• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.663-673
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• 2007

This paper presents a new moving obstacle detection method using an optical flow in mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera. Because an omnidirectional camera consists of a nonlinear mirror and CCD camera, the optical flow pattern in omnidirectional image is different from the pattern in perspective camera. The geometry characteristic of an omnidirectional camera has influence on the optical flow in omnidirectional image. When a mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera moves, the optical flow is not only theoretically calculated in omnidirectional image, but also investigated in omnidirectional and panoramic images. In this paper, the panoramic image is generalized from an omnidirectional image using the geometry of an omnidirectional camera. In particular, Focus of expansion (FOE) and focus of contraction (FOC) vectors are defined from the estimated optical flow in omnidirectional and panoramic images. FOE and FOC vectors are used as reference vectors for the relative evaluation of optical flow. The moving obstacle is turned out through the relative evaluation of optical flows. The proposed algorithm is tested in four motions of a mobile robot including straight forward, left turn, right turn and rotation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by the experimental results.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2010

In this paper, we present the detection method of moving objects based on two background models. These background models support to understand multi layered environment belonged in images taken by shaking camera and each model is MBM(Multiple Background Model) and TMBM (Temporal Median Background Model). Because two background models are Pixel-based model, it must have noise by camera movement. Therefore correlation coefficient calculates the similarity between consecutive images and measures camera motion vector which indicates camera movement. For the calculation of correlation coefficient, we choose the selected region and searching area in the current and previous image respectively then we have a displacement vector by the correlation process. Every selected region must have its own displacement vector therefore the global maximum of a histogram of displacement vectors is the camera motion vector between consecutive images. The MBM classifies the intensity distribution of each pixel continuously related by camera motion vector to the multi clusters. However, MBM has weak sensitivity for temporal intensity variation thus we use TMBM to support the weakness of system. In the video-based experiment, we verify the presented algorithm needs around 49(ms) to generate two background models and detect moving objects.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.239-246
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• 2000

An efficient control parameter extraction scheme required for auto-focusing control of a stereo camera is proposed. Without loss of generality, it is assumed that an interesting object exists in the center of a captured image by a stereo camera. In such a case. we apply a 2-dimensional wavelet transform to the center area with specific image size in the captured image. Next, we extract required focus control parameters using an Ll-norm for doubly high-pass filtered components. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is effectively applicable to the auto-focusing for a stereo camera compared to the conventional control scheme using discrete cosine transform (DCT).

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.896-902
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• 2007

This paper proposes a vision-based kinematic control method for mobile robots with camera-on-board. In the previous literature on the control of mobile robots using camera vision information, the forward velocity is set to be a constant, and only the rotational velocity of the robot is controlled. More efficient motion, however, is needed by controlling the forward velocity, depending on the position in the corridor. Thus, both forward and rotational velocities are controlled in the proposed method such that the mobile robots can move faster when the comer of the corridor is far away, and it slows down as it approaches the dead end of the corridor. In this way, the smooth turning motion along the corridor is possible. To this end, visual information using the camera is used to obtain the perspective lines and the distance from the current robot position to the dead end. Then, the vanishing point and the pseudo desired position are obtained, and the forward and rotational velocities are controlled by the LOS(Line Of Sight) guidance law. Both numerical and experimental results are included to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 1999

The research and implementation was preformed on high-resolution CCTV camera with CCD exclusive DSP conventional analog signal processor CCTV camera has its limit on auto exposure(AE), auto white balance(AWB), back light compensation(BLC) processing, severe distortion and noise of image, manual control parameter setting, etc. In our study, to resolve the problems in conventional CCTV camera, we made it possible to control AE, AWB, BLC automatically by the use of the DSP, which are used exclusively in the CCD camera produced domestically, and the microcontroller. And we utilized the function of screen display of microcontroller for the user-friendly interface to control CCD camera. And the electronic variable resister(EVR) was used to avoid setting parameters manually in the level of manufacturing process. As the result, It became possible to control parameters of the camera by program. And the cost-down effect was accomplished by improving the reliability of parameter values and reducing the efforts in setting parameters.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2005

