Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International

Osaka University

Sony Corporation

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Hiroshima University

Jun Morimoto

Tomoyuki Noda

Mitsuo Kawato

Hiroshi Ishiguro

Yoshihiro Nakata

Jun Nakanishi

Gen Endo

Giuseppe Lisi

Noriaki Yahata

Yuka Sasaki

Kazuhisa Shibata

Takeo Watanabe

Ryuichiro Hashimoto

Gordon Cheng

Asuka Takai

Tatsuya Teramae

Nobumasa Kato

Kiyoto Kasai

Takashi Yamada

Hiroshi Imamizu

Naho Ichikawa

Yasumasa Okamoto

Nao Nakano

Junichiro Furukawa

Gordon Chang

Megumi Fukuda

A body weight unloading apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first actuator, a second actuator, a first support member, a second support member, a sensor for measuring the imbalance between floor reaction forces respectively acting on the legs of a user, and a control device for controlling operations of the actuators. One end of the support members is respectively connected to the actuators, and the other end of the support members is fitted to the user such that unloading forces that are supplied by the actuators respectively act on the legs of the user. The control device controls the actuators so as to respectively generate unloading forces determined according to the imbalance between the floor reaction forces.

Body weight load reduction device

Provided is a method of analyzing brain activities for realizing a biomarker for neurological/mental disorder, based on brain function imaging. From measured data of resting-state functional connectivity MRI of a healthy group and a patient group, correlation matrix () of degree of brain activities among prescribed brain regions is derived for each subject. Feature extraction is executed by regularized canonical correlation analysis () on the correlation matrix () and attributes of the subject including a disease/healthy label of the subject. Based on the result of regularized canonical correlation analysis, by discriminant analysis () through sparse logistic regression, a discriminator () is generated.

Brain activity analyzing apparatus, brain activity analyzing method and biomarker apparatus

Objective discrimination of a disease label of a depressive symptom with respect to an active state of a brain is achieved. One means for solving the problems of the present invention is to provide a discriminating device for assisting in determination of whether a subject has a depressive symptom. The discriminating device includes a storage device for storing information for identifying a classifier generated by classifier generation processing based on a signal obtained by using a brain activity detecting apparatus to measure, in advance and time-sequentially, a signal indicating a brain activity of a plurality of predetermined regions of each brain of a plurality of participants in a resting state, the plurality of participants including healthy individuals and patients with depression. The classifier is generated so as to discriminate a disease label of a depressive symptom based on a weighted sum of a plurality of functional connectivities selected by feature selection as being relevant to the disease label of the depressive symptom through machine learning from among functional connectivities of the plurality of predetermined regions. The discriminating device further includes a processor configured to execute discriminating processing of generating a classification result for the depressive symptom of the subject by using the classifier.

Differentiation device, differentiation method for depression symptoms, determination method for level of depression symptoms, stratification method for depression patients, determination method for effects of treatment of depression symptoms, and brain activity training device

A motor teaching system is provided with a force presentation robot for teaching motion in accordance with a predetermined motor pattern by guiding movement of a movable part of the body of a test subject, a brainwave sensor, and a computer that classifies a cerebral activity pattern into one of a plurality of classes that include motor imagery, based on a brainwave signal. The computer guides evoking contents of the test subject prior to teaching of the motor pattern, such that a classification result obtained in the period of teaching the motor pattern will be the motor imagery class.

Motion teaching system and motion teaching method

A modularized externally-driven joint structure that can be used for general purposes. In one aspect, an externally-driven joint structure includes: a shaft member that extends in an axial direction; and a plurality of rotatable members that are arranged along the axial direction, and are coupled with each other by the shaft member in an axially rotatable manner. Each of the rotatable members includes a pair of face portions that face each other in the axial direction, a side wall portion that is arranged along the outer circumferential edges of the pair of face portions, and at least one coupling portion that is arranged at the face portions or the side wall portion, and is coupled with a link member constituting a link of a robot.

Externally-driven joint structure

[Object] To provide a compact, high-output actuator device allowing force control. [Solution] An actuator deviceincludes an electromagnetic coil memberprovided over a prescribed width on an outer circumference of a cylinder, and a movable elementslidable as a piston in the cylinder. The movable elementhas a magnetic member, and is moved relatively by excitation of the electromagnetic coil member. Fluid is supplied to first and second chambersandsuch that when the movable elementis to be moved relatively, the movable elementis driven in the same direction.

