• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.359-367
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• 2018

The vortex ring state that occurs during the descending flight of a rotorcraft generates a circulating flow like a donut near the rotating surface, and it often causes a rotorcraft fall due to loss of thrust. In this paper, we have physically identified the flow field in the vortex ring state of the quadcopter, one of the types of unmanned aerial vehicles. The descending flight of the quadcopter was simulated in a 1m subsonic wind tunnel of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute(KARI) and the Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV) was used for the flow field measurement. The induced velocity in the hovering state is estimated by using the momentum theory and the test was carried out in the range of descent rate at which the vortex ring condition could be caused. The development and the direction of the vortex ring were confirmed by the measurement of the flow field according to not only the descent rate but also propeller separation distance. In addition, the results of the study show the vortex ring state can be predicted sufficiently by measuring the flow velocity around the quadcopter.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 2023

This study evaluated a novel method of defining the automatic flight path of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for search and rescue missions in a VR environment. The developed VR content reserves miniature digital twins of a building in the fire and a steep mountain terrain site. The users drow the UAV's scanning path using hand gestures on the surface of digital twins, and then the UAV make an automatic flight along the defined path. According to human-in-the-loop simulation tests comparing the novel method with a conventional manual flight task with 19 participants, the novel method did not improve the mission performance but participants felt a lower mental workload. The designer may need to consider the automation support on the vulnerable points of the SAR mission environment while maintaining experts' mapping capability.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.341-348
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• 2024

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has received remarkable attentions in civil infrastructure due to its unique mechanical characteristics and durability. UHPC gains increasingly dominant in essential structural elements, while its unique properties pose challenges for traditional inspection methods, as damage may not always manifest visibly on the surface. As such, the need for robust inspection techniques for detecting cracks in UHPC members has become imperative as traditional methods often fall short in providing comprehensive and timely evaluations. In the era of artificial intelligence, computer vision has gained considerable interest as a powerful tool to enhance infrastructure condition assessment with image and video data collected from sensors, cameras, and unmanned aerial vehicles. This paper presents a computer vision-based approach employing deep learning to detect cracks in UHPC beams, with the aim of addressing the inherent limitations of traditional inspection methods. This work leverages computer vision to discern intricate patterns and anomalies. Particularly, a convolutional neural network architecture employing transfer learning is adopted to identify the presence of cracks in the beams. The proposed approach is evaluated with image data collected from full-scale experiments conducted on UHPC beams subjected to flexural and shear loadings. The results of this study indicate the applicability of computer vision and deep learning as intelligent methods to detect major and minor cracks and recognize various damage mechanisms in UHPC members with better efficiency compared to conventional monitoring methods. Findings from this work pave the way for the development of autonomous infrastructure health monitoring and condition assessment, ensuring early detection in response to evolving structural challenges. By leveraging computer vision, this paper contributes to usher in a new era of effectiveness in autonomous crack detection, enhancing the resilience and sustainability of UHPC civil infrastructure.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.425-443
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• 2024

Floods are among the most common natural hazards in urban areas. To mitigate the problems caused by flooding, unstructured data such as images and videos collected from closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been examined for flood management (FM). Many computer vision (CV) techniques have been widely adopted to analyze imagery data. Although some papers have reviewed recent CV approaches that utilize UAV images or remote sensing data, less effort has been devoted to studies that have focused on CCTV data. In addition, few studies have distinguished between the main research objectives of CV techniques (e.g., flood depth and flooded area) for a comprehensive understanding of the current status and trends of CV applications for each FM research topic. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature that proposes CV techniques for aspects of FM using ground camera (e.g., CCTV) data. Research topics are classified into four categories: flood depth, flood detection, flooded area, and surface water velocity. These application areas are subdivided into three types: urban, river and stream, and experimental. The adopted CV techniques are summarized for each research topic and application area. The primary goal of this review is to provide guidance for researchers who plan to design a CV model for specific purposes such as flood-depth estimation. Researchers should be able to draw on this review to construct an appropriate CV model for any FM purpose.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.256-265
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• 2021

Ground, sea and air mobility, such as vehicles, ships, and airplanes, are generally operated by people. Based on the innovative development of autonomous decision-making systems and artificial intelligence (AI) following the recent fourth industrial revolution, research and development on maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) is been actively performed around the world. Before the realization of the commercialization of MASS in international maritime transport, it is urgent to clarify the characteristics of this ship and its international legal status. This paper aims to analyze the concern of whether a ship without crew members will eventually be operated as a fully unmanned ship or can be recognized as a ship under international law as the number of crew members is gradually reduced owing to the development stage of autonomous ships. Consequently, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), it was found that MASS has the same international legal status as general ships. In addition this paper presents the working principles of enacting and revising the IMO Conventions and international legal measures necessary for the safe operation of MASS.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.675-686
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• 2021

