots of environment facts need to be considered like the distance between user and stairs. One of the most important environment facts is recognizing of the stairs, therefore, to prevent the user from the danger in each situation, ultrasonic sensor is used as a safety system to keep space, and we called safety distance, between foot part of walking device and stair. The value of safety distance is not only defined as a switch to change the walking trajectory between the plain mode and the stair mode but also used to decide the ideal stride of trajectory while walking to stairs from even ground. Finally, the result of walking experiment shows that the safety walking experience by wearing our walking assistance device can be achieved.

In this study, we proposed a method which could be used for mapping people's emotion state on the two-dimensional arousal-valence model of effect. The final target of our research is to apply this kind of emotional recognition system to robots or some assistant apparatus which service activities of daily living (ADL). Since in our previous studies, we have finished the work of recognizing people's emotion state on the dimension of arousal by evaluating subjects' heartbeat and LF/HF, which is calculated from the frequency domain analysis of HRV, as the second step's work, we focused on how to recognize people's emotion state on valence dimension. To be specific, we used some kinds of normative affective stimuluses to elicit subjects' emotional change, then collected multiple physiological data during this emotional stimulation process. Finally, as for data analyzing, we didn't use the supervised learning method, like SVM, but made a new attempt to apply the unsupervised clustering method to sample data, dividing the data set into several natural clusters by analyzing the physiological features we abstracted. The calculated results of our experiment have verified the feasibility of mapping human's emotion state on the two-dimensional arousal-valence model of effect at a quadrant level.

<p>We developed small type of a standing up device for the elderly. We have developed standing up devices; caster walker type and bed wheel chair type. They assist standing up motion, backed on following two conditions. 1) the trajectory of center of gravity of the user is round shape, 2) the trajectory of the hip joint of the user while standing up is straight line. These conditions were found from the data of able bodied elderly people, and the feature of their standing up conditions is to lean forward the upper body. By using these devices, the load of the knee joint decrease, and the user can learn how to stand up easily. However, these devices are bulky and usable scenes are limited. Then we developed small type, which can be used on various chairs. This type assists from sitting posture to the middle phase while standing up. The mechanism is constituted with links and a gas spring, instead of a motor. It is light weight, low cost, and small to be able to attach to the back of a chair. From the calculation, by using this new type, the output torques of the knee and ankle joints decreased.</p>

<p>A walking assistance apparatus using a torque limiter was developed. We used the servo motor for hobby, it is relatively small, light weight, and included not only a motor and transmission gear, but also a driver and encoder. At first, we controlled the device using angle control method, according to the walking phase along to the mean data of able bodied people while walking. However, when the user stops walking suddenly or walk on outdoor various roads, the final gear was broken frequently. Because the gear was designed to break easily, to defend the motor from the inverse inputting overload torque. Then we developed a torque limiter mechanism in the final gear. This is a traction drive sandwiched a soft material plate between two circular disk. We carried out the experiment to measure the limit torques of eight kinds of the rubber material. In this paper, the results of the experiment were shown.</p>

<p>Wear on tooth surface of gears occurs while gear pair transmits a power and a rotation. The progression of the wear gradually degrade the performance for the change in the tooth profile. Especially, the edge contact provides a large wear to the tooth surface. A tooth profile modification is widely used to prevent the edge contact. However, there is few researches about the effect of tooth profile modification to the surface wear. In this study, we investigated the effect of tooth profile modification on the tooth wear of involute spur gear in the cyclic wear test with two types of gears. Furthermore, we developed a computer program to predict the amount of the wear on the tooth surface considering the edge contact for the spur gear. The method is based on two types of wear equations. One is Soda's theory under lubricated condition, and the other is derived from the ploughing wear model. We compered the calculated result with experimental data, and discussed the effect of the tooth profile modification on the tooth wear.</p>

Recently, view point of service has been widespread. In learning domains, service providers have been required to adopt it and to provide values co-created by teachers and learners. The value co-creation takes place in joint sphere where providers and customers make interaction, and the value is subjectively perceived by receivers (learners in learning service). That is, a mental state of leaner is one of possible value in the co-creation. The current study aims to develop a conceptual framework which describes mental states of learners for specifying values in the co-creation. As a result, we proposed ontological descriptions of learning event which consists of a teacher, a learner, learning materials, and a learning action by the learner. In concrete terms, we proposed ontological descriptions for receiver states in a learning activity, on the basis of a conceptual model of value co-creation. The ontological descriptions are useful for sharing knowledge on values perceived by learners to design learning services.

近年,高齢者の人口が急速に増加している.高齢者は,一般に加齢に伴い筋力が低下するため,自力での歩行が可能であっても疲労しやすい.また,本人は普段通りに歩いているつもりでも,疲労するにしたがって歩行時の足の位置,角度などが変化していくため,わずかな段差であってもつまずきやすくなる.このような歩行機能低下時の転倒事故により,自信喪失および介護者を必要とする状態に陥るケースが多い.そこで本研究では,高齢者およびリハビリ患者の自立生活の支援を目指すため,足には固定せずに,膝関節や股関節だけでなく,足関節までを含めた下肢全体の歩行支援をする動的歩行補助機を開発した.18年度の時点では,直線方向の歩行のみ補助可能であったが,各種センサを活用しコンピュータの自立化を図ることで,様々な環境での歩行を可能とした,19年度における開発成果を以下に記す.1.足首のひねりをリンクの変形から検知し,左右の歩幅を調整することで方向転換を可能とした.2.本装置が平行リンクを用いた構造であることから,腰部背面に傾斜センサを取り付け,装着者の立っている地面の角度を検出し,装置の軌道を補正することで,傾斜面に応じた歩行が可能となった.3.健常者の階段昇降時の関節角度変化を計測し,装置装着者に応じた制御軌道を生成する手法を提案し,かつ,非接触距離センサを用いて段差との距離を計測することで軌道を補正し,腰きを防止した.4.SH4およびリチウムイオンバッテリーを装置に搭載し,自立化したことにより,行動範囲の制約を受けず,自由に移動可能となった.また,約1時間の連続稼動による屋外歩行を確認した

上肢および下肢を補助可能な全身動作補助機開発した.本装置は歩行やADLを補助可能とする.本装置を用いた歩行時の脳活動を計測し,ニューロリハビリテーションの効果を検討した.その結果,トレッドミル上では装置に慣れてくると脳活動が低下するため,腕振りが重要であり,トレッドミル上よりも移動しながら訓練をすると脳活動が活性化することを確認した