• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.436-443
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• 2013

This paper presents design methods of a fuzzy controller and an operator model for a wire-driven heavy material lifting system helping human workers. The wire-driven heavy material lifting system is a kind of human-assistive systems in which a human is involved in the control loop. Thus, human's control characteristics and requirement of reducing worker's force to lift a heavy material are considered in the design process of the proposed fuzzy controller. An automatic weight measurement algorithm during the early stage of lifting is also introduced. Finally, the effectiveness and performance of the proposed system are proved by experiments.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.177-185
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• 2014

In this study, the exoskeleton orthosis for the assistance of dorsiflexion torque in ankle joint to prevent foot-drop was developed. It was consist of three part; 1) the power part using artificial pneumatic actuator, 2) wearing part of ankle and knee joints to fix the orthosis, and 3) control part to detect the gait phase using physiological signal. The dorsiflexion torque was generated by the artificial pneumatic actuator connected with wearing part between ankle and knee joint. The accurate timing to assist dorsiflexion torque is made up of physiological signal in foot sole part that detect the gait phase, that is, stance and swing phase in each foot. We conduct the experiment to investigate the effect of exoskeleton orthosis to the 7 elderly people and 10 healthy people. The result showed that the muscular activities in tibialis anterior muscle were reduced because of the assistance of dorsiflexion torque in ankle joint using the exoskeleton orthosis.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2014

In this study, it is intended to provide a slip detector is an important function in the research on the slip control can be addressed uncontrollably path withdrawal might during driving of the power wheelchair, slip phenomenon occurs. By detecting and electric wheelchairs, the state of the motor during running, the detection of the slip, slip detection information calculated using an encoder that is connected to the left and right motor with six-axis IMU sensor for the electric wheelchair using an algorithm to calculate the slip ratio. Slip rate calculated in this way is used as control variable for improving the safety of the electric wheelchair. It was confirmed from the slip phenomenon of the path the proposed experiments slim detector proposed in this study. The maximum slip ratio detection zone during the experiment, can occur during turning of the electric wheelchair has been confirmed.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2023

Squatting of agricultural work can cause musculoskeletal disorders due to excessive pressure and rotational force on the knee joint In order to improve the assistive chair used in squatting agricultural work so that it can be used in a narrow groove, it is intended to improve the musculoskeletal harm of squatting work by attaching a spring on the assistive chair. Therefore, in the presenty study, 3D drawing was done using ProEngineer (3D), and a mock-up was produced and tested. Using pro-Engineer, it was judged that it was rare for plastic to be broken by a spring, so the analysis was conducted with a focus on springs. It was found that the structure that can absorb the shock according to the rigidity of the tape spring and balance the body is that the power to withstand the load of the weight is distributed as a whole when five springs are used. Electromyography was measured using ME600 (Mega Electronics, Finland) Measuring equipment attached to the waist, thighs, calves, and shins. EMG values were measured and compared with the prototype in two ways, when the worker did not wear the product and when he wore an existing product on the market. As a result of the experiment when using the prototype, the maximum EMG value for each part is considered to be helpful in preventing musculoskeletal diseases as the amount of muscle used is reduced in the waist, thighs, calves, and shins.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.111-114
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• 2006

An alternative human interface enabling people with severe motor disabilities to control an assistive system is presented. Since this interface relies on the biosignals originating from the contraction of muscles on the face during particular movements, even individuals with a paralyzed limb can use it with ease. For real-world application, a dedicated hardware module employing a general-purpose digital signal processor was implemented and its validity tested on an electrically powered wheelchair. Furthermore, an additional attempt to reduce error rates to a minimum for stable operation was also made based on the entropy information inherent in the signals during the classification phase. In the experiments, most of the five participating subjects could control the target system at their own will, and thus it is found that the proposed interface can be considered a potential alternative for the interaction of the severely disabled with electronic systems.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2009

