• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.669-673
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• 2006

Field works are decreasing gradually since advancement of industrial robots. Tunnel cleaning is a dangerous field work which can be solved only by introducingadvanced tunnel cleaning automation equipment. Industrial robots work tirelessly night and day without a loss in performance. Consequently, greatly reduce the costs of manufactured goods.So far only 200 construction robots are invented. Robots used for tunnel cleaning are not of high standard they always need additional workers for job to be done. Robots offer specific benefits to workers, industries and countries. If introduced correctly for tunnel cleaning, industrial robots can improve the quality of life by freeing workers from dirty, boring, dangerous and heavy labor. Development of advanced tunnel cleaning automation equipment is a must to overcome above issues. The benefits of robots to industry include improved management control, productivity and consistently high quality products. This research is a study on tunnel cleaning automation equipment and introducing advanced tunnel cleaning automation equipment.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.243-251
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• 2012

In this paper, developing of a pool cleaning robot is addressed. First, we analyze commercial pool cleaning robot mechanisms, and the merits and demerits of wireless version of a pool cleaning robot is introduced. And then the water-jet moving mechanism for a pool cleaning robot is proposed to improve energy efficiency and mechanical design advantage, which is one of the strong candidates for wireless pool cleaning robots. Next, the method of cleaning performance evaluation of pool cleaning robots is firstly defined with five key factors, and it was verified by experimental results. If the cleaning performance can be quantitatively defined, we can design optimally a pool cleaning robot, which results in the cost down.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.73-80
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• 2009

This paper describes a path planning algorithm, which is the minimal turning path based on the shape and size of the cell to clean up the whole area with two cleaning robots. Our method divides the whole cleaning area with each cell by cellular decomposition, and then provides some path plans among of the robots to reduce the rate of energy consumption and cleaning time of it. In addition we suggest how to plan between the robots especially when they are cleaning in the same cell. Finally simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in an unknown area with multiple robots. And then we compare the performance index of two algorithms such as total of turn, total of time.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.252-254
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• 2005

Completer coverage path planning requires the robot path to cover every part of the workspace, which is an essential issue in cleaning robots and many other robotic applications such as vacuum robots and painter robots. In this paper, a novel Water Flowing Algorithm (WFA) is proposed for cleaning robots to complete coverage path planning in unknown environment without obstacles. The robot covers the whole workspace just like that water fills up a container. First the robot goes to the lowest point in the workspace just like water flows to the bottom of the container. At last the robot will come to highest point in the workspace just like water overflows from the container and simultaneously the robot has covered the whole workspace. The computer simulation results show that the proposed algorithm enable the robot to plan complete coverage paths.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.789-794
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• 2005

This paper describes an algorithm for minimal turning complete coverage Path planning for cleaning robots. This algorithm divides the whole cleaning area by cellular decomposition, and then provides the path planning among the cells employing a flow network. It also provides specific path planning inside each cell guaranteeing the minimal turning of the robots. The minimal turning of the robots is directly related to the faster motion and energy saving. The proposed algorithm is compared with previous approaches in simulation and the result shows the validity of the algorithm.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.120.3-120
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• 2001

We propose a new method of path planning for cleaning robots. Path planning problem for cleaning robots is different from conventional path planning problems in which finding a collision-free trajectory from a start point to a goal point is focused. In the case of cleaning robots, however, a planned path should cover all area to be cleaned. To resolve this problem in a systematic way, we propose a method based on a graph model as follows: at first, partition a given map into proper regions, then transform a divided region to a vertex and a connectivity between regions to an edge of a graph. Finally, a region is divided into sub-regions so that the graph has a unary tree which is the simplest Hamilton path. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by computer simulation results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.300-306
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• 2005

