• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.583-588
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• 2015

Flexible tactile sensors can provide valuable feedback to intelligent robots regarding the environment around them. This is especially important when robots such as, service robots share a workspace with humans. This paper presents a contact force measurement algorithm of a flexible tactile sensor. This sensor is manufactured by a direct-writing technique, which is one 3D printing method, using multi-walled carbon nano-tubes. An analog signal processing circuit has been designed and implemented to reduce noise contained in the sensor output. In addition, a digital version of the Butterworth filter was implemented by software running on a microcontroller. Through various experiments, characteristics of the sensor system have been identified. Based on three traits, an algorithm to detect the contact and measure the contact force has been developed. The entire system showed a promising prospect to detect the contact over a large and curved area.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.641-648
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• 2009

Currently several kinds of sensor localization methods have been developed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks. This study, in order to extend the field to underwater environments, a localization technique is studied for UWSNs (Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks). In underwater environments, RF (Radio Frequency) signal is not suitable for underwater usage because of extremely limited propagation. Because of that reason UWSNs should be constituted with acoustic modems. But, to realize underwater application, we can borrow many design principles from ongoing research for terrestrial environments. So, in this paper we introduce the modified localization algorithm using ToA method which is based on the terrestrial research. First of all, we study the localization techniques for terrestrial environments where we investigate possible methods to underwater environment. And then the appropriate algorithm is presented in the underwater usage. Finally the proposed underwater based localization algorithm is evaluated by using computer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.923-934
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• 1987

A flexible one-link robotic manipulator is modelled as a rotating cantilever beam with a hub and tip mass. An active control law is developed with consideration of the distributed flexibility of the arm. Equation of motion is derived by Hamilton's principle and, for modal control, represented as state variable form using Galerkin's mode summation method. Feedback coefficients are chosen to minimize the linear quadratic performance index(PI). To reconstruct the complete state vector from the measurements, an observer is proposed. In order to suppress vibration of the manipulator arm to desirable extent and to obtain accuracy of the positioning, weighting factor of input in PI is adjusted. Spillover effect due to the controller which controls several important modes is examined. Experiment is also performed to validate the theoretical analysis.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.719-726
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• 2000

A real-time precise positioning is possible with GPS carrier phase measurements with efficient integer ambiguity resolution techniques. It is known that more reliable and fast integer ambiguity resolution is possi-ble as the number of measurements increases. Most precise positioning systems use dual frequency measurements and the wide-lnae technique to resolve integer ambiguity. The wide-lane technique magnifies the measurement noise while it reduces the number of candidates to be examined. In this paper a new integer ambiguity resolution method using dual frequency is proposed The proposed method utilizes the relationship between the wide-lane single frequency and the narrow-lane ambiguities to resolve narrow-lane integer ambiguity after fixing the wide-lane integer ambiguity. Experiments with real data show that the proposed method gives fast and reliable results.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.6 no.12
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• pp.1106-1112
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• 2000

In this paper, we present a vision system which measures the cross-section of a hot wire-rod in the steel plant. We developed a mobile vision system capable of accurate measurement, which is strong to vibration and jolt when moving. Our system uses green laser light sources and CCD cameras as a sensor, where laser sheet beams form a cross-section contour on the surface of the hot wire-rod and the reflected light from the wire-rode is imaged on the CCD cameras. We use four lasers and four cameras to obtain the image with the complete cross-section contour without an occlusion region. We also perform camera calibrations to obtain each cameras physical parameters by using a single calibration pattern sheet. In our measuring algorithm, distorted four-camera images are corrected by using the camera calibration information and added to generate an image with the complete cross-section contour of the wire-rod. Then, from this image, the cross-section contour of the wire-rod is extracted by preprocessing and segmentation, and its height, width and area are measured.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.790-797
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• 2001

