Educational Joint Project Between NCT and TUT in Japan using Tele-Control System

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 Educational Joint Project Between NCT and TUT in Japan using Tele-Control System Tran Quoc Trung Takanori Miyoshi Takashi Imamura Makoto Honda Masayuki Okabe Shinya Oyama Yuzuru Ohba Tomoyasu Ichimura Yoshihito Sawaguchi Yasunori Kawai Akihiro Kaneshige Hideo Kitagawa Masakatsu Kawata Eiji Nishiyama Kazuhiko Terashima Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan, (e-mail: trung@syscon.me.tut.ac.jp). Hakodate National College of Technology, Hokkaido, Japan Sendai National College of Technology, Miyagi, Japan Oyama National College of Technology, Tochigi, Japan Kisarazu National College of Technology, Chiba, Japan Ishikawa National College of Technology, Ishikawa, Japan Toyota National College of Technology, Aichi, Japan Gifu National College of Technology, Gifu, Aichi, Japan Maizuru National College of Technology, Kyoto, Japan Kumamoto National College of Technology, Kumamoto, Japan Abstract: This paper presents an educational research project based on a collaboration between the National Colleges of Technology (NCT) and the Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT) in Japan. First, we constructed a telecontrol system that can work on the Internet for teleoperation experiments. To transmit realistic-looking environmental information, we implemented a 3D scenography system. Here we describe our experimental apparatuses and the control experiments performed as educational experiences for NCT students. In addition, to enhance the effectiveness of the educational experience and improve the proposed telecontrol system, we designed a questionnaire for operators to fill out after they finished the experiments. In this paper, we discuss the contents of the proposed educational system and the improvement of learning motivation that we believe could result from this project. 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the Internet has penetrated into society and has become an indispensable infrastructure that is part of all scenes of life and industry. The spread of high-speed Internet access enables remote sites to stay connected to share information, environments, or data transmission. The speed of sharing is a major difference between conventional media and the Internet. Accordingly, advanced teleeducation is being considered as one of the promising applications of this technology. Telecontrol has been applied in the robotics engineering field via the Internet to manage dangerous sites, search impenetrable territories, and provide advanced medical technology. Some of these applications have surpassed the experimental stage to become an accepted part of academic researchandpracticaltechnology. Byusing Internet technology, Virtual Lab training offers the capability to bring students access to experimental courses located in a central laboratory, as Otto, et. al [25]. Using this method reduces the capital equipment, development, and training costs, and it eliminates the need for expensive travel costs for students or trainers. As another example, a telecontrol project in technical high schools was described by Takamori, et. al [24]. In this project, technical high school students try to develop telecontrol system such as robots, electronic fans, small model houses, and the like in the IPv6 environment. However, conducting such research and experiments requires the technical support of communication service providers, and knowledge and support through joint participation from specialized fields such as mechanical engineering, robotics, electronics, information, and medical engineering. Moreover, implementing telecontrol requires research facilities and equipment installation at multiple remote sites. Because of these requirements, researchers working in the field of telecontrol are limited, and it is difficult to conduct even basic telecontrol experiments without a sufficient number of learning environments. On the other hand, experience-based education directly touching on advanced research or technology provides a good chance to increase interest in technical fields in engineering education. Therefore, it is an important subject for both research and education to widely spread the experimental environment with advanced technology. Copyright by the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) 5188

