• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.359-367
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• 2013

With recent growth of the economy and development of construction technology, the increase of high-rise buildings is appearing rapidly in urban areas. For this reason, the interest in building maintenance has also been increasing. However, it has many safety problems because it is difficult for the workers to access the exterior wall of building. Therefore, the maintenance system of high-rise building stands out as being important issues to be developed, so that a variety of robot systems have been developed to accomplish the building-wall maintenance works. In this paper, the maintenance robots are classified in painting, inspecting, cleaning systems according to the maintenance works. Then, their locomotion and adhesion mechanisms are analyzed including their applicability to the real maintenance works. This study can be used to develop maintenance robotic system that is more efficient and stable than existing ones.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.383-389
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• 2016

In this paper, we present the hull blasting machine with vision-based weld bead recognition device for cleaning shipment exterior wall. The purpose of this study is to introduce the mechanism design of the high efficiency hull blasting machine using the vision system to recognize the weld bead. Therefore, we have developed a robot mechanism and drive controller system of the hull blasting robot. And hull blasting characteristics such as the climbing mechanism, vision system, remote controller and CAN have been discussed and compared with the experimental data. The hull blasting robots are able to remove rust or paint at anchor, so the re-docking is unnecessary. Therefore, this can save time and cost of undergoing re-docking process and build more vessels instead. The robot uses sensors to navigate safely around the hull and has a filter system to collect the fouling removed. We have completed a pilot test of the robot and demonstrated the drive control and CAN communication performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.815-820
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• 2013

With the development of technology, there has been a considerable increase in the number of skyscrapers in the world. Accordingly, there are increasing requirements with regard to maintenance, such as cleaning, painting, and inspection. However, it is extremely dangerous to work on the walls of buildings, and falls from buildings have accounted for a large proportion of construction accidents. In particular, as the number of buildings with irregular shapes increases, the accident rate during maintenance work has increased each year, with most accidents leading to deaths. An alternative solution must be developed with the commercialization of automatic systems. In this study, fundamental research has been conducted for drafting and commercializing an automation tool with a built-in guide system that can perform cleaning.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.59-86
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• 2021

The platform concept has been used for business operations in various forms: product platforms, transaction platforms and industry platforms. All these platforms have common characteristics of having 'core' that is reused frequently and 'peripherals' that are less reusable and changed often. Companies use platforms to enable efficient development and creation of product family, transactions and innovation. These platforms provide new opportunities for many small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) by bringing changes to traditional industrial structures focused on the products rather than platforms. The service robotics industry in South Korea is mainly composed of technology-intensive SMEs due to its small market size. Although these SMEs succeed in developing technologies, they have difficulties creating and expanding markets to sell products. Thus, this study addresses the characteristics and problems of the South Korean service robotics industry and analyses how ROBOPRINT, one of the SMEs in the service robotics industry, successfully creates and continuously expands the service robot market by adopting platform concept. The results indicate that ROBOPRINT has been applying two types of platforms: product and transaction platforms. First, ROBOPRINT created art robots that were apartment mural service robots. Rather than selling art robots, the company developed various robots such as painting robots, building exterior wall-cleaning robots by reusing the core technology of the robots. The company also developed various robots according to the buyers request. In addition, the company used the robots to directly provide apartment mural services for customers. This mural service has been extended into various areas, not only in apartments but also in soundproof walls, underground passages, and retaining walls. Besides, ROBOPRINT added new services continuously by developing technologies such as virtual reality. Second, ROBOPRINT mediated mural service buyers and mural designers. This platform reduced buyers' workload, which necessitates requesting mural services to ROBOPRINT and searching for mural designers. For designers, this opened up new opportunities to participate in the mural business. The platform attracted both mural buyers and designers who were scattered before. Finally, ROBOPRINT seeks to expand the platform's scope to outside company. To share internally reused ROBOPRINT's technology with other companies, the company participated in Daegu city's 'New Technology Platform Industry'. Furthermore, ROBOPRINT is trying to share the service platform by leasing robots to other companies. This allows external agents to develop technologies and provide services by reusing resources from ROBOPRINT. This study contributes to existing theories by showing that SMEs continuously create and expand markets by building various platforms. Moreover, it provides useful implications for practitioners by describing the firm's specific platform-building strategy.