• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2007

This paper presents a motion planning strategy for legged robots using locomotion primitives in the complex 3D environments. First, we define configuration, motion primitives and locomotion primitives for legged robots. A hierarchical motion planning method based on a combination of 2.5 dimensional maps of the 3D workspace is proposed. A global navigation map is obtained using 2.5 dimensional maps such as an obstacle height map, a passage map, and a gradient map of obstacles to distinguish obstacles. A high-level path planner finds a global path from a 2D navigation map. A mid-level planner creates sub-goals that help the legged robot efficiently cope with various obstacles using only a small set of locomotion primitives that are useful for stable navigation of the robot. A local obstacle map that describes the edge or border of the obstacles is used to find the sub-goals along the global path. A low-level planner searches for a feasible sequence of locomotion primitives between sub-goals. We use heuristic algorithm in local motion planner. The proposed planning method is verified by both locomotion and soccer experiments on a small biped robot in a cluttered environment. Experiment results show an improvement in motion stability.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-29
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• 2013

Purpose - The study investigates the obstacles faced by small business owners (SBOs) in accessing finance in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The study aims to identify the causes of inaccessibility to finance for SBOs, investigate the role of government agencies in supporting SBOs, assess the extent to which banks support SMMEs, and suggest solutions to ease the challenge of inaccessibility of finance. Research design, data, methodology -We used a triangulation research design, wherein SMME owners and managers in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality were the target population. We used simple random sampling techniques to select respondents, and conducted in-depth interviews to collect qualitative data. Results - We analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, and factor analysis. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The study identifies and discusses the obstacles in accessing finance; the main among which are the lack of collateral security, poor business plans, lack of knowledge, and lack of financial deposit. Conclusions -We urge the banks, government, and government agencies to support the SMME sector, for it remains the economic engine of many African countries and helps in reducing the impact of socio-economic challenges, like unemployment and poverty.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2008

In this paper, we present one approach to achieve safe navigation in indoor dynamic environment. So far, there have been various useful collision avoidance algorithms and path planning schemes. However, those algorithms have a fundamental limitation that the robot can avoid only "visible" obstacles. In real environment, it is not possible to detect all the dynamic obstacles around the robot. There exist a lot of "occluded" regions due to the limitation of field of view. In order to avoid possible collisions, it is desirable to consider visibility information. Then, a robot can reduce the speed or modify a path. This paper proposes a safe navigation scheme to reduce the risk of collision due to unexpected dynamic obstacles. The robot's motion is controlled according to a hybrid control scheme. The possibility of collision is dually reflected to a path planning and a speed control. The proposed scheme clearly indicates the structural procedure on how to model and to exploit the risk of navigation. The proposed scheme is experimentally tested in a real office building. The presented result shows that the robot moves along the safe path to obtain sufficient field of view, while appropriate speed control is carried out.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.934-939
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• 2012

This paper proposes a new algorithm for ultrasonic sensors arranged on ring frame to identify obstacles surrounding itself by TOFs (time of flight). The ring frame has multiple channels consisting of a transmitter and a receiver. When the transmitter of a selected channel transmits ultrasonic signal, the TOFs of reflected signals from obstacles are acquired by the receiver of the channel. The process continues for all channels consecutively. Then, by using parabolic curve fitting of TOFs of all channel, the proposed algorithm not only calculates distances from multiple obstacles, but also identifies if the shape of obstacles are point or plane by the coefficients of the curve. By the experiment using 16 ultrasonic transceivers on the ring frame in the environment of two poles and two planes, we show the feasibility of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2000

A moving window technique for detecting a lane and obstacles using the Images captured by a CCD camera attached in an automobile, is proposed in this paper To process the dynamic images in real time, there could be many constraints on the hardware To overcome these hardware constraints and to detect the lane and obstacles in real time, the optimal size of window IS determined based upon road conditions and automobile states. By utilizing the sub-Images inside the windows, detection of the lane and obstacles become possible m real time. For each Image frame, the moving windows are re-determined following the predicted directions based on Kalman filtering theory to Improve detection accuracy, as well as efficiency The feasibility of proposed algorithm IS demonstrated through the simulated experiments of highway driving.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2018

