• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.122-131
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• 2011

In this paper, the design and analysis of a reconfigurable modular structure, which reforms itself according to the change of the environment and realize appropriate forms and motions, are dealt with. This modular is a free structure from the restrictions with constraints about fixed environment and has various forms and motions by combining units. The form of this unit has a shape of a square with 7 centimeters side each, and has a structure which can be combined in a chain-shape or a lattice-shape. Additionally, The structure has a mobility by being equipped with wheels so that it can be combined for itself. In this paper, all the wireless controllers, sensor system, and communicating method between modules according to module structures were suggested and transformation method to be transformed to shape of snakes, caterpillars were presented. Moreover, simulations for each method were performed to show the validity of the motions including motor torque analysis. All the motions suggested were realized and experimented, whereby the availability of the designed mechanism and algorithm was verified with the result of experiments.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• summer
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• pp.410-415
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• 2004

Employing knowledge of adaptive possibilities of agents in multi-agents system, we have explored new aspects of distributed modular systems for building ubiquitous heterogeneous robotic systems using intelligent building blocks (I-BLOCKS) [1] as reconfigurable modules. This paper describes early technological approaches related to technical design, experimental developments and evaluation of adaptive processing and information interaction among I-BLOCKS allowing users to easily develop modular robotic systems. The processing technology presented in this paper is embedded inside each $DUPLO^1$ brick by microprocessor as well as selected sensors and actuators in addition. Behaviors of an I-BLOCKS modular structure are defined by the internal processing functionality of each I-Block in such structure and communication capacities between I-BLOCKS. Users of the I-BLOCKS system can easily do 'programming by building' and thereby create specific functionalities of a modular robotic structure of intelligent artefacts without the need to learn and use traditional programming language. From investigating different effects of modern artificial intelligence, I-BLOCKS we have developed might possibly contain potential possibilities for developing modular robotic system with different types of morphology, functionality and behavior. To assess these potential I-BLOCKS possibilities, the paper presents a limited range of different experimental scenarios in which I-BLOCKS have been used to set-up reconfigurable modular robots. The paper also reports briefly about earlier experiments of I-BLOCKS created on users' natural inspiration by a just defined concept of modular artefacts.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• summer
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• pp.421-426
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• 2004

Analyzing adaptive possibilities of agents in multi-agents system, we have discovered new aspects of ambient intelligence in distributed modular systems using intelligent building blocks (I-BLOCKS) [1]. This paper describes early scientific researches related to technical design, applicable experiments and evaluation of adaptive processing and information interaction among I-BLOCKS allowing users to easily develop ambient intelligence applications. The processing technology presented in this paper is embedded inside each DUPLO1 brick by microprocessor as well as selected sensors and actuators in addition. Behaviors of an I-BLOCKS modular structure are defined by the internal processing functionality of each I-Blocks in such structure and communication capacities between I-BLOCKS. Users of the I-BLOCKS system can do 'programming by building' and thereby create specific functionalities of a modular structure of intelligent artefacts without the need to learn and use traditional programming language. From investigating different effects of modem artificial intelligence, I-BLOCKS we have developed might possibly contain potential possibilities for developing applications in ambient intelligence (AmI) environments. To illustrate these possibilities, the paper presents a range of different experimental scenarios in which I-BLOCKS have been used to set-up reconfigurable modular systems. The paper also reports briefly about earlier experiments of I-BLOCKS in different research fields, allowing users to construct AmI applications by a just defined concept of modular artefacts [3].

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.572-580
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• 2014

This study deals with reconfigurable modular robot with respect to the compact and capability of representing the various actions for promoting creativity through education and play. Generally modular robot can be designed as a suitable robot that is transformed to various structure by reconstructing each cells, However, there are only few research on the education and play using those robots in the world and still nothing domestically. Unlike the existing modular robots only having a repeating motion, the proposed modular works by individual module such as sound is produced by sound module, wheel is driven by wheel module, LED module controls the visual expression, power is supplied by battery module, bluetooth module for communication, and dynamic motion realization is possible by using joint module. By manipulating the abilities endowed by individual modules, diversity of creative activities is possible and thus made an easy access for children. This study deals with the design of modular robotic by using the variety of different modules to endowed the learning and playing ability. And the study showed the utility of the operating behavior over the actual production and testing.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.56-68
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• 2003

Difficult problems In implementing digital neural network hardware are the extension of synapses and the programmability for relocating neurons. In this paper, the structure of a new hardware is proposed for solving these problems. Our structure based on traditional SIMD can be dynamically and easily reconfigured connections of network without synthesizing and mapping original design for each use. Using additional modular processing unit the numbers of neurons find synapses increase. To show the extensibility of our structure, various models of neural networks : multi-layer perceptrons and Kohonen network are formed and tested. The performance comparison with software simulation shows its superiority in the aspects of performance and flexibility.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.804-810
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• 2004

There are two important things for the general purpose neural network processor. The first is a capability to build various structures of neural network, and the second is to be able to support suitable learning method for that neural network. Some way to process various learning algorithms is required for on-chip learning, because the more neural network types are to be handled, the more learning methods need to be built into. In this paper, an improved hardware structure is proposed to compute various kinds of learning algorithms flexibly. The hardware structure is based on the existing modular neural network structure. It doesn't need to add a new circuit or a new program for the learning process. It is shown that rearrangements of the existing processing elements can produce several neural network learning modules. The performance and utilization of this module are analyzed by comparing with other neural network chips.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07d
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• pp.1263-1266
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• 2003

One of the hardest problems in implementation of digital neural network are extension of synapses and programmability for relocating neurons. This paper Proposes a new hardware structure to solve these problems. The proposed structure can reconfigure network connections without alteration of basic design, and extend number of synapses attached to one neuron. Also, it is possible to extend the number of neurons and layers by connecting many MPUs(Modular Processing Unit). Generality and extensibility are verified by composing various kinds of Perceptorn and Kohonen networks using the architecture proposed in this paper and the verification performances compares well with HDL simulation results as well as the results of C modelling.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.178.3-178
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• 2001

This paper is concerned with designing a neural network based navigator that is optimized in a user-defined sense for a mobile robot using ultrasonic sensors to travel to a goal position safely and efficiently without any prior map of the environment. The neural network has a dynamically reconfigurable structure that not only can optimize the weights but also the input sensory connectivity in order to meet any user-defined objective. Therefore, in this research, we can select an optimal subset of sensory inputs that results in the best performance related to both navigation and structural complexity. Further, this research uses the manually trained initial population and the modular neural network to alleviate ...