• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.439-446
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• 2014

An amphibious inspection robot system (hereafter AIROS) is being developed to visually inspect the in-containment refueling storage water tank (hereafter IRWST) strainer in APR1400 instead of a human diver. Four IRWST strainers are located in the IRWST, which is filled with boric acid water. Each strainer has 108 sub-assembly strainer fin modules that should be inspected with the VT-3 method according to Reg. guide 1.82 and the operation manual. AIROS has 6 thrusters for submarine voyage and 4 legs for walking on the top of the strainer. An inverse kinematic algorithm was implemented in the robot controller for exact walking on the top of the IRWST strainer. The IRWST strainer has several top cross braces that are extruded on the top of the strainer, which can be obstacles of walking on the strainer, to maintain the frame of the strainer. Therefore, a robot leg should arrive at the position beside the top cross brace. For this reason, we used an image processing technique to find the top cross brace in the sole camera image. The sole camera image is processed to find the existence of the top cross brace using the cross edge detection algorithm in real time. A 5-DOF robot arm that has multiple camera modules for simultaneous inspection of both sides can penetrate narrow gaps. For intuitive presentation of inspection results and for management of inspection data, inspection images are stored in the control PC with camera angles and positions to synthesize and merge the images. The synthesized images are then mapped in a 3D CAD model of the IRWST strainer with the location information. An IRWST strainer mock-up was fabricated to teach the robot arm scanning and gaiting. It is important to arrive at the designated position for inserting the robot arm into all of the gaps. Exact position control without anchor under the water is not easy. Therefore, we designed the multi leg robot for the role of anchoring and positioning. Quadruped robot design of installing sole cameras was a new approach for the exact and stable position control on the IRWST strainer, unlike a traditional robot for underwater facility inspection. The developed robot will be practically used to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the inspection of nuclear power plant components.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2023

This paper introduced how to construct Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters from the Unified Robot Description Format (URDF). URDF is convenient for describing a robot even though the robot is very complex. On the other hand, DH convention is not an easy notation for many novices who want to describe a robot. Therefore, most vendors provide URDF and users prefer to use URDF to describe a robot. However, some controllers or algorithms are based on DH parameters to perform kinematics, dynamics, control, etc. To connect URDF and DH parameters, we present a three-step approach to construct DH parameters from URDF. The first step is to define the joint axis for constructing DH parameters. The second step is constructing DH parameters to define joint character. The final step is constructing DH parameters to define the coordinate frame of the child link. This approach is based on intuitive vector calculation and guarantees the uniqueness of DH parameters. To verify our approach, we applied our approach to a simple one-link robot, a manipulator with 6 DOF, and a quadruped robot with 3 DOF per leg. We verified that our approach worked well based on forward kinematic results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.83-91
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• 2000

During static walking of a quadruped walking robot, stability of the robot depends on whether the projection of the mass center is located within the supporting area that is varying with leg motion and formed by standing legs. In this paper, force margin instead of the mass center was used to determine stability and body-tilting method was used to enhance it. On-line control of body tilting was realized with simple reaction feedback based on force margin of the static walking model of the robot instead of complicated calculation. Model reference on-line control where the model searches stable pose for predefined force margin also gave good walking performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.16 no.4 s.97
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• pp.138-147
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• 1999

For autonomous navigation, a legged robot should be able to walk over irregular terrain and adapt itself to variation of supporting surface. Walking through slope is one of the typical tasks for such case. Robot needs not only to change foot trajectory but also to adjust its configuration to the slope angle for maintaining stability against gravity. This paper suggests such adaptation algorithm for stable walking which uses feedback of reaction forces at feet. Adjusting algorithm of foot trajectory was studied with the estimated angel of slope without visual feedback. A concept of virtual slope angle was introduced to adjust body configuration against slope change of the supporting terrain. Regeneration of foot trajectory also used this concept for maintaining its stable walking against unexpected landing point.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.64-75
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• 2021