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 The National College of Technology (NCT) is engaged in technical education for five years of continuous study after graduation from a junior high school for the purpose of cultivating practicalengineers, andthere is a highdemand for experience-based education. The Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT) offers advanced engineering courses, and many students from NCT take the 4-year masters course at TUT. NCTs are found throughout Japan, and their locations are well suited for systematically implementing telecontrol. We set up a collaborative project between NCT and TUT to establish a basic telecontrol system and conduct trials and evaluate basic experiments and experience-based education. The purposes of our project are 1) to establish a base for telecontrol experiments at NCTs, 2) to consider the contents of experience-based education for NCT students and then evaluate it, and 3) to improve the students motivation for learning about telecontrolengineering. The participants in our system are not only NCT students but also primary and secondary students. We include information about participants evaluation of the project in this paper. 2. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT 2.1 Overview This project was based on the TUT project for collaborative research and education with NCT and implemented with the participants as detailed in the sections that follow. In this project, we mainly used the Science Information Network (SINET) in Japan for telecontrol to connect NCTs with TUT. 2.2 Project Configuration and Responsibilities of Participants Project participants, locations, and responsibilities were as follows: KuNCT About 14km INCT GNCT TNCT MNCT TUT HNCT ONCT SNCT KiNCT Fig. 1. Locations of Participants in Japan (1) Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT, Aichi Prefecture) Project management, building basic telecontrol, and collecting and analyzing network traffic data (2) Hakodate National College of Technology (HNCT, Hokkaido) Studying and constructing the supporting system for teleoperation and experimental guidance using telecontrol (3) Sendai National College of Technology (SNCT, Hokkaido) in the Department of Electronic Control Engineering Control Theory (4) Oyama National College of Technology (ONCT, Tochigi Prefecture) in the Department of Electronic Control Engineering Applied Control Engineering (5) Kisarazu National College of Technology (KiNCT, Chiba Prefecture) in the Department of Control Engineering Information Science (6) Ishikawa National College of Technology (INCT, Ishikawa Prefecture) in the Department of Electric Engineering Department Control Engineering 1 (7) Toyota National College of Technology (TNCT, Aichi Prefecture) for the general public at the college s Open Campus, and constructing the basic system of teleoperation (8) Gifu National College of Technology (GNCT, Gifu Prefecture) in the Department of Electronic Control Engineering Robotic Application (9) Maiduru National College of Technology (MNCT, Kyoto Prefecture) in the Department of Electric Control Engineering Control Engineering 1 (1) Kumamoto National College of Technology (KuNCT, Tochigi Prefecture) in the Department of Information and Communication Engineering Information Communication Engineering Experiment 3. APPARATUS AND CONTENTS OF TELE-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS We have conducted experience-based education between the project node NCTs and TUT for four years, beginning in September, and collected communication environmental information as quantitative information. The NCT students joined as telecontrol operators, and the results of a survey questionnaire about their impression were collected for qualitative evaluation. Based on these results, technical problems were clarified as part of the evaluation of experience-based education, and we surveyedoperators awareness related to telecontrol. In the experiments at NCTs, there was an initial 3-minute talk about control engineering and telecontrol technology. 5189

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 Next, we explained telecontrol tasks to the students, then set the time of each telecontrol task from 9 to 18 seconds per student, and set the time of completing in a questionnaire. For the telecontrol system, the master arm (operator) was set up at each of the NCTs and the slave arm (operated) was at TUT. In the proposedtelecontrolsystem, the personal computer used in experiments had a Linux operating system and the RealTime Application Interface (RTAI) for Linux for realtime control. We used Web cameras (Canon VB-C1) to visually check the remote environment and Skype for voice communication with remote locations. 3.1 2 Degree-of-Freedom (2DOF) Link Master/Slave System (a) Master arm Fig. 2. 2DOF Master/Slave System (b) Slave arm (b). The master arm was set up in the NCTs, and the slave arm was set up in TUT. The system increased the reaction force and sounded a warning when the force sensor contacted the maze wall. This enabled the operator to confirm remote status with the Web camera video (visual sense), arm reaction (tactile sense), and contact warning sound (auditory sense). 3.2 1 Degree-of-Freedom (1DOF) Paddle System The1DOFpaddle,showninFig.4,hasaservomotor with an encoder at the base of the paddle (lever) and a strain gage on the paddle, enabling the manipulated angle and manipulative force of paddle operation to be detected. Based on the detected values, the manipulating command toward the device at a remote site can be generated, and the active force (reaction of operation) by the servomotor can be shown as feedback information from the remote site. This telecontrol uses a dedicated protocol to ensure the stability of closed loop control in a time constant communication delay environment from the viewpoint of the small gain theorem described by Miyoshi, et al [26]. We confirmed system stability through verification experiments, using the system shown in Fig. 4 in Miyake, et al []. Fig. 4. 