AMachine vision is a promising tool for the autonomous guidance of farm machinery. Conventional CCD camera for the machine vision needs a desktop PC to install a frame grabber, however, a web camera is ready to use when plugged in the USB port. A web camera with a notebook PC can replace existing camera system. Autonomous steering control system of this research was intended to be used for combine harvester. If the web camera can recognize cut/uncut edge of crop, which will be the reference for steering control, then the position of the machine can be determined in terms of lateral offset and heading angle. In this research, a white line was used as a cut/uncut edge of crop for steering control. Image processing algorithm including capturing image in the web camera was developed to determine the desired travel path. An experimental vehicle was constructed to evaluate the system performance. Since the vehicle adopted differential drive steering mechanism, it is steered by the difference of rotation speed between left and right wheels. According to the position of vehicle, the steering algorithm was developed as well. Evaluation tests showed that the experimental vehicle could travel within an RMS error of 0.8cm along the desired path at the ground speed of $9\sim41cm/s$. Even when the vehicle started with initial offsets or tilted heading angle, it could move quickly to track the desired path after traveling $1.52\sim3.5m$. For turning section, i.e., the curved path with curvature of 3 m, the vehicle completed its turning securely.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1565-1567
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• 2004

Various defects are found in FPD (Flat Panel Display) manufacturing process. So detecting these defects early and reprocessing them is an important factor that reduces the cost of production. In this paper, the bare glass inspection system for the FPD which is the early process inspection system in the FPD manufacturing process is designed and implemented using the high performance and accuracy CCD line scan camera. For the preprocessing of the high speed line image data, the Image Processing Part (IPP) is designed and implemented using high performance DSP (Digital signal Processor), FIFO (First in First out), FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and the Data Management and System Control part are implemented using ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) processor to control many IPP and cameras and to provide remote users with processed data. For evaluating implemented system, experiment environment which has an area camera for reviewing and moving shelf is made.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.11c
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• pp.364-366
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• 2004

WDR(Wide Dynamic Range) camera has been recently introduced to provide good detailed information for the extremely dark or white area. The double shuttering camera acquires two pictures with different exposure time for the same scenes so that each image has its unique information as for the bright/dark area. Those images are combined internally to produce an image with enough details. This paper proposes a NN based method to control the exposure time of the WDR camera. Our goal is to develop a method to automatically control the exposure time like human decision. A neural model is trained to determine to increase/decrease shutter time for the given situation. The ability to adapt to unknown situation is shown for the sample cases.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.314-323
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• 1999

This paper introduces a methodology of active calibration of a camera pose (orientation and position) using the images of cylindrical objects that are going to be manipulated. This active calibration method is different from the passive calibration where a specific pattern needs to be located at a certain position. In the active calibration, a camera attached on the robot captures images of objects that are going to be manipulated. That is, the prespecified position and orientation data of the cylindrical object are transformed into the camera pose through the two consecutive image frames. An ellipse can be extracted from each image frame, which is defined as a circular-feature matrix. Therefore, two circular-feature matrices and motion parameters between the two ellipses are enough for the active calibration process. This active calibration scheme is very effective for the precise control of a mobile/task robot that needs to be calibrated dynamically. To verify the effectiveness of active calibration, fundamental experiments are peformed.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1830-1835
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• 2005

It is important to estimate the distribution of intensity of a magnetic field for application of magnetic method to industrial nondestructive evaluation. Magnetic camera provides the distribution of a quantitative magnetic field with homogeneous lift-off and same spatial resolution. And it is possible to interpret the distribution of the magnetic field when the dipole model is introduced. This study introduces the numerical and experimental considering of the quantitative evaluation of several size and shapes of the cracks using the magnetic field images of the scan type magnetic camera.