Artificial Life and Robotics最新文献

{"title":"Developing multi-agent adversarial environment using reinforcement learning and imitation learning","authors":"Ziyao Han,&nbsp;Yupeng Liang,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Ohkura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00912-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00912-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A multi-agent system is a collection of autonomous, interacting agents that share a common environment. These entities observe their environment using sensors and interact with the environment. A multi-agent system that develops cooperative strategies by reinforcement learning does not perform well, mostly because of the sparse reward problem. This study conducts a 3D environment in which robots play the beach volleyball game. This study combines imitation learning (IL) with reinforcement learning (RL) to solve the sparse reward problem. The results show that the proposed approach gets a higher score in the Elo rating system and robots perform better than the conventional RL approach.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71910281","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":"Evaluation of methods for estimating autonomic nervous activity using a web camera","authors":"Miku Shimizu,&nbsp;Yu Matsumoto,&nbsp;Naoaki Itakura,&nbsp;Kuzuyuki Mito,&nbsp;Tota Mizuno","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00897-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00897-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>There is an increasing need for methods to estimate autonomic nerve activity, such as using autonomic nerve activity as an indicator of stress and to improve the activity environment, such that people can live more comfortably. In a previous study, a method for estimating autonomic nervous activity using facial thermal images was established. Such activity was evaluated by obtaining the differential temperature of the nasal region, which is a sympathetic index of autonomic nervous activity, and the less-affected forehead region. However, this method requires the use of an expensive far-infrared camera, which is difficult to obtain and is cited as a problem. Another study suggested acquiring pulse waves and heartbeats by obtaining changes in blood flow from the heart using real facial images. This was obtained using independent component analysis for each Red–Green–Blue (RGB [color model]) component value of the real image. However, the problem with this method is that it cannot evaluate autonomic nerve activity, such as thermal images, because it cannot examine changes in the blood flow in peripheral blood vessels. Therefore, in this study, a method for estimating autonomic nerve activity is proposed, with the same accuracy as thermal images, by obtaining changes in peripheral blood flow from real images taken with an easily usable web camera. To obtain the changes in peripheral blood flow from real images, we used the property that the incident depth of light entering the skin differs depending on the color component. By considering the difference between the R component (which enters the skin at the deepest depth) and the B component (which is almost reflected by the epidermis), we assumed that we could capture the blood flow in the widest range and measure the change in blood flow in the peripheral vasculature. To cause unpleasant irritation, an experiment was conducted in which participants performed a randomly assigned memorization task for 10 min. A rest period of 1 min was provided before and after the mental calculation task, and a subjective evaluation questionnaire was administered during the rest period and before the mental calculation task. The results showed that some subjects exhibited a significant decrease in the R-B component values when they noticed calculation errors, whereas others exhibited an increase in the R-B component values after completing the memorization task. Also, some subjects showed a correspondence between the variation of R-B component values and the results of the questionnaire. Additionally, compared to the conventional method, it was clear that we could obtain real-time and even fine variations in response to event switching. These results suggest that it is possible to evaluate autonomic nervous system activity from real image data to the same extent as from thermal images.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71910282","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":"“Unfavorable” environmental effects can also be beneficial: a simulation analysis of centipede-like swarm robots based on implicit control for navigation and exploration in unknown environments","authors":"Runze Xiao,&nbsp;Yusuke Tsunoda,&nbsp;Koichi Osuka","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00907-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00907-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this study, we propose a centipede-like swarm robotic system capable of utilizing “unfavorable” environmental effects such as robot–environment collisions, robot–robot collisions, signal noise, and signal interval, to aid navigation and exploration in 2D unknown environments. Traditional swarm robots demand complex systems to counteract “unfavorable” environmental effects, making the design of robots to handle unknown environments with theoretical infinite possibilities exceedingly challenging. In contrast, our approach does not view these “unfavorable” environmental effects as foes to be combated, but instead employs strategies like implicit control to convert them into beneficial influences on the task. This simplifies the swarm robot system, enabling navigation and exploration with only goal direction as the single input, eliminating the need for inter-robot observation, inter-robot communication and obstacle detection. Finally, we validate our system’s effectiveness through simulations in the CoppeliaSim environment, demonstrating the benefits of “unfavorable” environmental effects and the method’s universal applicability.