Artificial Life and Robotics最新文献

{"title":"Noninvasive blood pressure estimation based on spatial remote photoplethysmography using an attentional feature fusion module","authors":"Ryosuke Imai,&nbsp;Sae Kawasaki,&nbsp;Rio Ishiguro,&nbsp;Kota Toyama,&nbsp;Masato Takahashi,&nbsp;Norimichi Tsumura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01055-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01055-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this study, we propose a noninvasive blood pressure estimation method using spatial remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). Multiple regions of interest were set to cover the entire face in the captured RGB facial video, and rPPG signals were extracted from each region. The pulse wave contour, pulse beat, and derivative features were obtained from the extracted data and input into a neural network with an attention feature fusion module to extract essential features while reducing bias among them. The relationship between the features and blood pressure was modeled using this network, and the blood pressure was estimated. Finally, an experiment-wise 5-fold cross-validation was performed on a dataset of six subjects. When compared to the ground truth, the correlation coefficients for the systolic and diastolic blood pressure were 0.79 and 0.75, respectively, with mean absolute errors of 6.25 mmHg and 3.45 mmHg, outperforming the conventional method.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"687 - 692"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Resting blood pressure estimation from a low-resolution single thermal facial image","authors":"Hana Furudate,&nbsp;Kent Nagumo,&nbsp;Akio Nozawa","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01062-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01062-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In recent years, the prevalence of hypertension has increased, making routine blood pressure monitoring crucial for early detection and prevention. Our research group focused on facial skin temperature, a cardiovascular indicator that can be remotely measured using infrared thermography. It has been studied for non-contact blood pressure estimation based on the spatial characteristics of captured thermal facial images (TFIs). Previous studies have estimated the resting blood pressure based on spatial features extracted by applying independent component analysis (ICA) to acquired TFIs. In practical applications, the use of low-resolution TFIs is considered cost-effective and advantageous for reducing the burden of data management owing to the smaller data volume. However, the reduced resolution could potentially result in the loss of critical information necessary for accurate blood pressure estimation. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate whether low-resolution TFIs can maintain sufficient estimation accuracy for practical implementation. In this study, we developed a resting blood pressure estimation model using low-resolution TFIs with a resolution of 160 <span>(times)</span> 120 pixels. We compared its estimation accuracy with that of a conventional model employing higher-resolution TFIs (320 <span>(times)</span> 256 pixels). Following the procedure used in the previous studies, ICA was applied to the TFIs, and a linear support vector regression (SVR) model was constructed using the weights of the selected independent components as input features achieving a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 13.1 mmHg and a correlation coefficient (<i>r</i>) of 0.369.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"725 - 732"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10015-025-01062-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A smart fish feeding robot integrated with a water level control and an IoT-based monitoring system using PI and PID controllers","authors":"Abdul Kadir Muhammad,&nbsp;Dermawan Dermawan,&nbsp;Ahmad Nur","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01063-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01063-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study aims to develop a smart fish feeding robot integrated with a water level control and an Internet of Things (IoT)-based monitoring system for aquaculture ponds. The proposed system comprises several key components, namely, a feed storage tank, a feed distribution mechanism, a feed ejection mechanism, an ejector position turning mechanism, a water level control system, a structural base, and a solar-powered energy supply. Three DC motors serve as actuators for the mechanical subsystems, while ultrasonic sensors are deployed to measure both feed quantity and water levels. The water level control operates through two water pumps, one for draining excess water when the level surpasses a predefined maximum threshold, and the other for filling when the level drops below a minimum threshold. The IoT-based system facilitates real-time control and monitoring of both feeding and water conditions. The control algorithms comprise On–Off and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers for actuator regulation, whereas the water pumps are controlled using a Proportional-Integral (PI) controller. The PID controller is particularly employed for the feed ejection mechanism to maintain precise angular velocity and prevent feed degradation, whereas On–Off controller suffices for the other two mechanisms due to their lower precision requirements. Experimental evaluations show consistent feeding performance, with mass of ejected feed remained consistently within a narrow range of 500–510 [g] for the setting of 500 [g] and 1000–1010 [g] for the setting of 1000 [g], while the ejection longest distance remained within the range of 6.4–6.8 [m], across, respectively, ten ejections experiment. The ejection motor reached the desired speed of 1600 [rpm] in approximately 1.5 [s]. The water level control system successfully achieved the target level of 32 [cm] in approximately 45 [s]. These findings confirm