Robot development project with human- and eco-friendly smart materials

The social need for robotic technology is rapidly increasing to prepare for the aging society in Japan. Many political action plans concerning Japan’s robot strategy have been proposed and carried out nationwide. This project focused on the social implementation of life support robots and developing corresponding robotic technology. The project’s participants were mainly selected from four laboratories in the department of Mechanical Engineering of Kanagawa University. In addition to robotic technology, there was participation and collaboration in this project from several specialized fields of mechanical engineering, such as material properties, material development, and mechanical vibration. Developing academia–industry–government collaboration was another key project aim. Prior to this project, joint research on dynamics and design concerning mechanical vibration and noise has been undertaken since 2011 by Kanagawa University and Kanagawa Industrial Technology Center. Based on this experience in project-based research, we extended our collaborative research, and the joint research project “Robot development project with human- and eco-friendly smart materials” started in April 2012 and ended in March 2014. In this paper, we report the research activities and results for this collaboration within the regional research community. First, we introduce the project planning. We discuss the relationship between the main theme of robotic technology and the subthemes, determined by the expertise of the members. We considered the safety and reliability of robotic technology in addition to developing materials and robot mechanics. In particular, we decided to pursue participation from fields that do not always engage directly with robotic technology. Second, we outline how we determined the subthemes of the project and we examine the contribution of each subtheme to the results of the main project. Moreover, we discuss our future development work. Finally, as a first step to implementing robotic technology in the regional social system, we report a recognition survey about the practical use and materials of robots that was performed among small and medium-sized enterprises related to robotic technology in the Kanagawa area. Through the survey, we improved the development and direction of the project. Furthermore, the exhibition “Robot Innovation 2012” held in the Tokyo International Exhibition Center communicated our project results to the public. © 2016, The Author(s).