• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.393-402
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• 2021

The first TBM introduced in Korea was the gripper TBM, which was applied to the Gudeok Waterway Tunnel in 1985. In the initial stage of the introduction of the gripper TBM, many applications were mainly focused on waterway tunnels (Tunnel Mechanized Construction Design, 2008). Currently, the construction range of gripper TBM in Korea is widely applied to not only waterway tunnels, but also subways, railway tunnels, and TBM+NATM expansion. Overseas, gripper TBM is generally applied, and even when NATM tunnel is applied, it is applied as an exploration tunnel because of the excellent advance rate of gripper TBM and used as an evacuation tunnel after completion. Due to the fast excavation speed, the application of the gripper TBM in the rock section of weathered rock or higher can minimize the environmental and civil complaints caused by creating a large number of work areas when planning long tunnels or mountain tunnels. In this study, the work process of the general gripper TBM was analyzed by analyzing the construction cycle and the gripper TBM with a diameter of 2.6~5.0 m, which was applied the most in Korea. Downtime was investigated and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.821-829
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• 2014

This paper describes the development of a wireless communication controller of gripper contact signal for industrial robot. The wireless communication gripper controller is composed of a robot wireless communication controller and a gripper wireless transmitting/receiving controller. The robot wireless communication controller transmits the data of gripper sensors, and the gripper wireless communication controller receives the data. And the controller sends the data to the robot controller of industrial robot. As a result of the characteristics test of the wireless communication gripper controller, it is thought that the robot wireless communication controller A transmits and receives three gripper wireless transmitting/receiving controller A1, A2, A3 another. Thus, the developed wireless communication gripper controller can be used for transmitting/ receiving the data of gripper sensors for industrial robot.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2023

This paper shows a design of a gripper with an adjustable working area to depalletize a delivery cardboard box of various sizes. The gripper should pick the box with only one flat surface to lift the boxes stacked close to each other. The lift force of the gripper is the vacuum suction force. To handle boxes of various sizes, the gripper adjusts the working area. The gripper operates four vacuum generators independently. The simultaneous rotation on different axes of four gripper-arms with suction cups moves the position of suction force. The six operation modes of the gripper are divided into the size of the working area. The operation mode is determined according to the size of the top side of the box. Experiments are conducted by lifting the box of various sizes. The gripper can pick the box of various sizes without vacuum leaks from unused cups. Also, the experiments verify the improvement of stability of the box by adjusting the working area of the gripper. The gripper can lift the box without deformation of the box by adjusting the working area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.439-443
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• 2006

In this paper, a design of milli-gripper using piezoelectric actuator and flexible hinge structure has been suggested, and the dynamic characteristics of the milli-gripper has been analysed and improved. The milli-gripper consists of the operating and amplifier parts, and the perfomance of the gripper be heavily influenced by base excitation disturbances. The dynamic characteristics of milli-gripper has been measured by the FRF based on experimental modal analysis. It has been found by a series of experiments that the performance of the milli gripper using PID control is made a remarkable improvement in terms of gripping forces.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.5 s.182
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• pp.77-84
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• 2006

This paper describes the design and implementation of a robot's gripper control system. In order to safely grasp an unknown object using the robot's gripper, the gripper should detect the force of gripping direction and the force of gravity direction, and should perform the force control using the detected forces and the robot's gripper control system. In this paper, the robot's gripper control system is designed and manufactured using DSP(Digital Signal Processor), and the gripper is composed of two 6-axis force/moment sensors which measures the Fx force(force of x-direction), Fy force, Fz force, and the Mx moment(moment of x-direction), My moment, Mz moment at the same time. The response characteristic test of the system is performed to determine the proportional gain Kp and the integral gain Ki of PI controller. As a result, it is shown that the developed robot's gripper control system grasps an unknown object safely.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2020

