Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Public University Corporation Hiroshima City University

Masaki Hamamoto

Yoshiji Ohta

Keita Hara

Kunio Kojima

Hiroyuki Katayama

Junichi Sato

Kenji Ohta

Yasushi Ogimoto

Kazutaka Nakamura

Masanori Kato

Teruhisa Kotani

Shinzo Sawamura

Tomoyuki Miyake

Kenji Nakanishi

Kosuke Watanabe

Kazuhiro Taniguchi

Masazumi Okajima

Kazuhisa Takayama

Junichi Satoh

Toshiaki Hisada

A wing unit is used in a wing flapping apparatus to perform a swinging motion to thereby generate levitation force. The wing unit includes a nonwoven fabric that forms a wing surface; a frame body overlaid on the nonwoven fabric and extending along the wing surface; and a resin material disposed in a cavity included in the nonwoven fabric to integrate the nonwoven fabric and the frame body with each other. According to this configuration, a light-weight and high-strength wing unit that produces a suppressed wing flapping noise, a wing flapping apparatus including the wing unit, and a method of manufacturing the wing unit are provided.

Wing unit, wing flapping apparatus, and method of manufacturing wing unit

A wing flapping apparatus including a frame body, a motive power source and a power transmission mechanism that transmits motive power generated in the motive power source to drive a wing unit. Moreover, the power transmission mechanism includes a slider that linearly reciprocates in an X-axis direction upon reception of the motive power transmitted from the motive power source, and a rotating body that reciprocates in a rotation direction upon reception of the motive power transmitted from the slider. Furthermore, the wing unit swings such that its distal end moves approximately in the X-axis direction as the rotating body reciprocates in the rotation direction. In this aspect, linear reciprocation of the slider and swinging of the wing unit in the X-axis direction are opposite in direction to each other.

Wing flapping apparatus

A wing flapping apparatus includes a motive power source; a power transmission mechanism; and a wing unit driven by the power transmission mechanism. The power transmission mechanism includes a rotation transmission member configured to rotate upon reception of motive power transmitted from the motive power source; a slider configured to linearly reciprocate in an X-axis direction upon reception of the motive power transmitted from the rotation transmission member and a rotating body configured to reciprocate in a rotation direction upon reception of the motive power transmitted from the slider. The wing unit is configured to swing such that its distal end moves approximately in the X-axis direction as the rotating body reciprocates in the rotation direction. The power transmission mechanism further includes a pair of crank arms each configured to connect the rotation transmission member and the slider. The pair of crank arms each has: one end rotatably connected to the rotation transmission member and the other end rotatably and slidably connected to the slider.

There is provided a medical device whose occupied space is reduced. According to an aspect of the present invention, a medical device () adjusts a position of a medical instrument including a rod-like insertion unit () for being inserted into a body. The medical device includes an ultrasonic actuator that holds the insertion unit of the medical instrument, and that displaces or rotates the insertion unit with respect to the ultrasonic actuator, and an actuator fixing unit (and) that fixes a position of the ultrasonic actuator to a surgical site.

Medical device

Provided is a friction drive actuator that is resistant to contamination of, for example, extraneous matter. An ultrasonic actuator according to an aspect of the present invention drives a columnar insertion section and includes a columnar vibrating body (), whose distal end is pressed against a side surface of the insertion section, and a piezoelectric element (), an upper electrode (), and a lower electrode () that are provided at one side surface of the vibrating body.

Friction drive actuator

In a moving apparatus, flapping angle of a front wing shaft is &#x3b3;+&#x394;&#x3b3;/2, and the flapping angle of rear wing shaft is &#x3b3;&#x2212;&#x394;&#x3b3;/2. Specifically, amplitude difference between front wing shaft and rear wing shaft is &#x394;&#x3b3;. Further, the flapping motion of front wing shaft is represented by sin (&#x3c4;+&#x3c6;/2), and the flapping motion of rear wing shaft is represented by sin (&#x3c4;&#x2212;&#x3c6;/2). In other words, phase difference between the front and rear wing shafts is &#x3c6;. Further, amplitude difference &#x394;&#x3b3; and phase difference &#x3c6; are each represented by a function using a common parameter. Therefore, a control portion can independently change the amplitude difference &#x394;&#x3b3; and phase difference &#x3c6;, so as to variously change a torsion angle formed by a tip end portion of the wing and a prescribed phantom plane. Thus, a moving apparatus that can make an efficient transition from hovering to forward or backward flight can be provided.

Moving apparatus

An ultrasonic motor includes a driven object, a piezoelectric element for driving the driven object, a vibration plate including a notch having an inner peripheral surface of an arc-shaped form having a central angle larger than 180 degrees and being vibrated by the piezoelectric element, and a contact portion made of a material different from that of the vibration plate, having a portion overlapping the piezoelectric element in a plan view and being smaller in thickness than the piezoelectric element, attached to the notch of the vibration plate by press fitting or forced fitting and being in contact with the driven object. Thereby, the ultrasonic motor can have a high shock resistance and a high wear resistance, and can be driven with high efficiency.

