Keynote Speakers

Ph.D. in Tribology, University of Pisa (I), March 2002. Since 2002, he was researcher of Mechanics of Machine Systems as well as teacher of subjects in the area of Mechatronics, Dynamics of Machines, Mechanical Vibrations, Industrial Measurements. Associate professor (2014-2021), then full professor (2021-current) at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno, he has been serving as teacher of Mechanical Vibrations (M.Sc. Mechanical Eng.) and Mechatronics (B.Sc. Mechanical Eng.). Since 2001 through 2010, he also served as teacher of Mechanics of Machine Systems at Università degli Studi del Sannio, in Benevento, Italy. Visiting scientist at Technical University of Berlin (D) under a mobility program funded by DAAD-Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Technical Editor (TE) of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics and member of editorial boards of 5 journals, responsible and scientific coordinator of projects of technology transfer.

Yung-Tien Liu was born in Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1961. He received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1993 and 1999, respectively. 

He was ever employed as a foreman and an engineer in Steel Cooperation. In 1999, he was a Researcher at RIKEN, Japan. In the same year, he became a faculty of National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology. From 2009, he is currently a Professor at the same university. 

Professor Liu obtained awards from Japan 2001 Electro Mechanic Technology Advancing Foundation, 2004 Mitutoyo Association for Science and Technology (MAST), and 2011 Chairperson-ship Award from Japan Society of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (JSAEM).

His research interests include advanced mechatronics, aspheric ultraprecision machining, precision positioning using piezoelectric actuator, on-machine measurement, and development of fast/slow tool servo.

Abstract: Tribology is the field of research within mechanical engineering and material science areas focusing on the surface interaction in sliding relative motion, involving very often fluids to reduce friction and wear. Wear and friction are the obvious result and, along with the frequent cases where they appear as detrimental phenomena, in many industrial applications it could be even desired an increase in friction to enhance the behaviour of dynamic systems such as brakes, clutches, etc.

Once the optimization of materials, bearings geometry, textured surfaces, lubricants and additives reached an asymptotic state, interesting performance boosting can be expected in the field of tribotronics with the introduction of: smart fluids to actively control vibrations in industrial, automotive systems, dampers and bearings; active surfaces to modulate flexibility or grip or oil wedge; ferrofluids and magnetorheological fluids to promote particles motions in complex nano- and micro-devices.

A successful combination of the knowledge gained in tribology, electronics, control engineering and mechatronics allows great potential of development of new generation devices to improve functional performances in transport systems and industrial field.

Abstract: Recently, due to rapid development of photoelectric industry, the need for precision mold/die with micro feature is more and more important. The applications of photoelectric products can be largely found in micro lens array for light emitting device, head-up display of windscreen, and compensation lens for laser light, etc. Usually, the manufacture of such mold/die requires the so-called fast tool servo (FTS) or slow tool servo (STS). The FTS is an auxiliary device of tool holder incorporating with the existing machine tool. The most popular tool holders are made of piezoelectric (PZT) actuator and voice coil motor (VCM). In this speech, the development of PZT tool holder is presented. In the beginning, the major applications and classification of FTS/STS are addressed, then, the characteristic of PZT tool holder is described and the progress of PZT tool holder from one single axis to multi-axis is provided. In addition, the smart PZT tool holder with embedded sensor is introduced. To improve positioning performance, several control schemes of tradition and modern controls of linear and nonlinear sliding mode controls (SMCs) for non-axisymmetric aspheric machining are mentioned. Finally, a conclusion is drawn and future issues of research are pointed out.

Joon-wan Kim was born in Seoul, Korea in 1974. He received his degree of Bachelor of Science in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 1999. As a research student, He joined the Department of Precision Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo in 1999 and entered the master course in 2000. He received the degree of Master of Science in 2002 and his Ph.D. at the same department in 2005. He was also a Junior Research Associate (2002~2005) at Materials Fabrication Laboratory, RIKEN. He was an Assistant Professor (2005~2013) and an Associate Professor (2013-2023) at Tokyo Institute of Technology. Since April 2023, he has been a Full Professor in the Institute of Innovative Research (IIR), Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Naoki Asakawa was born in Japan in 1965. He entered master course of University of Electro-Communications in 1989 and received the degree of master (engineering) in 1991. He joined University of Electro-Communications as research associate (1991-1998) and lecturer (1998). He received the degree of doctor (engineering) in 1997. He joined Kanazawa university as lecturer (1998-2002), assistant professor (2002-2013) and professor (2013-). His research fields are - Production system, Application of industrial robot, CAD/CAM system, Mechatronics and Support system for visually impaired.

Abstract: In the lab-on-a-chip field, downsizing a bulky syringe pump is critical. However, miniaturizing the syringe pump is challenging because the frictional force in the mechanically sliding part increases due to the scale effect. Therefore, we aims to develop a novel microsyringe pump actuated by ECF (Electro conjugate fluid) with no mechanical sliding parts. The ECF can generate a jet flow when a high DC voltage is applied to the electrodes. The microsyringe pump is conceptually composed of three parts: (a) ECF micropump as a driving source; (b) microchannel having a boundary between ECF (oil) and aqueous solution as a syringe; (c) a valve element. First, a microsyringe pump with the nozzle shape channel as a valve is developed. We confirm that the liquid interface reciprocates in the microchannel by the flow from the ECF pump and functions as a micropiston and a microcylinder. Also, the necessity of an active valve is suggested to improve the diodicity. Second, the microsyringe pump integrated with two ECF pumps to withdraw/infuse an aqueous solution and actuate active valves is developed. Experimental results show that pumping can be performed at various flow rates (µL/min) without pulsating flow by merely changing the applied voltage.

Abstract: Today, 3D-CAD system can be easily used in many design fields. On the other hand, as for CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), it is still difficult to develop in spite of its high needs for multi-axis machine tools etc. Even if a new interesting CAM idea is conceived, it is not easy to start from basic program to reach the coding of the idea. The Kodatuno project was launched to solve such CAM development problems. The project has developed and published a free and open-source calculation library necessary for CAM development. That kind of library is called "CAM kernel", but in fact, it can be used for general purpose software development related to digital engineering that handles free-form surfaces, not just for CAM but for CAT, CAE etc. We, the core team, hope that the library will be used by many people to casually experience CAM application development, and mutual cooperation among them will improve technology level in the field. In the presentation, operating conditions, development environment and functions of Kodatuno are shown. In addition to that, examples of actual use in various research groups are also shown to invite you to fantastic digital manufacturing world.

Minkyun Noh received the B.S. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2012, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Since 2022, he is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. Prior to joining KAIST, he was a Postdoctoral Associate with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) laboratory at MIT for a year and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, Canada for three years. His research centers on the design and control of precision mechatronic systems, with applications to future mobility, energy conversion, semiconductor manufacturing, and biomedical devices.

Abstract: Bearingless motors are a special type of electric machines where a single stator levitates and rotates the rotor, thereby eliminating the need for mechanical bearings. These motors are suitable for applications that benefit from contact-free operations, such as extracorporeal blood pumps, high-purity pumps for semiconductor manufacturing process, and high power-density turbomachinery. In this talk, I will present the operating principle, electromagnetic design, and control systems of bearingless motors, and discuss the recent development in our group.