Patents by Inventor Junichi Tamamoto

Junichi Tamamoto 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).

  • Patent number: 9728282
    Abstract: Provided is a remotely operated manipulator which can be applied to a space which is wider on a back side than at an opening part, which has a simple structure, high stiffness, and high reliability. The remotely operated manipulator of the present invention includes: a circular base fixed to a wall surface; a beam which rotates on the circular base; a trolley which moves on the beam; and a mast which is raised and lowered with respect to the trolley and is mounted with a tool unit at a tip. Stiffness is improved by directly fixing the beam to the wall surface by a beam fixing device. Further, a work region is expanded by mounting a bending mast on the tip of the mast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Saku Egawa, Satoshi Nakamura, Makoto Hattori, Junichi Tamamoto
  • Publication number: 20150367507
    Abstract: Provided is a remotely operated manipulator which can be applied to a space which is wider on a back side than at an opening part, which has a simple structure, high stiffness, and high reliability. The remotely operated manipulator of the present invention includes: a circular base fixed to a wall surface; a beam which rotates on the circular base; a trolley which moves on the beam; and a mast which is raised and lowered with respect to the trolley and is mounted with a tool unit at a tip. Stiffness is improved by directly fixing the beam to the wall surface by a beam fixing device. Further, a work region is expanded by mounting a bending mast on the tip of the mast.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2013
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventors: Saku EGAWA, Satoshi NAKAMURA, Makoto HATTORI, Junichi TAMAMOTO
  • Patent number: 8195353
    Abstract: A guide robot device including a guide display unit for displaying the guide information to an unguided person and a moving unit adapted to move with the guide display unit mounted thereon is disclosed. The guide robot device further includes the guide display unit variable in the direction of the guide information, a destination position setting unit for setting the destination position of the unguided person, an unguided person position detection unit for detecting the position of the unguided person, and a guide position calculation unit for calculating the guide position as related to the destination position, the detected position of the unguided person and the distance from the guide robot device to the unguided person. The guide robot device is moved to the calculated guide position and the direction of the guide information determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryoko Ichinose, Junichi Tamamoto
  • Patent number: 8091888
    Abstract: In an apparatus for handling sheets, first and second sheet transfer members are movable to transfer one of the sheets between the first and second sheet transfer members, the first and second sheet transfer members have respective transfer surfaces contactable with the one of the sheets so that the one of the sheets is driven to be transferred by at least one of the first and second sheet transfer members, and an information reader is arranged between the first and second sheet transfer members in such a manner that an information is readable from the one of the sheets even when the one of the sheets is transferred by one of the first and second sheet transfer members and is prevented from being transferred by both of the first and second sheet transfer members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions Corp.
    Inventor: Junichi Tamamoto
  • Patent number: 8041458
    Abstract: To provide a robot whose degree of freedom of design is not limited, and which has simple structure and further reduces load of an actuator of a neck part, the present invention provides a robot at least including a head part, a body part, and a neck link which connects the head part and the body part, wherein a surrounding object distance measurement means is provided adjacently to the neck link and in an upper portion of the body part between the head part and the body part, and a distance scanning field of the surrounding object distance measurement means is provided in parallel with a horizontal plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Azusa Amino, Junichi Tamamoto, Ryosuke Nakamura
  • Patent number: 8011264
    Abstract: Revolving rollers, each provided on an outer peripheral surface thereof with revolving roller grooves extending therearound, are caused to mesh with a rack rod thread of a central rack rod with an axial angle over a lead angle of the rack rod thread and arranged for rotation on a holder member to be twisted. The holder member is rotated round the rack rod by a motor to translate the rack rod. A large thrust can be generated while ensuring a high reliability since a high efficiency is achieved by realizing rolling contact in set points of mesh of the rack rod thread and the revolving roller grooves, points of mesh are made planar, and interference in other points than the points of mesh can be suppressed. Also, play can be restricted by assembling the revolving rollers to the rack rod thread while applying torque in a direction, in which the axial angle is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Isamu Tsubono, Junichi Tamamoto, Makoto Yamakado, Tooru Takahashi, Yukio Sudo
  • Patent number: 7660665
    Abstract: Autonomous mobile equipment includes a position-of-object and own position detecting system and a moving unit, and autonomously moves. The position-of-object and own position detecting system includes a database in which pieces of information on the superficial shape and position of an object are recorded. The superficial shape of the object detected by a position measuring unit is collated with the superficial shape of the object recorded in the database. If the collated superficial shapes agree with each other, the pieces of information on the object recorded in the database are transmitted to a traveling planning unit. If the collated superficial shapes disagree with each other, the information on the object acquired by the position measuring unit is transmitted to the traveling planning unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Junichi Tamamoto, Yuji Hosoda, Saku Egawa, Toshihiko Horiuchi
