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The bio-inspired robot is such a topic that has received growing attention. The ornithopter micro aerial vehicle (MAV) is a challenging topic for bio-inspired robots. This topic combines the research disciplines of Biology, robotics, and aeronautics. Energy efficiency is one of the advantages offered by a flapping robot. Such a flapping robot can glide to perform locomotion to reduce power consumption. We investigated and developed a flapping robot with tail control to maintain the robot's attitude during locomotion/flight, especially gliding. The proposed tail structure mimics an airplane elevator. Lightweight materials and design are considered in this study. The system is designed to allow the robot to have long-range wireless control. The robot can be wirelessly controlled from a base station via a Wi-Fi connection. This study compares a small wing with good stiffness and a large wing with less stiffness. The small wing with good stiffness is better and could generate thrust 1.56 times higher than the large wing. A large wing's leading and trailing edges bending during flapping can be a possible source of induced drag. Gliding performance was also evaluated. The robot could glide up to 8 meters in 2 seconds at 0.9 meters altitude. The developed robot demonstrated an aggressive flight that reached close to 5 m/s. The developed tail mechanism and controller were confirmed that helps the robot maintain its attitude and recover from a stall within a few milliseconds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter introduces a novel four-limbed robot, WAREC-1, that has advanced locomotion and manipulation capability with versatile locomotion styles. At disaster sites, there are various types of environments through which a robot must traverse, such as rough terrain filled with rubbles, narrow places, stairs, and vertical ladders. WAREC-1 moves in hazardous environments by transitioning among various locomotion styles, such as bipedal/quadrupedal walking, crawling, and ladder climbing. WAREC-1 has identically structured limbs with 28 degrees of freedom (DoF) in total with 7-DoFs in each limb. The robot is 1,690mm tall when standing on two limbs, and weighs 155 kg. We developed three types of actuator units with hollow structures to pass the wiring inside the joints of WAREC-1, which enables the robot to move on rubble piles by creeping on its stomach. Main contributions of our research are following five topics: (1) Development of a four-limbed robot, WAREC-1. (2) Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) using laser range sensor array. (3) Teleoperation system using past image records to generate a thirdperson view. (4) High-power and low-energy hand. (5) Lightweight master system for telemanipulation and an assist control system for improving the maneuverability of master-slave systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human brain has excellent plasticity in terms of recovery from a stroke. It is expected that neurorehabilitation using an apparatus that applies robotic and virtual reality technology has rehabilitation training effects on stroke patients. Rehabilitation of the upper limbs consists of rehabilitation for shoulders and elbows, and rehabilitation of the fingers and wrists. Both rehabilitations are necessary to improve activities of daily living. Many rehabilitation systems for shoulders and elbows have been effective thus far. In this review, we introduce rehabilitation systems for the shoulders, elbows, and wrists of the upper limbs "PLEMO" series using force presentation technology with brakes. Rehabilitation systems using brakes are essentially safe unlike rehabilitation systems using actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotic rehabilitation systems for upper limbs have been developed as two system types: active or passive. Active-type systems use actuators to provide users with varying degrees of force; in contrast, the force available from passive-type systems is limited, although these systems are safer to use. In this paper, a passive-type force display with redundant brakes is proposed to extend the displayable force region of the system. The kinematics and statics are derived, and the reaction force generated by brake torques is clarified. The displayable force region is analyzed in the simulation, and then the experiments are examined to verify the proposed analytical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]