• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.341-348
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to compare the muscle activities of the thoracic extensor(TE) and lumbar extensor(LE) during trunk lift (TL) exercise according to exercise position. Seventeen healthy subjects with no medial history of back pain were recruited for this study. Subjects performed the TL exercise in prone, quadruped and heel-sitting positions. The activities of the TE and LE were measured using surface electromyography during TL exercise in each exercise position. A one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the normalized muscle activities of the TE and LE and the TE/LE ratio. The results showed that there was not significant effect of exercise position on the muscle activities of TE(p>.05). However, there was significant effect of exercise position on the muscle activities of LE and the TE/LE ratio(p>.05). Post hoc pair-wise comparisons with Bonferroni correction showed that both muscle activities of LE and TE/LE ratio in prone position were significantly different in those in heel-sitting and quadruped positions, during TL exercise, respectively. The TE/LE ratio was the greatest for TL exercise in heel-sitting position. Therefore, for selective activation of the TE muscle, we recommend performing the TL exercise in heel-sitting or quadruped position.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.308-313
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• 2005

For a real-time quadruped robot running control, there are many important objectives to consider. In this paper, the running control architecture based on global states, which describe the cyclic target motion, and central pattern is proposed. The main goal of the controller is how the robot can have robustness to an unpredictable environment with reducing calculation burden to generate control inputs. Additional goal is construction of a single framework controller to avoid discontinuities during transition between multi-framework controllers and of a training-free controller. The global state dependent neuron network induces adaptation ability to an environment and makes the training-free controller. The central pattern based approach makes the controller have a single framework, and calculation burden is resolved by extracting dynamic equations from the control loop. In our approach, the model of the quadruped robot is designed using anatomical information of a cat, and simulated in 3D dynamic environment. The simulation results show the proposed single framework controller is robustly performed in an unpredictable sloped terrain without training.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

Objective: This study aimed to determine the efficacy of flexible pole training combined with lumbar stabilization in improving trunk muscle activities and to investigate the difference according to posture in young adults. Methods: Twenty-five participants were enrolled in this study. The subjects were randomly allocated into either the flexible pole group or the rigid pole group. Participants performed lumbar stabilization exercises on quadruped and curl-up, with the flexible pole or rigid pole. Electromyography was used to assess the percent maximal voluntary isometric contracion (%MVIC) of the rectus abdominis (RA), external oblique (EO), internal oblique (IO), and erector spine (ES) muscles. All participants completed one 30-minute session per day, 3 days per week, for 6 weeks. The evaluation was performed before and 6 weeks after the training, and follow-up. The data were analyzed using independent t-test and two-way repeated measure analysis of variance to determine the statistical significance. Results: The flexible pole in curl-up showed significant differences in EO and IO muscle activities compared with the rigid pole. The flexible pole in quadruped showed significant differences in IO and ES muscle activities compared with the rigid pole. The RA, EO, IO, and ES muscle activities of both groups were significantly higher after 6 weeks training. Conclusion: The flexible pole in curl-up and quadruped showed an improvement in trunk muscle activation. The flexible pole combined with lumbar stabilization will be useful as an exercise tool to improve activity of trunk muscles.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1247-1252
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• 2005

Though a legged robot has a high terrain adaptability as compared with a wheeled robot, its moving speed is considerably low in general. For attaining a high moving speed with a logged robot, a dynamically stable walking is a promising solution. However, the energy efficiency of a dynamically stable walking is generally lower than the efficiency of a stable gait such as a crawl gait. In this paper, energy consumption of two walking patterns for a trot gait is simulated through modeling a quadruped walking robot named TITAN-VIII.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

