• Current Optics and Photonics
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• 제1권6호
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• pp.642-648
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• 2017

Involuntary hand tremor has been a serious challenge in micromanipulation tasks and thus draws a significant amount of attention from related fields. To minimize the effect of the hand tremor, a variety of mechanically assistive solutions have been proposed. However, approaches increasing human awareness of their own hand tremor have not been extensively studied. In this paper, a head mount display based virtual reality (VR) system to increase human self-awareness of hand tremor is proposed. It shows a user a virtual image of a handheld device with emphasized hand tremor information. Provided with this emphasized tremor information, we hypothesize that subjects will control their hand tremor more effectively. Two methods of emphasizing hand tremor information are demonstrated: (1) direct amplification of tremor and (2) magnification of virtual object, in comparison to the controlled condition without emphasized tremor information. A human-subject study with twelve trials was conducted, with four healthy participants who performed a task of holding a handheld gripper device in a specific direction. The results showed that the proposed methods achieved a reduced level of hand tremor compared with the control condition.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.517-523
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• 2010

In this paper, we proposed an algorithm to detect aggressive driving status by analysing six kinds of driving patterns, which was achieved by comparing for the feature vectors using mahalanobis distance. The first step is to construct feature matrix of $6{\times}2$ size using frequency response of the time-series accelerometer data. Singular value decomposition makes it possible to find the dominant eigenvalue and its corresponding eigenvector. We use the eigenvector as the feature vector of the driving pattern. We conducted real experiments using three drivers to see the effects of recognition. Although there exists differences from individual drivers, we showed that driving patterns can be recognized with about 80% accuracy. Further research topics will include the development of aggressive driving warning system by improving the proposed technique and combining with post-processing of accelerometer signals.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.124-131
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• 2017

This paper present a novel approach to control the lower body power assistive exoskeleton system of a HEXAR-CR35 aimed at improving a muscular strength. More specifically the control of based on the human intention is crucial of importance to ensure intuitive and dexterous motion with the human. In this contribution, we proposed the detection algorithm of the human intention using the MCRS which are developed to measure the contraction of the muscle with variation of the circumference. The proposed algorithm provides a joint motion of exoskeleton corresponding the relate muscles. The main advantages of the algorithm are its simplicity, computational efficiency to control one joint of the HEXAR-CR35 which are consisted knee-active type exoskeleton (the other joints are consisted with the passive or quasi-passive joints that can be arranged by analyzing of the human joint functions). As a consequence, the motion of exoskeleton is generated according to the gait phase: swing and stance phase which are determined by the foot insole sensors. The experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm is achieved in walking with the exoskeleton while carrying the external mass in the back side.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.159-168
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• 2024

Lower limb amputees are increasing due to various reasons. It is difficult for lower limb amputees to walk without an assistive device such as a prosthetic leg. In this paper, an electronically controlled knee-type prosthetic leg with a 4-bar linkage structure for lower limb amputees was developed. The knee-type prosthetic leg has a 4-bar linkage structure and assists walking by using an integrated drive module. The torque is 90 Nm, the rotation speed is up to 120 deg, and it weight 1.9 kg, so it is lighter than a commercial prosthetic leg, so it can be used for a long time because there is less fatigue when walking. An integrated control board was developed by applying various sensors and microprocessor. The motor drive and encoder are built into the integrated drive module. The integrated control board and integrated drive module communicate using CAN. When a lower limb amputee wears a knee-type prosthetic leg and walks, it shows a shape similar to the swing phase graph of a normal people, and it is possible to walk naturally while walking.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제16권9호
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• pp.823-826
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• 2010

In this study, the control method of assistive robot was developed for the elderly. The control method of gait-assistant-robot was proposed considering the change of COP (Center of Pelves), BOS (Base of Support) and comparative analysis of the moving velocity for the elderly. We analyzed the movement of COP of the body and its velocity of the elderly equipped with manual walker and gait-assistant-robot. As a result, change in COP was greater from left to right than from anterior to posterior; also, the average velocity of the movement of COP and manual walker for manual walker gait was 0.7(m/s). Therefore, it is necessary to concern more on the left-right balance and synchronization of the velocity of COP.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.23-32
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• 2008

