Of all the fields of modern technology, robotics is likely to be one of the most influential in changing the very nature of our society.

In the past, the term "robot" has tended to conjure up pictures of automatonlike machines, often seen as a threat to people themselves. The concept of the robot goes back many decades, but-with the introduction of modern microelectronics - the whole field of robotics has been given a new impetus and exciting prospects. We can achieve almost automatic manufacture of a whole range of goods and products. Moreover, these can be made by robots with consistency of quality, both in mass production and in smaller batches. The manufacturing operations which can be automated are not only those of assembly but also of joining.

This paper will review, firstly, the state and trend of robotics in Japan, and secondly, how to promote a rapid increase of robot population in Japan. Finally, in anticipation of the coming 21st century, human-robot symbiosis is discussed in connection with social implications.

A grasping task is often the first stage to be carried out in an assembly or handling task. This paper points out one aspect of the grasping problem: How to manipulate an industrial part with robots in order to bring it to the right location and orientation according to a desired task (assembly, storage, movement,…)?

The aim of the research work described in this paper was to study the versatility and effectiveness of commercially available all-purpose robot grippers. In particular, the authors analyzed the capabilities of a two-finger, parallel-action gripper. Another aspect considered in this investigation was the relationship between motion economy and a variety of factors, viz. programming method, gripping configuration, speed of the robot's movement and the weight of the workpiece being handled, all from a standpoint of gripping effectiveness. The potential value of this research work is threefold, involving a knowledge of robot systems limitations, alternate gripping approaches and the development of an extendable gripping analysis method. Further research work is anticipated for a variety of different grippers and robotic arms.

This paper discusses those study themes considered essential in responding to the expectations that are mostly likely to be generated by Japanese society in regard to robots in the coming one or two decades.

First, for the purpose of understanding the current structure and status of research and development concerning robotics, statistical data based on the responses obtained from universities and national and public research institutes will be shown together with an illustration of the recent patent trends related to industrial robots. Then, an overview on the results of forecasts regarding robot technology by governmental bodies will be presented in an effort to predict the technological as well as social needs surrounding robots. Lastly, tasks of high contribution value for society requiring large-scale research and development systems will be both identified and clarified.

This paper summarises the results of work carried out in planning the application of a robot in a working cell including a small number of metal cutting machines. The viewpoint assumed is that of a first-time user of robots, and includes the procedure for selecting a robot. Because the analysis calls for robot information not readily available to the user, or which is application specific, a significant conclusion is the necessity to establish a structured programme of collaboration between robot user and robot manufacturer, which becomes an essential part of the analytical and design process.

This paper describes a project that addressed teaching a miniature robotic manipulator to play chess. This task was accomplished by interfacing a Microbot Minimover 5 robot and its Radio Shack TRS-80 control computer to a set of chessboard contacts and a Fidelity Electronics Chess Challenger 7 microcomputer. An extensive control program and interface circuitry were designed to enable each of the major components of the system to electronically communicate with one another.

The author stresses the need for relevant empirical data concerning the organizational and human factors resulting from the introduction of robots. After discussing automation in industry and business, as well as military and space applications, the author identifies the problems and consequences arising out of robotization in industry. He concludes with a plea for meshing the robot and social technologies in order to bring about economic and technological revitalization.

The method of parametric optimization is applied to the energy analysis of the motion of three-link manipulators. The quality criterion is the energy consumption along 1 m of the path. It consists of two parts: 1) The sum of the products of joint moments and relative joint velocities (an equivalent of the mechanical work); 2) a quadratic form of joint velocities (an analogue of dissipation losses). Typical spatial motions are studied: the hand of the robot moves along a straight line from an initial position to another one, and returns to the start. Several velocity function shapes (parabolic, sinusoidal, and triangular), both symmetric and non-symmetric ones, are considered. The dependence of the energy consumption on the velocity form, on the trajectory parameters and on mechanical and geometrical characteristics of links is discussed.

Much of the work of Artificial Intelligence concerns the representation and symbolic manipulation of various domains. One problem shared by existing systems is their limitation to discrete states and state changes, brought about by the linking of declarative states with points in time. With this identification, models of continuous processes must forego such declarative states, resulting in a loss of decomposability that limits the amount of complexity that can be handled by a given amount of computation.

In this paper we develop a model for robot problem solving over a domain of continuous actions. The proposed world model consists of a vector of piecewise defined functions of time, i.e. functions that can be represented using finite sets of expressions and finite partitions of time intervals. The critical points of these functions are represented symbolically as discrete events. The goal is represented as a point through which the world model vector must thread at some point in model time. World model functions are transformed by adding events at various discrete points in time which transform the trajectories in the direction of the goal. As events are added, formulas relating the event times are added to the description of the world. The result is a partial order of events which represents a plan for “forcing” the world function to achieve the goal.

The relationships between this model and the classical problem-solving systems (e.g. STRIPS) are utilized in order to produce a planning procedure. This procedure is applied to a robot problem which can be solved using the model. We conclude by presenting an analysis and prospectus of considerations for an actual implementation of these ideas.

After reviewing historical developments in robotics, particularly in Europe, and the current applications in industry, The author indicates possible trends in the future as regards the expansion of industrial automation and its impact on employment. Of interest is the concept of technological consortia or ‘systems houses’ capable of understanding from a ‘system’ perspective the cost-effective implications of overall system design. The final part of the paper is concerned with the examination of goals that lead to future developments, viz. the convergence of traditionally separate technologies, new design methodologies, rational software design, harmony between different kinds of software, and a new look at education and training leading to the emergence of a new type of engineer. The author advocates a balanced emphasis on these aspects and their co-ordination.

To facilitate expedient communication with robots, a very-high level hierarchical robot command language (HIROB) has been designed and implemented. HIROB uses the full and comprehensive syntax of the English imperative, allowing users to control a robot without the need of learning an esoteric programming language. A Parser/Scanner/Recognizer (PSR) performs a lexical analysis of a HIROB command stream, and identifies which portions of the command stream already exist as fully defined procedures in the files of the Procedure Management System (PMS). Those portions which do not exist must be defined using either existing HIROB procedures (English phrases), or by using the primitive commands of the low-level robot command language (LOROB). This process is fully recursive, so that HIROB procedures may consist of defined or undefined HIROB procedures, as well as LOROB commands, with the understanding that a high-level command cannot be executed until all of its hierarchical sub-commands have been fully defined. A user-friendly editor has been incorporated into the PMS to allow convenient creation, modification, and testing of HIROB commands.

A new method for calculating the Jacobian for a general n degree-of-freedom robot manipulator is presented and compared with some known other methods. The computational efficiency of the method is estimated in terms of the number of multiplications, additions/subtractions, trigonometric functions required, and the execution time on a VAX 11/750 computer. It is shown that the new method proposed in this paper is one of the most efficient when applied on a robot manipulator with successively parallel or rectangular joint rotations.