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The last alumni party before Covid-19
YNL started in February 2002 the workshop featuring students who complete theses (BS, MS, and Ph.D) in the year. It was open to the alumni of the laboratory and their family. The alumni party followed the workshop and was always filled with a lot of fun. The idea was given by Professor Ken’ichi Yoshimoto, who had been the leader of the laboratory and retired from University of Tokyo in March 2001. The 19th round was February 15, 2020. There was a plan of the international workshop of robotics , the last lecture, and the alumni party to celebrate Professor Yoshihiko Nakamura’s retirement in March 2020. The plan was canceled because…
PDF version “Advanced Robotics: Redundancy and Optimization”
The printed version of this book (ISBN 0-201-15198-7) was published from Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. in 1991 with Consulting Editor: John J. Craig, Robotic Systems. The book had been out of print for a while before the copyright was returned to the author. The PDF version was made from original tex files and scanned figures of the printed book. The author assumes that he holds the copyright. One can download for free for personal reading and use it for teaching material in a classroom. The author does not agree to redistribute the whole book or use it for the commercial purpose. If someone shows an interest, please advise her/him to…
Y. Nakamura, a YouTuber
A new page, YOUTUBER, is now published. Please visit and see what he said in the recent talks on robotics, biomechanics, neuroscience, anthropology, and Noh. The most recent one is the panel discussion at SpringerNature Workshop on October 23-24, 2017 in Heidelberg, Germany. The featured photo is with the colleague participants at the Castle of Heidelberg. We had dense discussions on Knowledge, Design, Interaction, and Impact. I was a member of Design team with Tamim Asfor, Antonio Bicchi, and Alin Albu-Schaffer. The panel was the summary of the discussion (without any slides, sorry … ).
Join 2nd WS on Neurorobotics, April 29, 2016
It is the opening day of 2016 Golden Week in Japan. If you would like to fill your hungry curiosity with experts’ talks on cutting edge studies on robot and neuroscience, do not miss to come to the campus of University of Tokyo at 9:50 am. The 2nd Japan-EU Neurorobotics Workshop will be held on April 29th, 2016. The venue is Ichijyo Hall, Yayoi Auditorium, University of Tokyo. Yosuke Ikegami and myself are among 12 speakers from our lab. Please visit 2nd Japan-EU WS on Neurorobotics for more information. It is free. No pre-registration necessary. Have a nice Golden Week!
Joint Junior Undergraduate Seminar of UT and TUA with NAOs
The joint junior undergraduate seminar between the University of Tokyo (UT) and Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA) started in the Winter semester 2010. The junior students in Departments of Mechanical Engineering/ Mechano-Informatics, UT, and Department of Sculpture, TUA, discuss and work on the Beauty of Posture and Motion of Humanoid Robots. The seminar is co-organized by Tatoru Kitago, Professor and Vice President of TUA, Wataru Takano, Lecturer of UT, and myself. Humanoid robots, NAO, are used in the seminar. Each of three groups consists of students from both of TUA and UT and uses each NAO. On December 1st, 2010, each of the groups choreographed a short motion of…
Meeting at Lake Yamanaka and Mt. Fuji
The meeting at Yamanaka-Ryo was for 2-days brainstorming (November 27,28th) among the board members and the stuff members to the president. I am among the stuff members. Discussions include the strength and weakness of UT, which was an opportunity for me to think about the international relationship and the English-speaking environments. Our laboratory currently welcomes nine international students and three post-doctoral researchers from abroad as well as twenty Japanese students. It has been an open question to myself how the creative laboratory is supposed to be in terms of communication for both our Japanese students and international members. On the way back, I visited Beni-Fuji-no-yu for the second time after…
On the Way to a Symposium in Kyoto
There was the Informal Meeting on High Technology on November 20th at Uji Campus of Kyoto University. Resear chers and engineers who studied at Automation Research Lab under the guidance of Professor Hideo Hanafusa gathered there. The speaker of the day was Hirotoshi Yamamoto, a ph.d student of Kyoto University. His talk was on “Towards Assistive Technology for Quality of Life of Dementia Patients.” It was an impressive talk. The challenge of his research is how technology can monitor and improve the quality of (mind) life of dementia patients. The monitoring is called as “Dementia Care Mapping” and currently done only by the professionally trained counselors by checking Behavioral Category…
43rd IFToMM Executive Council Meeting
The 43rd IFToMM Executive Council was in Sousse in Tunisia on November 12 and 13th. I attended it as the vise president. IFToMM (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Theory) is the international society involving 44 countries. The members are not individual researchers, but the countries (member organizations). All the researchers and students of the member organization are eligible for the benefits of IFToMM membership. The Executive Council is the annual meeting of IFToMM officers. The managements of IFToMM is like those of the United Nations. The highest decisions are made at the General Assembly at the World Congress opened every 4 years by voting. Each country…
NAO Programing Seminar at YNL: DAY2
The DAY2 has been just completed. The second day started from 9:30 am and ended at 18:00 pm. It was the advanced program that Aldebaran Robotics can offer. It is my fault if the contents were too difficult for students. The nearly 30 students participated, among whom 6 were junior students, the majority were master and ph.d students. A few faculty members also participated. As it goes into the advanced programing, it became clear that the whole system is very well structured as a research tool. The most updated research results are integrated in the system such as motion control with quadratic programing under constraints, voice recognition/generation, vision system and…