In order to make the underwater vehicle carry out the mission in a submarine environment, it is needed to plan a safe and efficient route to a given destination and prevent the autonomous submersible from colliding with obstacles while moving along the planned route. The function of collision avoidance makes the travel distance of the autonomous submersible longer. Moreover, it should move slowly near to obstacles against their moving disturbance. As a result, this invokes the degradation of the navigation efficiency in the process of collision avoidance. The side effect of the collision avoidance is not ignorable in the case of high congested environments such as the coast with many obstacles. In this paper, we suggest a path planning method which provides the route with minimum travel time considering collision avoidance in congested environment. For the purpose, we define environmental congestion map related to geometric information and obstacles. And we propose a method to consider the moving cost in the RRT scheme that provides the existing minimum distance path. We verified that the efficiency of our algorithm with simulation experiments.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.179-188
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• 2015

The A* algorithm is a well-known pathfinding algorithm. However, if the information about obstacles is not exploited, the algorithm may collide with obstacles or lead into swamp areas unnecessarily. In this paper, we propose new heuristic functions using the information of obstacles to avoid them or swamp areas. It takes time to process the information of obstacles before starting pathfinding, but it may not cause any problems most of cases because it is not processed in real time. We showed that the proposed methods could reduce the search space effectively through experiments. Furthermore, we showed that heuristic functions using obstacle information could reduce the search space effectively without processing obstacle information at all.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.70-77
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• 2012

Experimental investigations were performed to examine the characteristics of propagating flame fronts around multiple bars within a rectangular chamber. The explosion chamber is 400 mm in height, $700{\times}700mm^2$ in cross-section and has a large top-venting area, $A_v$, of $700{\times}210mm^2$. This results in a value of 0.44 for $A_v/V^{2/3}$ and a L/D value of 0.57. The multiple obstacles of length 700 mm with a blockage ratio of 30 % were placed within the chamber. Temporally resolved flame front images were recorded by a high speed video camera to investigate the interaction between the propagating flame and the obstacles. Results showed that the flame propagation speeds before the flame impinges onto the obstacle almost equal to the laminar burning velocity. As the propagating flame impinged on the obstacle, the central region of flame began to become concave, this resulted in the flame deceleration in the region. As the flame interacted with the modified flow filed generated behind the central obstacle, the probability density functions(PDFs) of the local flame displacement speed were extensively distributed toward higher speeds.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.89-106
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• 2020

Purpose: This study attempts to improve the status of emergency care for major trauma patients transferred by 119 paramedics by analyzing the status of emergency care and the obstacles to the spinal motion restriction (SMR) for major trauma patients. Methods: A total of 600 rescue logs were collected from major trauma patients transported by 119 paramedics in the C fire department from Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2017. And then, 280 questionnaires were collected from the 119 paramedics in C fire department from May 3 to Jun. 3, 2019. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 version. Results: Among 499 spinal motion restriction adaptive patients, the spinal motion restriction rate was 51.1% (255 individuals). Lack of human resources and quality control problems were among the obstacles to spinal motion restriction. Conclusion: The 119 paramedics should improve their activeness and skills in performing emergency care, and since training and experience are of crucial importance, they should expand various education systematized according to demand.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2022

For safe driving of autonomous vehicles, road damage detection is very important to lower the potential risk. In order to ensure safety while an autonomous vehicle is driving on the road, technology that can cope with various obstacles is required. Among them, technology that recognizes static obstacles such as poor road conditions as well as dynamic obstacles that may be encountered while driving, such as crosswalks, manholes, hollows, and speed bumps, is a priority. In this paper, we propose a method to extract similarity of images and find damaged road images using OpenCV image processing and CNN algorithm. To implement this, we trained a CNN model using 280 training datasheets and 70 test datasheets out of 350 image data. As a result of training, the object recognition processing speed and recognition speed of 100 images were tested, and the average processing speed was 45.9 ms, the average recognition speed was 66.78 ms, and the average object accuracy was 92%. In the future, it is expected that the driving safety of autonomous vehicles will be improved by using technology that detects road obstacles encountered while driving.