Motion control for real-world haptics: Human-support mechatronics technology

Prof. Fumio Harashima had driven the 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program for human-adaptive mechatronics [1] as a subleader from 2003 to 2008, when he was the president of Tokyo Denki University. This program mainly focused on the development of the significant technological breakthroughs in mechatronics and on the cultivation of distinguished young researchers in the field. This project was concluded with a great deal of success. This is one of his significant contributions to the establishment of a solid platform of human-support mechatronics technology [2]-[5]. The authors have discussed with him about the human-support mechatronics technology for a long time. They have shared a future prospect of mechatronics for human support. As one of their common understandings, they noticed that the development of a new mechatronics technology based on humans sensations and actions will be a key for the physical human support. From this background of their deep friendship, a short review about real-world haptics, which can achieve the remote physical support for human activities and the communication of humans tactile sensation, is presented as a tribute to Prof. Fumio Harashima.