• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.357-364
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• 2020

Indoor localization using an artificial marker plays a key role for a robot to be used in a service environment. A number of researchers have predefined the positions of markers and attached them to the positions in order to reduce the error of the localization method. However, it is practically impossible to attach a marker to the predetermined position accurately. In order to visualize the position of an object in the environment based on the marker attached to them, it is necessary to consider a change of marker's position or the addition of a marker because of moving the existed object or adding a new object. In this paper, we studied the method to estimate the artificial marker's global position for the visualization of environment. The system calculates the relative distance from a reference marker to others repeatedly to estimate the marker's position. When the marker's position is changed or new markers are added, our system can recognize the changed situation of the markers. To verify the proposed system, we attached 12 markers at regular intervals on the ceiling and compared the estimation result of the proposed method and the actual distance. In addition, we compared the estimation result when changing the position of an existing marker or adding a new marker.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2013

In this paper, we describe a vision sensor-based driving algorithm for indoor automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) that facilitates a path tracking task using two mono cameras for navigation. One camera is mounted on vehicle to observe the environment and to detect markers in front of the vehicle. The other camera is attached so the view is perpendicular to the floor, which compensates for the distance between the wheels and markers. The angle and distance from the center of the two wheels to the center of marker are also obtained using these two cameras. We propose five movement patterns for AGVs to guarantee smooth performance during path tracking: starting, moving straight, pre-turning, left/right turning, and stopping. This driving algorithm based on two vision sensors gives greater flexibility to AGVs, including easy layout change, autonomy, and even economy. The algorithm was validated in an experiment using a two-wheeled mobile robot.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.409-416
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• 2002

This study was conducted to develop a vehicle, leading or following a worker at a certain distance to assist laborious transporting works in greenhouses. A prototype vehicle, which consisted of the rear driving, the front steering and the console units, was designed and tested in the ideal indoor conditions. Results of this study were summarized as following: 1. The driving unit was designed to travel at the speed ranges of 0.3∼0.8 m/sec depending on the operating modes with a maximum payload of 100 kg. 2. The console unit consisted of a main-board including a 80C196KC microprocessor and peripheral devices, a power-board and safety interlock. Worker-leading, and following modes were available in automatic and manual modes. 3. Steering was achieved by turning the steering motor against the sensed direction. Proper steering angles for correcting travel direction were determined as 5 and 9 degrees when sensing cultivation beds and plants, respectively.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.353-361
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• 2011

A precise embedded ultrasonic localization system is developed for autonomous mobile robots in indoor environments, which is essential for autonomous navigation of mobile robots with various tasks. Although ultrasonic sensors are more cost-effective than other sensors such as LRF (Laser Range Finder) and vision, they suffer inaccuracy and directional ambiguity. First, we apply the matched filter to measure the distance precisely. For resolving the computational complexity of the matched filter for embedded systems, we propose a new matched filter algorithm with fast computation in three points of view. Second, we propose an accurate ultrasonic localization system which consists of three ultrasonic receivers on the mobile robot and two or more transmitters on the ceiling. Last, we add an extended Kalman filter to estimate position and orientation. Various simulations and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2006

Improving practicality of SLAM requires various sensors to be fused effectively in order to cope with uncertainty induced from both environment and sensors. In this case, combining sonar and vision sensors possesses numerous advantages of economical efficiency and complementary cooperation. Especially, it can remedy false data association and divergence problem of sonar sensors, and overcome low frequency SLAM update caused by computational burden and weakness in illumination changes of vision sensors. In this paper, we propose a SLAM method to join sonar sensors and stereo camera together. It consists of two schemes, extracting robust point and line features from sonar data and recognizing planar visual objects using multi-scale Harris corner detector and its SIFT descriptor from pre-constructed object database. And fusing sonar features and visual objects through EKF-SLAM can give correct data association via object recognition and high frequency update via sonar features. As a result, it can increase robustness and accuracy of SLAM in indoor environment. The performance of the proposed algorithm was verified by experiments in home -like environment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.377-378
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• 2015

