• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.999-1010
• /
• 2003

Uninterrupted power supply has become indispensable during the maintenance task of active electric power lines as a result of today's highly information-oriented society and increasing demand of electric utilities. This maintenance task has the risk of electric shock and the danger of falling from high place. Therefore it is necessary to realize an autonomous robot system using electro-hydraulic manipulators because hydraulic manipulators have the advantage of electric insulation and power/mass density. Meanwhile an electro-hydraulic manipulator using hydraulic actuators has many nonlinear elements, and its parameter fluctuations are greater than those of an electrically driven manipulator. So it is relatively difficult to realize not only stable contact work but also accurate force control for the autonomous assembly tasks using hydraulic manipulators. In this paper, the robust force control of a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator system used in the real maintenance task of active electric lines is examined in detail. A nominal model for the system is obtained from experimental frequency responses of the system, and the deviation of the manipulator system from the nominal model is derived by a multiplicative uncertainty. Robust disturbance observers for force control are designed using this information in an H$\_$$\infty$/ framework, and implemented on the two different setups. Experimental results show that highly robust force tracking by a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator could be achieved even if the stiffness of environment and the shape of wall change.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.643-662
• /
• 2016

The monitoring of structural integrity of pipeline tapered thread connections is of great significance in terms of safe operation in the industry. In order to detect effectively the loosening degree of tapered thread connection, an active sensing method using piezoceramic transducers was developed based on time reversal technique in this paper. As the piezoeramic transducers can be either as actuators or sensors to generate or detect stress waves, the energy transmission for tapered thread connection was analyzed. Subsequently, the detection principle for tapered thread connection based on time reversal was introduced. Finally, the inherent relationship between the contact area and tightness degree of tapered thread connection for the pipe structural model was investigated. Seven different contact area scenarios were tested. Each scenario was created by loosening connectors ranging from 3 turns to 4.5 turns in the right tapered threads when the contact area in the left tapered threads were 4.5 turns. The experiments were separately conducted with a highly noisy environment and various excitation signal amplitudes. The results show the focused peaks based on time reversal have the monotonously rising trend with the increase of the contact areas of tapered threads within an acceptable monitoring resolution for metal pipes. Compared with the energy method, the proposed time reversal based method to monitor tapered threads loosening demonstrates to be more robust in rejecting noise in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.8
• /
• pp.344-349
• /
• 2017

Wall-climbing robots have been developed for various purposes, such as cleaning skyscraper windows, maintaining large structures, and welding vessels. Conventional wall-climbing robots use movement systems based on wheels or legs. However, wheeled robots suffer from slipping effects, while legged systems require many actuators and control systems for the complex linkage structure, which also increases the weight of the robot. To overcome these disadvantages, we propose a new wall-climbing robot that walks based on gorilla locomotion. The proposed robot consists of a DC drive motor, a vacuum pump for adsorption, and a micro controller for controlling the system. The performance of the robot was experimentally verified on vertical and horizontal flat surfaces. The robot could be used for various functions in industrial sites or disaster areas.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.15-21
• /
• 2002

A control-structure combined optimal design problem is discussed taking a 3-D truss structure as a design object. We use descriptor forms for a controlled object and a generalized plant because the structural parameters appear naturally in these farms. We consider not only minimum weight design problem for structure system, but also suppression problem of the effect of disturbances for control system as the purpose of the design. A numerical example shows the validity of combined optimal design of structure and control systems. We also consider the validity of sensor-actuator collocation for control system design in this paper.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.10
• /
• pp.933-939
• /
• 2007

Safety critical systems such as x-by-wire systems require in-vehicle network systems that can interconnect various sensors, actuators, and controllers. These networks need to have high data rate, deterministic operation, and fault tolerance. Recently, FlexRay protocol that is a time-triggered protocol has been introduced, and many automotive companies have been focusing on this protocol. This paper presents a design method of FlexRay network system and implementation of FlexRay-based motor control system.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2011.07a
• /
• pp.1898-1899
• /
• 2011

In this paper, we propose an obstacle avoidance algorithm for a network-based autonomous mobile robot. The obstacle avoidance algorithm is based on the VFH (Vector Field Histogram) algorithm and delay-compensative methods with the VFH algorithm are proposed for the network-based robot that is a unified system composed of distributed environmental sensors, mobile actuators, and the VFH controller. Firstly, the compensated readings of the sensors are used for building the polar histogram of the VFH algorithm. Secondly, a sensory fusion using the Kalman filter is proposed for the localization of the robot to compensate both the delay of the readings of an odometry sensor and the delay of the readings of the environmental sensors. The performance enhancements of the proposed obstacle avoidance algorithm from the viewpoint of efficient path generation and accurate goal positioning are also shown in this paper through some simulation experiments by the Marilou Robotics Studio Simulator.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.1166-1174
• /
• 2002

This paper presents the implementation and vehicle tests of a vehicle longitudinal control scheme for Stop and Go cruise control. The control scheme consists of a vehicle-to-vehicle distance control algorithm and throttle/brake control algorithm for acceleration tracking. The desired acceleration of a vehicle for vehicle-to-vehicle distance control has been designed using Linear Quadratic optimal control theory. Performance of the control algorithm has been investigated via vehicle tests. A millimeter wave radar sensor has been used for distance measurement. A stepper motor and an electronic vacuum booster have been used for throttle/brake actuators, respectively. It has been shown that the proposed control algorithm can provide satisfactory performance.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 1990.10a
• /
• pp.658-662
• /
• 1990

In the air-fuel control of automotive engine to improve its efficiency, fuel economy and less emissions, conventional control methods using $O_{2}$ sensor or the lean air-fuel ratio sensor provide only open control in rich conditions. Control with a wide range air-fuel sensor makes it possible to employ closed loop control for all engine conditions including rich combustion. With a wide range A/F sensor and A/F transfer functions, a PID control system is constructed which employs an learning scheme. A/F controller is designed which enables to improve the ability of its compensation for sensors and actuators, and its control operation is evaluated by computer simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.11
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 2008

Successive micro-scale V-grooves and a grid of pyramids were machined by elliptical vibration tufting (EVC) to investigate feasibility of using EVC as an alternative method of creating micro-molds to photo-lithography and electroforming, which have been commonly employed. An elliptical vibration grooving machine was developed which consists of two orthogonally-arranged piezoelectric actuators, a diamond cutting tool, and a motorized xyz stage. The micro-scale features were machined on materials of copper, duralumin, nickel, and hastelloy and it was found that EVC significantly reduces cutting resistance and prohibits generation of side burrs and rollover burrs, thus resulting in improving machining qualify of micro-molds in ail experimented workpiece materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 2019

As the automated vehicle system evolves, electronic devices and control software installed in vehicles are increasing. Therefore, automated vehicle electrical and electronic system (E/E system) design for ensure system integration, software modularization, system reusability, and scalability at the design stage of the automated vehicle is actively studied. This paper introduces a design methodology for automated vehicle E/E systems that employs by using cyber-physical systems (CPS). An automated forklift system was designed to examine the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. This paper showed that the proposed CPS design methodology enables an effective development of automated E/E control systems. Compare to existing design methodologies, it provides higher reusability of individual modules and an easier way to integrate control system elements such as controllers, sensors, and actuators.