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71909818","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":"Sea urchin survey system in coastal areas using a μ-ASV","authors":"Makoto Morito,&nbsp;Junichiro Tahara,&nbsp;Kouki Yoshimura,&nbsp;Hiroshi Matsunaga,&nbsp;Kenichiro Sato","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00910-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00910-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Currently, the phenomenon of ocean desertification, known as rocky shore denudation, is occurring all over the world. One of the causes is the feeding damage by sea urchins on seaweed beds called seagrass beds. To restore the seaweed beds, it is necessary to exterminate the proliferating sea urchins. We have developed an automated survey system that provides information on sea urchin habitat distribution and seafloor topography to streamline the extermination process. Based on a small surfboard-based ASV developed in our laboratory, an underwater camera and sonar are attached to the ASV (autonomous surface vehicle), which navigates automatically to collect data. By analyzing the obtained data, we were able to obtain the habitat distribution of sea urchins and a topographic map of the seafloor, which are necessary for sea urchin extermination.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135803381","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":"Swarm robots using Lévy walk with concession in targets exploration","authors":"Yoshiaki Katada,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Ohkura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00900-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00900-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the swarm robotics community, Lévy walk has been recognized as one of the most efficient search strategies for the environment, with sparse targets that robots have no prior knowledge of. Generally, Lévy walk is generated by following the Lévy distribution. Our previous results also confirmed that the Lévy walk outperformed the usual random walk for exploration strategy in real swarm robot experiments. On the other hand, it has been reported in several papers that each individual in swarm robots does not follow Lévy distribution due to collision avoidance from other robots, resulting in inefficient search. Therefore, we introduced concessions to the swarm robots to improve search efficiency. This paper investigated the performance of the Lévy walk with concession. Robots concede other robots when they receive the signal that other robots execute longer walks. We conducted a series of computer simulations varying ranges detecting other robots’ walk distance signals, the number of robots, the number of targets, and the distribution of targets. The results suggest that the search efficiency of Lévy walk was improved by concession. Furthermore, we confirmed that improving search efficiency saturates beyond the threshold of range detecting other robots’ walk distance signals.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71909422","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":"Comparison of the relationship between pectoral-fin movement and fin shape based on force index for fish-type balloon robot","authors":"Naoki Kagiya,&nbsp;Masafumi Uchida","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00903-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00903-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Balloon robots consist of a balloon body, which is filled with helium to provide buoyancy. In particular, fish-type balloon robots (FBRs) incorporate caudal- and pectoral-fin motions as their propulsion mechanism, which can be combined to realize complex motions. However, the propulsive force generated by the pectoral-fin motion is less, which is a disadvantage, and it is necessary to increase the propulsive force. Since the weight of FBR is limited, it is crucial to select a fin that can generate larger propulsive force at the same weight. In this study, pectoral fins with different shapes and materials are developed, and the propulsive force generated by various fin movements is measured. Finally, the results are compared and discussed relative to the influence of shape and softness on the propulsion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71909663","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":"Technical issues of underwater surveying in Urban rivers","authors":"Takahiro Kudo,&nbsp;Etsuro Shimizu","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00901-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00901-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) are expected to be used in logistics, transportation, security, etc. in the future. When operating a ship, we have to pay attention to invisible objects under the water. Objects above the water surface can be detected by the camera system. On the other hand, underwater objects are generally detected by acoustic sensors called “sonar”. Almost all sonar products are expensive, so it is not realistic to mount them on all MASS. Therefore, surveying underwater with a survey ship and preparing charts that includes underwater objects, it realizes safe and reasonable navigation of MASS. Since mobility systems for tourism and transportation are required in urban areas, MASS is one of the solutions for those systems in urban rivers. However, it is difficult surveying in urban rivers. This paper describes some experimental results, technical issues, and the solution for underwater surveying of urban rivers, for which the demand for MASS is expected to increase in the future.