• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2023

Recently, robots have been actively utilized for logistics and delivery services in various places such as restaurants, hotels, and hospitals. In addition, it provides a safer environment, convenience, and cost efficiency to the customers. However, when it comes to autonomous delivery in a multi-floor environment, the task is still challenging. Especially for wheeled mobile robots, it is necessary to deal with elevators to perform the last-mile delivery services. Therefore, we present a multi-floor route planning algorithm that enables a wheeled mobile robot to traverse an elevator for the delivery service. In addition, an elevator boarding mission algorithm was developed to perceive the drivable region within the elevator and generate a feasible path that is collision-free. The algorithm was tested with real-world experiments and was demonstrated to perform autonomous postal delivery service in a multi-floor building. We concluded that our study could contribute to building a stable autonomous driving robot system for a multi-floor environment.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.168-185
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• 2024

Autonomous driving technologies have entered the initial stage of commercialization. Recently, mobility services that combine autonomous driving technologies and information and communication technologies based intelligent transportation systems are being actively developed. This study develops a global path planning system that considers traffic information and user demands to generate the shortest time paths for autonomous delivery services using Mixed Integer Programming. While providing the autonomous delivery services, the generated paths are updated recursively according to traffic information updates or additional demands. The developed global path planning system was verified by simulations with traffic information in the Sangam autonomous driving test-bed, and comparative analysis with existing manned delivery services shows that operating costs, product delivery time, and empty driving time were reduced.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2023

This study focuses on the development of a Last-Mile delivery service using unmanned vehicles to deliver goods directly to the end consumer utilizing drones to perform autonomous delivery missions and an image-based precision landing algorithm for handoff to a robot in an intermediate facility. As the logistics market continues to grow rapidly, parcel volumes increase exponentially each year. However, due to low delivery fees, the workload of delivery personnel is increasing, resulting in a decrease in the quality of delivery services. To address this issue, the research team conducted a study on a Last-Mile delivery service using unmanned vehicles and conducted research on the necessary technologies for drone-based goods transportation in this paper. The flight scenario begins with the drone carrying the goods from a pickup location to the rooftop of a building where the final delivery destination is located. There is a handoff facility on the rooftop of the building, and a marker on the roof must be accurately landed upon. The mission is complete once the goods are delivered and the drone returns to its original location. The research team developed a mission planning algorithm to perform the above scenario automatically and constructed an algorithm to recognize the marker through a camera sensor and achieve a precision landing. The performance of the developed system has been verified through multiple trial operations within ETRI.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.225-232
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• 2022

Recently, unmanned logistics delivery systems, such as UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, written as drone below) and autonomous robot delivery systems, have been implemented in many countries due to the rapid development of autonomous driving technology. The development of these new types of advanced unmanned logistics delivery systems is essential not only to become a leading logistics company but also to secure national competitiveness. In this paper, the application of the unmanned logistics delivery system was investigated in terms of market trends, overall technology level of last mile delivery drone and autonomous delivery robot. The direction of response to changes in the last mile delivery service market was checked through a comparison of the technological level between domestic companies that produce last mile devices and advanced foreign companies. As a result of this technology level analysis, the difference between domestic companies and advanced companies was shown using tables and figures to show their relative levels. The results of this analysis reflect the opinions of experts in the field of last-mile delivery technology. In addition, the technology level of unmanned logistics delivery systems for each country was analyzed based on the number of related technology patents. Lastly, insights for the technology level analysis of unmanned last mile delivery systems were proposed as a conclusion.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.85-95
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• 2024

Purpose: Online food delivery platforms face challenges to operational efficiency due to increasing demand, a shortage of drivers, and the constraint of a one-order-at-a-time delivery policy. It is imperative to find solutions to address the inefficiencies in the food delivery industry. Bundling multiple orders can help resolve these issues, but it requires complex computations due to the exponential increase in possible order combinations. Research design, data and methodology: This study proposes three bundle delivery systems-static, dynamic, and hybrid-utilizing a machine learning-based classification model to reduce the number of order combinations for efficient bundle computation. The proposed systems are analyzed through simulations using market data from South Korea's online food delivery platforms. Results: Our findings indicate that implementing bundle systems extends service coverage to more customers, increases average driver earnings, and maintains lead times comparable to standalone deliveries. Additionally, the platform experiences higher service completion rates and increased profitability. Conclusions: This suggests that bundle systems are cost-effective and beneficial for all stakeholders in online food delivery platforms, effectively addressing the inefficiencies in the industry.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2001.01a
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• pp.198-201
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• 2001

