Non-verbal communication is important in human interaction. It provides a layer of information that complements the message being transmitted. This type of information is not limited to human speakers. In human– robot communication, increasing the animacy of the robotic agent—by using non-verbal cues—can aid the expression of abstract concepts such as emotions. Considering the physical limitations of artificial agents, robots can use light and movement to express equivalent emotional feedback. This study analyzes the effects of LED and motion animation of a spherical robot on the emotion being expressed by the robot. A within-subjects experiment was conducted at the University of Tsukuba where participants were asked to rate 28 video samples of a robot interacting with a person. The robot displayed different motions with and without light animations. The results indicated that adding LED animations changes the emotional impression of the robot for valence, arousal, and dominance dimensions. Furthermore, people associated various situations according to the robot’s behavior. These stimuli can be used to modulate the intensity of the emotion being expressed and enhance the interaction experience. This paper facilitates the possibility of designing more affective robots in the future, using simple feedback.

Li reacts with N2 at room temperature. In order to activate Li, the mechanical milling of Li with stable metal oxide, namely, Al2O3 and MgO, using a high energy vibrating ball mill was performed. In the case of Li-MgO system, it reacts with N2, but hardly reacts with O2. The reaction with N2 generally produces Li3N, while for some vigorous reactions the Mg3N2 is produced as the major phases. In the case of Li-Al2O3 system, reactivities with both N2 and O2 are high. The difference is explained in terms of the reaction mechanism and the Li state.

In recent years, PCB drills with smaller diameters less than 0.1 mm are used and thus there are growing needs for ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. However, ultra-fine WC powder usually causes extraordinary grain growth during sintering which weakens mechanical strength of ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. So we examined several kinds of WC powders to make new ultra-fine grained cemented carbides having superior performance. We found that direct carburized WC powder is very good as a WC raw material. The PCB drills made of the developed ultra-fine grained cemented carbides have higher hardness, toughness and stiffness than conventional ones.

In this study, nano grain W is fabricated by Severe Plastic Deformation-Powder Metallurgy (SPD-PM) process. W powder and W-Re powder mixtures are processed by SPD-PM process, a Mechanical Milling (MM) process. As results, a nano grain structure, whose grain size is approximately 20nm, is obtained in W powder after MM for 360ks. A nano grain W compact, whose grain size 630nm, has excellent deformability above 1273K. A nano grain W-10Re compact is composed of equiaxed grain, a grain growth is restrained and has low dislocation density after the large deformation; therefore it is considered that W-Re compact shows superplasticity.