Dr. Izuhara’s Team Wins Excellent Research and Technology Award from RSJ

A research team that included Dr. Shunsuke Izuhara, Assistant Professor of Nagamori Institute of Actuators at KUAS, has been awarded the 4th Excellent Research and Technology Award by the Robotics Society of Japan. The award was given to research presented at the 40th annual conference of the Robotics Society of Japan that has contributed to the development of robotics. Dr. Izuhara’s team was awarded for the development of a compact spherical ultrasonic motor for wide-field endoscopy. The research involved the development of a compact ultrasonic motor that rotates a sphere with a diameter of approximately 5 mm. While a conventional electromagnetic motor rotates a cylinder about the axis, the proposed motor can move the sphere like an eye. This eye-catching motor can be used to operate the camera of an inspection device such as an endoscope and is expected to be applied in relevant fields.

(Tadayuki, Imai, Faculty of Engineering)