BioInMech Lab

Two international students Thomas and Anthony from the University of Michigan have come back to the USA! We would like to publish the part of written description of their impressions.

———-

During our stay, we lived in the International House that is located just a short walk from campus. The best thing about I-House is that all the residents can speak English, which makes things easier for us foreigners. Also, there were people from countries all over the world. It was very easy to make friends and share our unique experiences. The dormitory also planned trips and events for residents. We went on a trip sponsored by the mayor, and did zip lining, barbeque, and sightseeing. It was an amazing experience.

Since Ritsumeikan University is fairly close to Kyoto, we were able to go there during the weekends. We visited the many temples, such as the Nanzen-ji Temple and the Ginkaku-ji Temple. It was a very nice cultural experience, seeing the many artifacts that were left behind hundreds of years ago.

The majority of our time was spent in the lab under Professor Ma. The lab specializes in biological intelligent mechanics, or, more simply, robots that mimic animals, specifically snakes. We were assigned to work under PhD student Fabian Reyes, who tasked us with coding a framework for communication between Mathematica and robots. At first, we were clueless, since we never really interacted with hardware before. As time went on, we became more familiar with the tools and equipment. With the guidance of Fabian and many others, we were able to successfully complete our project (Link of project: https://github.com/Anthuang/MathematicaSerialFramework).

All in all, this journey was a very valuable experience to both of us. Not only did we learn how researchers in labs operate, we also learned about the Japanese language and culture. Our newly gained knowledge will certainly help us in the future, no matter what we decide to pursue. If given the chance again, we will definitely come back.

Finally, to everyone that helped us, whether in the lab or at our dormitory, we just want to say: ありがとうございました!(Arigatou gozaimashita!: means thank you very much)

Anthony and Thomas Huang.

The Open Campus of Ritsumeikan University 2016 was held. We  opened our laboratories and explained about our research. Despite a hot sunshine day, many customers came to our lab.
(* ^ ▽ ^ *) o ~ ♪

One room was full of long, thin robots. (snakes and in-pipe robots)
w (゚ ° ゚) w

Everyone was deeply interested in our trademark snake-like robots which moved wiggle and waggle!!

There were some troubles that the robot would not move,but we figured it out!

There was a laboratory experience for undergraduates (grade1, 2) in our lab on August 3^rd!! The outline of the experience is as follows.

Laboratory: Bioinspired intelligent mechatronics laboratory (Ma Lab)
Theme: learning control program of snake-like robot
Teacher in charge: Prof. Ma, Prof. Kakogawa
Date: One day between late May and early July
Place: Bioinspired intelligent mechatronics laboratory (5^th floor of East Wing)
Capacity: 14 people (minimum 3 people)
Content: Though the snake of the creature is a body such as one string, why can it move smoothly? Learn the principle of movement based on knowledge of trigonometric functions studied in high school mathematics and do programming using seven joint plane snake type robot. Finally, do a contest that competes for accuracy and time of movement within a given course.

The 4 undergraduates participated!  (More than we thought!)
They were divided into two groups and challenged the time trial using a snake-like robot. The both teams managed to complete the course by trial and error in  programing.

They copied a successful barometer and were thinking about strategies.

They tried to stabilize the motion of the robot by putting a weight on the head of the robot.（*^_^*）

Comments from participants

(1) I think that I was able to expand my view of robots by watching the movements of  the robot with no legs, trying programming, and experiencing that robots are not just moving with their legs.
And I have not fully understood the principle, but as for programming, there was a discovery that changing the value of α, ω, β (value in power point) etc. would change the meandering condition and the speed of the robot. It was interesting. And I was touched by the fact that the robot can go so steadily without a leg. (grade1)

(2) In this experience, I learned about a mechanism and a program of the snake robot. Especially the mechanism was interesting. I thought that I would like to actually make it when watching to move by complicated process, which the wheels were attached to the bottom but the driving force was not there.(grade1)

Continuing from last year, we collected beetles and stag beetles this year!
Our university campus of the laboratory has rich forests, so we can find many insects every year. We began with previewing at 17 o’clock and took insects until 5 o’clock the following morning.(lol)

The 4 members of the laboratory including alumni took insects while being bitten by a large number of mosquitoes.