the reliability and stability of the developed robotic system for sustainable aquaculture practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"742 - 751"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shape classification of nailfold capillaries using convolutional neural network","authors":"Rio Ishiguro,&nbsp;Sae Kawasaki,&nbsp;Ryosuke Imai,&nbsp;Kota Toyama,&nbsp;Masato Takahashi,&nbsp;Norimichi Tsumura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01052-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01052-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Nailfold capillaries, which are located at the base of the fingernail, provide a non-invasive window into peripheral microcirculation and are valuable for the early detection of systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and scleroderma, with abnormalities in capillary morphology, such as twisting and enlargement, indicative of vascular damage due to factors such as glucose accumulation. Traditional imaging modalities such as ultrasound and laser imaging have been used to evaluate peripheral blood vessels; however, such methods are often expensive and burdensome. Recently, the use of machine learning with microscopic imaging has shown promise in classifying capillary structures. However, these methods typically require large, annotated datasets, limiting the practicality; thus, we propose a novel approach that uses transfer learning to classify the shape of nailfold capillaries, specifically the presence or absence of capillary twisting. A pre-trained model based on fundus vessel images was fine-tuned for this task, leveraging the structural similarity between retinal and nailfold capillaries. The proposed method was found to achieve accurate and efficient classification even with a limited nailfold dataset, demonstrating its potential for practical clinical use.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"653 - 657"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10015-025-01052-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A study on dynamic retinal vessel evaluation using a compact near-infrared fundus imaging system","authors":"Masaya Kinefuchi,&nbsp;Norio Iijima,&nbsp;Hironari Takehara,&nbsp;Jun Ohta,&nbsp;Naoto Hara,&nbsp;Yasuaki Kamata,&nbsp;Chawan Koopipat,&nbsp;Masato Takahashi,&nbsp;Norimichi Tsumura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01061-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01061-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study proposes a compact, low-cost near-infrared fundus imaging system that addresses the limitations of conventional large and expensive devices, enabling non-invasive and non-mydriatic retinal evaluation. Retinal videos were acquired using a monochrome camera, followed by motion correction based on template matching, and vessel enhancement using an isotropic wavelet transform. Time-series changes in vessel diameter, arteriovenous ratio (AVR), and pulse waveforms were extracted from time-series changes in vessel diameter. The acquired images enabled clear visualization of retinal structures, such as the optic disc and blood vessels, and the measured AVR values ranged from 0.67 to 0.88 across five healthy participants. Furthermore, the retinal pulse waveforms showed a weak correlation with the average inter-peak intervals of the fingertip photoplethysmography signals, suggesting the system can capture cardiac-induced periodicity. These preliminary findings also suggest that the system has potential for extracting physiological information. Unlike conventional large and expensive devices using visible light, the proposed system offers a less burdensome, non-invasive alternative suitable for home-based applications. In future work, we aim to increase the number of participants and conduct more clinically oriented studies to validate the system.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"715 - 724"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10015-025-01061-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maneuvering support system for air cushion vehicle","authors":"Ryota Hayashi,&nbsp;Hisanori Amano,&nbsp;Tetsuya Kinugasa,&nbsp;Koji Yoshida","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01060-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01060-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this study, we have developed a maneuvering support system for an air cushion vehicle (ACV) model. A driver can maneuver the ACV model without its drift motion by using the proposed maneuvering support system. The ACV model aims to track the trajectory which is generated from the driver’s maneuvering inputs. We refer to the trajectory as a maneuvering trajectory. In our previous study, the behavior of the ACV model became frequently unstable and it resulted in being a runaway ACV model in the case of the presence of some disturbance. In this paper, we propose an anti-runaway system for the ACV model in the case of the presence of some disturbance. When the deviation of the actual trajectory of the ACV model from the maneuvering trajectory becomes significant, the maneuvering trajectory is reset to align with the actual trajectory. Then we investigate the effects of the anti-runaway system on the maneuverability of the ACV model.