On the moon as well as the earth, one of the easiest ways to understand geological formation history of any region is to observe the stratigraphy if it is available, the order in which the strata build up. By analyzing stratigraphy, it is possible to infer what geological events have occurred in the past. Mare Nubium also has an unique normal fault called Rupes Recta that shows stratigraphy. However, a rover moving with wheels is incompetent to explore the cliff since the Rupes Recta has an inclination of 10° - 30°. Therefore, a quadruped walking robot must be employed for stable expedition. To exploration a fault with a four-legged walking robot, it is necessary to design an expedition route by taking account of whether the stratigraphy is well displayed, whether the slope of the terrain is moderate, and whether there are obstacles and rough texture in the terrain based on the remote sensing data from the previous lunar missions. For the payloads required for fault surface exploration we propose an optical camera to grasp the actual appearance, a spectrometer to analyze the composition, and a drill to obtain samples that are not exposed outward.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.131-132
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• 2011

현 시대는 로봇의 시대라 할 만큼 다채로운 로봇들이 개발되고 있으며, 인간의 기능들을 본 떠 만든 로봇 암(Robot arm: manipulator)과 워킹로봇(Walking robot: biped robot, quadruped robot, popping robot, etc.)물체인식 및 물체 추적 로봇(Tracking robot with image processing -. Domo robot, MIT.)이나 곤충과 동물 등의 생체 로봇에 대한 개발 또한 진행하고 있다. 지능형 이동로봇에서 가장중요하고 기본이 되는 기술인 무선통신망을 이용한 통신 기술과 지표면을 걷는 워킹로봇이 아닌 개활지나 밀폐된 공간에서 주행이 자유롭고 속도 및 주변 반응에 대해서 즉시 반응할 수 있는 장점을 가져 개발이용이한 바퀴를 이용한 2축 이동로봇에 관하여 연구하였다. 본 연구는 무선통신망을 이용하여 인터넷이 되는 곧 이면 어디서든 원격제어를 통하여 이동로봇을 전진, 후진, 좌회전. 우회전 및 속도제어 위치제어를 할 수 있고 GPS로 로봇의 위치와, 카메라를 이용하여 영상자료를 수집하고 센서를 이용하여 장애물 감지 및 자율주행 하는 등 여러 분야에 응용 할 수 있는 로봇을 연구하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.1326-1331
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• 2009

The sensor data measured by the legged robot are used to recognize the physical environment or information that controls the robot's posture. Therefore, a robot's ambulation can be advanced with the use of such sensing information. For the precise control of a robot, highly accurate sensor data are required, but most sensors are expensive and are exposed to excessive load operation in the field. The seriousness of these problems will be seen if the prototype's practicality and mass productivity, which are closely related to the unit cost of production and maintenance, will be considered. In this paper, the use of a virtual sensor technology was suggested to address the aforementioned problems, and various ways of applying the theory to a walking robot obtained through training with an actual sensor, and of various hardware information, were presented. Finally, the possibility of the replacement of the ground reaction force sensor of legged robot was verified.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.733-740
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• 2001

A monitoring robot capable of doing network and RF communication is introduced. The robot has several features that poses arbitrary position thanks to a mechanism combining the 4wheel drive and 4 link mechanism, transmits an image and command data via RF wireless communication. Moreover, the image data from the camera are transferred through a network communication. The robot plays a role in monitoring what is happening around the robot, and covers wide range due to a moving camera associated with the 4 arms. The robot can adjust its mass center by the 4 link mechanism, hence it guarantees a stability in moving on the slope.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.242-248
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• 2007

Robot system development consists of several sub-tasks such as layout design, motion planing, and sensor programming etc. In general, on-line programming and debugging for such tasks demands burdensome time and labor costs, which motivates an off-line graphic simulation system. MSRS(Microsoft Robotics Studio) released in recent years is an appropriate tool for the graphic simulation system since it supports CCR(Concurrency and Coordination Runtime), DSS(Decentralized System Services), and dynamics simulation based on PhysX and graphic animation as well. In this paper, we developed an MSRS based network simulation system for quadruped walking robots, which controls virtual 3D graphic robots existing in remote side through internet.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.959-966
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• 2009

An essential consideration when analyzing the gait of walking robots is their ability to maintain stability during walking. Therefore, this study proposes a vertical waist-jointed walking robot and gait algorithm to increase the gait stability margin while walking on the slope. First, the energy stability margin is compared according to the posture of the walking motion on slope. Next, a vertical waist-jointed walking robot is modeled to analyze the stability margin in given assumption. We describe new parameters, joint angle and position of a vertical waist-joint to get COG (center of gravity of a body) in walking. Finally, we prove the superiority of the proposed gait algorithm using simulation and conclude the results.