Tsubakimoto Chain (Japan)

In this paper, we discuss automatic assembly of gearmotors. The gearmotors consist of multiple parts. To recognize the shape of the parts and screw holes, we utilize semantic segmentation. To detect angle of the parts, we use position of the screw holes. Automatic assembly is performed based on the recognition and detection. Through experiments, it is validated that our proposed method is robust to variations in brightness.

This paper describes robotic assembly of gearmotors. A gear motor consists of many parts such as a rotor, a stator, an anti-load bracket, a gear box, etc. Assembly task of the rotor, stator and anti-load bracket into the gear box is discussed. We use a robotic arm equipped with a force sensor, an RGB-D camera, and a robotic hand. Another RGB-D camera is placed in the side of the gear box. Depth information is used to separate background information from a captured image. In order to recognize the assemblies, keypoint matching and template matching are used. We make contact judgment and position correction by referring changes of the force date.

In this study, we developed an intuitive remote-controlled manipulator system that was operated using a touch panel display and a mouse. We examined its application possibility to pick out the shoot apical meristem from sprouting potatoes. The shoot apical meristem is not easily affected by plant viruses. Therefore, we can obtain a virus-free seedling that has a high production efficiency by culturing this part. This technique is called “mericlone” and is known widely in agriculture; however, it is tedious because of the precision work involved with a microscope. Thus, our system not only reduces the burden on the technician but also has high precision control and saves space. In this study, using the loop-mediated isothermal amplification method, we confirmed that we could get the potato meristems that do not contain Potato Virus X. The newly designed primer set can achieve results more rapidly, more easily, and with higher sensitivity than other virus detection methods, thus indicating the possibility of industrial implementation.

Abstract This paper presents an integrated system designed to obtain a high‐resolution image via super‐resolution image reconstruction by using an observer of a motorized head under control. An advantage of this integration is that the constructed system can algebraically and systematically calculate the registration and motion blur identification, which is quite different from the way in which the conventional methods preprocess captured images. To illustrate the effectiveness of the presented system, some experimental results are provided. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Non-Contact Energy Transfer Systems are widely used in industrial material handling systems. This paper proposes a new Non-Contact Energy Transfer System using a tuned pick-up coil and an Immittance converter inductively coupled to a parallel transmission line excited by a high frequency constant current source.In a Non-Contact Energy Transfer System which supplies continuous energy to movers by electromagnetic induction, the efficiency is low owing to low excitation impedance because of the wide air gap of the magnetic core in the pick-up coil. The excitation impedance can be increased by the resonance with a capacitor connected parallel to the pick-up coil. The resonant pick-up coil works as a high frequency constant current source for the load. We propose using an Immittance converter to transform the high frequency constant current source into a high frequency constant voltage source. Then, the high frequency constant voltage source is rectified into a constant voltage DC source, and supplies power to an inverter for motor driving.In this paper, the configuration of this new Non-Contact Energy Transfer System and its characteristics are described. The experimental results and simulation waveforms are also described.

In this paper, slot depth of armature core was examined in permanent magnet type linear synchronous motor (LSM) which adopted rail support construction from both sides of experiment and calculation. It was clear that the effect of the depth of the slot for the static thrust was small, if the permanent magnet of large magnet coercive force is installed, and the air gap is not especially big.

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[14C]menaquinone-4, a therapeutic agent for osteoporosis, was administered orally to male dogs at a dose of 4 mg/kg, and the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion were investigated. 1. The plasma concentration of radioactivity reached the maximum level (Cmax) of 4540.4 ng eq./ml at 1 to 2 hours after administration and thereafter decreased slowly. At Tmax, the unchanged menaquinone-4 in the plasma corresponded to 79.6% of the total radioactivity. 2. Within 168 hours, 2.3 and 78.1% of the radioa ctivity was excreted into the urine and feces, respectively. Unchanged menaquinone-4 corresponded to 28.5% of the radioactivity in the feces excreted within 24 hours. 3. The liver (33164.0 ng eq./g) and spleen (12542.2 ng eq./g) showed much higher concentrations of radioactivity than the other tissues and plasma (2994.5 ng eq./ml) at 1.5 hours after administration. The concentration in bile (109392.1 ng eq./ml) was also high, suggesting that the menaquinone-4 was immediately excreted into the bile. The elimination of radioactivity from tissues was relatively slow compared to that from plasma. In bone tissues, the target organ of the drug, the marrow (1424.9 ng eq./g) and cancellous tissue (2465.7 ng eq./g) of thighbone and the marrow (3533.4 ng eq./g) of ribs showed levels as high as the plasma concentrations at 1.5 hours and were 2 to 3 times higher than that of the plasma at 24 hours after dosing. 4. The unchanged menaquinone-4 was the major form present in the plasma, liver, kidney, spleen, adrenal, adipose and cancellous tissue of thighbone at 1.5 hours after administration. The known metabolites, ω-COOH, K acid I and K acid II, were found in these tissues at 1.5 hours. In the adipose and cancellous tissue of thighbone, the unchanged menaquinone-4 was the major form up to 168 hours, while the relative amount of metabolites increased by 24 hours in the other tissues. Polar metabolites were found in the urine excreted within 24 hours and bile at 1.5 and 24 hours after administration. The unchanged menaquinone-4 was mainly found in the feces excreted within 24 hours. 5. The levels of radioactivity in the marrow and cancellous tissue of thighbone and the marrow of ribs at 1.5 and 24 hours after dosing (1.5 hours: 3.3−8.0×10-6 M, 24 hours: 1.9−3.1×10-6 M) were comparable to the pharmacologically effective concentrations of menaquinone-4 (10-6−10-5 M) in in vitro studies on bone formation. This finding suggests that menaquinone-4 distributes sufficiently into bone tissues after a single oral administration in dogs, and can be expected to maintain pharmacologically effective concentrations by repeated administration as a therapeutic agent for osteoporosis.

SFC (Sequential Function Chart) is a kind of graphic representations, which is included in IEC standards for sequential control systems. It is introduced as a specific form of PC's (Programmable Controller's) programs. For the simplicity of graphic representations and the clarity of relations of sequences, SFC is much superior to Ladder Diagram that has been so far, widely used in sequential control systems. Each element of SFC is meaningful just by the connections and SFC is strong in the representation of a flow of control sequence. However, SFC has a weak point that it is difficult to describe logic by conditions in detail like interlock relations and to represent interrupt processing. But production rules are obviously suitable for representing logic by conditions and also for interrupting process.In this paper, we propose a method to translate SFC into production rules, and to implement SFC by production rules using RTPS (Real Time Production System) in which PSL (Production System Language) is used to describe production rules. SFC has three description elements: step representing states in systems, transition representing transition conditions of systems, and link representing the connections between step and transition. We classify the flows of SFC to three types: single sequence, selective sequence and parallel sequence, and, show that each sequence can be described by pairs of transition-step. Conceming a pair of transition-step, a rule for translating the pair of transition-step into production rules is presented. These production rules will be represented by PSL. Finally, we show an example that is implemented by an RTPS.