• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.337-343
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• 2020

This study proposed piezoelectric ceramic bender actuators for application to small walking robots. As the space where human access has recently become increasingly restricted (e.g., highly concentrated radioactive storage areas, viral contaminated areas, terrorist zones, etc.), the scope of using robots is becoming more diverse, and many actions that were possible only in the past have been attempted to be replaced by small robots. This robotic concept has the advantage of being simple in structure, making it compact and producing a large size work force. The dynamic modeling, using finite element analysis, maximized the robot's mobility performance by optimizing the shape of the actuator, and the results were verified through fabrication and experimentation. The actuator moved at a maximum speed of 236 mm/s under no load conditions, and it could move at a speed of 156 mm/s under load conditions of 5g. The proposed actuator has the advantage of modular additions depending on the mission and required performance, which ensured that they are competitive against similar drive sources previously created.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.285-288
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• 2020

The demand for coating technology on electric power equipment that has arisen from such issues regarding the attaching of illegal advertisements and posters to electric power distribution boxes such as TR, SW, etc. in down town areas seeks to produce functional coating surfaces using polymers and nano-materials that will result in improvements in self-cleaning performance and greater stability even under harsh environmental conditions. KEPCO-coatings consist of copolymerized acrylic resin and methacryl-modified reactive silicone that are able to chemically combine, which results in performance improvement without any leakage of of silicone, thus contributing to its properties of high-stability. Thus, the research team has also started long-term on-site testing on 9 electric power distribution spots around a city center in cooperation with the KEPCO Daeduck-yusung branch. The KEPCO-coating technology could advance the best coating materials and processes to meet appropriate circumstances for a variety of outdoor damage environment. It is also predicted that KEPCO could be possible to expand international electric maintenance markets and to arrange business platforms if KEPCO would achieve its original technology (IPs) by the means of upgrading in self-cleaning coating technology and obtaining long-term on-site test records from nationwide electric facilities.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.228-238
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• 2017

The CALEB10 is a multi-legged biomimetic underwater robot. In the last research, we developed a swimming pattern named ESPG (Extended Swimming Pattern Generator) by observing diving beetle's swimming actions and experimented with a positive buoyancy state in which CALEB10 floats on the water. In this paper, however, we have experimented with CALEB10 in a neutral buoyancy state where it is completely immersed in water for pitch motion control experiment. And we found that CALEB10 was unstably swimming in the pitch direction in the neutral buoyancy state and analyzed that the reason was due to the weight proportion of the legs. In this paper, we propose a pitch motion control method to mimic the pitch motion of diving beetles and to solve the problem of CALEB10 unstably swimming in the pitch direction. To control the pitch motion, we use the method of controlling additional joints while swimming with the ESPG. The method of obtaining propulsive force by the motion of the leg has a problem of giving propulsive force in the reverse direction when swimming in the surge direction, but this new control method has an advantage that a propulsive moment generated by a swimming action only on a target pitch value. To demonstrate validity this new control method, we designed a dynamics-based simulator environment. And the control performance to the target pitch value was verified through simulation and underwater experiments.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2018

This paper describes a study on posture control of the multi-legged biomimetic underwater robot (CALEB10). Because the underwater environment has a feature that all degrees of freedom are coupled to each other, we designed the posture control algorithm by separating each degree of freedom. Not only should the research on posture control of underwater robots be a precedent study for position control, but it is also necessary to compensate disturbance in each direction. In the research on the yaw directional posture control, we made the drag force generated by the stroke of the left leg and the right leg occur asymmetrically, in order that a rotational moment is generated along the yaw direction. In the composite swimming controller in which the controllers in each direction are combined, we designed the algorithm to determine the control weights in each direction according to the error angle along the yaw direction. The performance of the proposed posture control method is verified by a dynamical simulator and underwater experiments.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.345-351
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• 2012

Biomimetic terpene sensors which have high sensitivity and stability have been fabricated using moleculary imprinted polymer (MIP) technology. Since it is impossible to make a resistive type sensor due to the high resistance of MIP, we improved the sensor by adding conductive polymers. We investigated the sensitivity of resistive type sensors with nano particles depending on the amount of conductive polymers. The MIP membrane contained the methacrylic acid as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross linker, which formed specific cavities originated by the target terpene molecules. The mixture of MIP and the conductive polymer was coated on the patterns of interdigit electrodes on the alumina substrate. The fabricated sensors showed their highest specific sensitivities exposed to 500 ppm target gases : limonene 0.055 at 40% of amount of conductive polymers and geraniol $5.84{\times}10^{-4}$ at 20% of amount of conductive polymers. In conclusion, we found that the terpene sensors are affected by the target molecules, functional monomers and the conductive polymers.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.928-933
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• 2012

