• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.2-25
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• 2021

This study evaluated gender preferences regarding the mechanical properties of polymers that are typically used as cooperative robot skin. Gender-based preferences of workers aged 20~30 and polydimethylsiloxane were examined according to the body parts which is most frequently in contact with the robot during operation. The factors influencing preference, i.e., stiffness and stickiness, as measured by strain rate and contact angle, respectively, were analyzed to compare gender-based differences. Female preferred stiffer materials with small strain rates while male preferred softer materials with large strain rates. As a result of evaluating mechanical properties of the materials to relate to gender-based preference, we found that female tended to prefer Dragon-skin with the lowest stickiness, and a low strain rate, during compressive creep tests. In contrast, male tended to prefer Ecoflex with high strain rate regardless of stickiness. Therefore, these results provide basis for material selection when considering cooperative robot skin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1107-1119
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• 2020

This study analyzed a subject's body reaction and subjective sensation when wearing a gait-assistive rehabilitation robot. The research method measured skin and clothing surface temperatures for 'seating-standing' and 'walking in place' exercises after wearing a gait-assistive rehabilitation robot. In addition, subjective sensation and satisfaction were evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale. The study results showed that the average skin temperature during exercise while wearing the gait-assistive rehabilitation robot was within a comfortable range. However, during the 'seating-standing' exercise, the skin temperature was slightly lowered. Additionally, the clothing surface temperature tended to be lower than the pre-exercise temperature after all exercises. The subjective sensation evaluation results showed that the wear comfort of the waist part was low during mobility/activity. In addition, an overall improvement in the wear comfort of the robot is necessary. The short-time movement of wearing and walking in the gait-assistive rehabilitation robot did not interfere with the thermal comfort of the body. However, the robot needs to be ergonomically improved in consideration of the long wearing time along with improved material that to satisfy overall wearing comfort.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2007

This study introduces the development of robot fish ROFI 1.1. Today, robot fish is one of strong candidates for next-generation UUV. The present paper describes the design, manufacturing, and operation tests of the robot fish developed at Seoul National University. The very first robot fish in Korea, ROFI 1.1 is operated by a wireless remote controller. Its overall length is 680mm, and weight is 8.8kg. The fore body contains main mechanical and electrical systems and is covered by a FRP skin. The aft body has a mechanical bone system that mimics fish bones, and its skin is made of flexible silicon sponge to allow elastic motion for propulsion. It is found that this mechanical system creates effective and realistic fish-like swimming mode. It is observed that the normal and maximum advancing speeds of ROFI 1.1 are about 1 and 2 m/sec, and the turning radius is between $0.7{\sim}2.5m$, depending on the turning mechanism.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.206-212
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• 2015

This paper proposes the physical human-robot interaction method that controls the robot arms using ITO touch panel sensor as the skin of robot. To implement physical human-robot interaction, the method of using the force/torque sensor and the method of using tactile sensor created by arranging small element type of sensor have been studied. However, these sensors have the pros and cons in terms of price and performance. This study aims to demonstrate the economy of element type sensor and the accuracy of force/torque sensor through experiment by proposing the method of physical interaction using the touch panel as the skin of robot, and by constructing overall system. The experiment was carried out for the method of controlling the robot arm by installing end-effecter and the method of controlling robot arm by creating the gesture with reference point on the touch panel. Through this experiment, the possibility of teaching control using the touch panel was confirmed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.476-481
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects on skin temperature, pain, muscle tone, and ROM after applying the massage robot "PIRO-ZERO" to 6 men and 4 women in their 20s who complained of non-specific pain in the shoulder or back for more than 12 weeks. As a result of the study, there was a significant increase in skin temperature not only in the area where the massage was applied, but also on the opposite side and throughout the body due to increased blood flow. Pain in the upper trapezius, rhomboid, and erector spinae muscle was decreased, and muscle tone in the erector spinae muscles was significantly decreased. There was a significant increase in ROM of neck and trunk flexion, which is thought to be because the massage reduced muscle tone around the spine, increasing flexibility. In the future, as the safety and effectiveness of massage robots are further verified and the pressure, speed, and path become more diverse, satisfaction is expected to increase.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.694-697
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• 1996

The aim of this work for 5 years from 1994 is to develop a multi-fingered robot hand and its control system for grasp and manipulation of objects dexterously. Since the robot hand is still being developed, a commercialized robot hand from Barrett Company is utilized to implement a hand controller and control algorithm. For this, VME based motion control and interface boards are developed and multi-sensors such as encoder, force/torque sensor, dynamic sensor and artificial skin sensor are partly developed and employed for the grasping control algorithm. In oder to handle uncertainties such as mechanical idleness and backlash, a fuzzy rule based grasping algorithm is also considered and tested with the developed control system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.49.1-49
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• 2001

The skin color model is a very important concept in face detection, face recognition and face tracking. Usually, this model is obtained by estimating a probability density function of skin color distribution. In many cases, it is assumed that the underlying density function follows a Gaussian distribution. In this paper, a new method for non-parametric estimation of the probability density function, by using feed-forward neural network, is used to estimate the underlying skin color model. By using this method, the resulting skin color model is better than the Gaussian estimation and substantially approaches the real distribution. Applications to face detection and face ...

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.49.2-49
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• 2001

In this paper, a skin-color model in the HSV space was developed. Based on it, face region can be separated from other parts in a image. Face can be detected by the methods of Template and eye-pair. This realized in our robot.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2023

This study introduces a smart wrist band system with pressure measurements using wrist skin curvature variation due to finger motion. It is easy to wear and take off without pre-adaptation or surgery to use. By analyzing the depth variation of wrist skin curvature during each finger motion, we elaborated the most suitable location of each Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) to be attached in the wristband with anatomical consideration. A 3D depth camera was used to investigate distinctive wrist locations, responsible for the anatomically de-coupled thumb, index, and middle finger, where the variations of wrist skin curvature appear independently. Then sensors within the wristband were attached correspondingly to measure the pressure change of those points and eventually the finger motion. The smart wrist band was validated for its practicality through two demonstrative applications, i.e., one for a real-time control of prosthetic robot hands and the other for natural human-computer interfacing. And hopefully other futuristic human-related applications would be benefited from the proposed smart wrist band system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.991-999
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• 2004

Face robots capable of expressing their emotional status, can be adopted as an efficient tool for friendly communication between the human and the machine. In this paper, we present a face robot actuated with artificial muscle based on dielectric elastomer. By exploiting the properties of polymers, it is possible to actuate the covering skin, eyes as well as provide human-like expressivity without employing complicated mechanisms. The robot is driven by seven types of actuator modules such as eye, eyebrow, eyelid, brow, cheek, jaw and neck module corresponding to movements of facial muscles. Although they are only part of the whole set of facial motions, our approach is sufficient to generate six fundamental facial expressions such as surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and happiness. Each module communicates with the others via CAN communication protocol fur the desired emotional expressions, the facial motions are generated by combining the motions of each actuator module. A prototype of the robot has been developed and several experiments have been conducted to validate its feasibility.