  • Patent number: 7649331
    Abstract: A mobile robot has a mobile mechanism, a swing mechanism and a control unit. The mobile mechanism is of a coaxial two-wheeled type and controls a forward thrust using inverted pendulum control. The swing mechanism actively swings an upper body laterally with respect to the mobile mechanism. A centrifugal force and a gravitational force act on a center of gravity of the mobile robot. A swing attitude is controlled such that a location of intersection of an extension of a composite vector of the forces acting on the center of gravity of the mobile robot and a ground plane of wheels is kept between left and right wheels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuji Hosoda, Saku Egawa, Junichi Tamamoto, Ryosuke Nakamura, Toshihiko Horiuchi
  • Publication number: 20090118865
    Abstract: Described herein is a robot having a camera mount that is movable along a curved surface of an upper part of the head, on a front side thereof, and two units of cameras that are mounted in the camera mount. The cameras are disposed such that the cameras are laterally separated from each other at an interval substantially equivalent to a lateral width of the head, respective extremities of the cameras are substantially flush with the front end of the head, and the cameras are positioned in close proximity of the upper end of the robot.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Inventors: Saku EGAWA, Ryosuke NAKAMURA, Azusa AMINO, Junichi TAMAMOTO, Manabu YANAGIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20090114460
    Abstract: A robot having a leg mechanism having high rigidity, so as to enable moving on wheels, on the leveled ground, and also moving on the bipedalism, on the unleveled ground, and also enabling to execute exchanging between the wheel running and the bipedalism in a short time, comprising: a body; and left and right leg portions in lower portion of the body, wherein each leg portion has a wheel, which can be drive, at a tip thereof, and a supporting portion, which is movable in roll and pitch directions, the each leg portion has three (3) degrees of freedom, roll, pitch and pitch from the body side, and the supporting portion has at least two (2) of contact points to be in contact with a ground, and makes up a stable region by a contact point of the wheel and the contact point of the supporting body, and thereby oscillating the left and right leg portions, alternately, so as to make bipedalism, and further operating the supporting body, so as to run on the wheels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Inventors: Azusa AMINO, Junichi TAMAMOTO, Ryosuke NAKAMURA
  • Publication number: 20090093907
    Abstract: In a robot system constructed by a superior controller and a robot, it is necessary to carry out a high-speed computation in a system which simultaneously generate a map together with identifying a posture of the robot, there is a problem that the robot system becomes expensive because a computing load becomes enlarged, and it is an object to reduce the computing load. In order to achieve the object, there is provided a robot system constructed by a controller having a map data and a mobile robot, in which the robot is provided with a distance sensor measuring a plurality of distances with respect to a peripheral object, and an identifying apparatus identifying a position and an angle of the robot by collating with the map data, and the controller is provided with a map generating apparatus generating or updating the map data on the basis of the position and the angle of the robot, and the measured distance with respect to the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2008
    Publication date: April 9, 2009
    Inventors: Ryoso Masaki, Toshio Moriya, Kosei Matsumoto, Junichi Tamamoto, Motoya Taniguchi
  • Publication number: 20090062974
    Abstract: An autonomous mobile robot system having plural mobile robots and integrative planning means to plan the moving zone of the plural mobile robots, wherein: the integrative planning means is installed on the plural mobile robots including a main mobile robot to travel autonomously and a subordinate mobile robot to travel on the basis of the instructions of the main mobile robot; and each of the plural mobile robots is provided with, at least, measurement means to measure the situation of ambient environment, communication means to communicate between the integrative planning means and the other mobile robot, main device position recognition means to recognize the position of the mobile robot, subordinate device position recognition means to recognize the position of the other mobile robot, travel planning means to plan travel routes of the mobile robot and the other mobile robot, and travel control means to control a drive mechanism in accordance with the travel planning means.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Inventors: Junichi Tamamoto, Yuji Hosoda
  • Publication number: 20080228320
    Abstract: To provide a robot whose degree of freedom of design is not limited, and which has simple structure and further reduces load of an actuator of a neck part, the present invention provides a robot at least including a head part, a body part, and a neck link which connects the head part and the body part, wherein a surrounding object distance measurement means is provided adjacently to the neck link and in an upper portion of the body part between the head part and the body part, and a distance scanning field of the surrounding object distance measurement means is provided in parallel with a horizontal plane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2008
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Inventors: Azusa Amino, Junichi Tamamoto, Ryosuke Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20080147261