Ultrasonic motor and ultrasonic vibrator

An ultrasonic motor has a cylindrical rotor for performing a mechanical output, a plurality of ultrasonic vibrators each having two points in internal contact with the rotor, and a preload mechanism for pressing the ultrasonic vibrators from an inside toward an outside of the rotor, and the ultrasonic vibrators are provided to be rotatable relative to the preload mechanism. With this configuration, an internal contact type ultrasonic motor capable of performing efficient drive by using a plurality of ultrasonic vibrators each in contact with a cylindrical rotor at two points and allowing contact at all contact points without requiring a high machining accuracy can be provided.

Ultrasonic motor

A numerical model related to fluttering of an insect, when an equivalent model of actual structure of a wing of the insect is moved in the air in accordance with a model of fluttering motion of the wing of the insect is calculated by fluid-structure interactive analysis, in which behavior of the wing and behavior of the air are given as numerical values, including interaction therebetween. Thereafter, a method of controlling a fluttering robot, wing shape and the like are determined by modifying numerical models of fluttering of an insect prepared by fluid-structure interactive analysis, in accordance with sensitivity analysis. Accordingly, a method of preparing numerical models of wing and air considering the behavior of the wing of the insect in the air is provided and, in addition, a method of manufacturing a fluttering robot utilizing the numerical model prepared by this method of preparing numerical model can be provided.

Method of manufacturing fluttering robot using a fluid-structure interactive numerical model for developing controls for wing driving apparatus

A transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus of a position detecting system execute a program including the steps of transmitting a laser beam; detecting an azimuth &#x3b1;(Y) at which the laser beam is transmitted; detecting an azimuth &#x3b2; at which the reflected laser beam is received; calculating a distance L() between the transmitting apparatus and a moving body from &#x3b1;(Y), &#x3b2; and a distance D between the transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus; and calculating a distance L() between the receiving apparatus and the moving body.

Position detecting system, and transmitting and receiving apparatuses for the position detecting system

A group robot system includes a plurality of sensing robots and a base station controlling the sensing robots, and establishes communication in a hierarchical manner. The hierarchical structure is formed of a plurality of levels between a plurality of sensing robots with base station as the highest hierarchical level. The first sensing robot detects an object; the second sensing robot conducts further search on the object; and the third sensing robot conducts communication relay between the first sensing robot and the base station. When the first sensing robot detects an object, the base station provides control such that all sensing robots, other than the first, second and third sensing robots, move outside the current area of search.

Group robot system that can obtain detailed overall information of object efficiently

Communication system of a group robot system is made hierarchical, having a base station as an uppermost layer and a plurality of layers formed by a plurality of sensing robots, and the plurality of sensing robots are controlled such that a sensing robot belonging to an upper layer of the hierarchical structure has higher sensing resolution than a sensing robot belonging to a lower layer of the hierarchical structure. Thus, a group robot system capable of efficiently searching for an object can be obtained.

Group robot system, and sensing robot and base station used therefor

A fluid-structure interactive analysis is performed while n types of wing structure models are caused to flap in accordance with a prescribed model of flapping manner. Based on an analysis, data, data, . . . data n of physical values related to fluid behavior and physical values related to structural behavior are calculated. Among data, data, . . . data n, a data having a prescribed parameter such as the lift force optimized is extracted. A prototype of a wing portion is formed, which has such a structure that is specified by various parameter values of the numerical model of wing structure corresponding to the extracted data. A driving unitdrives the prototype of the wing portion in a manner of flapping that is represented by the flapping motion model equivalent to the manner of flapping of an insect. At this time, the wing has a stiffness that is suitable for flapping flight so that prescribed parameters come to have optimal values.

Rising and moving apparatus and manufacturing method thereof

A flapping apparatus includes a first disk rotated by a driving source, and a second disk that rotates in contact with a main surface of the first disk. The second disk is provided with first and second stoppers that limit its angle of rotation. When the stopper is in contact with the first disk, rotation of a wing shaft is caused only by the rotation of the first disk, and when the stoppers are not in contact with the first disk, rotation of the wing shaft is caused only by the rotation of the second disk.

Flapping apparatus

A search robot system first divides the entire area of disaster into a mesh cell of an appropriate size, and arranges a search robot for each mesh cell. A search is made for a route of travel from an outermost mesh cell to a casualty and to an adjacent mesh cell. The search robot immediately communicates with a mother robot when a casualty is found. The search robot also communicates with the mother robot when a route to an adjacent mesh cell is found. In the search robot system, a new search robot is arranged to search in an adjacent mesh cell. Accordingly, a rescue activity that is a matter of time can be carried out by a plurality of robots.

Growing community of inventors

Sakurai, Japan

Masaki Hamamoto