• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.381-387
• /
• 2012

The planetary exploration rover executes various missions after moving to the target point in an unknown environment in the shortest distance. Such missions include the researches for geological and climatic conditions as well as the existence of water or living creatures. If there is any obstacle on the way, it is detected by such sensors as ultrasonic sensor, infrared light sensor, stereo vision, and laser ranger finder. After the obtained data is transferred to the main controller of the rover, decisions can be made to either overcome or avoid the obstacle on the way based on the operating algorithm of the rover. All the planetary exploration rovers which have been developed until now receive the information of the height or width of the obstacle from such sensors before analyzing it in order to find out whether it is possible to overcome the obstacle or not. If it is decided to be better to overcome the obstacle in terms of the operating safety and the electric consumption of the rover, it is generally made to overcome it. Therefore, for the purpose of carrying out the planetary exploration task, it is necessary to design the proper suspension system of the rover which enables it to safely overcome any obstacle on the way on the surface in any unknown environment. This study focuses on the design of the new double 4-bar linkage type of suspension system applied to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute rover (a tentatively name) that is currently in the process of development by our institute in order to develop the planetary exploration rover which absolutely requires the capacity of overcoming any obstacle. Throughout this study, the negative moment which harms the capacity of the rover for overcoming an obstacle was induced through the dynamical modeling process for the rocker-bogie applied to the Mars exploration rover of the US and the improved version of rocker-bogie as well as the suggested double 4-bar linkage type of suspension system. Also, based on the height of the obstacle, a simulation was carried out for the negative moment of the suspension system before the excellence of the suspension system suggested through the comparison of responding characteristics was proved.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.105-111
• /
• 2024

The SLA (Stereolithography Apparatus) method is a type of 3D printing technique predicated on the transformation of liquid photocurable resin into a solid form through UV laser exposure, and its application is increasing in various fields. In this study, we conducted research to enhance the hydrophobicity and transparency of SLA 3D printing surfaces for microfluidic system production. The enhancement of surface hydrophobicity in SLA outputs was attainable through the application of hydrophobic coating methods, but the coating durability under different conditions varied depending on the type of hydrophobic coating. Additionally, to simultaneously achieve the required transparency and hydrophobic properties for the fabrication of microfluidic systems, we applied hydrophobic coatings to the proposed transparency enhancement method from prior research and compared the changes in contact angles. Teflon coating was proposed as a suitable hydrophobic coating method for the fabrication of microfluidic systems, given its excellent transparency and high coating durability in various environmental conditions, in comparison to titanium dioxide coating. Finally, we produced an Electrophoresis of Charged Droplet (ECD) chip, one of the digital microfluidics systems, using SLA 3D printing with the proposed Teflon coating method (Fluoropel 800). Droplet manipulation was successfully demonstrated with the fabricated chip, confirming the potential application of SLA 3D printing technology in the production of microfluidic systems.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.55-66
• /
• 2012

Purpose : During brain MRI scanning, subject's head motion can adversely affect MRI images. To minimize MR image distortion by head movement, we developed an optical tracking system to detect the 3-D movement of subjects. Materials and Methods: The system consisted of 2 CCD cameras, two infrared illuminators, reflective sphere-type markers, and frame grabber with desktop PC. Using calibration which is the procedure to calculate intrinsic/extrinsic parameters of each camera and triangulation, the system was desiged to detect 3-D coordinates of subject's head movement. We evaluated the accuracy of 3-D position of reflective markers on both test board and the real MRI scans. Results: The stereo system computed the 3-D position of markers accurately for the test board and for the subject with glasses with attached optical reflective marker, required to make regular head motion during MRI scanning. This head motion tracking didn't affect the resulting MR images even in the environment varying magnetic gradient and several RF pulses. Conclusion: This system has an advantage to detect subject's head motion in real-time. Using the developed system, MRI operator is able to determine whether he/she should stop or intervene in MRI acquisition to prevent more image distortions.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2016

We studied the heavy minerals in 46 surface sediments collected from the Central Yellow Sea Mud (CYSM) to characterize the type, abundance, mineralogical properties and distribution pattern using the stereo-microscopy, field-Emission scanning electron microscopy (FE SEM) and chemical analysis through the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Heavy mineral assemblages are primarily composed of epidote group, amphibole group, garnet group, zircon, rutile and sphene in descending order. Epidote group and amphibole group minerals account for more than 50% of total heavy minerals. The minerals in epidote group, amphibole group and garnet group in studied area are epidote, edenite and almandine, respectively. When we divided the CYSM into two regions by $124^{\circ}E$, the eastern region contain higher contents of epidote and (zircon + rutile), which are more resistant to weathering but lower of amphibole, which is less resistant to weathering than the western region. Based on this results, it is possible to estimate that the eastern region sediments are transported for a long distance while western region sediments are transported for a short distance from the source area. In the future, the additional study on the heavy minerals in river sediments flowing into the Yellow Sea and much more samples for marine sediments must be carried out to interpret exactly the provenance and sedimentation process.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.18-26
• /
• 2011

