Integrated Reproduction of Human Motion Components by Motion Copying System

Currently, the development of leading-edge technology for recording and loading human motion on the basis of haptic information is required in the fields of manufacturing and human support. Human movement is an assembly of motion components. Since human movements should be supported by a robot in real time, it is necessary to integrate the motion components that were saved earlier. Once such motion integration is realized, future technology for use in daily human life can be developed. This paper proposes the integrated reproduction of the decomposed components of human motion by using a motion copying system. This system is the key technology for the realization of the acquisition, saving, and reproduction of real-world haptic information. By using the proposed method, it is possible not only to achieve expert skill acquisition, skill transfer to robots, and power assist for each motion component, but also to open up new areas of applications. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 181(1): 28-35, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.21263