Academic experts described robots that can help with daily life, and Renesas explained the technology roadmap for the SuperH family

Renesas and Hitachi established the SuperH Forum as a way of contributing in areas such as education and research and development into advanced technologies such as robotics and software. The Sixth SuperH Open Forum was held on August 24th, 2007 in the Higashi-Ochanomizu Building (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) to present results of this work and to disclose news of developments in the SuperH family of 32-bit microcomputers. This article summarizes the presentations that were made at the prestigious annual event.

The Sixth SuperH Open Forum consisted of presentations on the latest research results from specialists in the fields of robotics and software. Approximately 200 researchers, engineers and students attended the informative August 24, 2007 event.

The first presentation in the forum's opening session was "The PAS Lifestyle Support Service Robot System" by Makoto Mizukawa, a Professor at the Shibaura Institute of Technology. The PAS (Physical Agent System) robot system developed by Professor Mizukawa is a semi-automatic robot that can be operated remotely using a laser pointer or similar device. The robot incorporates a number of different technologies, including a self-propulsion system, arm movement control, and image processing. Mr. Mizukawa's presentation also covered "RT middleware," the core technology used to combine these various functions, and ORiN, a standard communication interface used in robots and other factory automation equipment.

The next presentation was "Implementation and Modeling of Core Embedded Software Resources for Reusable Development" by Assistant Professor Harumi Watanabe of Tokai University. Ms. Watanabe, whose research covers development methodologies for embedded software, presented techniques for reusing existing resources as a way to achieve higher quality and better productivity. Her presentation described product-line development technology, aspect orientation and feature modeling. Ms. Watanabe also discussed the effectiveness of development methods that use goal-oriented implementation supported by feature modeling.

The final presentation in the first session was "Personal Assistant Robot Partner System" by Assistant Professor Yasuhisa Hirata of Tohoku University, who described three specialized robots. The first was a robot that responds in a passive and harmonious way to human movement, the "Mr. Helper" transportation assistance robot. It helps people carry objects by supporting the weight of the objects with a structure that incorporates springs and dampers. Another was the "Dance Partner Robot" that can be a partner to a person who is performing ballroom dancing. The third robot was the "RT Walker" walking support system, which guides the user using brakes rather than motors. In addition, Mr. Hirata described modeling of human intentions as a way of improving the operation of these robots.

The second session of the forum commenced with Jun Hasegawa of Renesas Technology giving a presentation entitled "Trends in SuperH Technology." It described the transition to multi-core technology, and also summarized the technology roadmap for the SuperH family, which will enable more advanced capabilities for robots and many other applications. Mr. Hasegawa explained how the first multi-core model to be released will be the SH2A-DUAL, which incorporates two SH-2A CPUs. This dual-core design uses asynchronous multi-processing (AMP), whereby each core runs a different OS. A multi-layer bus is used to distribute and isolate different CPU functions. Mr. Hasegawa also described a prototype SH-4 multi-core chip that incorporates four SH-4A CPU cores, and showed demonstration MPEG-2 images using the prototype chip.

The next presentation, from Yasuo Hayashibara, an Assistant Professor at the Chiba Institute of Technology, was entitled "Robot Development and Training Using Renesas CPUs." Mr. Hayashibara has been using H8 microcomputers to develop robots as practical training exercises for students since 1999. He presented results of this training and described his students' victory at the international "RoboCup" robot contest. Additionally, Mr. Hayashibara explained how his latest robots use SH-4 and SH-2 CPUs and described the necessary CPU and other performance criteria from the perspective of extensive experience in robot construction.

The final presentation at the forum was "Image Matching Technology Using Phase Information and its Application" from Professor Takafumi Aoki of Tohoku University. Professor Aoki is working on research into the phase-limited correlation method, which looks for correlations in the phase-difference spectrum to perform image matching of images at the fine sub-pixel level. He described the results of his research and its applications in component positioning systems, book-binding inspection equipment, electron-microscope auto-focusing, biometric verification, and elsewhere. Professor Aoki also explained how the 3D imaging of faces, roads, and other objects can be performed by applying the phase-limited correlation method to the images from two cameras.

These lectures and presentations helped the engineers, researchers, and students who attended the Sixth SuperH Open Forum deepen their understanding of the latest technology. The attendees were also able to get a feel for the expanding scope of applications for devices in the SuperH family and to gain a reinforced appreciation of the important roles that these microcomputers are playing in various different fields.