Patents by Inventor Tetsuo Tawara

Tetsuo Tawara has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20100193265
    Abstract: A car having a rotatable wheel, the car being able to run by rotating the wheel, the car having a leg used by the car for walking, and an attitude stabilization section for stabilizing an attitude of the car.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2010
    Publication date: August 5, 2010
    Applicant: CHIBA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Masaharu Shimizu, Hideaki Yamato, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Masaki Shimomura, Ken Endo
  • Car
    Patent number: 7690448
    Abstract: A car includes a car body having a bottom portion, a wheel that is rotatable, and a supporting member for supporting the wheel, the supporting member being provided to the bottom portion. At least eight pairs of the wheel and the supporting member are provided. The supporting member has a first supporting portion for supporting the wheel rotatably, a second supporting portion for supporting the first supporting portion so that a direction of the wheel supported by the first supporting portion can be changed, and a turning portion that is rotatable about a rotation axis with its axial direction along a direction orthogonal to the bottom portion, the turning portion being provided to the bottom portion. The turning portion supports the second supporting portion so that a distance between the wheel and the bottom portion can be changed, and a position of the wheel can be moved by a rotation of the turning portion in a state that the distance is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignees: Chiba Institute of Technology, Leading Edge Design Corp.
    Inventors: Shunji Yamanaka, Takayuki Furuta, Masaharu Shimizu, Hideaki Yamato, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Masaki Shimomura, Ken Endo
  • Publication number: 20070257451
    Abstract: A car having a rotatable wheel, the car being able to run by rotating the wheel, the car having a leg used by the car for walking, and an attitude stabilization section for stabilizing an attitude of the car.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2006
    Publication date: November 8, 2007
    Applicant: Chiba Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Masaharu Shimizu, Hideaki Yamato, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Masaki Shimomura, Ken Endo
  • Car
    Publication number: 20070035109
    Abstract: A car includes a car body having a bottom portion, a wheel that is rotatable, and a supporting member for supporting the wheel, the supporting member being provided to the bottom portion. At least eight pairs of the wheel and the supporting member are provided. The supporting member has a first supporting portion for supporting the wheel rotatably, a second supporting portion for supporting the first supporting portion so that a direction of the wheel supported by the first supporting portion can be changed, and a turning portion that is rotatable about a rotation axis with its axial direction along a direction orthogonal to the bottom portion, the turning portion being provided to the bottom portion. The turning portion supports the second supporting portion so that a distance between the wheel and the bottom portion can be changed, and a position of the wheel can be moved by a rotation of the turning portion in a state that the distance is maintained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2006
    Publication date: February 15, 2007
    Applicants: Leading Edge Design Corp., Chiba Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Shunji Yamanaka, Takayuki Furuta, Masaharu Shimizu, Hideaki Yamato, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Masaki Shimomura, Ken Endo
  • Patent number: 7057367
    Abstract: It is a biped (two-footed) walking humanoid robot, which is provided with drive motors (11d, 11e, 18L, 18R-24L, 24R, 28L, 28R-33L, 33R, 35, 36) to pivotally move respective joint portions, and a motion control apparatus (40) to drive-control respective drive motors, and said motion control apparatus (40), together with a detector (45) to detect the robot's current posture and others, compares the robot's detected current posture and others with next motion command input from outside, and if next motion command is within the range of stability limit with respect to the robot's current posture and others, the complementary data with respect to intermediate motion from current posture till initial posture of next motion command and the motion data corresponding to next motion command are generated, each drive motor is drive-controlled based on said complementary and motion data, and thereby various motions are conducted smoothly and continually.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2006
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Tetsuo Tawara, Yu Okumura, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Patent number: 6992456
    Abstract: The present invention provides a biped (two-footed) walking mobile system, its walk controller, and walk control method therefore, which are to realize enhancing an walk stability, as well as a consumed energy saving. A walk controller (30) of a biped walking mobile system forms a gait data by a gait forming part (33) based on parameters from a gait stabilizing part (32), and drive-controls drive means of respective joint portions (15L, 15R–20L, 20R) of each leg portion based on said gait data. In this case, the walk controller (30) is so constituted as to selectively witch a powered mode to conduct ordinary drive-control and a passive mode to drive-control the drive means similarly with passive joints, whereby drive-controlling respective joint portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Patent number: 6992457
    Abstract: A walk controller (30) for a biped (two-footed) walking mobile system, which drive-controls each joint drive motor (15L, 15R–20L, 20R) of each leg portion (13L, 13R) of a biped walking mobile system based on gait data, includes a force detector (23L, 23R) to detect the force allied to a sole of each foot portion (14L, 14R), and a compensator (32) to modify the gait data from a gait former (24) based on the force detected by a force detector, and is constituted so that each force detector (23L, 23R) comprises at least three 3-axial force sensors (36a, 36b, 36c) allocated on a sole of each foot portion (14L, 14R), and a compensator (32) modifies gait data based on the detected signals from three 3-axial force sensors (36a, 36b, 36c) which detect effective force, thereby the walk stability of a robot is realized, even on the unstable road surface condition with complex roughness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Tetsuo Tawara, Yu Okumura, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Patent number: 6959776