실내형 자율 주행 로봇에서의 가장 중요한 기술력은 IGS(indoor GPS System)라 할 수 있다. 재난로봇이나 정찰로봇, 경계로봇등 새로운 로봇의 영역이 늘어남에 따라 실내에서 로봇을 안전하게 구동시키는 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 기존 GPS를 사용할 수 없는 실내에서, LED 조명으로 통신이 가능한 가시광통신은 실내위치 정보를 정밀히 파악하기에 적합하다. 이에 가시광통신을 이용하여 LED 조명별 기준위치를 파악하는 서로 다른 16진수의 데이터를 전송하고, 그 위치를 파악하여 LED 조명의 위치를 식별할 수 있음을 확인한다. 이러한 실험결과를 통하여 가시광통신을 이용해 실내형 자율 주행 로봇의 실내 위치 추정 시스템을 제안한다.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.262-272
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• 2015

In particular, for a practical mobile robot team to perform such a task as that of carrying out a search and rescue mission in a disaster area, the network connectivity and localization have to be guaranteed even in an environment where the network infrastructure is destroyed or a Global Positioning System is unavailable. This paper proposes the new collective intelligence network management architecture of multiple mobile robots supporting seamless network connectivity and cooperative localization. The proposed architecture includes a resource manager that makes the robots move around and not disconnect from the network link by considering the strength of the network signal and link quality. The location manager in the architecture supports localizing robots seamlessly by finding the relative locations of the robots as they move from a global outdoor environment to a local indoor position. The proposed schemes assuring network connectivity and localization were validated through numerical simulations and applied to a search and rescue robot team.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.1092-1098
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• 2007

A mobile robot localization problem can be classified into following three sub-problems as an observation likelihood model, a motion model and a filtering technique. So far, we have developed the range sensor based, integrated localization scheme, which can be used in human-coexisting real environment such as a science museum and office buildings. From those experiences, we found out that there are several significant issues to be solved. In this paper, we focus on three key issues, and then illustrate our solutions to the presented problems. Three issues are listed as follows: (1) Investigation of design requirements of a desirable observation likelihood model, and performance analysis of our design (2) Performance evaluation of the localization result by computing the matching error (3) The semi-global localization scheme to deal with localization failure due to abrupt wheel slippage In this paper, we show the significance of each concept, developed solutions and the experimental results. Experiments were carried out in a typical modern building environment, and the results clearly show that the proposed solutions are useful to develop practical and integrated localization schemes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to build and manage environment models with line segments from sonar range data on obstacles in unknown and varied environments. The proposed method therefore employs a two-stage data-transform process in order to extract environmental line segments from range data on obstacles. In the first stage, the occupancy grid extracted from the range data is accumulated to form a two-dimensional local histogram grid. In the second stage, a line histogram extracted from a local histogram grid is based on a Hough transform, and matching serves as a means of comparing each of the segments on a global line segments map against the line segments to detect the degree of similarity in the overlap, orientation, and arrangement. Each of these tests is formulated by comparing one of the parameters in the segment representation. After the tests, new line segments can be found at maximum-density cells in the line histogram, and they are composed onto the global line segment map. The proposed technique is demonstrated in experiments in an indoor environment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.265-275
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• 2015

This paper describes extraction methods of five different types of geometrical features (line, arc, corner, polynomial curve, NURBS curve) from the obtained raw data by using a two-dimensional laser range finder (LRF). Natural features with their covariance matrices play a key role in the realization of feature-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), which can be used to represent the environment and correct the pose of mobile robot. The covariance matrices of these geometrical features are derived in detail based on the raw sensor data and the uncertainty of LRF. Several comparison are made and discussed to highlight the advantages and drawbacks of each type of geometrical feature. Finally, the extracted features from raw sensor data obtained by using a LRF in an indoor environment are used to validate the proposed extraction methods.