Recently, the interest on walking assistances in order to assist aged people has increased due to the increase of the aged. However, most walking aid systems have a weakness for a slope because they don't have power. So, they have a weak point which makes users difficult to move when they are weak in the legs. That is why the interest on walking assistances with power has increased. The use of the walking aid systems should be easy because most users are old people. Thus, we produce module to grasp walking intent of users by using various sensors such as potentiometer, FSR(Force Sensing Resistance) Sensor and Stretch Sensor and calculate the response time to the module. Firstly, the response time of handlebar which is a kind of potentiometer is 420ms and Resilience of it is 140ms. Secondly, the response time of handlebar which use FSR Sensor is 320ms and Resilience of it is 220ms. Finally, the response time of the Stretch Sensor is 160ms and Resilience of it is 140ms. The performance of Stretch Sensor is the best among the three kind of sensors.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.124-131
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• 2017

This paper present a novel approach to control the lower body power assistive exoskeleton system of a HEXAR-CR35 aimed at improving a muscular strength. More specifically the control of based on the human intention is crucial of importance to ensure intuitive and dexterous motion with the human. In this contribution, we proposed the detection algorithm of the human intention using the MCRS which are developed to measure the contraction of the muscle with variation of the circumference. The proposed algorithm provides a joint motion of exoskeleton corresponding the relate muscles. The main advantages of the algorithm are its simplicity, computational efficiency to control one joint of the HEXAR-CR35 which are consisted knee-active type exoskeleton (the other joints are consisted with the passive or quasi-passive joints that can be arranged by analyzing of the human joint functions). As a consequence, the motion of exoskeleton is generated according to the gait phase: swing and stance phase which are determined by the foot insole sensors. The experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm is achieved in walking with the exoskeleton while carrying the external mass in the back side.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.37-40
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• 2021

This paper presents a design of a speech to sign language converter for deaf and hard of hearing people. The device is low-cost, low-power consumption, and it can be able to work entirely offline. The speech recognition is implemented using an open-source API, Pocketsphinx library. In this work, we proposed a context-oriented language model, which measures the similarity between the recognized speech and the predefined speech to decide the output. The output speech is selected from the recommended speech stored in the database, which is the best match to the recognized speech. The proposed context-oriented language model can improve the speech recognition rate by 21% for working entirely offline. A decision module based on determining the similarity between the two texts using Levenshtein distance decides the output sign language. The output sign language corresponding to the recognized speech is generated as a set of sequential images. The speech to sign language converter is deployed on a Raspberry Pi Zero board for low-cost deaf assistive devices.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.287-294
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• 2016

Based on upper limb torque by different angles of a back, distance between crank axis and chest and angles of hand-grips, this research is to develop variable hand bikes. By doing so, it is to offer guidance for its design. For this research three normal persons took part in the experiment. Results are as follows. First, upper limb torque was found to be the highest at 50 degree of a back and muscle endurance was shown to be the highest at 80 degree of a back. It means that as a back of a chair gets lower the speed and efficiency becomes better, which contradicts the subjective fact that K-type hand bikes would show the highest speed. Second, among types of grips of hand bikes 45 degree ones have been shown to be the ones with the highest torque. This is due to proper distribution of power of joints in arms, elbows, and shoulders. Third, in case of distance of 45cm between crank axis and chest, it has shown the most efficient torque. This is because of the effect of gravity and exhaustion when handling.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2004

The purposes of this study were to find correlations among Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale, gait speed, and Timed Up & Go test (TUG) and to predict gait ability from subscales of Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale. The study population consisted of 30 stroke patients referred to the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in the Bundang Jaesang General Hospital. All subjects were ambulatory with or without an assistive device. All participants were assessed on Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale and gait speed (m/s), TUG (s). The data were analyzed using independent t-test, Pearson product moment correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression. The results revealed that all items of Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale, except passive joint range of motion were significantly correlated with gait speed and TUG. In particular, sensation score, lower extremity motor and coordination score have a significant correlation with gait speed and TUG (p<.05). The sensation score and lower extremity motor score were important factors in comfortable gait and maximal gait speed. Their power of explanation regarding comfortable gait and maximal gait speed were 63.0% and 65.0%, respectively. The sensation score and lower extremity coordination score were important factors in TUG. Their power of explanation regarding TUG was 55.0%. These results showed that Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale is significantly correlated with gait speed and TUG. Therefore Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale is an appropriate assessment tool to predict gait ability of patients with stroke. Further study about gait speed and TUG by change of Fugl-Meyer Assessment score is needed using a longitudinal study design.