• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.799-807
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• 2014

This paper describes the development of an indoor locomotion assistive robot, Ball-Chair, comprising a novel drive system. This robot facilitates locomotion assistive operation in narrow spaces, in which common wheelchairs cannot move easily. The Ball-Chair has two main features: its structural feature and driving mechanism. The exoskeleton frames of the Ball-Chair have been designed with octagonal shapes resembling a circle, for minimizing its volume and weight. Additionally, all its driving parts (including the ball) are mounted within of the robot to enhance its safety. The Ball-Chair features a reverse ball-mouse driving mechanism comprising two driving omni-wheels in the x- and y-axes. By controlling the speed of each omni-wheel, a holonomic driving system that can facilitate omnidirectional locomotion has been achieved using only two wheels. The effective movement of the Ball-Chair in any direction within narrow indoor spaces was experimentally verified. The paper outlines the development procedure in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2003

In order to develop an indoor assistive mobility equipment, we paid attention to the mechanism of locomotion in a snail, or a terrestrial gastropod molluscs. It is known that the snail moves by propagation of a pedal wave generating on a pedal surface of the snail and a pedal locomotion has flexibility far ground condition. An air mattress with a function of a pedal-like locomotion mechanism was developed and the performance of the pedal locomotory air mattress as mobility equipment was discussed.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1989 no.05
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• pp.77-80
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• 1989

This paper describes a study on the locomotion control system for a indoor-use mobile wheelchair. Three lode of operations - BASIC, AUTOMATIC and PROGRAMMED - are employed as basic algorithm building block. One-chip microcomputer 8031 is dominating the control of actuation part and it can control the range of rotating speed of the wheel both right and left by servo motor. Keyboard is employed as a command input device. This system is intended to improve the daily life of the disabled by the intelligent interactive operation scheme.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.463-466
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• 2004

This paper describes an image processing algorithm for recognition of small-obstacles using a camera and program for a mobile robot in indoor environment. Mobile robot could meet small-obstacles such as a small plastic bottle of about 1l in quantity, a small box of 7$\times$7$\times$7 cm$^3$ in volume, and so on in its designated path, and could be disturbed by them in the locomotion of a mobile robot. So, it is necessary to research on the image processing algorithm for recognition of small-obstacles using a camera and program. In this paper, 2-D the image processing algorithm for recognition of small-obstacles using a camera and program for a mobile robot in indoor environment was developed. The characteristic test of the developed program to confirm the recognition of small-obstacles was performed. It is shown that the developed program could recognize small-obstacles accurately.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Interior Design Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.176-179
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• 2004

Space is comprised by the movements of human beings, and draws a complex locus within it. That form seems to be complex of movement around in all directions of space axis, and be ever-changing process as time goes by. Although Human are able to move uninhibitedly, the movements are restricted to a narrow sphere during locomotion. However, the pattern of these movements delineates a certain frame within the space, and provides not only visual effects but also relevance tomovement itself. Also, critically dividing and organizing this sphere is what is realized into this tangible indoor space. This study recognized importance of human being as a core of making indoor space and brought out experimental approach on relationship human with space, and visually perceptual standpoint. And this presented the recent possibility of action and attitude though sight and walking by arranging space on the basis of modern artists' perception of human body.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.9 s.174
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• pp.85-92
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• 2005

This paper describes the recognition method of small-obstacles using a camera for a mobile robot in indoor environment. The technique of image processing using a camera has been widely used for an automaton of industrial system, an inspection of inferior goods, a lookout of an invader, and a vision sensor of intelligent robot. Mobile robot could meet small-obstacles such as a small plastic bottle of about 0.5 l in quantity, a small box of $7{\times}7{\times}7cm^3$ in volume, and so on in its designated path, and could be disturbed by them in the locomotion of a mobile robot. So, it is necessary to research on the recognition of small-obstacles using a camera and program. In this paper, 2-D image processing algorism and method fur recognition of small-obstacles using a camera for a mobile robot in indoor environment was developed. The characteristic test of the developed program to confirm the recognition of small-obstacles was performed. It is shown that the developed program could judge the size and the position of small-obstacles accurately.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2005

The research on the avoidance of the large-obstacles such as a wall, a large box, etc. using ultrasonic sensors has been generally progressed up to now. But the mobile robot could meet a small-obstacle such as a small plastic bottle, a small sphere, and so on in its designated path, and could be disturbed by them in the locomotion of the mobile robot. So, it is necessary to research on the avoidance of a small-obstacle. In this paper, a robot's small-obstacle perceiving system was designed and fabricated by arranging four ultrasonic sensors on the plastic plate to avoid small-obstacles. The system was installed on the upper part of the mobile robot with the slope angles between $40.7^{\circ}$ and $23.3^{\circ}$ to a horizontal line and the dynamic characteristic test of the robot was performed. As the result, it was confirmed that the mobile robot with the system could avoid small-obstacles in indoor environment safely.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.209-216
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• 1994

The objective of the research reported in this paper is to design locomotion system of the motorized wheelchair, to develope the wall following algorithm. The indoor navigation of a motorized wheelchair can be based on the wall following techniques. In this paper, it is proposed to enhance stability and efficiency using the 3 ultrasonic sensors arranged at a same perpendicular pivot. Using this method, the angle between the motorized wheelchair and the wall is detected and the range of control commands has been increased. For the better stability, the calculated slope of a wall using LSLF algorithm was fed back to the control part. By adapting the suggested algorithm and method, the motorized wheelchair could follow a wall in 4 seconds, for a change of distance between the wheelchair and wall from 30 to 100cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2004

This paper describes a perception of small-obstacle using ultrasonic sensors in a mobile robot. The research on the avoidance of the large-obstacles such as a wall, a large box, etc. using ultrasonic sensors has been generally progressed up to now. But the mobile robot could meet a small-obstacle such as a small plastic bottle of about 1 l in quantity, a small box of 7${\times}$7${\times}$7 cm3 in volume, and so on in its designated path, and could be disturbed by them in the locomotion of the mobile robot. So, it is necessary to research on the avoidance of a small-obstacle. In this paper, the small-obstacle perceiving system was designed and fabricated by arranging four ultrasonic sensors on the plastic plate to avoid a small-obstacle. The small-obstacle perceiving system was installed on the above part of the mobile robot with the slope of 40.7$^{\circ}$ to a horizontal line. The static characteristic test and the dynamic characteristic test were performed to know the information of the used ultrasonic sensors. As a result, the mobile robot with the small-obstacle perceiving system could avoid a small-obstacle, and could move in indoor environment safely.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.990-992
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to develop a practical gait-event detection system which is necessary for the FES (functional electrical stimulation) control of locomotion in paralyzed patients. The system is comprised of a sensor board and an event recognition algorithm. We focused on the practicality improvement of the system through 1) using accelerometer to get the angle of shank and dispensing with the foot-switches having limitation in indoor or barefoot usage and 2) using a rule-base instead of threshold to determine the heel-off/heel-strike events corresponding the stimulation on/off timing. The sensor signals are transmitted through RF communication and gait-events was detected using the peaks in shank angle. The system could detect two critical gait-events in all five paralyzed patients. The standard deviation of the gait events time from the peaks were smaller when 1.5Hz cutoff frequency was used in the derivation of the shank angle from the acceleration signals.