1DOF Paddle System Fig. 3. Robot Arm with Maze Task As shown in Fig. 2, the plane 2DOF link master-slave system consists of the master arm, shown in Fig. 2 (a), having an electromagnetic brake at each joint, and a slave arm, shown in Fig. 2 (b), having a servomotor at each joint. The proposed master-slave robot system can operate in the passive movement mode as follows. The operator moves the master arm, and the master s joint angles are measured. The position information is then sent to the slave site. At the slave site, the slave arm is controlled to track the master arm s movement. The slave detects force applied to the lever on the end of the arm by a force sensor attached to it. Force information is then sent back to the master site. The master site receives the force signal, and the brakes at each joint of the master arm are applied. These brakes then actively resist the operator s movement of the master arm. The passive mechanism ensures the stability of force feedback control, as described by Duong, et. al []. Task 1: Remote Maze Running We applied this system to implement a remote maze running task, as shown in Fig. 3. The maze was constructed so it could be negotiated by the force sensor at the tip of the arm, shown in Fig. 2 (a) NCTs Site Wood EnergyAbsobent Material (b) TUT Site Sponge Fig. 5. Overview of Perceiving Elasticity of Objects Task Task 2: Perceiving Elasticity of Objects We established a task in which the operators at the master site had to perceive the elasticity of objects through haptic perception via telecontrol. We set up the experimental system at NCT and TUT using the 1DOF paddle shown in Fig. 5, implementing position-force feedback bilateral control between paddles for mutual operational motion and reaction force. We used three objects with different elasticity, wood, an energy-absorbent material, and a sponge, at TUT and arranged the objects as shown in Fig. 5 (b). The operator implemented a task as shown in Fig. 5 (a) at NCT. 519

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 In this experiment, after testing the elasticity of each object while having a view of the object, the operator performed the task of distinguishing the objects without visuals. In this manner, we verified the transferability of haptic perception and the contribution of visual information between remote sites with the rate ofcorrectanswers reflecting determination of the objects. reference to position information xm from the master site, and the reaction force fe, which was born at the slave site, represented as reflection force fr at the master arm were checked. The experimental results are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. As a result, xm and fe are almost consistent with xs and fr, respectively. Therefore, the master arm and slave arm always have good tracking so that the operators can have good feeling for telecontrol via the Internet. Web Camera.28 Drill s Switch Target boad.26.24 TUTMNCT 19/1/29.22 Drill (a) NCTs Site (b) TUTSite Fig. 6. Experimental setup of Remote Drill Machine RTT [sec].2.18.16 Task 3: Boring Hole into Board with Remote Drill Machine Of the experience-based education tasks performed with our experiment equipment, boring a hole into a board with a remote drill machine was the most frequently performed task of the project. We set up the remote drilling machine as shown in Fig. 6. In this experiment, operators controlled the feed rate in the front and the rear direction (1 axis) and controlled the drill rotation (ON/OFF) by using the 1DOF paddle system. The reaction force that occurs when the drill contacts the workpiece, which is detected at the drill site, is sent back to the operator. We have a Web camera installed in the back and side of the drill so the operator can remain in control of the distance/interval of the workpiece and drill. Moreover, we also supply the operational sound in the cutting process. With this configuration, we constructed an environment wherein operatorcan confirm the remote site status through the Web camera (visual), the reaction force of processing (sense of touch), and the sound of the operation (hearing). When the drill bores through the workpiece, in the reaction force of processing, the operator can feel three statuses of the workpiece and drill: the moment before the drill contacts the workpiece, the time when the drill is boring through the workpiece, and the time when the drill comes out the other side of the workpiece. This means we can trust in increasing the feeling as well as be able to capture each stage in every process based on the changing information affecting how we feel