Recently the wireless-internet has been spreading extensively. People are spending a large part of their time gaining access to information using a mobile device. With the rapid growth of on-line Electronic Commerce, the use of mobile devices creates a new paradigm that provides users with location-independent real time service. Although this new paradigm does have some advantages, limited process speed, low bandwidth, the low battery capacity of mobile devices, and a high rate of wireless network errors causes many overhead expenses during service time with the server. In this paper, we suggest an autonomous service delivery system, which provides mobile agent capability to users that cannot maintain a connection. We have developed the system based on java mobile agent technology. Using this system, we can provide more effective service to users when the user is sending requirements for service through a mobile device that has limited resources. Furthermore we can manage the contact server dynamically when new services are added.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.27-54
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• 2021

This study examines the overall contents of robots, drones, and autonomous driving that can be applied to libraries among autonomous objects, and proposes a plan that can be introduced and applied to libraries in the future based on this. As a result of the study, in the case of the building, robots and drones can be used to apply from collection inspection, collection transport, collection arrangement, collection classification, book location guidance, book recommendation, loan/return, library general guidance, and reference information service. Outside of the building, robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles can be used for book delivery service, book return service, and unmanned mobile libraries. This study is a basic research for the introduction and application of autonomous objects in the library, and follow-up studies such as perception survey and application model development for systematic introduction should be conducted in the future.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.407-422
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• 2014

Objective: The purpose of the study is to develop quantitative usability evaluation criteria for senior-friendly autonomous transportation robot. Background: The Republic of Korea has become the most rapidly aging society, and is anticipated to enter the post-aged society in 2026. To raise the quality of life of a senior with limited mobility and to reduce the burden of caregivers, many high-tech assistive products with information technologies are developed nowadays. The senior-friendly autonomous transportation robot is one person robot vehicle to move a senior to the destination for hospitals, nursing homes or silver town complex. With built-in navigation system and environmental monitoring censors, it automatically seeks the path to the destination and avoids collision to obstacles and pedestrians on the way. Due to the early stage of the product, few usability studies in this field have been done, mostly on general service robots to assist seniors, power wheelchairs and delivery robots. ISO and KS standards for the service robots are focused on safety. Method: Based on the reference usability index, the early draft of the usability evaluation questionnaires was developed. After small group tests and interviews, the experts modified the initial draft to the Usability Evaluation Criteria for Senior-Friendly Autonomous Transportation Robot (UEC-SFATR). Result: UEC-SFATR consisted of 4 subscales - Safety, Controllability, Efficiency and Satisfaction. All of the 4 subscales of UEC-SFATR were passed the reliability criteria by 4 groups of seniors, divided by gender and familiarity of smart-devices. Conclusion: UEC-SFATR covers wider area of user experiences of the SFATR and is a good measurement tool to help both the users and developers of the robot. Application: This study provides guide to the future product development and product competitiveness evaluation by quantifying user experiences for the SFATR.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1181-1188
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose a novel concept foran unmanned delivery service using a cooperative heterogeneous unmanned system consisting of a self-driving car and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed concept is suitable to deliver parcels in high-density and high-rise urban or residential areas. In order to achieve the proposed concept, we will develop acooperative heterogeneous unmanned system. Customers can order goods using a smartphone application and the order information, including the position of the customer and the order time, and the package is transported automatically by the unmanned systems. The system assigns the tasks suitable for each unmanned vehicle by analyzing it based on map information. Performance is validated by experiments consisting of autonomous driving and flight tests in a real environment. For more evaluation, the landing position error analysis is performed using circular error probability (CEP).

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.785-798
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• 2004

This paper introduces the development of a range sensor based integrated navigation system for a multi-functional indoor service robot, called PSR (Public Service Robot System). The proposed navigation system includes hardware integration for sensors and actuators, the development of crucial navigation algorithms like mapping, localization, and path planning, and planning scheme such as error/fault handling. Major advantages of the proposed system are as follows: 1) A range sensor based generalized navigation system. 2) No need for the modification of environments. 3) Intelligent navigation-related components. 4) Framework supporting the selection of multiple behaviors and error/fault handling schemes. Experimental results are presented in order to show the feasibility of the proposed navigation system. The result of this research has been successfully applied to our three service robots in a variety of task domains including a delivery, a patrol, a guide, and a floor cleaning task.