• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.68-72
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• 2009

Millions of landmines still have been buried in various countries around the world. Unfortunately, landmines make the correct detection of humanitarian organizations very difficult. For this purpose, new technologies such as improved sensors, efficient manipulators and mobile robots are needed. Our effort is to develop a small mobile robot for landmine detection. The mobile robot consists of sensor module, GPS, RF communications equipment, IR camera, motors, and controllers, etc. This paper describes the current configuration of development in landmine detecting tracked robot. Specifically we are concerned with the sensor module of the mobile robot. Our results show that graphs have measured a small metal instead of a real landmine because of the big danger of students experiments on detection with real landmines.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.113-123
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• 2000

In the navigation for a mobile robot, the collision avoidance with unexpected obstacles is essential for the safe navigation and it is independent of the technique used to control the mobile robot. This paper presents a new collision avoidance algorithm using neural network for the safe navigation of the autonomous mobile robot equipped with CAN and ultrasonic sensors. A tracked wheeled mobile robot has a stability and an efficiency to move on a rough ground. And its mechanism is simple. However it has difficulties to recognize its surroundings. Because the shape of the tracked wheeled mobile robot is a square type, sensor modules are generally located on the each plane surface of 4 sides only. In this paper, the algorithm using neural network is proposed in order to avoid unexpected obstacles. The important character of the proposed algorithm is to be able to detect the distance and the angle of inclination of obstacles. Only using datum of the distance and the angle, informations about the location and shape of obstacles are obtained, and then the driving direction is changed. Consequently, this algorithm is capable of real time processing and available for a mobile robot which has few sensor modules or the limited sensing range such as a tracked wheeled mobile robot. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is illustrated through a computer simulation and an experiment using a real robot.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.635-641
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• 2008

In this paper, we used a laser range finder (LRF) to detect both the static and dynamic obstacles for the safe navigation of a mobile robot. LRF sensor measurements containing the information of obstacle's geometry are first processed to extract the characteristic points of the obstacle in the sensor field of view. Then the dynamic states of the characteristic points are approximated using kinematic model, which are tracked by associating the measurements with Probability Data Association Filter. Finally, the collision avoidance algorithm is developed by using fuzzy decision making algorithm depending on the states of the obstacles tracked by the proposed obstacle tracking algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through experiments with the experimental mobile robot.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a new driving mode control algorithm for a mobile robot based on obstacle detection. The robot has a variable geometry single-tracked mechanism, so it can maximize a contact length with ground for the adaptability to off-road and puesue a stable system due to the lower center of gravity. However this robot system embodied passive type according to operator. In this reason, several problems are detected. So, this research presents a new method of obstacle detection using PSD infrared sensors and translates the variable tracks on the best suited driving mode actively. And experimental results about mentioned are presented.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1244-1248
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• 2003

This paper describes visual tracking procedure of the underwater mobile robot for nuclear reactor vessel inspection, which is required to find the foreign objects such as loose parts. The yellowish underwater robot body tends to present a big contrast to boron solute cold water of nuclear reactor vessel, tinged with indigo by Cerenkov effect. In this paper, we have found and tracked the positions of underwater mobile robot using the two color information, yellow and indigo. The center coordinates extraction procedures are as follows. The first step is to segment the underwater robot body to cold water with indigo background. From the RGB color components of the entire monitoring image taken with the color CCD camera, we have selected the red color component. In the selected red image, we extracted the positions of the underwater mobile robot using the following process sequences; binarization, labelling, and centroid extraction techniques. In the experiment carried out at the Youngkwang unit 5 nuclear reactor vessel, we have tracked the center positions of the underwater robot submerged near the cold leg and the hot leg way, which is fathomed to 10m deep in depth.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.804-809
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• 2004

This paper introduces a link-type tracked vehicle which is developed for demining operations. The vehicle consists of three parts - front frame, rear frame and body. The front frame is connected to the rear frame by a rotational passive adaptation mechanism which is a driving mechanism of the vehicle. Additionally, the demining system which is adaptable to mobile robot is developed to clear small Anti-Personnel(AP) mines with inexplosive method. In other words, assembled rakes unearth mines by their opposite rotation to the direction of the robot. Finally, the motions of demining rakes and design parameters of the demining system are analyzed.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.41.6-41
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• 2001

As autonomous mobile robot become more widely used in industry, the importance of navigation system is rising, But eh primary method of locomotion is with wheels, which cause man problems in controlling tracked mobile robots. In this paper, we discuss the used navigation control of tracked mobile robots with multiple sensors. The multiple sensors are composed of ultrasonic wave sensors and vision sensors. Vision sensors gauge distance using a laser and create visual images, to estimate robot position. The 80196 is used at close range and the vision board is used at long range. Data is managed in the main PC and management is distributed to ever sensor. The controller employs fuzzy logic.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07e
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• pp.2259-2262
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• 2003

This paper describes visual tracking procedure of the underwater mobile robot for nuclear reactor vessel inspection, which is required to find the foreign objects such as loose parts. The yellowish underwater robot body tend to present a big contrast to boron solute cold water of nuclear reactor vessel, tinged with indigo by Cerenkov effect. In this paper, we have found and tracked the positions of underwater mobile robot using the two color informations, yellow and indigo. The center coordinates extraction procedures is as follows. The first step is to segment the underwater robot body to cold water with indigo background. From the RGB color components of the entire monitoring image taken with the color CCD camera, we have selected the red color component. In the selected red image, we extracted the positions of the underwater mobile robot using the following process sequences: binarization labelling, and centroid extraction techniques. In the experiment carried out at the Youngkwang unit 5 nuclear reactor vessel, we have tracked the center positions of the underwater robot submerged near the cold leg and the hot leg way, which is fathomed to 10m deep in depth.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.9 s.174
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• pp.155-161
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• 2005

Up to now, a lot of unmanned demining systems have been developed. However, some inferiority surely exist by reason of their large platform and explosive mechanism. To settle this inferiority, non-explosive demining system adaptable to a mobile robot already has been developed. Brief experiment indoors showed that developed demining system can remove landmines well. But, out of doors, several problems are detected. In this research, a study on the performance improvement of developed non-explosive demining system is mainly discussed. To overcome downhill effect, mechanical sensor composed of shaft and spring is used. It is confirmed that clearance depth control using the mechanical sensor is a good solution for the inclination of the system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.696-702
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• 2004

An optimal trajectory generation algorithm for capturing a moving object by a mobile robot in real-time is proposed in this paper. The linear and rotational velocities of the moving object are estimated using the Kalman filter, as a state estimator. For the estimation, the moving object is tracked by a 2-DOF active camera mounted on the mobile robot, which enables a mobile manipulator to track the mobile robot until the capturing moment. The optimal trajectory for capturing the moving object is dependent on the initial conditions of the mobile robot as well as the moving object. Therefore, real-time trajectory planning for the mobile robot is definitely required for the successful capturing of the moving object. The performance of proposed algorithm is verified through the real experiments and the superiority is demonstrated by comparing to other algorithms.