ROBOMECH 2017 in FUKUSHIMA

Hello, everyone!!
My name is Oka, M1 student.
“ROBOMECH 2017” was held in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture on May 10 (Wed) – 5/13 (Sat), and six members from our laboratory participated.
When I first knew the venue, I only had  the impression of “far away …” (lol), but when I actually went there, the Koriyama station which was the closest station of the venue  was prominently prosperous. It was exactly “a vibrant town”.
In ROBOMECH, we made a presentation at the poster session, set up posters for each session, and explained to those who were interested.
Every year, the seniors who participated in this conference said that it is easy to question and to answer questions close to each other so that valuable opinions could be heard in the ROBOMECH, and for me it was exactly right.
It was very meaningful to explain with enthusiasm to those who were interested. Thinking and answering questions based on the questionnaire research viewpoint is useful.
I would like to be encouraged in research in the future so that people who are interested will have a deeper interest in the research contents (^ ^)

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Mr. Yoneyama (alumnus) was granted half exemption from JASSO scholarship!!

Mr. Yoneyama (alumnus) was granted half exemption from JASSO scholarship.

Comment: Masato Yoneyama

I received a half exemption from the Japan Student Services Organization’s scholarship.
I thought that I had to produce an appropriate result since I went to the graduate school. So I am pleased that I am elected as a scholarship exempted because my research results have been acknowledged. This is thanks to Prof. Ma, Prof. Hirose and other lab members who supported my research. I heartily thank them.
It is a pleasure to receive an exemption from scholarships. And I could gain confidence. So I definitely would like other students to consider it as one of the goals.
However, scholarship exemption can’t be accepted only from the goodness of the surroundings. Individual efforts are essential.
1.    Go to the lab every day to advance your research
2.    Utilize external opportunities including academic societies
and
research conferences
3.
Engaged in research without giving up

These 3 items are what I was trying to do in my research activities.
The first item is an obvious thing. I went to graduate school but I thought this was a substitute for work because people who did not go to graduate school are working. I also thought I should get experiences equal to the people who works.(It is difficult to compare experiences, so it will become sensuous…..) The second item leads to experience and growth. It has good influence not only research activities, but also job hunting, the later society life to utilize, challenge various opportunities and gain unprecedented experience. The third item is particularly important. In research activities, efforts do not all lead to good results or presentations. Unfortunately, sometimes we have advanced our research with wrong ideas and only time passes. Nevertheless, we have to continue our research for good results.
The contents mentioned above are thoughts of myself , it cannot be said that it is absolutely right. However, I think that those who are going to conduct research activities from now on, especially those who are going to graduate school, would like to create such self-contained attitudes and lead a fruitful research life.

In closing, the professors’ who were taken care of in the research and Ma laboratory members, thank you very much.
I wish for your continued success in the future.


 

Robocon 2017 and Graduation ceremony

Hello, everyone!!
My name is Oka, a new M1 student. This is my first post.
After the submission of the thesis of the graduation, we held Robocon 2017 with new 4th graders (B4)  who will join our lab in the next year!

Rules of the competition are the same as before, the B4 students are divided into several teams. After rewriting the program of the snake-like robot by themselves, the competition will be carried out to choose a fastest robot! However, one point is extremely different with last year . . .

That is … the  COURSE becomes LONGER and  WIDER.

The course is a corridor from the front of our lab to prof. MA’s office.Since the course is long, they need to rewrite the program to predict the time of turning. I think this work is very difficult to be timed in such a short time.
Also, the rule is pretty hard and if the robot touches the wall several times, it has to start over from the starting point. However, the B4 students analyzed together and challenged many times within the given time.
This serious discussion was quite good…Wish they can success.
The team of Mr. Kawabata, Mr. Tomita and Mr. Yamashita wonderfully won the championship!! They quickly understood the programming of the robot!
A gold medal built by Ritsumeikan University was presented to the winning team. Whether it is genuine or not, please referring to last year’s article…
In the future, I hope everyone can do the research seriously and cooperately like this time.
See you next time.
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P.S.
Thanks to everyone who helped us, we were able to graduate on time.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the professors , our seniors, colleagues and our families
.
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Guests from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

International students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University came to our lab as a part of a study abroad program. They took not only a tour but also a seminar on a practical training course.(Introduction of Biologically-inspired Robot- Snake – like Robot) In the seminar they learned by moving a snake-like robot which is a trademark of our lab.

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They tried to move the snake-like robot. Although the program was described at a minimum, the movement of the snake-like robot steadily changed like an actual snake. (everyone was excellent!)

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Let’s move the mobile robot in a wide space!
A competition started at a corridor.(Sorry about the loud noise. m(__)m)

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Even if there were obstacles, the robot avoided or collided, and managed to proceed.

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The team which could do almost one round won the championship. We hope they were interested in snake-like robots in this experience.

Welcomeparty for new comers and Year-end party

We had a welcome party (for Prof. Guoteng Zhang and B3 members) as well as a year-end party. The number of people in Ma lab has been increasing, it has probably become one of the biggest laboratories in Ritsumeikan University!

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It was a good opportunity to talk with lots of people. The papers submission and presentation are getting closer, but let’s do our best without giving up till the end!

ROBIO2016@Qingdao

ROBIO2016(IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics),which Prof. Ma served as a gerenal chair, was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China on December 3rd-7th 2016, and it ended successfully. Prof.Kakogawa and Mr.Tian(D4) made research presentations.   http://robio2016.org/

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20th Anniversary of Department of Robotics

The Department of Robotics, Ritsumeikan University was founded in 1996 as Japan’s first department that can learn robotics expertly. This year marks the 20th anniversary and commemorating this, the 20th anniversary lecture, tour and celebration were held on November5, 2016. Many visitors came to our laboratory. Thank you!  http://www.mes.se.ritsumei.ac.jp/robo_en/

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