• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.803-807
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• 2003

Tele-operation and remote monitoring techniques are essential and important technologies for performing the inspection and repair tasks effectively in nuclear power plants. This paper presents the application of a mobile robot for the remote monitoring and inspection of the Calandria faces, where human access is limited because of the high-level radioactive environments during full power operation. The mobile robot was designed with reconfigurable crawler type of wheels attached on the front and rear side in order to pass through the ditch. The extendable mast, mounted on the mobile robot, can be extended up to 8 m vertically. This robot was also equipped a visible CCD/thermal infrared inspection head module and a stereo camera module for the enhancement of visual inspection.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4695-4702
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• 2023

Nuclear power plants play a pivotal role in the global energy infrastructure, fulfilling a substantial share of the world's energy requirements in a sustainable way. The management of these facilities, especially the handling of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), necessitates meticulous inspections to guarantee operational safety and efficiency. However, the prevailing inspection methodologies lean heavily on human operators, which presents challenges due to the potential hazards of the SNF environment. This study introduces the design of a novel Pre-Batched Inspection Strategy (PBIS) that integrates robotic automation and image processing techniques to bolster the inspection process. This methodology deploys robotics to undertake tasks that could be perilous or time-intensive for humans, while image processing techniques are used for precise identification of SNF targets and regulating the robotic system. The implementation of PBIS holds considerable promise in minimizing inspection time and enhancing worker safety. This paper elaborates on the structure, capabilities, and application of PBIS, underlining its potential implications for the future of nuclear energy inspections.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2063-2065
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• 2003

The control rod drive mechanisms in a reactor head are arranged too narrow for a human worker to approach. Moreover, the working environment is in high radiation area. In order to inspect defections in the surfaces of the reactor head and welding parts, a visual inspection device that can approach such a narrow and high radiation area is required. This paper introduces a tele-operated mobile robot for visual inspection of a reactor head, which has pan/tilt camera, fixed rear camera, ultrasonic collision detection system, and so on. Moreover, the host controller and digital video logging system are developed and integrated control software is also developed. The robot is operated by a wireless control, which gives flexibility for the inspection.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2021

Recently, various robots are being used for the purpose of structural inspection or safety diagnosis, and their needs are also rising rapidly. Among the structural inspection using robots, a lot of researches has recently been conducted on inspection of various facilities and structures using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). However, since GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals cannot be received in an environment near or below structures, the operation of UAVs has been done manually. For a stable autonomous flight without GNSS signals, additional technologies are required. This paper proposes the autonomous flight system for structural inspection consisting of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), path planning, and controls. The experiments were conducted on an actual large bridge to verify the feasibility of the system, and especially the performance of the proposed SLAM algorithm was compared through comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art algorithms.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.789-792
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• 2003

Pipe inspection has a great importance to ensure safety for the nuclear power plant. In this paper, we designed visual inspection module for the tube internal, which diameter is 15${\sim}$20mm. And we made inspection module which consisted of CCD camera and light. And the relation between image and real world coordinate is established. Image processing is performed to calculate mapping parameter and analyze the size of defect. For the calculation of mapping parameter, experiment is performed using grid type test pattern. Acquired image is processed to extract image coordinate. Edge detection, thresholding, median filtering and morphology filtering is applied to extract grid pattern. Extracted image coordinate is used to calculate image to real world mapping. Lens distortion was considered and corrected to get exact data. Coordinate transformation data is provided for the users to recognize easily. Experiment was performed using grid type test pattern, we extracted lens distortion parameter and real coordinate of defect point. Radial distortion of lens was corrected but tangential distortion was not considered. As continuum to this study, the tangential distortion of lens is considered and improvement of analy zing technique for the tube internal be explored continuously.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.21-28
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• 2023

In manufacturing companies that focus on small-scale production of multiple product varieties, defective products are manually selected by workers rather than relying on automated inspection. Consequently, there is a higher risk of incorrect sorting due to variations in selection criteria based on the workers' experience and expertise, without consistent standards. Moreover, for non-standardized flexible objects with varying sizes and shapes, there can be even greater deviations in the selection criteria. To address these issues, this paper designs a quality inspection system using artificial intelligence-based unsupervised learning methods and conducts research by experimenting with accuracy using a dataset obtained from real manufacturing environments.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.772-777
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• 2003

A vision-based tool position estimation system for the inspection and maintenance manipulator working inside the steam generator bowl of nuclear power plants can help human operators ensure that the inspection probe or plug are inserted to the targeted tube. Some previous research proposed a simplified tube position verification system that counts the tubes passed through during the motion and displays only the position of the tool. In this paper, by using a general camera calibration approach, tool orientation is also estimated. In order to reduce the computation time and avoid the parameter bias problem in an ellipse fitting, a small number of edge points are collected around the large section of the ellipse boundary. Experiment results show that the camera calibration parameters, detected ellipses, and estimated tool position are appropriate.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2018

To ensure safety of bridges, it is critical to inspect and assess physical and functional conditions regularly. Presently, most highway bridges in the U.S. are inspected visually. However, this method of inspection is often influenced by the bridge inspector's knowledge and experience. So, reliability and accuracy of inspection results may be problematic. To solve such problems, an extensive number of robotics systems and image processing techniques for bridge inspection methods have been proposed. These robotics systems and image processing techniques are used to measure various bridge conditions, such as apparent damage, displacement and dynamic characteristics. This paper provides a comprehensive review of robotics systems and image processing technologies used in bridge inspection.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2010

This paper proposes a bridge inspection system using a robot to manage the safety status of bridges. A conventional bridge inspection has a lot of problems because inspection is conducted manually by human. As an alternative, we are to develop a robot system having machine vision and this robot system is mounted on an end linkage of specially designed car having seven DOF (Degrees Of Freedom) to inspect cracks beneath bridge. This system is able to check a status of the bridge and record its changes every other year. As a result, the developed robot system offers us the inspection result of quality and reliability about the bridge inspection status. Also, we have tested the effectiveness of the suggested system through outdoor experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.8
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• pp.995-1000
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• 1999

This paper presents a optic system and a visual inspection algorithm looking for solder joint defects of J-lead chip which are more integrate and smaller than ones with Gull-wing on PCBs(Printed Circuit Boards). The visual inspection system is composed of three sections : host PC, imaging and driving parts. The host PC part controls the inspection devices and executes the inspection algorithm. The imaging part acquires and processes image data. And the driving part controls XY-table for automatic inspection. In this paper, the most important five features are extracted from input images to categorize four classes of solder joint defects in the case of J-lead chip and utilized to a back-propagation network for classification. Consequently, good accuracy of classification performance and effectiveness of chosen five features are examined by experiment using proposed inspection algorithm.