IEEE ICMA 2013 Conference
Keynote Talk

A Robot Co-worker "PaDY"

Dr. Kazuhiro Kosuge
Department of Bioengineering and Robotics Tohoku University, Japan
E-mail:www.irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp

Abstract:
     PaDY (in-time Parts/tools Delivery to You robot) is a co-worker robot being developed for an automobile assembly process usually carried out by a human worker. PaDY delivers necessary parts and tools to a worker when he/she needs them to reduce the worker乫s load, to improve efficiency of the work and to prevent mistakes of the work. PaDY has been developed based on the research results of a dance partner robot 乬PBDR.乭 In this talk, we first introduce why we have started to do the research of the dance partner robot, which dances a waltz with a human male dancer, where estimation of the following step lead by the male dancer, or how to read its partner乫s lead, or how to estimate its partner乫s intention, was one of the key issues for the development of the robot. We then consider issues for developing a robot co-worker and introduce PaDY and its prototype system. Experimental results illustrate how it works and how it could help the worker in the real factory.

Dr. Kazuhiro Kosuge is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Robotics at Tohoku University, Japan. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Control Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in 1978, 1980, and 1988 respectively. From 1980 through 1982, he was a Research Staff in the Production Engineering Department, Nippon Denso Co., Ltd. (DENSO Co., Ltd. at present). From 1982 through 1990, he was a Research Associate in the Department of Control Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 1990 to 1995, he was an Associate Professor at Nagoya University. From 1995, he has been at Tohoku University. He received the JSME Awards for the best papers from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2002 and 2005, the RSJ Award for the best papers from the Robotics Society of Japan in 2005. He is an IEEE Fellow, a JSME Fellow, a SICE Fellow, and a RSJ Fellow. He served as President of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for 2010-2011 and is currently serving as Junior Past-president of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.