• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.469-475
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• 2017

Workers in industrial fields are highly exposed to accidents or injuries caused by long working hours. An exoskeleton that is able to support the arm muscles of the worker and thereby reduce the probability of an accident and enhance working efficiency could be a solution to this problem. However, existing exoskeletons demand the use of high-priced sensors and motors, which makes them difficult to use in industrial fields. To solve this problem, we developed an arm assisting exoskeleton that consists only of mechanical components without any electronic sensors or motors. The exoskeleton follows the movement of the human arm by shoulder joint and ankle joint. In addition, counterbalance mechanisms are installed on the exoskeleton to support arm strength. The experimental validation of the exoskeleton was conducted using an EMG sensor, confirming the performance of the exoskeleton.

• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2018

It is very important to identify recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) and prevent RLN injury during thyroid surgery. The intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) for the prevention of RLN injury is a useful method because it can identify the location and status of RLN and predict postoperative vocal cord function easily. The IONM consists of a stimulating side that applies electrical stimulation to the nerve and a recording side that measures the surface electromyography (EMG) of the vocal cord muscle through electrode endotracheal tube. The nerve stimulator and surgical dissector are separate instruments. So, during IONM for the prevention of the RLN injury in conventional, endoscopic, or robotic thyroid surgery, repeated exchanging between surgical instruments and the nerve stimulator is inconvenient and time consuming. On the recording side, the accuracy of the electrode endotracheal tube which measures the EMG of the vocalis muscle can be affected by contact with between electrode and vocal fold and position change of patient. We would like to introduce recent several researches to overcome the current limitations of IONM.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2023

This study proposes service content that helps people stay in the right posture in their daily lives to manage the pain of musculoskeletal diseases. Resistance factors and induction factors were analyzed through a survey of 143 people and Ethnography. Based on this, we propose an app service that helps practice the right posture by using EMG sensors and wearable devices. This study is meaningful in alleviating musculoskeletal pain and further improving the quality of life by helping to practice and maintain the right posture with service content based on self-objectification through user posture habit analysis.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2013

The exoskeleton robot to assist walking of hemiplegia patients or disabled persons has been studied in this paper. The exoskeleton robot with degrees of freedom of 2 axis has been developed and tested for joint motion. The obtained EMG signal from normal person was analyzed and the control signal was extracted from it for convenient and automotive performance of assistance robot to help hemiplegia patient walks as normal person does. the purpose of using FES(Functional Electrical Stimulation) for hemiplegia patient's walk is to restore damaged body function by this, but this could give fatal electrical shock to patients by wrong use or cause quick fatigue in muscle by continuous stimulation. The convenient movement of hemiplegia patients with minimum muscle fatigue was looked possibly by operation of assistance robot exoskeleton using control signal. and the walking assistance exoskeleton robot seemed works more efficiently than using FES stimulator. The experiment in this study was performed based on usual motion in our life like walking, standing-up, sitting-down, and particularly feedback control system using Piezo sensor along with button switch was applied for smooth swing motion in walking. The experiment also shows that hemiplegia patients can move conveniently by using electromyogram signal of healthy leg for the operation signal of assistance robot system attached at damaged symmetrical leg.

• 전자공학회논문지 IE
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.28-36
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• 2006

In this paper, an algorithm to classify the 4 motions of arm and a control system to position control the prosthesis are studied. To classify the 4 motions, we use flex sensors which is electrical resistance type sensor that can measure warp of muscle. The flex sensors are attached to the biceps brchii muscle and coracobrachialis muscle and the sensor signals are passed the sensing system. 4 motion of the forearm - flexion and extension, the pronation and supination are classified from this. Also position of forearm is measured from the classified signals. Finally, A two D.O.F prosthesis arm with RC servo-motor is designed to verify the validity of the algorithm. At this time, fuzzy controller is used to reduce the position error by rotary inertia and noise. From the experiment, the position error had occurred within about 5 degree.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.261-268
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• 2014