the stages of the operation. Experimental Results We show the experimental results of telecontrol when drilling a hole into a board with the remote drill machine at MNCT on October 19, 29. In the current network environment, we often encounter packet loss, and time delay control. However, our proposed system ensures stability when performing telecontrol experiments via the Internet. The round-trip time (RTT) between TUT and MNCT is shown in Fig. 7. The RTT in steady communication delay was about.17 sec (17 ms). In Figs. 8 and 9, xm, xs and fe, fr are position information for the master, slave, and force information for the slave, master, respectively. The movement of slave arm xs with.14.12.1 8 Time [sec] Fig. 7. Measurement result of RTT with TUT-MNCT Angle [rad].45.4.35.3.25.2.15.1.5 -.5 8 Time [sec] Fig. 8. Result of Master and Slave Position Force [N] 15 1 5-5 -1 8 Time [sec] Fig. 9. Result of Master and Slave Force f e f r x m x s 5191

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 3.3 Overhead Crane Overhead cranes are widely used in intrafactory transfers to lift and transfer object horizontally. The crane system is designed to move up, down, left, or right, and vibration of the object can be detected by the angle of the lifting wire, as shown in Fig. 1. As described by Yamamoto, et al [], a telecontrol crane system the vibration angle of an object and the upward or downward loaded detection sensor value are sent to the operator with the reaction force as feedback information. an environment so that the operator haptically perceived vibration of the transferred object or impact with an obstacle. We assumed that the crane carried the object between a task start point and a goal. An operator was given 9 sec to complete the object transfer task through telecontrol. We placed the placement target point, as shown in Fig. 12, to the right of the transfer area shown in Fig. 11 (b) and established an error evaluation circle in units of 5 mm to measure placement accuracy. After the experiment, we had operators answer a questionnaire in which they evaluated the feel of the operation and rated the viewability of the target area picture from the remote site. 4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND EVALUATIONS 4.1 Evaluation about Exciting and Applicability (a) Overview of Overhead Crane Fig. 1. Configuration of Overhead Crane Left Right (a) Master Site Down Up (b) Composition of Overhead Crane Object s Orbit (b) Slave Site Fig. 11. Experimental setup of telecontrol for overhead crane Fig. 12. Target point for overhead crane operation Task 4: Object Transfer with Overhead Crane We established an object transfer task through telecontrol by using the paddle system and an overhead crane. Two experimental paddle systems were installed at the operator site (NCT), as shown in Fig. 11. We assigned up-and-down and right-and-left paddle movements so that the operator could check visually the movement of the crane via the Web camera. We also magnified the picture showing the area around the target position of the transfer so the operator could confirm the accuracy rate at the target point by themselves, as shown in Fig. 12. Moreover, we constructed This project has been carried out since, and we have executed it continuously for 3 years with the cooperation of 9 NCTs all over Japan. In all, more than 5 people participated in our experiment during the 3-year period from to 29. We provided 4 types of experiment in this project. There were 148 people and 4 NCTs in, 16 people and 8 NCTs in 28, and 2 people and 9 NTCs in 29. At TNCT, we carried out the project in the Open Campus, so participants were not only NCT students but also primary and secondary students. In addition, at TNCT and INCT, we installed a 3D scenography system to increase the fidelity of what operators did. 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 145 56 37 24 Exciting Not Exciting Fig. 13. Evaluation Result Regarding Operator Excitement As noted, we gave a questionnaire to the operators after doing the experiment in 29. We asked, Was the experiment exciting? so that we could investigate participants feelings directly. The results are shown in Fig. 13. In addition, we investigated the operators opinions about the experiment s content and the system with the question: Do you feel this experiment has wider applicability or not? The results are shown in Fig. 14. The operators could select their answers from 7 levels from positive to negative. For both questions, more than 8% of the opinions expressed were positive. We could clearly see that the participantshad greatinterestin our experiment both technically and with regard to the technology s applicability or necessity. 3 7 5192