Purpose : The aim of this study is to compare the trunk muscle activities in trunk stabilization on the stable and unstable supporting surfaces using by sEMG. Methods : The subjects of this study include seventeen male. We measured sEMG activities of rectus abdominis and erector spine in subjects during trunk stabilization such as plank exercise, quadruped position, quadruped position with rising hand and foot on the stable and unstable surface. Results : sEMG activities in plank exercise was significantly higher in left rectus abdominis and left erector spine on unstable surface then stable surface (p<.05). sEMG activities of left rectus abdominis and left erector spine in quadruped position was significantly higher in unstable surface than stable surface (p<.05). In comparison with posture, Plank exercise showed a significant difference increase other postures (p<.05). Conclusion : sEMG activities of muscle in trunk stabilization was significantly higher in unstable surface than stable surface and plank exercise. So, we suggest that trunk stabilization on the unstable supporting surface and plank exercise were more effective method than stable surface to improve trunk muscles activities.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.314-321
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• 2005

In this paper an intelligence embedding quadruped pet robot is described. It has 15 degrees of freedom and consists of various sensors such as CMOS image, voice recognition and sound localization, inclinometer, thermistor, real-time clock, tactile touch, PIR and IR to allows owners to interact with pet robot according to human's intention as well as the original features of pet animals. The architecture is flexible and adopts various embedded processors for handling sensors to provide modular structure. The pet robot is also used for additional purpose such like security, gaming visual tracking, and research platform. It is possible to generate various actions and behaviors and to download voice or music files to maintain a close relation of users. With cost-effective sensor, the pet robot is able to find its recharge station and recharge itself when its battery runs low. To facilitate programming of the robot, we support several development environments. Therefore, the developed system is a low-cost programmable entertainment robot platform.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.703-710
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• 2004

This paper presents discontinuous zigzag gait analysis for a newly modeled quadruped walking robot with an articulated spine which connects the front and rear parts of the body. An articulated spine walking robot can move easily from side to side, which is an important feature to guarantee a larger gait stability margin than that of a conventional single rigid-body walking robot. First, we suggest a kinematic modeling of an articulated spine robot which has new parameters such as a waist-joint angle, a rotate angle of a front and rear body and describe characteristics of gait using an articulated spine. Next, we compared the difference of walking motion of newly modeled robot with that of a single rigid-body robot and analyzed the gait of an articulated spine robot using new parameters. On the basis of above result, we proposed a best walking motion with maximum stability margin. To show the effectiveness of proposed gait planning by simulation, firstly the fastest walking motion is identified based on the maximum stride, because the longer the stride, the faster the walking speed. Next, the gait stability margin variation of an articulated spine robot is compared according to the allowable waist-joint angle.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.555-561
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• 2008

This Paper introduces new approach to develop fast and reliable gaits for quadruped robot using GA(genetic algorithm). Planning gaits for legged robots is a challenging task that requires optimizing parameters in a highly irregular and multidimensional space. Recent approaches have problems to select proper parameters which are not known in advance and optimize more than ten to twenty parameters simultaneously. In our approach, the effects of major gait parameters are analysed and used to guide the search more efficiently. The experiments of Sony AIBO ERS-7 in Webots environment indicate that our approach is able to produce much improved results in fast velocity and reliability.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.1722-1729
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• 2005

In this paper, we used the quadruped walking robot Titan-VIII in order to carry out this simulation of sway compensation trajectory. The attitude angle ${\phi}_r$ and ${\phi}_p$ is obtained from 3-D motion sensor that is attached at the center of robot body and the attitude control carried out at every 10[ms] for stable gait of robot. Duty factor, that is fixed at 0.5. When we change period T into 1.5, 2.0, 3.0[sec] each and moving distance per period is changed into 0.2, 0.3(m), we sim띠ate several walking experiment of robot. and then we analyze the experiment results if there are any difference between the imaginary ZMP and actual ZMP of robot and the stable gait of robot is realized.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.622-628
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• 2009

A proper walking pattern is to be assigned for a walk of multi-legged robots. For the purpose of identifying a good walking pattern for multi-legged robots, this paper consider a simple model of quadruped robotic walking and analyze its walking balance based on the centroid of foot polygons formed in every step. A performance index to estimate the walking balance is also proposed. Simulation studies show that the centroid trajectory of foot polygons and the walking balance in a common quadruped walking are different according to the walking pattern employed. Based on the walking balance index and a bio-mimetic aspect, a useful walking pattern for quadruped robots is finally addressed.