Concepts and necessity of a dummy (human model) which can simulate a disaster victim for the purpose of evaluating rescue equipments including robots and rescue skills of human and robots are proposed. By contrast of conventional dummies in various fields, the concrete requirements are made clear. The plan of research and development project based on the concept is described. In the latter part of thb paper, the 1st prototype under development is introduced. It is based on a human model (doll) for training of bathing assistance, and is equipped with 8-channel telemetric sensors, a wireless camera, a voice recorder, a heater vest, and a carbon dioxide gas tank.

No abstract

No abstract

Interest has grown in the potential application of robot technology at accident and disaster sites where there exists the possibility of secondary disasters, and much effort is being channeled into research in this area. Yet, much of this effort has been directed at advanced, expensive robot technologies. We have been looking at ways of realizing a readily applicable robot technology for such disaster sites, and propose a relatively low-cost rescue robot with simple intuitive operation that does not require power supply lines. We report on a simple search device based on a human-powered generator, an improved version of an earlier device using a direct mechanical drive for mobility.

The purpose of the Department of Systems and Control Engineering at Osaka Prefectural College of Technology is to train students who can construct synthetic systems. To achieve this purpose, we have had a case study on robotics in fourth grade since 1994. The contents of the subject are to design and make autonomous robots. The subject has a contest with different themes each year. The theme for 1998 was ""Musical Performance Robots"". This was to make seven robots and to form an ensemble. In this paper, we evaluated the case study on robotics, the role of Amusement Robot to ""Educatement"". The comparison about the sound between human playing and robot playing was conducted.