    Abstract: A guide robot device including a guide display unit for displaying the guide information to an unguided person and a moving unit adapted to move with the guide display unit mounted thereon is disclosed. The guide robot device further includes the guide display unit variable in the direction of the guide information, a destination position setting unit for setting the destination position of the unguided person, an unguided person position detection unit for detecting the position of the unguided person, and a guide position calculation unit for calculating the guide position as related to the destination position, the detected position of the unguided person and the distance from the guide robot device to the unguided person. The guide robot device is moved to the calculated guide position and the direction of the guide information determined.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2007
    Publication date: June 19, 2008
    Inventors: Ryoko Ichinose, Junichi Tamamoto
  • Patent number: 7337889
    Abstract: An automated teller machine for handling a paper money, has a paper money path for transferring the paper money along a predetermined direction, and a detector for measuring a condition of the paper money, comprising a light beam emitter for emitting a light beam toward the paper money, and a light beam receiver for receiving at least one of the light beam reflected by the paper money and the light beam passing through the paper money.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Junichi Tamamoto, Yoshiyuki Omori, Mizuki Kaii, Kazushi Yoshida
  • Patent number: 7314160
    Abstract: An automatic money transaction machine, which is small in size, to be able to detect a state of a tear in a bill with good accuracy and gives good service and no discomfort to a customer, includes a receipt/payment opening 4, a discriminating unit 6, a temporary accumulation section 8, and a bill discriminating device 20 for discriminating a state of a bill. The bill discriminating device 20 includes an energizing drive device provided on a conveyance path 5 between the receipt/payment opening 4 and the temporary accumulation section 8 for application of tensile or compressive forces in a direction horizontally perpendicular to a direction of conveyance in a plane of a bill, and a bill image acquiring device 53, such as image sensors, imagers or the like, provided close to the energizing drive device for acquiring an image of a bill, to which tensile or compressive forces are applied by the energizing drive device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazushi Yoshida, Yoshiyuki Oomori, Junichi Tamamoto
  • Publication number: 20060117888
    Abstract: Revolving rollers, each provided on an outer peripheral surface thereof with revolving roller grooves extending therearound, are caused to mesh with a rack rod thread of a central rack rod with an axial angle over a lead angle of the rack rod thread and arranged for rotation on a holder member to be twisted. The holder member is rotated round the rack rod by a motor to translate the rack rod. A large thrust can be generated while ensuring a high reliability since a high efficiency is achieved by realizing rolling contact in set points of mesh of the rack rod thread and the revolving roller grooves, points of mesh are made planar, and interference in other points than the points of mesh can be suppressed. Also, play can be restricted by assembling the revolving rollers to the rack rod thread while applying torque in a direction, in which the axial angle is increased.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2005
    Publication date: June 8, 2006
    Inventors: Isamu Tsubono, Junichi Tamamoto, Makoto Yamakado, Tooru Takahashi, Yukio Sudo
  • Publication number: 20060104502
    Abstract: Autonomous mobile equipment includes a position-of-object and own position detecting system and a moving unit, and autonomously moves. The position-of-object and own position detecting system includes a database in which pieces of information on the superficial shape and position of an object are recorded. The superficial shape of the object detected by a position measuring unit is collated with the superficial shape of the object recorded in the database. If the collated superficial shapes agree with each other, the pieces of information on the object recorded in the database are transmitted to a traveling planning unit. If the collated superficial shapes disagree with each other, the information on the object acquired by the position measuring unit is transmitted to the traveling planning unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2005
    Publication date: May 18, 2006
    Inventors: Junichi Tamamoto, Yuji Hosoda, Saku Egawa, Toshihiko Horiuchi
  • Publication number: 20060097683
    Abstract: A mobile robot has a mobile mechanism, a swing mechanism and a control unit. The mobile mechanism is of a coaxial two-wheeled type and controls a forward thrust using inverted pendulum control. The swing mechanism actively swings an upper body laterally with respect to the mobile mechanism. A centrifugal force and a gravitational force act on a center of gravity of the mobile robot. A swing attitude is controlled such that a location of intersection of an extension of a composite vector of the forces acting on the center of gravity of the mobile robot and a ground plane of wheels is kept between left and right wheels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Publication date: May 11, 2006
    Inventors: Yuji Hosoda, Saku Egawa, Junichi Tamamoto, Ryosuke Nakamura, Toshihiko Horiuchi
  • Publication number: 20050247150
    Abstract: In a mechanism for converting rotary motion into linear motion, a large thrust can be generated by arranging a revolving roller provided on an outer peripheral surface thereof with a roller groove, which makes a round, on a holder so as to make the revolving roller mesh with a rack thread of a centrally positioned rack rod, revolving the revolving roller around the rack rod with a motor to translate the rack rod to make a force transmission part linear, and high efficiency is realized by having the rack rod making rolling contact circumferentially and eliminating slippage thereof in an axial direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2005
    Publication date: November 10, 2005
    Inventors: Isamu Tsubono, Junichi Tamamoto, Makoto Yamakado, Tooru Takahashi