• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.1017-1026
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• 2012

In this study, an exoskeleton-type robot is developed to assist frozen shoulder rehabilitation in a systematic and efficient manner for humans. The developed robot has two main features. The first is a structural feature: this robot was designed to rehabilitate both shoulders of a patient, and the three axes of the shoulder meet at one point to generate human-like ball joint motions. The second is a functional feature that is divided into two rehabilitation modes: the first mode is a joint rehabilitation mode that helps to recover the shoulder's original range of motion by moving the patient's shoulder according to patterns obtained by motion capture, and the second mode is a muscle rehabilitation mode that strengthens the shoulder muscles by suitably resisting the patient's motion. Through these two modes, frozen shoulder rehabilitation can be performed systematically according to the patient's condition. The development procedure is described in detail.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39B no.7
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• pp.479-490
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• 2014

A lower extremity exoskeleton is a robot device that attaches to the lower limbs of the human body to augment or assist with the walking ability of the wearer. In order to improve the wearer's walking ability, the robot senses the wearer's walking locomotion and classifies it into a gait-phase state, after which it drives the appropriate robot motions for each state using its actuators. This paper presents a method by which the robot senses the wearer's locomotion along with a novel classification algorithm which classifies the sensed data as a gait-phase state. The robot determines its control mode using this gait-phase information. If erroneous information is delivered, the robot will fail to improve the walking ability or will bring some discomfort to the wearer. Therefore, it is necessary for the algorithm constantly to classify the correct gait-phase information. However, our device for sensing a human's locomotion has very sensitive characteristics sufficient for it to detect small movements. With only simple logic like a threshold-based classification, it is difficult to deliver the correct information continually. In order to overcome this and provide correct information in a timely manner, a probabilistic gait-phase classification algorithm is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers excellent accuracy.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.421-426
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• 2015

Need to develop human body's posture supervised robots, gave the push to researchers to think over dexterous design of exoskeleton robots. It requires to develop quantitative techniques to assess human motor function and generate the command to assist in compliance with complex human motion. Upper limb rehabilitation robots, are one of those robots. These robots are used for the rehabilitation of patients having movement disorder due to spinal or brain injuries. One aspect that must be fulfilled by these robots, is to cope with uncertainties due to different patients, without significantly degrading the performance. In this paper, we propose chattering free sliding mode control technique for this purpose. This control technique is not only able to handle matched uncertainties due to different patients but also for unmatched as well. Using this technique, patients feel active assistance as they deviate from the desired trajectory. Proposed methodology is implemented on seven degrees of freedom (DOF) upper limb rehabilitation robot. In this robot, shoulder and elbow joints are powered by electric motors while rest of the joints are kept passive. Due to these active joints, robot is able to move in sagittal plane only while abduction and adduction motion in shoulder joint is kept passive. Exoskeleton performance is evaluated experimentally by a neurologically intact subjects while varying the mass properties. Results show effectiveness of proposed control methodology for the given scenario even having 20 % uncertain parameters in system modeling.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.837-843
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• 2016

This paper presents a position control strategy for a pump-controlled electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) using feedforward control with disturbance compensation. As the disturbance observer is used to estimate nonlinear dynamics of EHA, which has valve-opening conditionals, as well as external disturbances, an additional feedforward control is adopted to achieve rapid response. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified through experiment using an EHA test bench. The proposed controller shows better tracking performance compared with a conventional PID controller.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

An active training system has been developed to assist the upper extremity function in patients with spasticity. We also evaluated the performance of the developed assistive system in five normal subjects and one hemiplegic patient. The maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) tests for biceps brachii and triceps brachii were performed and the relationship between linear enveloped EMG signal and the elbow joint torque was found. In order to implement an active training, our system was designed to allow isokinetic movement only when the subject generates elbow joint motion larger than the pre-fixed threshold level. The proposed EMG-feedback control method could provide active exercises, resulting in better rehabilitation protocol for spastic patients.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1603-1608
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• 2008

Powered robotic exoskeletons are currently under development for assisting or supporting human muscle power. Many applications using this system for the purpose of national defense system, medical support, and construction industry are now frequently introduced. In this paper, we proposed the exoskeletal wearable robotics for construction workers. First, we analyzed general work conditions at the construction site and set up target tasks through the datum. Then dominant muscles’ activity which is related with the defined target tasks was checked up. Herein, wearers’ intent signal generation methodology was introduced in order to effectively activate the proposed system. In the final part of this paper, we evaluated the capability and feasibility of the exoskeletal robotics by the electromyography (EMG) signal variance; demonstrated that robotic exoskeletons controlled by muscle activity could be useful way of assisting with construction workers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.1521-1527
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• 2013

This study proposes a wearable master device that can measure the joint stiffness and the angular displacement of a human operator to enhance the adapting capability of a slave system. A lightweight inertial sensor and the exoskeleton mechanism of the master device can make an operator feel comfortable, and artificial pneumatic muscles having a working principle similar to that of human muscles improve the performance of the slave device on emulating what a human operator does. Experimental results revealed that the proposed master/slave system based on the muscle stiffness sensor yielded uniform tracking performance compared with a conventional position-feedback controller when the payload applied to the slave system changed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.518-523
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• 2015

This paper proposes a gait phase classifier using a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN). Walking is a type of dynamic system, and as such it seems that the classifier made by using a general feed forward neural network structure is not appropriate. It is known that an RNN is suitable to model a dynamic system. Because the proposed RNN is simple, we use a back propagation algorithm to train the weights of the network. The input data of the RNN is the lower body's joint angles and angular velocities which are acquired by using the lower limb exoskeleton robot, ROBIN-H1. The classifier categorizes a gait cycle as two phases, swing and stance. In the experiment for performance verification, we compared the proposed method and general feed forward neural network based method and showed that the proposed method is superior.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2009

The cuticle of spider's exoskeleton is a hydrophobic and non-adhesive material, but the jumping spiders have the distinctive attachment apparatus for adhesion on smooth dry surface without sticky fluids. We have examined the whole tarsal appendages of the jumping spider, Plexippus setipes with using scanning electron microscope to reveal the fine structural characteristics of the dry adhesion system. All eight legs have the scopulae with a pair of claws on the tip of feet. Each scopula is composed of two groups of setae that are capable of dry adhesion on smooth surface, and the hook structure of the claw is advanced to move on the rough surface. The setae toward the bottom of the tarsal segment are densely covered by numerous setules on the underside which broadened from middle to distal portion. It has been revealed by this research that the contact area of the setule is always a triangular shape, and these cuticular surfaces are connected by the elongated stalks from the underlying setae. It is likely that the nano-scale structures including a triangular depression and a longitudinal groove on each setule could functionate when the spider detach its feet from the substrate.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1192-1197
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• 2011

Recent developments of small-size unmanned or manned mobile systems such as autonomous robots, exoskeleton or armored suits, micro air vehicles, and unmanned armored vehicles require long-lasting independent power sources of high energy and power density to support the systems' operation for up to 72 hours in the fields. Chemical batteries such as Ni-MH, Li-Ion, the current primary power sources for mobile devices, however, are not capable of providing enough power and energy density for the next generation high power mobile machines. For this reason, KIMM along with KERI and KIMS has been carrying out a 500W MTG development project under the DAPA's "Next generation military power source R&D program" since 2009. In this paper, a design process for a 500W MTG system currently being developed at KIMM is briefly described and the technical issues related to its development are addressed.