• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제16권10호
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• pp.3373-3389
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• 2022

Exploration of mobile robot without prior data about environments is a fundamental problem during the SLAM processes. In this work, we propose improved version of previous Rmap algorithm by modifying its Exploration submodule. Despite the previous Rmap's performance which significantly reduces the overhead of the grid map, its exploration module costs a lot because of its rectangle following algorithm. To prevent that, we propose a new Rmap+ algorithm for autonomous path planning of mobile robot to explore an unknown environment. The algorithm bases on paired frontiers. To navigate and extend an exploration area of mobile robot, the Rmap+ utilizes the inner and outer frontiers. In each exploration round, the mobile robot using the sensor range determines the frontiers. Then robot periodically changes the range of sensor and generates inner pairs of frontiers. After calculating the length of each frontiers' and its corresponding pairs, the Rmap+ selects the goal point to navigate the robot. The experimental results represent efficiency and applicability on exploration time and distance, i.e., to complete the whole exploration, the path distance decreased from 15% to 69%, as well as the robot decreased the time consumption from 12% to 86% than previous algorithms.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 제어로봇시스템학회 2005년도 ICCAS
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• pp.250-255
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• 2005

For navigation of a service robot, mapping and localization are very important. To estimate the robot pose, the map of the environment is required and it can be built by exploration or SLAM. Exploration is the fundamental task of guiding a robot autonomously during mapping such that it covers the entire environment with its sensors. In this paper, an efficient exploration scheme based on the position probability of the end nodes of a topological map is proposed. In this scheme, a topological map is constructed in real time using the thinning-based approach. The robot then updates the position probability of each end node maintaining its position at the current location based on the Bayesian update rule using the range data. From this probability, the robot can determine whether or not it needs to visit the specific end node to examine the environment around this node. Various experiments show that the proposed exploration scheme can perform exploration more efficiently than other schemes in that, in most cases, exploration for the entire environment can be completed without directly visiting everywhere in the environment.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제15권12호
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• pp.1232-1239
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• 2009

This paper proposes an exploration strategy to efficiently find a specific place in large unknown environments with wall-following based path planning. Many exploration methods proposed so far showed good performance but they focused only on efficient planning for modeling unknown environments. Therefore, to successfully accomplish the room finding task, two additional requirements should be considered. First, suitable path-planning is needed to recognize the room number. Most conventional exploration schemes used the gradient method to extract the optimal path. In these schemes, the paths are extracted in the middle of the free space which is usually far from the wall. If the robot follows such a path, it is not likely to recognize the room number written on the wall because room numbers are usually too small to be recognized by camera image from a distance. Second, the behavior which re-explores the explored area is needed. Even though the robot completes exploration, it is possible that some rooms are not registered in the constructed map for some reasons such as poor recognition performance, occlusion by a human and so on. With this scheme, the robot does not have to visit and model the whole environment. This proposed method is very simple but it guarantees that the robot can find a specific room in most cases. The proposed exploration strategy was verified by various experiments.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.321-338
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• 2008

This paper presents a Modified Multiple Depth First Search algorithm for the exploration of the indoor environments occupied with obstacles in random distribution. The proposed algorithm was designed and implemented to employ one or a team of Khepera II mini robots for the exploration process. In case of multi-robots, the BlueCore2 External Bluetooth module was used to establish wireless networks with one master robot and one up to three slaves. Messages are sent and received via the module's Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) interface. Real exploration experiments were performed using locally developed teleworkbench with various autonomy features. In addition, computer simulation tool was also developed to simulate the exploration experiments with one master robot and one up to ten slaves. Computer simulations were in good agreement with the real experiments for the considered cases of one to one up to three networks. Results of the MMDFS for single robot exhibited 46% reduction in the needed number of steps for exploring environments with obstacles in comparison with other algorithms, namely the Ants algorithm and the original MDFS algorithm. This reduction reaches 71% whenever exploring open areas. Finally, results performed using multi-robots exhibited more reduction in the needed number of exploration steps.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.487-495
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• 2023

This paper presents a method for autonomous exploration of indoor environments using a 2-dimensional Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) scanner. The proposed frontier-based exploration method considers navigability from the current robot position to extracted frontier targets. An approach to constructing the point cloud grid map that accurately reflects the occupancy probability of glass obstacles is proposed, enabling identification of safe frontier grids on the safety grid map calculated from the point cloud grid map. Navigability, indicating whether the robot can successfully navigate to each frontier target, is calculated by applying the skeletonization-informed rapidly exploring random tree algorithm to the safety grid map. While conventional exploration approaches have focused on frontier detection and target position/direction decision, the proposed method discusses a safe navigation approach for the overall exploration process until the completion of mapping. Real-world experiments have been conducted to verify that the proposed method leads the robot to avoid glass obstacles and safely navigate the entire environment, constructing the point cloud map and calculating the navigability with low computing time deviation.