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"707 - 714"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploration of deep reinforcement learning method for cooperative control of connected automated vehicles at a roundabout","authors":"Reo Nakaya,&nbsp;Tomohiro Harada,&nbsp;Yukiya Miura,&nbsp;Kiyohiko Hattori,&nbsp;Johei Matsuoka","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01056-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01056-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study explores a deep reinforcement learning mechanism to obtain cooperative driving control of connected autonomous vehicles at a roundabout. A roundabout is one of the intersections without signal control, and we focus on it because high-level cooperation is required to merge and branch off at each junction. This study introduces three new mechanisms to the previous model that enable learning cooperative control: (<span>(textrm{i})</span>) curriculum learning that decreases the new vehicle departure interval during the training so that the number of vehicles in a roundabout gradually increases, (<span>(textrm{ii})</span>) utilization of information about the vehicle’s destination, and (<span>(textrm{iii})</span>) an additional penalty for approaching walls and other vehicles for safe driving. We conducted simulation experiments to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The experimental results showed that the proposed methods enable the acquisition of cooperative vehicle control that can arrive at each destination while reducing the collision rate.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"31 1","pages":"46 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10015-025-01056-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fundamental research on active object search via visual and UWB positioning","authors":"Kotaro Ozawa,&nbsp;Sousuke Nakamura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01059-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01059-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Active object search (AOS) is an approach used in mobile robots for object search. Based on the type of sensors equipped on the robot, AOS methods can be broadly classified into those primarily relying on visual information, known as active visual search (AVS), and those leveraging RF positioning data. Existing research has proposed object search systems that integrate visual and RF information. By combining these two types of data, such systems mitigate the individual limitations of each approach, thereby improving the efficiency of object search. Nonetheless, when objects of identical appearance are located nearby within the search space, they become indiscernible, posing a significant challenge to the search process’s efficacy. This paper proposes a new AOS system that combines AVS with an indoor positioning system using ultra-wideband (UWB) to address this challenge. This approach enables efficient object search and ensures accurate identification of target objects, even when visually indistinguishable objects are located near one another. Experimental results show that the system can search for the target object regardless of the initial posture and can acquire the object’s three-dimensional appearance as voxel information. Furthermore, the system successfully identified the target object even when the experimenters placed a visually indistinguishable object beside it.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"693 - 706"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human swarming behavior: multiple ordered states and inherent noises","authors":"Hisashi Murakami,&nbsp;Takenori Tomaru,&nbsp;Yuta Nishiyama,&nbsp;Claudio Feliciani,&nbsp;Takayuki Niizato","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01058-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01058-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Many animal groups display self-organized collective patterns of motion. Human crowds also offer various examples of self-organization, including flocking behavior similar to that seen in fish schools and bird flocks. While previous studies on human flocks or swarms have investigated the influence of individual vision on local interactions, the global properties and the change in interaction network at the group level remain elusive. Here, we show that human swarms can transition between multiple collective states, and their interaction networks are not fixed in time, similar to other animal groups. We tracked trajectories of participants walking together in an experimental arena and observed that they can exhibit well-organized collective behavior. In particular, human swarm composed of fifteen individuals showed transitions between two ordered states: polarized and milling groups. Individual noisy movements may contribute to these transitions. Indeed, we found that individual participants continuously change their relative positions with respect to their neighbors in a directed group, allowing for interactions with various neighbors. We expect that our findings provide insights to understand fundamental mechanisms underlying behavior in human crowds and nonhuman animal groups.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"31 1","pages":"213 - 217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147340178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Path Reuse-based state machine for fast and safe motion planning in autonomous industrial robots","authors":"Soma Fumoto,&nbsp;Tsubasa Watanabe,&nbsp;Takeshi Nishida","doi":"10.1007/s10015-025-01054-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-025-01054-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In high-mix industrial environments, where task requirements change frequently, motion planners must adapt rapidly without extensive retraining or manual redesign. This study presents a state machine construction method that incorporates the previously proposed Path-Reuse (PR) algorithm. PR stores past robot trajectories and efficiently adapts them to new start–goal pairs with minimal computation, enabling the autonomous generation of safe and executable paths for articulated robots. By leveraging PR, the proposed method eliminates both the large datasets and expert intervention that are often required by learning-based approaches. Experiments in dynamically changing work cells compared the method with state machines that employ conventional planners such as RRT-connect and STOMP. The state machine incorporating the PR method significantly shortened planning times and increased success rates in collision-rich conditions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":"30 4","pages":"678 - 686"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}