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71909694","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":"Basic analog–digital circuit for motion detection based on the vertebrate retina with low power consumption","authors":"Kimihiro Nishio,&nbsp;Arisa Fukuda","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00904-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00904-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Basic analog–digital motion detection circuits with low power consumption were proposed based on the vertebrate retina. The motion sensor based on the retina is constructed with a one- or two-dimensional array of the unit circuits. The proposed unit circuit for motion detection is constructed with an analog circuit for photoelectric conversion and the digital circuit for generating the motion signal. The metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors utilized to the analog circuits are operated in the subthreshold region. The analog circuit has the characteristic of the low power consumption. The proposed circuit was evaluated by the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) with the 0.6 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The test circuits of basic digital circuits were fabricated with the same process. In the simulation and the experiment, the power supply voltage was set to the low voltage. We found that the digital circuit becomes low power consumption because the MOS transistors was operated in the subthreshold region by setting the low voltage. The proposed circuit is characterized by the simple structure and the low power consumption. In the future, the novel motion detection sensor with low power consumption can be realized by applying the integrated circuits constructed with the array of the proposed unit circuits.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135094277","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":"Generating collective behavior of a robotic swarm using an attention agent with deep neuroevolution","authors":"Arumu Iwami,&nbsp;Daichi Morimoto,&nbsp;Naoya Shiozaki,&nbsp;Motoaki Hiraga,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Ohkura","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00902-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00902-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper focuses on generating collective behavior of a robotic swarm using an attention agent. The selective attention mechanism enables an agent to cope with environmental variations which are irrelevant to the task. This paper applies attention mechanisms to a robotic swarm for enhancing system-level properties, such as flexibility or scalability. To train an attention agent, evolutionary computations become a promising method, because a controller structure is not restricted by a gradient-based method. Therefore, this paper employs a deep neuroevolution approach to generating collective behavior in a robotic swarm. The experiments are conducted by computer simulations that consist of the Unity 3D game engine. The performance of the attention agent is compared with the convolutional neural network approach. The experimental results showed that the attention agent obtained generalization abilities in a robotic swarm similar to single-agent problems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71908790","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":"The optimization of sparse modeling for drowsiness estimation based on general facial skin temperature distribution","authors":"Atsushi Yoshida,&nbsp;Kosuke Oiwa,&nbsp;Akio Nozawa","doi":"10.1007/s10015-023-00898-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10015-023-00898-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In recent years, there has been a growing demand for drivers’ drowsiness detection technology in driver monitoring systems for level 3 automated vehicles. In a previous study, sparse modeling was applied to the facial skin temperature distribution which can be remotely measured with a thermography camera, achieving an estimation accuracy of about 74% in three stages. However, the constructed drowsiness estimation model had low generalization performance because it was an individual model, and the sparse modeling had the property of easily decomposing behavioral indicators other than drowsiness. Therefore, in the construction of a general model using sparse modeling, individual features among subjects may be preferentially decomposed, and a method to absorb these effects is needed. Thus, in this study, we devised an attempt to reduce the influence of decomposition of individual features by applying averaged faces. Partial averaging of images across subjects is thought to remove such effects. In this study, we attempted to construct a general model for drowsiness estimation by applying sparse modeling to facial thermal images averaged across subjects, and to examine the possibility of using averaged facial thermal images in constructing general model. As a result, we obtained an estimation accuracy of approximately 54.6% in average by applying averaging, which is 7% higher than that using the original images, and succeeded in reducing its standard deviation by 4–6.9%. As the result, modeling with averaged images was shown to be effective in improving generality.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46050,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Life and Robotics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71910947","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}