Biomass materials such as wood are environmentally-friendly alternatives to fossil resources. As an example, wood is typically non-toxic and carbon neutral. Furthermore, wood can be produced in a sustainable manner by appropriate planting and trimming of trees. Therefore, the use of wood resources as industrial materials is an important aspect for realizing a sustainable society.…

The self-organizing nature of ad hoc networks generally has an advantage that the networks are free from fixed infrastructures such as APs (Access points). However, this also has a disadvantage that the networks are unstable and unreliable compared with wired and fixed communication. Although there are a lot of routing protocols to overcome the drawbacks…

High performance motion detection technology is critical as the ‘eyes’ of advanced robotic systems for applications including factory management and autonomous machines in home environments. Traditional robot vision devices such as CCD cameras integrated with microelectronic circuits rely on sophisticated algorithms for high speed imaging and processing for robotic navigation. However, these systems are expensive…

Rescue operations at disaster scenes often use robots to avoid further human danger. Modelling robots on snakes can provide better access through narrow paths in rubble, but previous models that control snake robots by the head do not adequately avoid collisions between the body of the robot and surrounding obstacles. Researchers at the University of…