 

And……..

 

The results are these.(GREAT EXCITMENT !!) ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

11 beetles, 1 stag beetle, 1 gigantic longicorn beetle and 1 frog etc!

 

The size of this beetle is about 8 cm!

 

This frog seems to be a very rare frog designated as an associate endangered species!

 

Please check the very impressive flapping of the beetle. (slow motion)

 

Unfortunately for the stag beetle, we could only discover about 4cm in size. We would like to try again soon.

And we were able to feel summer early in Shiga where the rainy season was just over.

We are looking forward to doing this next year.

 

We have renewed the lab’s website! It becomes easy to see even with a smartphone. And there are many pages under construction, but we will update it from time to time.
(We have not done anything yet on the English page.)

Thank you for all your continuous support.

 

 

 

Hello everyone!! (^-^*)/
I am Yuki Komurasaki, M1 student.
I am sorry that the post was delayed. m(-_-)m
This time is about an annual seminar “Bakazemi !!”

So do you know what is ” Bakazemi ” ? (ﾟﾍﾟ)

The Bakazemi is a seminar that is’nt related to usual research at all, pursue your favorite things stupidly(Baka) and present it in front of everyone.

This year we held it at Kibougaoka Cultural Park in Shiga!

This park is rich in nature, surrounded by mountains and a perfect place to camp！＼(^▽^＼)

The 1st day!!
We did Bakazemi in a room, although there was a lot of nature.
Many people brought the real things this year so it  became a great zemi. It is nice to have the real things after all. o(^▽^)o

“Devices that detect people entering the laboratory and notify them to their smartphones by e-mail”
“Three-dimensional origami with curved lines”
“Dynamic analysis of the way of knitting” etc.

Their presentations were full of personality.

In such wonderful presentations, Mr. Mukai got the championship!!!!(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)/ﾟ･:*【祝】
The title is “A device to prevent forgetting to up a zipper of pants”.
Everyone was laughing with just the title. He has become the man of the hour.

“ I spent most of the money for a BBQ because the accommodation costs were cheap!! “ said a person in charge.
People who did not talk normally in the lab cooperated to prepare for BBQ.
Talk a lot…eat slowly…drink slowly… these are also important time. o(^^o)

Good morning! The 2nd day! !  b(･ｏ･)d
There was a mysterious belonging “empty milk carton” that was written in a brochure of this camp. Let’s use it now! Wrap the materials of the hot dog in aluminum foil and put it in a milk carton then into a fire.By the time the milk carton burned out, there was a smoking warm hot dog inside!!

 Let’s play sports outside in the end!!  (ﾉﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ
We walked 30 minutes from the campground to the lawn square! It was really hot… The weather was great and Prof. Ma was full of motivation!
We played Dodge Bee and Futsal. It was fun but everyone got tired. Well, I was weaker than I thought … (ﾉﾟρﾟ)ﾉ  And it was also our first time to play sports together. I would like to organize this regularly!!


Personally, I really enjoyed it!!
However, I also have many reflection points as an organaizer.

Well, what sort of Bakazemi will be held next year?

I’m looking forward to it. ｡(‘-‘｡)(｡‘-‘)｡

So goodbye for now!! |･_･) |_･) |･)  See you again!!

 

 

The English name of the lab has changed!

(before) Biomimetic Intelligent Mechatronics Lab
↓
(after)    Bioinspired Intelligent Mechatronics Lab

Biomimetic means mimicking living things, but we are only inspired by creatures, so we decided to use the word Bioinspired.

Thank you for all your continuous support.