In this paper we present a guideline to evaluate how easy the use of personal robots is and how good their learning abilities are, based on the analysis of their built-in commands, user interfaces, and intelligences. Recently, we are living with robots that can be able to do lots of roles; cleaning, security, pets and education in real life. They can be classified as home robots, guide robots, service robots, robot pets, and so on. There we, however, no standards to evaluate their abilities, so it is not easy to select an appropriate robot when a user wants to buy it. Thus, we present, as a guideline that can be a standard for the evaluation of the personal robots, the standards by means of analyzing existing personal robots and results of the recent research works. We will, also, demonstrate how to apply the evaluation method to the cleaning robot as an example.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2012

Due to the development of construction technology, there is a considerable increase in the number of skyscrapers in the world. Accordingly, there are rapid growing requests about maintenance systems such as cleaning, painting, and monitoring the processes of facade in highrise buildings. However, it is extremely dangerous working the walls of high-rise buildings, and crashes from buildings have accounted for large proportion of constructional accidents. An alternative solution must be developed with the commercialization of automatic robot systems. For the last decade, interest in developing robots for cleaning and maintenance in facade of highrise buildings has continuously increased. The use of automatic robot systems can be expected to reduce accidents and decrease labor costs. In this paper, we propose a new kind of cleaning mechanism. We have designed and manufactured various cleaning tools for different types of facades with economic commercialization. The cleaning cycle, size, and intensity will be determined by economic constraints as well. The final goals are to design and manufacture tools and robots that can clean facades efficiently and rapidly even in dangerous places. The cleaning tool systems consist of nozzles, brush rollers, and squeezing devices. Furthermore, these tools and robots perform each process utilizing the systems of built-in guide types and gondola types for building maintenance. The performance of the proposed cleaning tools is evaluated experimentally; however additional study should be necessary for safer and more stable commercialization.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.489-496
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• 2006

The random-based cleaning algorithm is a simple algorithm widely used in commercial vacuum cleaning robots. This algorithm has two limitations, that is, cleaning takes a long time and there is no guarantee that the cleaning will cover the whole cleaning area. This has lead to customer dissatisfaction. Thus, in recent years, many intelligent cleaning algorithms that takes into consideration information gathered from the cleaning area environment have been proposed. The plowing-based algorithm, which is the most efficient algorithm known to date when there are no obstacles in the cleaning area, has a deficiency that when obstacle prevail, its performance is not guaranteed. In this paper, we propose the Group-k algorithm that is efficient for that situation, that is, when obstacle prevail. The goal is not to complete the cleaning as soon as possible, but to clean the majority of the cleaning area as fast as possible. The motivation behind this is that areas close to obstacles are usually difficult for robots to handle, and hence, many require human assistance anyway In our approach, obstacles are grouped by the complexity of the obstacles, which we refer to as 'complex rank', and then decide the cleaning route based on this complex rank. Results from our simulation-based experiments show that although the cleaning completion time takes longer than the plowing-based algorithm, the Group-k algorithm cleans the majority of the cleaning area faster than the plowing algorithm.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.175-178
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• 2007

기존의 싱글 로봇 시스템이 할 수 없거나 하기 어려운 작업을 다개체 이동 로봇 시스템을 사용함으로써 수행 할 수 있게 되었으며, 로봇 간의 협력적인 작업을 통하여 성능 향상을 가져오게 되었다. 이러한 장점 때문에 상용화가 잘 이루어진 청소 로봇에서도 다개체 로봇 시스템 적용에 대한 연구가 이루어지고 있다. 하지만 기존의 다개체 청소로봇 시스템은 고가의 매핑 방식 청소 로봇을 사용하기 때문에 비용적인 문제에 있어서 큰 문제를 가지고 있다. 그렇기 때문에 본 논문에서는 인간과의 상호 보완 알고리즘을 이용한 청소로봇을 다개체 청소 로봇 시스템에 적용하여 가격적인 단점을 보완하려고 한다. 하지만 인간과의 상호 보완 알고리즘을 이용한 청소 로봇을 그대로 다개체 청소 로봇 시스템에 적용할 수 없기 때문에 이를 보완할 수 있는 방안을 제안하고자 한다.