Debates concerning the competitive edge of leading 3DTV technology of the shutter glasses (SG) 3D and the film-type patterned retarder (FPR) are flaring up. Although SG technology enables Full-HD 3D vision, it requires complex systems including the sync transmitter (emitter), the sync processor chip, and the LCD lens in the active shutter glasses. In addition, the transferred sync-signal is easily affected by the external noise and a 3DTV viewer may feel flicker-effect caused by cross-talk of the left and right image. The operating current of the sync processor in the 3DTV active shutter glasses is gradually increasing to compensate the sync reconstruction error. The proposed chip is a low-power hardware sync processor based discrete-event SoC(system on a chip) designed specifically for the 3DTV active shutter glasses. This processor implements the newly designed power-saving techniques targeted for low-power operation in a noisy environment between 3DTV and the active shutter glasses. This design includes a hardware pre-processor based on a universal edge tracer and provides a perfect sync reconstruction based on a floating-point timer to advance the prior commercial 3DTV shutter glasses in terms of their power consumption. These two techniques enable an accurate sync reconstruction in the slow clock frequency of the synchronization timer and reduce the power consumption to less than about a maximum of 20% compared with other major commercial processors. This article describes the system's architecture and the details of the proposed techniques, also identifying the key concepts and functions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.121-130
• /
• 2011

This paper highlights the reconstruction of the rectilinear type of 3D rooftop model from satellite image data using centroid neural network. The main idea of the proposed 3D reconstruction method is based on the grouping of 3D line segments. 3D lines are extracted by 2D lines and DEM (Digital Elevation Map) data evaluated from a pair of stereo images. Our grouping process consists of two steps. We carry out the first grouping process to group fragmented or duplicated 3D lines into the principal 3D lines, which can be used to construct the rooftop model, and construct the groups of lines that are parallel each other in the second step. From the grouping result, 3D rooftop models are reconstructed by the final clustering process. High-resolution IKONOS images are utilized for the experiments. The experimental result's indicate that the reconstructed building models almost reflect the actual position and shape of buildings in a precise manner, and that the proposed approach can be efficiently applied to building reconstruction problem from high-resolution satellite images of an urban area.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.271-278
• /
• 2006

In order to investigate the structure and dynamics of atatic poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/water system, laser light scattering experiment has been done in the semi-dilute concentration regime at $25^{\circ}C$. The scattering intensity I(q) can be analyzed with the fractal equation of $I(q){\sim}q^{-m}$ instead of Onstein-Zernike type equation. The fractal dimensionality m was found to be constant after reaching the plateau value of $m=2.6{\pm}0.3$ above C=3wt%. The time correlation function of dynamic light scattering has always two different modes such as fast mode and slow one. The cooperative diffusion of fast mode showed concentration independence contrary 4o the reptation theory's concentration dependent exponent of 3/4. The slow mode can be interpreted as the motion of large scale heterogeneities and its strong concentration dependence is apparent with a large negative exponent of -3.0. It is considered that the stereo-regular arrangement with four successive meso units of -OH plays as a key role in forming such heterogeneity.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.789-805
• /
• 1998

The purpose of this study was to compare the microleakage of the IPS Empress ceramic crown according to 1) margin types such as rounded shoulder and bevel, 2) margin locations such as enamel and dentine, 3) resin cement types such as Variolink and Bistite. For this study, 80 extracted premolar teeth were used. After 10 experimental dies were prepared for each group, the IPS Empress ceramic crowns were fabricated on the dies and cemented with one of two types of resin cement. After 1,000 cycles of thermal changes were given with the thermocycling unit, each specimen was sectioned with a low speed diamond saw in both the buccolingual and the mesiodistal direction. The microleakage was then measured with a stereo microscope. The obtained results were as follows : 1. Every experimental group showed microleakage. The microleakage of the crowns which had a rounded shoulder on enamel cemented with Variolink was the lowest of all. The resulting rank of the mean microleakage was rounded shoulder on enamel using Variolink(0.601mm), rounded shoulder on enamel using Bistite (0.794mm), bevel on enamel using Variolink (0.826mm), rounded shoulder on dentine using Variolink(1.054mm), bevel on enamel using Bistite(1.087mm), rounded shoulder on dentine using Bistite(1.176mm), bevel on dentine using Variolink(1.258mm), and bevel on dentine using Bistite(1.467mm). 2. The statistically significant differences in the microleakage were found in 4 cases: rounded shoulder on enamel using Variolink and bevel on dentine using Variolink, rounded shoulder on enamel using Variolink and bevel on dentine using Bistite, rounded shoulder on enamel using Bistite and bevel on dentine using Bistite, bevel on enamel using Variolink and bevel on dentine using Bistite. 3. The microleakage of rounded shoulder finish line was lower than that of bevel finish line. The statistically significant differences were found with respect to the type of finish lines. 4. The microleakage of the finish line on enamel was lower than that of finish line on dentine. The statistically significant differences were found with respect to the location of the finish lines. 5. The microleakage of the Variolink cement was lower than that of the Bistite cement. The statistically significant differences were found with respect to the resin cements.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.251-261
• /
• 2004