Actuator device, humanoid robot and power assist device

A rotational structure is configured such that a hollow portion, in which a base member is opposed to a rotational member, is formed around a shaft member. An encoder provided in the hollow portion includes a detection target member rotated together with one of the rotational member and the base member and having a physical quantity changing in a circumferential direction, and a detector capable of detecting the physical quantity of the detection target element and rotated together with the other of the rotational member and the base member.

Rotational structure, assist system, and robot

[Object] An object is to provide a brain activity analyzing method for realizing a biomarker using brain function imaging for neurological/mental disorders. [Solution] From data of resting-state functional connectivity MRI obtained by measuring groups of healthy subjects and patients, a correlation matrix of degrees of activities among prescribed brain regions is derived. By a sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) of attributes of subjects and the correlation matrix, elements of correlation matrix that connect to canonical variables corresponding only to the diagnosis label are extracted. By sparse logistic regression (SLR) during Leave-One-Out Cross Validation of a first sum-set of elements of correlation matrix obtained as a result of feature extraction by a sparse regularized canonical correlation analysis, a second sum-set of elements of the correlation matrix is extracted. By discrimination analysis using sparse logistic regression on the second sum-set, a discriminator is generated.

Brain activity analyzing apparatus, brain activity analyzing method, program and biomarker apparatus

A modularized externally-driven joint structure can be used for general purposes. An externally-driven joint structure: includes a shaft member that extends in an axial direction; and a number of rotatable members that are arranged along the axial direction, and are coupled with each other by the shaft member in an axially rotatable manner. Each of the rotatable members includes a pair of face portions that face each other in the axial direction, a side wall portion that is arranged along the outer circumferential edges of the pair of face portions, and at least one coupling portion that is arranged at the face portions or the side wall portion, and is coupled with a link member constituting a link of a robot.

[Object] To provide a hybrid actuator attaining both driving force and responsiveness, capable of reducing inertia of a movable portion. [Solution] A pneumatic air muscle has a cylinder () provided in a flexible member () forming a pneumatic artificial muscle. At the center of an upper lid element () of the cylinder, a through hole is opened, and an inner wire () of a Bowden cable passes through this through hole and is coupled by means of a spring () to a bottom portion of the cylinder. When the pneumatic artificial muscle contracts, the inner wire () and the pneumatic air muscle move together because of the stopper (), and the contraction force is transmitted. In contrast, when the pneumatic air muscle extends, the stopper () is disengaged, while the tension of inner wire () is kept by the spring () to prevent slacking.

Actuator device, power assist robot and humanoid robot

A robot apparatus having a plurality of movable sections includes a motion control section that generates a control signal for the periodic motion of at least part of the movable sections according to the output of an oscillator showing self-oscillation and entrainment characteristics, an environment measuring section that measures the motion according to the control signal for the movable sections or the physical environment at the time of the motion of the movable sections, a periodic oscillator control section that inputs a periodic signal to the oscillator as feedback according to the outcome of the measurement by the environment measuring section and generates an entrainment phenomenon and a non-periodic oscillator control section that inputs a non-periodic or temporary feedback signal to the oscillator.

Robot apparatus and method of controlling the same

A robot has a plurality of limbs with joints; a driving section for driving the joints periodically to form periodic movements on a floor by means of the plural limbs; and a controller capable of performing various operations. The operations include detecting over time floor reaction forces received through the plural limbs contacting the floor during the periodic movement; deriving a center position of the floor reaction forces received from ground contacting limbs during movement and a change in the center position over time; calculating desired angles of the plural joints directly based on the derived current center position, without deriving a desired center position indicating the center position at a future time, controlling the plural joints based on the calculated desired angles; and driving the robot with the controlled plural joints.

Driving method, drive control apparatus, and robot

The motion of the movable sections of the robot is taken for a periodic motion so that the attitude of the robot can be stably controlled in a broad sense of the word by regulating the transfer of the movable sections. More specifically, one or more than one phase generators are used for the robot system and one of the plurality of controllers is selected depending on the generated phase. Then, the controller controls the drive of the movable sections according to continuous phase information. Additionally, the actual phase is estimated from the physical system and the frequency and the phase of the phase generator are regulated by using the estimated value, while the physical phase and the phase generator of the robot system are subjected to mutual entrainment so that consequently, it is possible to control the motion of the robot by effectively using the dynamics of the robot.

Growing community of inventors

Soraku-gun, Japan

Jun Morimoto