This study investigated the ground displacement occurring in a slope below a waste-rock dumping site and estimated the likelihood of a disaster due to a landslide. To start with, photogrammetry was conducted by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to investigate the size and extent of the ground displacement. From April 2019 to July 2020, the average error rate of the five UAV surveys was 0.011-0.034 m, and an elevation change of 2.97 m occurred due to the movement of the soil layer. Only some areas of the slope showedelevation change, and this was believed to be due to thegroundwater generated during rainfall rather than the effect of the waste-rock load at the top. Sensitivity analysis for LS-RAPID simulation was performed, and the simulation results were compared and analyzed by applying a digital elevation model (DEM) and a digital surface model (DSM)as terrain data with 10 m, 5 m, and 4 m grids. When data with high spatial resolution were used, the extent of the sedimentation of landslide material tended to be excessively expanded in the DEM. In contrast, in the result of applying a DSM, which reflects the topography in detail, the diffusion range was not significantly affected even when the spatial resolution was changed, and the sedimentation behavior according to the river shape could be accurately expressed. As a result, it was concluded that applying a DSM rather than a DEM does not significantly expand the sedimentation range, and results that reflect the site situation well can be obtained.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.109-120
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• 2023

The High-Frequency Radar (HFR) is an equipment designed to measure real-time surface ocean currents in broad maritime areas.It emits radio waves at a specific frequency (HF) towards the sea surface and analyzes the backscattered waves to measure surface current vectors (Crombie, 1955; Barrick, 1972).The Seasonde HF Radar from Codar, utilized in this study, determines the speed and location of radial currents by analyzing the Bragg peak intensity of transmitted and received waves from an omnidirectional antenna and employing the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The generated currents are initially considered ideal patterns without taking into account the characteristics of the observed electromagnetic wave propagation environment. To correct this, Antenna Pattern Measurement (APM) is performed, measuring the strength of signals at various positions received by the antenna and calculating the corrected measured vector to radial currents.The APM principle involves modifying the position and phase information of the currents based on the measured signal strength at each location. Typically, experiments are conducted by installing an antenna on a ship (Kim et al., 2022). However, using a ship introduces various environmental constraints, such as weather conditions and maritime situations. To reduce dependence on maritime conditions and enhance economic efficiency, this study explores the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for APM. The research conducted APM experiments using a high-frequency radar installed at Dangsa Lighthouse in Dangsa-ri, Wando County, Jeollanam-do. The study compared and analyzed the results of APM experiments using ships and drones, utilizing the calculated radial currents and surface current fields obtained from each experiment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 2018

The establishment of Ground Control Points (GCPs) in UAV-Photogrammetry is a working process that requires the most time and expenditure. Recently, the rapid developments of navigation sensors and communication technologies have enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to conduct photogrammetric mapping without using GCP because of the availability of new methods such as RTK (Real Time Kinematic) and PPK (Post Processed Kinematic) technology. In this study, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential of RTK-UAV mapping with no GCPs compared to that of non RTK-UAV mapping. The positioning accuracy results produced by images obtained simultaneously from the two different types of UAVs were compared and analyzed. One was a RTK-UAV without GCPs and the other was a non RTK-UAV with different numbers of GCPs. The images were taken with a Canon IXUS 127 camera (focal length 4.3mm, pixel size $1.3{\mu}m$) at a flying height of approximately 160m, corresponding to a nominal GSD of approximately 4.7cm. As a result, the RMSE (planimetric/vertical) of positional accuracy according to the number of GCPs by the non-RTK method was 4.8cm/8.2cm with 5 GCPs, 5.4cm/10.3cm with 4 GCPs, and 6.2cm/12.0cm with 3 GCPs. In the case of non RTK-UAV photogrammetry with no GCP, the positioning accuracy was decreased greatly to approximately 112.9 cm and 204.6 cm in the horizontal and vertical coordinates, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of the RTK method with no ground control point, the errors in the planimetric and vertical position coordinates were reduced remarkably to 13.1cm and 15.7cm, respectively, compared to the non-RTK method. Overall, UAV photogrammetry supported by RTK-GPS technology, enabling precise positioning without a control point, is expected to be useful in the field of spatial information in the future.