• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.263-269
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• 2017

Recently, soft robots using soft materials are presented. Thanks to soft materials, soft robots have flexible, highly-stretchable or adaptable features. However, due to the flexibility of soft material, it is hard for soft robots to control accurately or perform high force. To deal with these limitations, variable stiffness technology, which enables the stiffness control of structure, has been developed. In this research, a dual-stiffness structure that is actuated by the assembly of two flexible structures are presented. Each flexible structure consists of flexible film part and rigid parts placed at regular intervals. The flexibility of film between rigid parts allows each structure to move softly. On the other hand, by combining two structures rigid part of each part constrain the degrees of freedom of the other side part. And this causes the stiffness of whole structure to be increased. This paper will cover concepts, design, analysis and experiments of this structure.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.168-174
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• 2012

This paper presents a bending propagating actuation using SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) spring for an effective shape transition of a flytrap-inspired soft morphing structure. The flytrap-inspired soft morphing structure is made from unsymmetric CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Prepreg) structure which shows bi-stability and snap-through phenomenon. For a thin and large curved bistable CFRP structure, SMA spring is more acceptable than SMA wire and piezoelectric actuator which used in previous investigations. A bending propagating actuation is proposed which can induce snap-through of the bi-stable CFRP structure effectively. From this research, effective shape transition of soft morphing structure is possible.

• Proceeding of KASS Symposium
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.70-73
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• 2008

Because the inclination and crack of stone pagoda structure are caused by the depth difference of soft soil ground and ground subsidence in weak zone, a long-term conservation of stone pagoda structure is difficult. But it is insufficient to analyze the behavior of stone pagoda structure considering soft soil ground in our country. Therefore, we find the structural effect happening in stone pagoda structure by analyzing mechanically a specific of soft soil ground and carry out structural analysis and structural modelling of stone pagoda structure that considers soft soil ground by discrete element method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.345-352
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• 2023

This paper studied the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the seismic response and retrofit of a reinforced concrete structure with a soft-first story for different soil types. A 5-story structure built on a 30m deep homogeneous soil mass was considered as a case study structure, and steel column jacketing and steel bracing were chosen as seismic retrofit methods. Seismic responses of a fixed-base and a flexible base structure subjected to seven scaled earthquake records were obtained using the software OpenSees to investigate the effect of soil on seismic response and retrofit. The nonlinearBeamColumn elements with the fiber sections were used to simulate the nonlinear behavior of the beams and columns. Soil properties were defined based on shear wave velocity according to categorized site classes defined in ASCE-7. The finite element model of the soil was made using isoparametric four-noded quadrilateral elements and the nonlinear dynamic responses of the combined system of soil and structure were calculated in the OpenSees. The analysis results indicate that the soil-structure interaction plays an important role in the seismic performance and retrofit of a structure with a soft-first story. It was observed that column steel jacketing was effective in the retrofit of the model structure on a fixed base, whereas stronger retrofit measures such as steel bracing were needed when soil-structure interaction was considered.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2024

Soft-pressure sensors have numerous applications in soft robotics, biomedical devices, and wearable smart devices. Herein, we present a highly sensitive electronic skin device with an isotropic wrinkled pressure sensor. A conductive ink for soft pressure sensors is produced by a solution process using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT), carbon black, and chloroform as the solvents. P3HT provides high reproducibility and conductivity by improving the ink dispersibility. The conductivity of the ink is optimized by adjusting the composition of the carbon black and PDMS. Soft lithography is used to fabricate a conductive elastic structure with an isotropic wrinkled structure. Two conductive elastic structures with an isotropic wrinkle structure is stacked to develop a pressure sensor, and it is confirmed that the isotropic wrinkle structure is more sensitive to pressure than when two elastic structures with an anisotropic wrinkle structure are overlapped. Specifically, the pressure sensor fabricated with an isotropic wrinkled structure can detect extremely low pressures (1.25 Pa). Additionally, the sensor has a high sensitivity of 15.547 kpa^-1 from 1.25 to 2500 Pa and a linear sensitivity of 5.15 kPa^-1 from 2500 Pa to 25 kPa.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.7 s.184
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• pp.138-145
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• 2006

A nanopatterning technique was proposed and demonstrated for low cost and mass productive process using the scanning probe lithography (SPL) and soft lithography. The nanometer scale structure is fabricated by the localized generation of oxide patterning on the H-passivated (100) silicon wafer, and soft lithography was performed to replicate of nanometer scale structures. Both height and width of the silicon oxidation is linear with the applied voltagein SPL, but the growth of width is more sensitive than that of height. The structure below 100 nm was fabricated using HF treatment. To overcome the structure height limitation, aqueous KOH orientation-dependent etching was performed on the H-passivated (100) silicon wafer. Soft lithography is also performed for the master replication process. Elastomeric stamp is fabricated by the replica molding technique with ultrasonic vibration. We showed that the elastomeric stamp with the depth of 60 nm and the width of 428 nm was acquired using the original master by SPL process.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.35 no.3_4
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• pp.331-347
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• 2017

Soft sets are fantastic mathematical tools to handle imprecise and uncertain information in complicated situations. In this paper, we defined the hybrid structure which is the combination of soft set and complex number representation of intuitionistic fuzzy set. We defined basic set theoretic operations such as complement, union, intersection, restricted union, restricted intersection etc. for this hybrid structure. Moreover, we developed this theory to establish some more set theoretic operations like Disjunctive sum, difference, product, conjugate etc.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.201-208
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• 2014

Park et al. introduced the concept of generalized intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets, which can be seen as an effective mathematical tool to deal with uncertainties. In this paper, we introduce new operations such as restricted union and restricted intersection and study their basic properties, and deal with the algebraic structure of generalized intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets. The lattice structures of generalized intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets are constructed.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1182-1192
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• 2019

In order to improve the conversion efficiency and mitigate the EMI problem of conventional hard-switching inverters, a new soft-switching DC-AC inverter with a compact structure and a low modulation complexity is proposed in this paper. In the proposed structure, resonant inductors are connected in series for the arm branches, and resonant capacitors are connected in parallel for the neutral point branches. With the help of resonant components, the proposed structure achieves zero-current switching on the arm branches and zero-voltage switching on the neutral point branches. When compared with state-of-art soft-switching topologies, the proposed topology does not need auxiliary switches. Moreover, the commutation algorithm to realize soft-switching can be easily implemented. In this paper, the principle of the resonant operation of the proposed soft-switching converter is presented and its performance is verified through simulation studies. The feasibility of the proposed inverter is evaluated experimentally with a 2.4-kW prototype.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-255
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• 2022

This paper proposes a multiphase interleaved zero-voltage-transition boost converter with a single soft-switching cell for high-voltage DC-DC converter (HDC) of fuel cell systems. The proposed single soft-switching cell structure can reduce the system volume by minimizing the passive and active elements added even in the multiphase-interleaved structure. To analyze the feasibility of the proposed structure, this paper mathematically analyzes the operation modes of the converter with the proposed single soft-switching cell structure and presents guidelines for design and considerations. In addition, the feasibility of the 210[kW] HDC was confirmed through PSIM simulation, and the system volume reduction of up to 10.48% was confirmed as a result of the 5[kW] HDC test-bed experiment considering the fuel cell system. Through this, the validity of the proposed structure was verified.