Ashworth scales have been used as a method to evaluate the muscle tonus of the patient having spasticity.This method however cannot evaluate it without the enforcer’s subjective judgment.Therefore we analyze the motion of leg by measuring pendulum motion (Pendulum Test) to evaluate the spasticity objectively.

The picture shows two one axis accelerometer were attached to a leg to measure leg motion.Because the angle output of the leg is only provided by the motion capture directly, 2 times differential calculus operation is necessary to obtain the angular acceleration output convenient to evaluate.In contrast, the angular acceleration output is provided directly with our method.

Electronic devices, for example LSI, and so on, are constructed of microscopic electronic circuits formed on semiconductor surfaces. Recently, nano-technology makes the sclae of the components of the microscopic electronic circuits nano-meter scale and makes the devices small, low-cost, and high-performance. We performe the theoretical study of the solid surfaces which handles fundamental properties of the nano-devices. Particularly, we forcus the syufy of the nano-scale structure as molecular gears or atomic chains on solid surfaces with the first principles calculations.

The application of superconductors makes it possible to develop superconducting motors with an unprecedentedly large power-to-gravity ratio. In our laboratory, we are developing superconducting motors with high energy density, such as jet engines, exceeding 10 kW/kg power-to-weight ratio by applying thin-film high-temperature superconducting wires to superconducting armatures.

Multifarious systems are devoloped for induction motor or interior permanent magnetic synchronous motor drives. The systems are implemented by a microcomputer which has 32bit floating point units and multi-function timer units. The methods for estimating the motor speed or weaken flux current have been proposed.

High temperature superconducting (HTS) wires have good characteristics such as perfect electric conductivity and large critical current density. Therefore the HTS wires are expected to contribute to development of small, lightweight and very efficient electric power apparatus. I am currently conducting researches on development of a small power source with an HTS transformer for supplying large current, a protection system for normal transitions in superconducting coils and a superconducting rotating gantry for heavy ion therapy.

The efficiency and performance of many industrial control systems depend on embedded servocontrollers. However, the presence of non-linear, time-varying unmeasurable disturbanses often lead to inability of the system to achieve low values of steady state error and may limit the closed loop bandwidth. Hence, the disturbance rejection is one of the most important and applicable design problem. I work in design and analysis of intelligent control systems including online identification of unknown system model parameters and rejection of unmeasurable disturbances. Another major research topic is development of intelligent UAV (drones) robots and their application in autonomous inspection of electrical energy transmission facilities, buildings etc..

Global motion in images arises with video camera movement. Estimation of global motion is required for image stabilization, image coding, moving object detection, and so on. We develop a fast and accurate method to estimate global motion from an image sequence that contains moving objects (local motion).

Visible light communication (VLC) is a novel optical wireless communication technique that uses blinking of visible light. This technique can not only provide light but also broadcast data. In this study, we develop a VLC system using an LED traffic light and brake lamp (transmitter) and an in-vehicle high-speed image sensor (receiver) for an intelligent transport system (ITS). We refer to this VLC system as image-sensor-based VLC. This system contributes to exchange a safety information between roadway infrastructure (or vehicle) and vehicles.

I perform the spectroscopic analysis in the ionic conductor and the applied study (ionics, photoionics, hydrogen storage material etc.) using it.

The major contents related to the research are shown in the following:
(1) Optical characteristic (refractive index, optical absorption) of the superionic conductior glasses (SICG).
(2) Infrared absorption of perovskite-type proton conductor.