• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2016

Biomimetics involves the design of robotic platforms inspired from living creatures to achieve efficient operation under environmental conditions. A development within biomimetics involves investigating the function of a tail and applying it to robot design. This study aims to define the function of a static tail for water-running robots, and optimize its geometric and compliance parameters. The rolling angle of the tail is determined by the objective function, while the area and fillet ratio are used for geometric design and compliance parameters in the rolling and yawing directions. Repeated motion of the water-running robot's footpads at frequencies of 9 and 10 Hz is used as the operating condition. Robust design based on the Taguchi methodology is performed via orthogonal arrays. The optimized tail design derived in this study will be implemented in a robotic platform to improve steering and balancing functions in the pitching direction.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.367-373
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• 2016

In this paper, range measurement performance of LRF (Laser Range Finder) module and image contrast of color CCD camera are evaluated under the aerosol (high temperature steam) environments, which are simulated severe accident conditions of the LWR (Light-Water-Reactor) nuclear power plant. Data of LRF and color CCD camera are key informations, which are needed in the implementation of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) function for emergency response robot system to cope with urgently accidents of the nuclear power plant.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.385-394
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• 2017

Side scanning sonar (SSS) provides valuable information for robot navigation. However using the side scanning sonar images in the navigation was not fully studied. In this paper, we use range data, and side scanning sonar images from UnderWater Simulator (UWSim) and propose measurement models in a feature based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) framework. The range data is obtained by echosounder and sidescanning sonar images from side scan sonar module for UWSim. For the feature, we used the A-KAZE feature for the SSS image matching and adjusting the relative robot pose by SSS bundle adjustment (BA) with Ceres solver. We use BA for the loop closure constraint of pose-graph SLAM. We used the Incremental Smoothing and Mapping (iSAM) to optimize the graph. The optimized trajectory was compared against the dead reckoning (DR).

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.151-159
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• 2016

This paper proposes a ceramic heating element-based tankless instant electric water heater for hand/face washing that does not require a lot of hot water. The heating module, which heats the input water and outputs hot water, operates the ceramic heating element detecting input water using a flow sensor. Inside of the heating module is designed to form one flow path in order to get almost $15^{\circ}C$ increased heated water compared to the input water temperature within 2 second after 1.5 liter per minute water supply. The design validity is verified using a heat flow analysis of the water flow and temperature variations inside of the heating module also. Based on the design data, the heating module is constructed including a single rod-type ceramic heating element. After that, a prototype system having temperature setting function by three steps were constructed. The prototype system is connected to a 1.5 liter per minute water supply line, and the water output temperature and time measurement experiments confirmed that the proposed system output the heated water increased by $18.3^{\circ}C$ in case of third step setting within 2 second after water supply. And standby power is under 1 W and peak power does not exceed the permissible range for the general house usage. Several performance results verify that the proposed tankless instant electric water heater is applicable for the washstand of the house, highway rest area and factory so on as winter-time hand/face washing.