single-rb.php

JRM Vol.37 No.3 pp. 677-687
doi: 10.20965/jrm.2025.p0677
(2025)

Paper:

Practice of a Robotics Competition with Humans, Animals, and Robots Based on an Ekiden

Takuya Fujinaga* ORCID Icon, Moeko Tominaga** ORCID Icon, Daigo Katayama***, and Kazuo Ishii***

*Osaka Metropolitan University
1-1 Gakuen-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531, Japan

**Nishinippon Institute of Technology
1-11 Aratsu, Kanda-machi, Miyako-gun, Fukuoka 800-0394, Japan

***Kyushu Institute of Technology
2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 808-0196, Japan

Received:
February 16, 2024
Accepted:
January 29, 2025
Published:
June 20, 2025
Keywords:
robotics competition, robot coexistence society, sports, Ekiden
Abstract

The role of robots has evolved with recent technological innovations and social challenges, such as declining workforce. Robots are no longer confined to the industrial field but are becoming an integral part of daily lives. Consequently, their optional environment has shifted from factories to human living space. As the presence of robots in these environments continues to grow, human-robot interaction has emerged as a critical issue that requires further exploration. Robotics competitions serve as a platform for testing solutions to these challenges, with many events focused on advancing robot integration into society. However, a competition specifically designed for human-robot coexistence has not yet been proposed. This study aims to present a vision for a future society where humans and robots coexist. To facilitate discussions on this concept, we organized a robotics competition in which humans, animals, and robots can participate. Accordingly, we designed a robotics competition incorporating humans, animals, and robots based on a relay race, known as Ekiden. Furthermore, we outlined the design principles of the competition, described its rules and results, and evaluated the validity of these rules.

Scene at the start of this Ekiden

Scene at the start of this Ekiden

Cite this article as:
T. Fujinaga, M. Tominaga, D. Katayama, and K. Ishii, “Practice of a Robotics Competition with Humans, Animals, and Robots Based on an Ekiden,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.37 No.3, pp. 677-687, 2025.
Data files:
References
  1. [1] M. Asada and H. Kitano, “RoboCup initiative as a new research project,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.18, No.8, pp. 1081-1084, 2000 (in Japanese).
  2. [2] T. van der Zant and T. Wisspeintner, “RoboCup X: A proposal for a new league where RoboCup goes real world,” Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol.4020, pp. 166-172, 2006.
  3. [3] R. Jahanmahin, S. Masoud, J. Rickli et al., “Human-robot interactions in manufacturing: A survey of human behavior modeling,” Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol.78, Issue C, Article No.102404, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2022.102404
  4. [4] S. K. Card, T. P. Moran, and A. Newell, “The keystroke-level model for user performance time with interactive systems,” Communications of the ACM, Vol.23, Issue 7, pp. 396-410, 1980. https://doi.org/10.1145/358886.358895
  5. [5] S. Yamada and T. Yamaguchi, “Mutual adaptation to mind mapping in human-agent interaction,” Proc. of IEEE Int. Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 105-110, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2002.1045606
  6. [6] H. Okada, T. Inamura, and K. Wada, “What is the purpose of the world robot summit service category,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.37, No.3, pp. 218-223, 2019 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.7210/jrsj.37.218
  7. [7] K. Ishii, T. Matsuo, Y. Takemura et al., “Report on the 8th Tomato Harvesting competition toward smart agriculture,” Int. Conf. on Artificial Life and Robotics, pp. 486-490, 2023.
  8. [8] Y. Hara, T. Tomizawa, H. Date et al., “Tsukuba Challenge 2019: Task settings and experimental results,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.32, No.6, pp. 1104-1111, 2020. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2020.p1104
  9. [9] T. Fujinaga, M. Tominaga, D. Katayama et al., “Gakken hills interdisciplinary Ekiden competing with humans, animals, and robots,” Int. Conf. on Artificial Life and Robotics, Vol.29, pp. 638-641, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5954/ICAROB.2024.OS20-14
  10. [10] L. Jaeger, R. de S. Baptista, C. Basla et al., “How the CYBATHLON competition has advanced assistive technologies,” Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, Vol.6, pp. 447-476, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-control-071822-095355
  11. [11] G. Carbone, E. M. Curcio, S. Rodinò et al., “A Robot-Sumo student competition at UNICAL as a learning-by-doing strategy for STEM education,” STEM Education, Vol.2, Issue 3, pp. 262-274, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3934/steme.2022016
  12. [12] W. Standeat, “Digital growth strategies at Drone Racing League,” J. of Information Technology Teaching Cases, Vol.11, Issue 1, pp. 2-7, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043886920939252
  13. [13] S. Kajita, M. Morisawa, S. Nakaoka et al., “Development and lessons learned in DARPA Robotics Challenge finals,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.34, Issue 6, pp. 360-365, 2016 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.7210/jrsj.34.360
  14. [14] M. Azusa, “Biped robot kit born by ROBO-ONE,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.24, No.1, pp. 36-40, 2006 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.7210/jrsj.24.36
  15. [15] R. Alami, J. Biswas, M. Cakmak et al., “RoboCup 2021: Robot World Cup XXIV,” Springer, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98682-7
  16. [16] A. Causo, J. Durham, K. Hauser et al., “Advances on Robotic Item Picking,” Springer, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35679-8
  17. [17] Y. Xiang, J. Li, Y. Zhu et al., “A design of micromouse based on ARM,” 2022 7th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Informatics and Biomedical Science, pp. 62-65, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIIBMS55689.2022.9971634
  18. [18] T. Yoshida, “Education of embedded software technology through ET robot software design contest,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.38, No.9, pp. 805-808, 2020 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.7210/jrsj.38.805
  19. [19] S. T. Kempers, D. M. J. Hameeteman, R. M. Beumer at al., “Tech United Eindhoven Middle Size League Winner 2022,” RoboCup 2022: Robot World Cup XXV, pp. 337-348, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28469-4_28
  20. [20] Y. Nakagawa, “Let’s try AI/Robot contest for education/development for company,” J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.38, No.9, pp. 825-828, 2020 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.7210/jrsj.38.825
  21. [21] H. Asama, “Robotics in Heisei: A review—Trends and future prospects of robot technology—,” J. of the Japan Society for Precision Engineering, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 23-27, 2020 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.2493/jjspe.86.23
  22. [22] T. Fujinaga, “Strawberries recognition and cutting point detection for fruit harvesting and truss pruning,” Precision Agriculture, Vol.25, pp. 1262-1283, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10110-z
  23. [23] M. Tominaga, Y. Takemura, and K. Ishii, “Behavior learning system for robot soccer using neural network,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.35, No.5, pp. 1385-1392, 2023. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2023.p1385

*This site is desgined based on HTML5 and CSS3 for modern browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera.

Last updated on Jun. 20, 2025