This paper presents a task planning system for a steward robot, which has been developed as an interactive intermediate agent between an end-user and a complex smart home environment called the ISH (Intelligent Sweet Home) at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). The ISH is a large-scale robotic environment with various assistive robots and home appliances for independent living of the elderly and the people with disabilities. In particular, as an approach for achieving human-friendly human-robot interaction, we aim at 'simplification of task commands' by the user. In this sense, a task planning system has been proposed to generate a sequence of actions effectively for coordinating subtasks of the target subsystems from the given high-level task command. Basically, the task planning is performed under the framework of STRIPS (Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver) representation and the split planning method. In addition, we applied a state-partitioning technique to the backward split planning method to reduce computational time. By analyzing the obtained graph, the planning system decomposes an original planning problem into several independent sub-problems, and then, the planning system generates a proper sequence of actions. To show the effectiveness of the proposed system, we deal with a scenario of a planning problem in the ISH.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.395-401
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• 2017

In this paper, we introduce a robot-assisted medical diagnostic system that enables remote ultrasound (US) imaging to be applied to the conventional telemedicine, which has been possible only with interviewing or a visual exam. In particular, a master-slave robot system is developed that ultrasonic diagnosis specialist can control the position and orientation of US probe in the remote place. The slave robot is designed to be compact, lightweight, and hand-held so that it can easily transfer to the remote healthcare center. Moreover, 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) probe motion is possible by the robot design based on Stewart platform. The master device is also based on a similar structure of the slave robot. To connect master and slave system in the wide area network (WAN) environment, a hardware CODEC was developed. In this paper, we introduce the detail of each component and the results of the recent experiments conducted in the remote sites by the developed robotic ultrasound imaging system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.647-650
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• 2014

Assessment and rehabilitation of patients with unilateral visual neglect has been one of the fields that require assistive technology. Paper-and-pencil tests, including the LBT (Line Bisection Test), have been one of the most commonly used visual neglect assessment methods used in a clinical setting. The key motivation of this study was to establish a computer-based real-time assessment system for the hemi-neglect patients without altering the conventional paper-and-pencil based user tools. A digital penbased assessment and rehabilitation system, the ePen System, could eliminate the manual assessment time while maintaining measurement accuracy. As a result, the proposed system may assist rehabilitation specialists to assess and diagnose patients with unilateral visual neglect. This system can be applied to a range assessment and rehabilitation modalities based on a pen and paper. It can also be applied to various patients such as those with Parkinson's disease, stroke sufferers, or those who have experienced different forms of brain lesions.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.496-504
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• 2023

This paper recognizes the motion intention of the wearer using a muscle stiffness sensor and proposes a control system for a wearable robot based on this. The proposed system recognizes the onset time of the motion using sensor data, determines the assistance mode, and provides assistive torque to the hip flexion/extension motion of the wearer through the generated reference trajectory according to the determined mode. The onset time of motion was detected using the CUSUM algorithm from the muscle stiffness sensor, and by comparing the detection results of the onset time with the EMG sensor and IMU, it verified its applicability as an input device for recognizing the intention of the wearer before motion. In addition, the stability of the proposed method was confirmed by comparing the results detected according to the walking speed of two subjects (1 male and 1 female). Based on these results, the assistance mode (gait assistance mode and muscle strengthening mode) was determined based on the detection results of onset time, and a reference trajectory was generated through cubic spline interpolation according to the determined assistance mode. And, the practicality of the proposed system was also confirmed by applying it to an actual wearable robot.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.359-366
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• 2023

In order to fully utilize the functions of the hand which is the end effector of the upper limb, other parts of the upper limb have to perform their own roles. Among them, the pronation and supination of the forearm, which allows the hand to rotate along the longitudinal direction of the forearm, play an important role in activities of daily living. In this paper, a soft wearable robot that assists the pronation and supination of the forearm for individuals with weakened or lost upper limb function is proposed. The wearable robot consists of an anchoring part with polymer (wrist strap, elbow strap), a tendon with a belt and wire, and an actuation module. It was developed based on the requirements with respect to friction of anchoring part, forearm compression, and friction of the tendon. It was confirmed that these requirements were satisfied through literature review and experiments. Since all components exist within the forearm when worn, it is expected to be easy to combine with the already developed soft wearable robots for the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.