    Abstract: The present invention provides a biped (two-footed) walking humanoid robot easily capable of such full body movement as, for example, protective action when tumbling down, arising action and rolling action. The body part (11) is configured with a waist part (11b) below, a breast part (11a) attached biaxially movably to said waist part, and a drive means (11d, 11e) to move said breast part biaxially, and a controller (50) makes full body movement performed by drive controlling each drive means in mutual coordination. A walk controller (50) drive controls each drive means in mutual coordination, whereby moving the breast part (11a) biaxially with respect to the waist part (11b), namely moving longitudinally or rotating horizontally, and thus makes it possible to move totally the upper part configured with the breast part and arm parts with respect to the lower part configured with the waist part (11b) and leg parts (12) by so-called stoop forward and twisting of a waist.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2005
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Publication number: 20050171635
    Abstract: A walk controller (30) to drive-control drive means of respective joint portions (15L, 15R to 20L, 20R) of respective leg portions (13L, 13R) based on gait data comprises force sensors (23L, 23R) to detect forces applied to the soles of respective foot portions (14L, 14R), and a compensation part (32) to adjust the gait data from a gait forming part (24) based on horizontal floor reaction force among the forces detected by the force sensors, respective force sensor parts (23L, 23R) comprises 3-axis force sensors (36a to 36d) provided to respective parts of soles divided into a plurality at respective foot portions (14L, 14R), a contact detection part (32b) detects a contact of foot sides by the force sensors provided to regions next to end edges of respective soles, and the compensation part (32) adjusts the gait data from the gait forming part (24) referring to the contact of foot sides, and thereby the contact of foot sides to such a matter as an obstacle is detected, and a walk stability is realized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2003
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Tetsuo Tawara, Yu Okumura, Hiroaki Kitano, Masaharu Shimizu
  • Publication number: 20050151496
    Abstract: It is a biped (two-footed) walking humanoid robot, which is provided with drive motors (11d, 11e, 18L, 18R-24L, 24R, 28L, 28R-33L, 33R, 35, 36) to pivotally move respective joint portions, and a motion control apparatus (40) to drive-control respective drive motors, and said motion control apparatus (40), together with a detector (45) to detect the robot's current posture and others, compares the robot's detected current posture and others with next motion command input from outside, and if next motion command is within the range of stability limit with respect to the robot's current posture and others, the complementary data with respect to intermediate motion from current posture till initial posture of next motion command and the motion data corresponding to next motion command are generated, each drive motor is drive-controlled based on said complementary and motion data, and thereby various motions are conducted smoothly and continually.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Tetsuo Tawara, Yu Okumura, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Publication number: 20050088131
    Abstract: A walk controller (30) for a biped (two-footed) walking mobile system, which drive-controls each joint drive motor (15L, 15R-20L, 20R) of each leg portion (13L, 13R) of a biped walking mobile system based on gait data, includes a force detector (23L, 23R) to detect the force allied to a sole of each foot portion (14L, 14R), and a compensator (32) to modify the gait data from a gait former (24) based on the force detected by a force detector, and is constituted so that each force detector (23L, 23R) comprises at least three 3-axial force sensors (36a, 36b, 36c) allocated on a sole of each foot portion (14L, 14R), and a compensator (32) modifies gait data based on the detected signals from three 3-axial force sensors (36a, 36b, 36c) which detect effective force, thereby the walk stability of a robot is realized, even on the unstable road surface condition with complex roughness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Publication date: April 28, 2005
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Tetsuo Tawara, Yu Okumura, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Publication number: 20050016778
    Abstract: The present invention provides a biped walking mobile apparatus, its walk controller, and walk controlling strategy therefor, which are to realize walk stability even under the road surface condition where the foot stance is unstable, for example, such as wet floor, ice, mud, or the carpet of long hair, or when only a part contacts with the floor surface due, for example, to its roughness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2002
    Publication date: January 27, 2005
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kitano, Takayuki Furuta, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara
  • Publication number: 20050001575
    Abstract: The present invention provides a biped (two-footed) walking mobile system, its walk controller, and walk control method therefore, which are to realize enhancing an walk stability, as well as a consumed energy saving. A walk controller (30) of a biped walking mobile system forms a gait data by a gait forming part (33) based on parameters from a gait stabilizing part (32), and drive-controls drive means of respective joint portions (15L, 15R-20L, 20R) of each leg portion based on said gait data. In this case, the walk controller (30) is so constituted as to selectively witch a powered mode to conduct ordinary drive-control and a passive mode to drive-control the drive means similarly with passive joints, whereby drive-controlling respective joint portions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2002
    Publication date: January 6, 2005
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Hiroaki Kitano
  • Publication number: 20040211603
    Abstract: The present invention provides a biped (two-footed) walking humanoid robot easily capable of such full body movement as, for example, protective action when tumbling down, arising action and rolling action. The body part (11) is configured with a waist part (11b) below, a breast part (11a) attached biaxially movably to said waist part, and a drive means (11d, 11e) to move said breast part biaxially, and a controller (50) makes full body movement performed by drive controlling each drive means in mutual coordination. A walk controller (50) drive controls each drive means in mutual coordination, whereby moving the breast part (11a) biaxially with respect to the waist part (11b), namely moving longitudinally or rotating horizontally, and thus makes it possible to move totally the upper part configured with the breast part and arm parts with respect to the lower part configured with the waist part (11b) and leg parts (12) by so-called stoop forward and twisting of a waist.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2004
    Publication date: October 28, 2004
    Inventors: Takayuki Furuta, Yu Okumura, Tetsuo Tawara, Hiroaki Kitano