• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.251-257
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• 2005

Several air cells are installed in the seat cushion to adjust the stiffness of seat by changing the air pressure. To select proper air pressure in the air cells, two kinds of tests are performed. For the pressure distribution on the seat, the maximum pressure and mean pressure are compared. And for the dynamic ride values, SEAT (Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility) values are calculated and compared. These experiments are carried out with three different drivers, three different vehicle speeds on the highway and two different speed on the primary road, and three different air pressures. From the real car tests, optimum air cell pressure depending on the vehicle speed and driver's weight are recommended.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1672-1684
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• 2004

In this paper, an active vibration control with the use of an air-cell seat for passenger cars is investigated. The roles of the air-cell inserted between the polyurethane foam of the seat and seat cover are first to extend the seat's capability to adopt various shapes of human body and to improve the ride-comfort against road disturbances. The air-cell seat is modeled as a 1-d.o.f. spring-damper system. Because an exact modeling of the air-cell itself is alomost impossible, its dynamic characteristics are analyzed through experiments. A road-adaptive gain-scheduled sky-hook control for the air-cell seat system is proposed. The skyhook gains are scheduled in such a way that the acceleration level transmitted to human body on various road conditions is minimized. Simulations and experimental results are provided.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.159-169
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• 2004

In this study, integration control of air-cell seat and semi-active suspension is proposed to minimize the road-tyre force which can cause uncomfortable feeling to rider. The proposed integration control with sliding perturbation observer is consisted of air-cell seat control which uses the force generated by air-cell and the sky-hook control. The air-cell seat itself has been modeled as a 1 degree of freedom spring-damper system. The actual characteristics of the air-cell have been analyzed through experiments. In this paper, we introduces a new robust motion control algorithm using partial state feedback for a nonlinear system with modelling uncertainties and external disturbances. The major contribution of this work is the development and design of robust observer for the state and the perturbation. The combination skyhook controller and air-cell controller using the observer improves control performance, because of the robust routine called Sliding Observer Design for Integration Control of Air-Cell Seat and Semi-active Suspension. The simulation results show a high accuracy and a good performance.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.61-69
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• 2010

The users who use the wheelchair are confined to a wheelchair for a long time. Accordingly, the use of seat cushion for pressure distribution is very important in order to prevent a bedsore. Therefore, this paper provides useful information for design of seat cushion through statistical testing among nothing cushion, low cell type of air cushion, high cell type of air cushion, and jelly type of air cushion. It turned out that the jelly type and high cell type of air cushion have a serious effect on decision and design of seat cushion.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.279-282
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• 2020

In this study, body pressure was quantitatively detected using built-in optical sensors, inside an air cushion seat. The proposed system visualizes the effect of the body pressure distribution on the air cushion seat. The built-in sensor is based on the time-of-flight (ToF) optical method, instead of the conventional electrical sensor. A ToF optical sensors is attached to the bottom surface of the air-filled cells in the air cushion. Therefore, ToF sensors are durable, as they do not come in physical contact with the body even after repeated use. A ToF sensor indirectly expresses the body pressure by measuring the change in the height of the air-filled cell, after being subjected to the weight of the body. An array of such sensors can measure the body pressure distribution when the user sits on the air cushion seat. We implemented a prototype of the air cushion seat equipped with 7 ToF optical sensors and investigated its characteristics. In this experiment, the ToF optical pressure sensor successfully identified the pressure distribution corresponding to a sitting position. The data were accessed through a mobile device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.121-123
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• 2002

The design of an air seat cushion for preventing decubitus ulcer includes many design factors such as the even distribution of interface pressure, the minimization of mean and peak interface pressure values, and the reduction of interface shear force and pressure gradient. It involves the anatomic condition of plegia's buttock as well as air pressure in air cells of cushion. As a result, a suitable design of the cushion satisfying the all requirements is a difficult problem. Therefore, an appropriate and effective numerical tool to develop an air cushion orthosis is required. The purpose of the present study was to develop an air seat cushion orthosis having optimized air cells for evenly distributed interface pressure between the buttock and cushion surface. For the purpose, an advanced finite element (FE) model for the design of air cushion was developed. Since the interface pressure and shear force behavior, as well as stress analyses were primary concern, a FE air cell model was developed and verified by the experiments. Then, the interactions of two cells were checked. Also, the human part of the developed numerical model includes every material property and geometry related to buttock and femoral parts. For construction of dimension data of buttock and femoral parts, CT scans were performed. A commercial FE program was employed for the simulation representing the seating process on the orthosis. Then, sensitive analyses were performed with varying design parameters. A set of optimal design parameters was found satisfying the design criteria of the orthosis. The results were utilized to produce a prototype of the orthosis. Experimentally, the buttock interface pressure distributions from the optimized and previous ones were compared. The new seat orthosis showed a significantly improved interface pressure characteristics compared to the most popular one in the market. The new orthosis will be used for the development of the AI(artificial intelligent) controlled seat orthosis fur prevention of decubitus ulcer fur various plegic patients and the elderly.