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 138 65 4 18 6 1 3 Applicability Not Applicability Fig. 14. Evaluation Result Regarding Technology Applicability 4.2 Evaluation about Time Delay and Stress 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 58 33 Not Feel Delayee Feel Delay Fig. 15. Evaluation Result Regarding How the Time Delay Felt 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 122 42 29 3 Not Stress Stress Fig. 16. Evaluation Result Regarding Stress during Performance Regarding the difference in network environment among the participating NTCs, operators felt the time delay when implementing the telecontrol via the Internet. The percentage of those who could feel the time delay properly was about 35%, as shown in Fig. 15. We also investigated whether the participants felt stressed when doing experiments with our telecontrol system. The result is shown 31 21 34 9 13 in Fig. 16. More than 7% answered that they did not feel stressed when doing experiments on our system. We conclude that with telecontrol via the Internet, although the time delay still exists during operation, our proposed system can guarantee a good performance in which the task completion of the operators will not be negatively influenced by the time delay. 4.3 Evaluation about Motivation for Control Engineering To investigate students motivation to learn control engineering, we asked, Are you willing to learn control engineering? This question was added to the questionnaire for 4 NCTs (SNCT, ONCT, INCT, and KuNCT), and the result is shown in Fig. 17. We received highly positive answers, with more than 7 3 25 2 15 1 5 17 2 Willingness to Learn 6 Not Willingness to Learn Fig. 17. Evaluation Result Regarding Motivation 5. CONCLUSION In this paper, an educational research project based on collaboration between NCTs and TUT is presented. We designed a basic intercollegiate research project to give students experience in telecontrol and considered experiencebased education contents using telecontrol via the Internet. Nine NCTs were chosen as project nodes, and we established experimental environments at each location and carried out the telecontrol experiments. We evaluated the basic experiments and experience-based education via a questionnaire survey given to the operators. More than 5 people participated in this project during a 3-year period. The evaluation results from 29 have been shown in this paper. More than 8% of participants said that our experiments were exciting and that they believed the technology had practical applicability. Next, we evaluated the influence of time delay during the operation throughtwo questions about feeling stressed and students perceptions of a time delay when doing the telecontrol experiment. More than 7% of participants answered that they did not feel stressed when using our system. By implementing experience-based education, we hope to improve the motivation for students to learn control engineering. We found that more than 7% of students stated a willingness to learn control engineering. Accordingly, achievement of the goals of our research project has been confirmed. In the future, we hope to construct new content 5 5193

Milano (Italy) August 28 - September 2, 211 in the field of experience-based education for students. Moreover, we plan to expand and continuously strengthen the partnership between TUT and an ever-growing number of NCTs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was supported and implemented by the TUT project collarboration research and education with NCTs. The authors would like to thank the Martin Buss Laboratory s staff of Munich Univeristy of Engineering, Germany, for its cooperation. REFERENCES Otto J.Roesch, Hubert Roth, Hamed Yahoui Virtual Labs in the Engineering Education: A Standardization Approach for Tele-Control. Journees EEA Section Electrotechnique, 17-18, Mars 25, Lyon, France. Yusuke Takamori, Kouta Tsukamoto, Takatoshi Nakamura, Shigenori Yamada, Toshihide Yamashita, Takafumi Suetsugu, Toshihiko Ogata, Masaaki Mizoguchi, Ryuichiro Nishimura, Makoto Otani, Hiroyuki Egashira, Hisaharu Tanaka, Kenzi Watanabe, Hiroki Kondo A Tele-Control Project over IPv6 in Technical High Schools. Symposium on Applications and the Internet- Workshops (SAINT 24 Workshops), 24, Tokyo, Japan. M. D. Duong, K. Terashima, T. Miyoshi and T. Imamura. Telerehabilitation Robot System with Haptic Feedback by Means of Brake and Deadband Control Towards Home Medical Welfare Support. Journal of the Institute of System, Control and Information Engineers, Vol. 2, No. 7, pages 39 32,. T. Miyoshi, K. Terashima, and M. Buss. A Design Method of Wave Filter for Stabilizing Non-Passive Operation System. Proceedings of 26 IEEE Int. Conf. on Control Applications, pages 1318 1324, October, 26. K. Miyake, T. Miyoshi, K.Terashima, H.Kitagawa, and A.Kaneshige Tele-control with Position and Force- Feedback Bilateral System Between National College and Toyohashi University of Technology. Proc. of Conf. on Joint Automatic Control, Vol.5th, pagerom- BUNNO.218,. M. Yamamoto, T. Miyoshi, and K. Terashima Hybrid Conveyance System of Overhead Crane with Teleoperation and Power Assist Function. Proc. of Annual Conf. on System Intergration Division, SICE, pages 411 412,. RTAI-Official Website. http://www.rtai.org/. Skype Official Site. http://www.skype.com/. 5194