• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.321-328
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose a walk status method which can be fused with conventional walk intention method to improve convenience of an electric assistive walking system for elder people with restricted walking capabilities. The system uses a handlebar as a trigger and regards grabbing a handlebar as expressing will to walk. And the system uses a user's linear velocity and angular velocity as linear velocity and angular velocity of a system, checked by laser range finder. To achieve this, we propose a method to find a virtual central point of a human body by estimating a central point between two legs. The experiments are carried out by comparing user's linear velocity and angular velocity, and system's linear velocity and angular velocity. The results show that the error of linear velocity and angular velocity between a user and a system are 1% and 2.77%, which means the linear velocity and angular velocity of a user can be applied to a system. And it is confirmed that the proposed fusion method can prevent a user from being dragged by an assistive walking system or a malfunction caused by lack of experience

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.503-515
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• 2011

We developed a walking-assistance robot for walking rehabilitation and assessed the kinematic characteristics of a prototype. The walking-assistance robot is composed of hip, knee, and ankle joints, and each joint is driven by a motor with a decelerator. The equations of angular displacement while walking were derived by theoretically analyzing human locomotion, and the calculated angular displacements were then applied to the robot controller. The output angular displacement of each joint was measured and compared with its input angular displacement in walking experiments on a treadmill at various walking speeds and strides. The differences between the input and output angular displacements are 5.22% for the hip and 2.97% for the knee joints, and it has been confirmed that the walking-assistance robot works well.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07c
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• pp.2907-2910
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• 2003

시각장애인의 보행을 보조할 목적으로 설치된 점자보도블록은 보행방향과 정지 정보를 제공하지만, 현재 위치에 대한 정보는 제공 할 수 없어서 보행 보조물로써의 기능이 매우 제한되어 있다. 본 연구에서는 최근 IT 기술중 하나인 RFID(Radio Frequency Identification)를 내장한 새로운 개념의 점자보도블록과 이를 활용하여 보행을 유도할 수 있는 시스템을 제안하고자 한다. 점자보도블록에는 RFID 태그와 안테나를 삽입하여 현재 위치에 대한 정보를 저장하며, 백색지팡이에는 이 정보를 읽어 들이기 위한 리더기를 설치한다. 현재위치에 대한 정보는 PDA로 전송되어 해당되는 음성정보를 시각장애인에게 전달하게 된다. 제안된 시스템을 통해 시각장애인은 타인의 도움 없이 현재 자신이 위치한 곳에 대한 정보를 얻고, 올바른 곳으로 보행중인지를 판단할 수 있게 되므로, 시각장애인의 보행권과 사회활동권등 복지 증진에 효과가 있을 것이다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.837-848
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• 2014

This paper describes the development of a walking assistive robot for effective self-rehabilitation for elderly people facing an inconvenience in walking. The main features of the developed robot are enhanced safety and mobility using the baby walker and electric wheelchair mechanisms and an accurate walking tracking control algorithm using potentiometers and stereo cameras. Specifically, a pelvis supporter is designed to prevent the user from falling down and reduce the burden on their legs, and electric motors are used for easy locomotion with low effort. Next, the walking intention and direction of the user are automatically recognized by using potentiometers attached at the pelvis supporter so that the robot can track the user, and the rapidity and accuracy of the tracking were increased by applying a lower-body motion analysis algorithm with stereo cameras. Finally, the user-tracking performance of the developed robot was experimentally verified through stepwise walking assistance experiments.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2014

The aims of this study are to investigate the walking intention detection of a rollator based on Infraed (IR) sensor measuring knee joint anterior displacement and leg muscle activities. We used Active Walker attached IR sensor to measure the knee joint anterior displacement and EMG signal of leg muscles(rectus femoris, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius) were taken by Delsys bagnli-8ch. Subjects were eight healthy males(age $23.7{\pm}0.5years$, height $175.4{\pm}2.3cm$, weight $70.6{\pm}5.6kg$) and they were involved in experiments which had been proceeded 30 minutes a week, during 3 weeks. This system indicates that the knee joint anterior displacement had the distinction increases according to the gait slope and velocity. We showed the increase of the femoral muscle activities along the anterior tilt and the increase of the crural muscle activities along the posterior tilt.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.258-265
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• 2010

The purposes of this study was to determine the effects of limited hyperextension at knee joint using Limited Motion Knee Brace on balance and walking in patients with hemiplegia. The subjects of this study were 20 post-stroke hemiplegic patients admitted. Subjects were randomly assigned to either experimental group (Limited Motion Knee Brace group) or control group (manual restriction group). Both groups received traditional physical therapy intervention. The effects of each therapeutic method were evaluated by measurements of gait ability assesment, Berg balance scale (BBS), 10-meter walk speed (10MWS), Timed Up & Go (TUG) Test. The results of this research were as followings: (1) After treatment, there were significant BBS scores differences in both experimental and control group compared with pre-treatment(p<0.05). (2) After treatment, there were significant TUG test scores differences in both experimental and control group compared with pre-treatment (p<0.05). (3) After treatment, there were significant 10MWS differences in both experimental and control group compared with pre-treatment (p<0.05). (4) There were significant BBS scores differences in third and fourth week between experimental and control group (p<0.05). It was concluded that Limited Motion Knee Brace was effective for improving balance and for reducing fatigue for experimental group. Therefore, further studies are required to investigate the effect of knee orthosis for improving balance and walking in patients with hemiplegia.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.38-45
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• 2013

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.12-12
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1129-1130
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• 2008

고령사회로 진입함에 따라 보행보조기의 관심이 증가되고있다. 고령자는 로봇의 조작능력이 매우 떨어지기 때문에 외부환경변화(장애물, 위험상황)에 민첩하게 대응할 수 없다. 본 논문에서는 보행보조로봇 사용자가 구동 중 실수를 하더라도 진행하고자 하는 방향의 장애물 대하여 안전하게 회피하는 방법을 제안한다. 보행보로로봇에 레이져 센서를 정면에 장착하여 장애물을 판단하고 로봇이 회피 또는 정지하도록 하였다.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2005

Biped walking is the main feature of a humanoid robot. In a biped walking robot, there are many actuators to be controlled and many sensors to be interfaced. In this paper, we propose a DSP-based controller for a miniature biped walking robot with 21 RC servo motors. The proposed controller has a hierarchical structure; a host PC, a DSP-based main controller, and an auxiliary controller with an FPGA chip. The host PC generates and transmits the robot walking data for given walking parameters such as stride, walking period, etc. The main controller implemented with a TMS320LF2407A controls 21 RC servo motors via the auxiliary controller. We also perform some experiments for balancing motion and walking on a slope terrain with interfacing a 2-axis acceleration sensor and a TMS320LF2407A.