• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2003

This study was carried out to help the comprehensive rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries by measuring propulsion force and endurance exerted on wheelchair handrims, and predicting the differences among three different rear axle positions. The BTE (Baltimore Therapeutic Exerciser) work simulator was used on 9 paraplegia to test the force and endurance during wheelchair propulsion. The 141 large wheel of the BTE work simulator and a standard wheelchair with removed handrims were used for simulating wheelchair propulsion. The neurological and demographical characteristics of the patients were collected by personal interviews and direct examinations. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare force and endurance among the groups. The strongest maximum isometric strength was produced when the rear axle of the wheelchair and the acromion process were on the same coronal plane. Although there were no significant differences statistically, moving the rear axle forward did result in greater isotonic strength. The research suggests that better functional activity of persons with paraplegia is possible when the rear axle of the wheelchair is appropriately adjusted.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.67-74
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Many tractors have adopted the horizontal control system designed to maintain the three-point mounted implements in horizontal position when they are tilted sideways. The control system rotates the implement in the opposite direction to the inclination of rear axle of the tractor. However, the current control system was found to have poor performance in accuracy and response. A new control system was therefore developed to improve the performance. Methods: The new control system was designed to get the response of the implement to be started earlier by using the tilt information from the front axle of the tractor. By this approach, the rotation of the implement can be adjusted as required to make it horizontal at the expected time, even though the response is slow. The optimal values of the control parameters for the new system were determined by computer simulation and validated by a performance test conducted with an obstacle of 120 mm height on a flat concrete surface. The performance of the control system was evaluated by the root mean square error (RMSE) of the rotation angle of the implement with respect to the actual inclination of the rear axle. Results: The new control system reduced the RMSE of the current control system by 44.6% indicating a high performance improvement. The inclination of the front axle was easily obtained from a sensor mounted on the front axle of the tractor and used as input to the new control system. Conclusions: The method of getting the response of the implement to be started earlier by utilizing the inclination information of the front axle can be applied to improve the performance of the current control system at least cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
• /
• 2000.11b
• /
• pp.472-479
• /
• 2000

A persimmon harvesting vehicle that can be operated in hilly orchards as well as a manipulator that can be used to harvest persimmons located in remote positions in the trees were designed and developed. The vehicle could be operated with keeping balanced position in an inclined field and its working platform could be moved up and down easy to approach fruits in a remote region with the aids of a hydraulic and a electrical and electronics systems. The weight of the vehicle was 927 kg and the center of gravity was located at 427 mm to the inner side from the center of a right driving caterpillar, 607 mm to a rear axle from the center of a front axle, and 562 mm to upward from ground. The automatic level control sensor for leveling the working platform was activated within 14.5 ∼ 16.5 degrees of slope variation. The total length of the manipulator was 1.39 m and weight is 975 g. It was powered by a 12 V geared motor to detach persimmon fruits with a rotational force. The gripper was made of plastic and rubber to increase a frictional force. In a performance evaluation test, static tipping angle, dynamic tipping angle toward front side when the vehicle was moving downward, climbing angle, driving speed of the vehicle were measured or calculated. In persimmon harvesting tests 24.9% of yield was increased by hand picking with the aid of the vehicle and additional 7% of yield were increased when the manipulator was used. Therefore, 99010 of total possible yield was achievable when both of the vehicle and the manipulator were used for the manual persimmon harvesting. Increase in 22.5% of total yield was achieved with the manipulator only.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.6 no.6
• /
• pp.873-880
• /
• 2011

As environmental pollution, global warming, and exhaustion of fossil fuel become global issue recently, there has been strong research motivation to develop green energy technology. Along the same line of motivation, some research efforts have been put into the development of environment-friendly bicycle equipped with various smart energy technologies to increase the usability of the bicycle as short-distance transportation. Among the technologies related with new generation bicycle, PAS (power assist system) is one of the most important systems that are essential in efficiently integrating human power and the electrical power supplied by electric motor driven by battery. In this paper, a novel torque sensor technology which is core component for PAS is proposed. Unlike existing technologies, strain gauges are attached to rear shaft directly under the hub bearings, which eliminates the requirement of slip-ring, Furthermore, the sensor is able to not only measure the torque transmitted to driving axle by human but also estimate the position of the gear to which the chain is currently engaged.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.5-13
• /
• 1992

The vibration of a vehicle, which is caused by and transmitted from the engine, has significant effect on the ride comfort and the dynamic characteristics of the engine mount system has direct influence on the vibration and noise of the vehicle. This paper examines the body shake caused by the engine excitation force on engine key-off of a jeep by experiment and computer simulation using a general purpose mechanical system program, DADS. The computer simulation model consists of the engine, body including frame, and front and rear axles and each axle has right and left tires. The force element between body and suspension is modeled as a combination of suspension spring and damper, and the unsprung mass has roll and pitch motion. The body shake obtained from experiment was compared with the result of computer simulation. Parametric study of the body shake on engine key-off is performed with changing the stiffness of engine mount rubber, the engine mount installation angle and position of engine mounts by using the verified computer simulation model.