• 한국컴퓨터정보학회논문지
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• 제13권6호
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• pp.13-24
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• 2008

오늘날 멀티 로봇에 대한 연구는 단순한 싱글 로봇들의 효율적인 운영을 넘어 공간탐색의 효율성 극대화 및 넓은 공간에서 각 로봇간의 중복작업 및 충돌 회피를 위한 부분에 집중되어 있다. 이러한 멀티 로봇을 효율적으로 운영하기 위해서는 각 싱글 로봇을 제어하고 효율적으로 작업을 할당 할 수 있는 관리체계가 필요하다. 이에 본 논문에서는 RFID를 기반으로 각 싱글로봇의 탐색공간을 효율적으로 할당함으로서 싱글로봇간의 중복 탐색을 최소화 할 수 있는 멀티로봇관리시스템을 제안한다. 또한, 탐색 작업의 완료 보장과 탐색 성능의 향상을 위하여 장애가 발생한 싱글 로봇을 탐지하고 대체 할 수 있는 고장 허용 기법을 제안한다. 제안한 시스템에서는 정확한 위치 파악이 힘들었던 기존 중앙 서버의 단점을 RFID 시스템과 홈로봇을 활용하여 극복하였다. 지정된 홈로봇은 각각의 싱글 로봇을 효율적으로 관리하며, RFID 태그의 위치 정보를 활용하여 각 싱글로봇에게 최적의 탐색 공간을 할당 한다. 제안하는 멀티로봇 관리 시스템은 공간 할당, 위치 추정 기법, 맵 생성 기법(Localization및 Mapping)을 효율적으로 수행하기 위해 RFID를 기반으로 하며, 싱글 로봇 시스템과 비교하여 시스템 운영의 효율을 극대화할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라 각 싱글 로봇의 상태와 주변 상태를 고려한 고장 허용(fault tolerance)을 제공함으로써 로봇 운영의 신뢰성을 보장할 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 시뮬레이션을 통해 제안한 시스템을 적용한 멀티로봇 시스템과 기존의 멀티로봇 시스템의 탐색 소요시간 및 중복 탐색율을 비교하여 제안한 시스템의 효율성을 입증하였다.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.251-261
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• 2010

In this paper, we introduce an internal pipeline exploration of an in-pipe robot, based on the landmark recognition system. The fittings of pipelines such as elbows and branches are used as the landmarks. The robot recognizes the landmarks with a vision system by using the shadows of the elements, which are generated by the specially designed illuminator on the robot. By using a simple image-processing, the robot can easily detect and distinguish these landmarks while recognizing the direction of the pipeline path. Simultaneously, all information for exploration is continuously recorded and used to reconstruct the map of the pipelines. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by real experiments using the in-pipe robot MRINSPECT V for moving inside of the miniature urban 8-inch gas pipeline structure.

• 지구물리와물리탐사
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.355-360
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• 2009

USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network, 유비쿼터스 무선네트워크) 융합기술을 기반으로 하는 자원탐사 축소모형 시스템을 구축하였다. 실제 환경의 재현을 위해, 비금속 모형판 아래 금속판을 설치하고, 모형판 위에서 이동로봇에 설치된 고정밀 3축 자기센서를 이용하여 실제 자장값을 계측한다. 측정된 자장값은 무선네트워크를 이용하여 이동로봇이 중앙 컴퓨터로 전송한다. 이러한 하드웨어 기반의 테스트 시스템은 현장 상황을 물리적으로 유사하게 재현함으로써, 시뮬레이션의 신뢰도가 높고, USN기반 자원탐사시스템 설계지침을 다각도로 검토할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 금속물체 탐지시스템을 재현하기 위해, 평판 위에서 이동로봇을 사용하여, 평판 아래에 설치된 금속판의 위치를 탐지하는 실험을 성공적으로 실시하였다.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2011년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.343-344
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• 2011

• 디지털콘텐츠학회 논문지
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.1011-1019
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• 2018

기존에는 센서와 원격제어 또는 딥-러닝과 같은 기술들을 이용하여 탐사로봇의 속도를 제어할 수 있었다. 하지만 기상 정보를 이용하여 탐사로봇의 속도를 제어하는 것은 지금까지 제안되지 않았다. 유용한 일상 생활정보인 기상정보를 이용하지 않는 기존 탐사로봇의 방법의 문제점을 해결하기 위하여, 본 논문에서는 기상청에서 무료로 제공하는 RSS(Rich Site Summary) 서비스로부터 얻어진 날씨 정보를 이용하는 새로운 탐사 로봇 속도 제어 방법을 제안한다. 본 논문에서 구현된 탐사로봇은 TCP/IP 통신을 통하여 원격 제어되고 장착된 카메라 센서에 의해 얻어진 실시간 현장화면 사진을 와이파이 통신내에서 제공할 수 있다. 추가로 기상청의 URL(Uniform Resource Locator)을 통하여 얻어진 날씨 정보를 활용하여 탐사로봇의 속도가 자율적으로 제어된다. 제안한 방법의 올바른 성능은 강수확률과 풍속에 따른 탐사로봇의 속도를 측정한 논문에서의 실험 데이터들로부터 확인된다.