In robotic harvesting, a gripper to manipulate the fruits needs to be attached to the robot system. We proposed a flexible robot gripper that can actively respond to the shape of an object such as fruits in the previous work. However, we found that there is a possibility of not being reliably gripped when the object slides during contact with a finger. In this paper, the improved gripper design is proposed to fundamentally solve the problems of the previous gripper. The position of the finger and the maximum closed position are changed, and the design improvement is performed to increase the grip stability by changing the installation angle of the link portion of the finger. Based on the improved design, a modified gripper is fabricated by 3-D printing, and then gripping experiments are performed on spherical object and fruit model object. It is shown that the gripper can stably grip the objects without excessive bending of the finger link of the gripper. The contact pressure between the finger and the surface of the object is measured, and it is verified that it is a sufficiently small pressure that does not cause damage to the fruit. Therefore, the proposed gripper is expected to be successfully applied in harvesting.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2024

The ability of the robot gripper to handle a wide range of objects significantly impacts its operational effectiveness. Among the robot grippers commonly used, the economically feasible choice is the relatively simple structure of a parallel gripper. To perform more densely packed tasks with a parallel gripper, it should be capable of handling small objects. Therefore, this study designs a parallel gripper mechanism equipped with assisting grippers to ensure smooth grasping of small objects. The parallel gripper is designed using a rack and pinion gear system, with two additional grippers on both side, and these assisting grippers are designed to be detachable. The two assisting grippers have different type of tip to grasp thin fabric shapes and thin stick shapes. The gripper prototype is used to verify the grasping capabilities for shapes achievable with a conventional parallel gripper and those intended for grasping with the assisting grippers through grasping experiments. Consequently, by equipping a conventional parallel gripper with assisting grippers as in this study, it becomes capable of handling a broader range of objects, in addition to its existing functionality.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.3 s.192
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• pp.47-54
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• 2007

This paper describes the development of the intelligent gripper with two 3-axis force sensor that can measure forces Fx, Fy, Fz simultaneously, for stably grasping an unknown object. In order to grasp an unknown object using an intelligent gripper softly, it should measure the force in the gripping direction and the force in the gravity direction, and perform the force control using the measured farces. Thus, the intelligent gripper should be composed of 3-axis force sensor that can measure forces Fx, Fy, Fz at the same time. In this paper, the intelligent gripper with two 3-axis force sensor was manufactured and its characteristic test was carried out. The fabricated gripper could grasp an unknown object stably. Also, the sensing element of 3-axis force sensor was modeled and designed with five parallel-plate beams, and 3-axis force sensor for the intelligent gripper was fabricated. The characteristic test of the made sensor was carried out.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.271-276
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• 1998

A gripper mechanical design using a pneumatic system was developed to successfully grip, hold, and release a seedling plug for transplanting it. The gripper comprised of two air cylinders and shovel-type fingers. The gripper can grasp and hold a seedling by sliding the two fingers attached to the two separate air-cylinders, mounted at an angle of 15$^{\circ}$ When releasing a plug, retraction of the fingers gives a seedling little attachment to the gripper. To prevent seedling from attaching to the fingers, press-plates were attached to the end of the gipper. Transplanting performance of the developed gripper was tested with cucumber seedlings at different soil moisture contents. Overall transplanting performance of developed gipper was higher than the performance of the previously developed gripper. Best transplanting result was achieved at medium level of soil moisture content.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.541-558
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• 2014

This paper proposes a new design of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuated gripper for open mode operation. SMA can generate smooth muscle movements during actuation which make them potentially good contenders in designing grippers. The principle of the shape memory alloy gripper is to convert the linear displacement of the SMA wire actuator into the angular displacement of the gripping jaw. Steady state analysis is performed to design the wire diameter of the bias spring for a known SMA wire. The gripper is designed to open about an angle of $22.5^{\circ}$ when actuated using pulsating electric current from a constant current source. The safe operating power range of the gripper is determined and verified theoretically. Experimental evaluation for the uncontrolled gripper showed a rotation of $19.97^{\circ}$. Forced cooling techniques were employed to speed up the cooling process. The gripper is simple and robust in design (single movable jaw), easy to fabricate, low cost, and exhibits wide handling capabilities like longer object handling time and handling wide sizes of objects with minimum utilization of power since power is required only to grasp and release operations.