This paper presents a electrocardiogram(ECG), electromyogram(EMG), and Photoplethysmography(PPG) signal wireless monitoring system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). ECG and EMG sensor interface analog front-end circuits are designed by using off-the-shelf parts. Texas Instruments(TI)'s CC2540DK is used for BLE-based communication. Two CC2540DK modules are used as Peripheral and Central nodes. In peripheral device, vital signals are acquired by the analog front-ends and fed to ADC for analog-to-digital conversion. The peripheral transmitts the data through the air to the central device. The central device receive the data and sends them to PC using UART. GUI is designed using Labview for displaying the acquired vital signals. The developed system can be used for future ubiquitous wireless healthcare system based on bluetooth 4.0.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.141-146
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to develop the algorithm which can control muscle power assist robot especially for elderly. Recently, wearable robots for power assistance are developed by many researchers, and its application fields are also variable such as for medical or military equipment. However, there are many technical barriers to develop the wearable robot. This study suggest a control method improving performance of a wearable robot system by using a EMG signal of major muscles and a force sensor signal as command signal of system. The result of the robot Prototype efficiency experiment, the case of Maximum Isometric motion it suggest 100% power of muscle, the man need only 66% of MVIC(Maximum Voluntary Isometric Contraction) to lift 5kg dumbbell without robot assist. However the man needs only 52% of MVIC to lift 5kg dumbbell with robot assist. Therefore 20% muscle power increased with robot assist. Also, we designed light weight robot mechanism that extract the command signal verified and drive the wanted motions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.1918-1919
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• 2011

상체 지원 외골격 로봇은 크게 인간의 근력을 보조하는 형태와 인간의 근력을 증강하는 형태가 있다. 여기서는 인간의 근력을 증강하는 외골격 로봇을 중심으로 기술하고자 한다. 이러한 외골격 로봇은 팔의 EMG (Electromyograph;근전도) 신호를 측정하는 방법보다는 손의 힘을 직접 감지하는 방법을 통한 팔꿈치와 어깨의 엑추에이터를 구동하는 방식을 취하는 경향이 있다. 본 논문에서도 후자의 방식을 이용하여 손에 작용하는 힘을 분석하여 외골격 로봇을 움직이는 방식을 취하였다. 손의 힘 중에서도 인간을 중심으로 볼 때 위방향과 전진방향의 힘을 분석하기 위하여 2개의 F/T(Force/Torque) 센서를 사용하였으며 팔을 벌리는 동작은 엑추에이터 없이 자유롭게 동작이 가능하도록 설계하였다. 이러한 위방향 및 전진방향 힘의 크기를 팔꿈치와 어깨의 엑추에이터의 동작으로 바꾸어 인간의 동작을 도울 수 있고 힘을 증폭할 수 있는 외골격 로봇을 설계 제작하였다. F/T 센서는 손의 힘을 전기적 신호로 바꾸어주는 로드셀로 이루어지며 손의 힘을 최대한 잘 반영하기 위한 구조를 고안하였다. F/T 센서의 전기신호는 증폭기를 거쳐서 잡음을 제거한 후에 A/D 변환하여 processor에서 처리되어진다.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1505-1510
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• 2010

Response to nerve stimulation platform for implementing measures to detect finger movement has been functioning as an important factor. The finger movement of the muscle response to nerve stimulation and sensing Actuator for the H/W development is needed. In addition, a low power embedded CPU based on the top was used. H/W configuration portion of the isolation power, constant current control, High impedance INA, amplifier parts, and the stimulus mode and the Micro-control the status of current, AD converter Low Data obtained through the processing system is implemented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.799-807
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• 2017

In this paper, a new method is proposed for estimating pedestrians' walking velocity based on lower-limb kinematics and wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. While the soles and ground are not in contact during the walking cycle, the walking velocity can be estimated by integrating the acceleration output of the inertial sensor mounted on the pelvis. To minimize the effects of acceleration measurement errors caused by the tilt of the pelvis while walking, the estimated walking velocity based on lower-limb kinematics is imposed as the initial value in the acceleration signal integration process of the pelvis inertial sensor. In the experiment involving outdoor walking for six minutes, sensor drift due to error accumulation was not observed, and the RMS error in the walking velocity estimation was less than 0.08 m/s.