Faculty
Daisuke Chugo
Major research activity
Service robots are recently expected to support our society in many ways; for example, in household, nursing, welfare and business. They are required to offer satisfactory services to users in accordance with their needs and circumstances. My research group aims to design such service robots as will please users, especially robots which actually take measures suited to the occasion. The following are our current studies:
1. Modelling human behaviour - By examining human movements, we select their most essential features for modelling. For example, humans' standing motions are measured and defined, which will enable service robots to grasp their users' movements.
2. Generating the behaviour of human cooperation - We design mechanisms and controlling systems in robots which predict humans' consciousness of movements and assist them without disturbing their movements. This technology is of foremost importance because they will be staying close to humans in gentle manners.
3. Developing service robots - We develop service robots based on the research in the past and of our own. Although the ultimate aim of this section of study is to complete a robot of our choice, the study emphasises the importance of its process during which unexpected and inconvenient outcomes can be observed. Students will learn that they should expect such outcomes in reality and acquire skills of how to improve them.
Right now, we are mainly developing the following robots:
(1) a robotic walker which assists the user stand
(2) an omni-directional movable intelligent wheelchair
(3) a passive-type assistive wheelchair with servo brakes
(4) an automated guiding vehicle (AGV) designed for coexistence with humans