A large number of chemical pollutants including phthalates, alkylphenolic compounds and organochlorine pesticides have the ability to disrupt endocrine function in animals, and alter cog-nitive function. Because hormone mediated events play an important role in central nervous system development and function, the changes in cognitive function seem to be mediated by the endocrine-like action of these chemicals. The present study therefore was designed to investigate effect of bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical on neuro-behavial patterns, and expression of estrogen receptors and tyrosine hydroxylase, a limiting enzyme of dopamine synthesis pathway. BPA was treated orally for 3 weeks into 3 week old mice, and then the neuro-behavial patterns (stereo-type behaviors such as jumping rearing and forepaw tremor, climbing behavior, tail flick, rotarod and locomotor activity), and the expression of estrogen receptors and tyrosine hydroxylase were deter-mined every 3 week for 9 weeks. During the treatment of BPA, the food uptake and body weight increase were not significantly changed. BPA resulted in the increased stereotype behaviors (jump-ing, rearing and forepaw tremor) 6 or 9 weeks after treatment. The time response to tail flick and locomotor activity were decreased by the treatment of BPA, whereas the time for rotarod was increased by the treatment of BPA. The expression of estrogen receptor alpha and beta was increased in the brain and pituitary gland. Maximum expression was found in the brain after 9 week of 100 mg/kg BPA treatment and in the pituitary gland after 6 week of 100 mg/kg BPA treatment. Tyrosine hydroxylase was increased in dose and time dependent manners in the brain but no change was found in the pituitary gland. The present data show that exposure of BPA in the young mice could alter expression of estrogen receptors and dopamine synthesis pathway, thereby modulate neuro-behavial patterns (increase of stereotype behaviors but decrease locomotor activity).

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.213-232
• /
• 2009

This document was prepared to review and summarize the analytical methods for airborne and bulk asbestos. Basic principles, shortcomings and advantages for asbestos analytical instruments using phase contrast microscopy(PCM), polarized light microscopy(PLM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) were reviewed. Both PCM and PLM are principal instrument for airborne and bulk asbestos analysis, respectively. If needed, analytical electron microscopy is employed to confirm asbestos identification. PCM is used originally for workplace airborne asbestos fiber and its application has been expanded to measure airborne fiber. Shortcoming of PCM is that it cannot differentiate true asbestos from non asbestos fiber form and its low resolution limit ($0.2{\sim}0.25{\mu}m$). The measurement of airborne asbestos fiber can be performed by EPA's Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) method, World Health Organization (WHO) method, International Standard Organization (ISO) 10312 method, Japan's Environmental Asbestos Monitoring method, and Standard method of Indoor Air Quality of Korea. The measurement of airborne asbestos fiber in workplace can be performed by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 7400 method, NIOSH 7402 method, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ID-160 method, UK's Health and Safety Executive(HSE) Methods for the determination of hazardous substances (MDHS) 39/4 method and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) CODE-A-1-2004 method of Korea. To analyze the bulk asbestos, stereo microscope (SM) and PLM is required by EPA -600/R-93/116 method. Most bulk asbestos can be identified by SM and PLM but one limitation of PLM is that it can not see very thin fiber (i.e., < $0.25{\mu}m$). Bulk asbestos analytical methods, including EPA-600/M4-82-020, EPA-600/R-93/116, OSHA ID-191, Laboratory approval program of New York were reviewed. Also, analytical methods for asbestos in soil, dust, water were briefly discussed. Analytical electron microscope, a transmission electron microscope equipped with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and energy dispersive X-ray analyser(EDXA), has been known to be better to identify asbestiform than scanning electron microscope(SEM). Though there is no standard SEM procedures, SEM is known to be more suitable to analyze long, thin fiber and more cost-effective. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) imaging protocol was developed to identify asbestos fiber. Although many asbestos analytical methods are available, there is no method that can be applied to all type of samples. In order to detect asbestos with confidence, all advantages and disadvantages of each instrument and method for given sample should be considered.