A simple computer vision technology to measure the middle-ranged depth with a mono camera and a plain mirror is proposed. The proposed system is structured with the rotating mirror in front of the fixed mono camera. In contrast to the previous stereo vision system in which the disparity of the closer object is larger than that of the distant object, the pixel movement caused by the rotating mirror is bigger for the pixels of the distant object in the proposed system. Being inspired by such distinguished feature in the proposed system, the principle of the depth measurement based on the relation of the pixel movement and the distance of object is investigated. Also, the factors to influence the precision of the measurement are analysed. The benefits of the proposed system are low price and less chance of occlusion. The robustness for practical usage is an additional benefit of the proposed vision system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.573-577
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• 2002

A tape feeder of a SMD(Surface Mount Device) mounter is a device that sequentially feeds electronic components on a tape reel to the pick-up system of the mounter. As components are getting much smaller, feeding accuracy of a feeder becomes one of the most important factors for successful component pick-up. Therefore, it is critical to keep the feeding accuracy to a specified level in the assembly and production of tape feeders. This paper describes a tape feeder inspection system that was developed to automatically measure and inspect feeding accuracy using machine vision. It consists of a feeder base, an image acquisition system, and a personal computer. The image acquisition system is composed of CCD cameras with lens, LED illumination systems, and a frame grabber inside the PC. This system loads up to six feeders at a time and inspects them automatically and sequentially. The inspection software was implemented using Visual C++on Windows NT with easily usable GUI. Using this system, we can automatically measure and inspect the quality of all feeders in production process by analyzing the measurement results statistically.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.309-317
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• 2010

This paper proposes an efficient measurement system for the velocity and direction of the wind using the dual rotor wind power generator in vessel. Conventional digital measurement system recognizes the direction and the velocity of the wind using the electric compass or synchronous motor and Vane probe method using hall sensors. But each system has its own short-comings: the synchronous motor has a larger measurement error than the magnetic compass and magnetic compass is weak for the external disturbances such as fluctuation of the vessel. To compensate these short-comings, this paper proposes a new compensation algorithm for the fluctuation errors according to the external interference and the unexpected movement of the vessel along the roll and pitch directions. The proposed system is implemented with the dual compasses and a synchronous motor. The proposed independent power generation system can be operated by itself and can raise the efficiency of the wind power generation systems of 30 ~ 400 W installed along the vertical and horizontal axes. The proposed system also realizes the efficient and reliable power production system by the MPPT algorithm for the real-time recognition of the wind direction and velocity. An advanced switching algorithm for the battery charging system has been also proposed. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified through the real experiments and the results are demonstrated.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2011

This paper reveals a distance estimation algorithm based on multi-code ultrasonic and wireless sensor network. For measuring the distances among the sensor nodes, each ultrasonic transmitter transmits multi-code ultrasonic signal simultaneously. Receivers use cross correlation method to separate the coded signals. The information of measured distances is broadcasted to each sensor node by wireless sensor network. The wireless sensor network measures the distance among the sensor nodes using the received signal strength of the broadcasting. The multi-code ultrasonic have a limitation of measurable distance. And the received signal strength is affected from an environment. This paper measures a distance using ultrasonic and a received signal strength in short range. These measured data are applied to the least square estimation algorithm. By the expansion of the fitting curve, a distance measurement in long range using the received signal strength is compensated. The coupled system reduce the error to an acceptable level.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.941-946
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• 2011

The Loran-C, a radio navigation system based on TDOA measurements is enhanced to eLoran using TOA measurements instead of TDOA measurements. Many error factors such as PF, SF, ASF, clock errors and unknown biases are included in eLoran TOA measurements. Because these error factors can cause failure in eLoran navigation algorithm, these errors must be compensated for high accuracy eLoran navigation results. Compensation of ASF and unknown biases are difficult to calculate, while the others such as PF and SF are relatively easy to eliminate. In order to compensate all errors in eLoran TOA measurements, a simple GPS aided bias compensation method is suggested in this paper. This method calculates the bias as the difference of TOA measurement and the range between eLoran transmitters and the receiver whose position is determined using GPS. The real data measured in Europe are used for verification of suggested method and navigation algorithm.