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:Recently, there has been extensive development in the field of bipedal robots. Some robots with the muscular arrangement of human leg by the mono-articular muscles and bi-articular muscles demonstrated stable walking motion. However, there were few examples that relations between the muscular arrangement and its motion control were examined in detail and applied the result to motion control of robot directly. This study focused on one of the effects of the bi-articular muscles on standing static stability by developing a bipedal robot with the muscular arrangement. The standing static stability was analyzed and experimented by using the relationship between stiffness characteristics and inverse pendulum model of the robot. The standing static stability was improved by one of the unique functions of the bi-articular muscles without using complex computer control.

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We developed P-CUBE, which is an education tool for programming mobile robots, and confirmed the system operation. Elementary school and junior high school students have recently begun to learn programming using PCs. Students who are taught how to create programs are often required to use an interface of a personal computer. This method keeps visually impaired and younger children from learning programming. Furthermore, the cost associated with PCs is often prohibitive. In an attempt to address these problems, we have developed P-CUBE, which is a new programming education tool. P-CUBE consists of cubic blocks and a program mat. The user creates a program by laying out surface gap blocks on the program mat based on the structure of the algorithm. RFID readers are arranged in the programming mat, and the information of the RFID tags in the blocks is read in order to specify the location of each block. P-CUBE is considered to be nearly indestructible because of its simple structure and is expected to be used as an educational toy for students.

In the current study, we tested a prototype of an isokinetic exercise device for the lower limbs, named the ERIK. The ERIK enables a type of single-limb squat exercise with a translational load on the swing leg in a closed kinetic chain, putting load on the muscles of the stance leg in the standing position. This training applies load to the gluteal muscles, which is effective for avoiding excessive knee valgus moment, a major factor in anterior cruciate ligament injuries. To enhance the quality of the load, an electro-rheological (ER) fluid brake system is implemented in the ERIK. The ER brake can reversibly control resistive torque with a rapid response. This paper reports a prototype of the device with four training modes, verifying its performance through basic experiments. Although high resistance is created within a wide motion area and requires isokinetic training by controlling the velocity of the trainee's legs, the ERIK has the advantage of a high level of safety because of its passive resistive function.