In this paper, the IR and compass sensors for the underwater system were used. The walls of the water tank have been recognized and avoided treating the walls as obstacles by the bio-mimetic underwater robot. This paper is consists of two parts: 1.The hardware part for the IR and compass sensors and 2.The software part for obstacle avoidance algorithm while the bio-mimetic robot is swimming with the obstacle recognition. Firstly, the hardware part controls through the RS-485 communications between a microcontroller and the bio-mimetic underwater robot. The software part is simulated for obstacle recognition and collision avoidance based upon the data from IR and compass sensors. Actually, the bio-mimetic underwater robot recognizes where is the obstacle as well as where is the bio-mimetic robot itself while it is moving in the water. While the underwater robot is moving at a constant speed recognizing the wall of water tank as an obstacle, an obstacle avoidance algorithm is applied for the wall following swimming based upon the IR and compass sensor data. As the results of this research, it is concluded that the bio-mimetic underwater robot can follow the wall of the water tank efficiently, while it is avoiding collision to the wall.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.573-579
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• 2006

Most of the recently developed robots are human friendly robots which imitate an animal or human such as entertainment robot, biomimetic robot and humanoid robot. Interest in these robots is increased because the social trend is focused on health, welfare, and graying. By these social backgrounds, robots become more human friendly and suitable or home or personal environment. The more biomimetic robots resemble living creature, the more human feels familiarity. Human feels close friendship not only when feeding a pet, but also when watching a pet having the food. Most of entertainment robots and pet robots use internal-type batteries and have a self-recharging function. Entertainment robots and pet robots with internal-type batteries are not able to operate during charging the battery. So far there have been a few robots that do not depend on an internal battery. However, they need a bulky energy conversion unit and a slug or foods as an energy source, which is not suitable for home or personal application. In this paper, we introduce a new biomimetic entertainment robot with autonomous eating functionality, called EPRO-1(Eating Pet RObot version 1). The EPRO-1 is able to eat a food (a small battery), by itself and evacuate. We describe the design concept of the autonomous eating mechanism of the EPRO-1, characteristics of sub-parts of the manufactured mechanism and its control system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.188-192
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• 2012

In this study, a carbon nanotube (CNT) flexible strain sensor was fabricated with CNT based epoxy and rubber composites for tactile sensing. The flexible strain sensor can be fabricated as a long fibrous sensor and it also may be able to measure large deformation and contact information on a structure. The long and flexible sensor can be considered to be a continuous sensor like a dendrite of a neuron in the human body and we named the sensor as a biomimetic artificial neuron. For the application of the neuron in biomimetic engineering, an ANMS (Artificial Neuron Matrix System) was developed by means of the array of the neurons with a signal processing system. Moreover, a strain positioning algorithm was also developed to find localized tactile information of the ANMS with Labview for the application of an artificial e-skin.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.311-318
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• 2018

This paper presents the artistic background and implementation structure of a conversational artificial intelligence interactive artwork, "An Evolving GAIA". Recent artworks based on artificial intelligence technology are introduced. Development of biomimetics and artificial life technology has burred differentiation of machine and human. In this paper, artworks presenting machine-life metaphor are shown, and the distinct implementation of conversation system is emphasized in detail. The artwork recognizes and follows the movement of audience using its eyes for natural interaction. It listens questions of the audience and replies appropriate answers by text-to-speech voice, using the conversation system implemented with an Android client in the artwork and a webserver based on the question-answering dictionary. The interaction gives to the audience discussion of meaning of life in large scale and draws sympathy for the artwork itself. The paper shows the mechanical structure, the implementation of conversational system of the artwork, and reaction of the audience which can be helpful to direct and make future artificial intelligence interactive artworks.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.705-709
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• 2016

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscopes are widely used in various robot applications. However, these conventional gyroscopes need to vibrate the proof mass using a built-in actuator at a fixed resonance frequency to sense the Coriolis force. When a robot is not moving, the meaningless vibration of the gyroscope wastes power. In addition, this continuous vibration makes the sensor vulnerable to external sound waves with a frequency close to the proof-mass resonance frequency. In this paper, a feasibility study of a new type of gyroscope inspired by insect halteres is presented. In dipterous insects, halteres are a biological gyroscope that measures the Coriolis force. Wing muscles and halteres are mechanically linked, and the halteres oscillate simultaneously with wing beats. The vibrating haltere experiences the Coriolis force if the insect is going through a rotational motion. Inspired by this haltere structure, a gyroscope using a thin mast integrated with a robot actuation mechanism is proposed. The mast vibrates only when the robot is moving without requiring a separate actuator. The Coriolis force of the mast can be measured with an accelerometer installed at the tip of the mast. However, the signal from the accelerometer has multiple frequency components and also can be highly corrupted with noise, such that raw data are not meaningful. This paper also presents a suitable signal processing technique using the amplitude modulation method. The feasibility of the proposed haltere-inspired gyroscope is also experimentally evaluated.