In this paper, a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) method using a single camera and planar fiducial markers is proposed. Fiducial markers are planar patterns that are mounted on the ceiling or wall. Each fiducial marker has a unique hi-tonal identification pattern with square outlines. It can be printed on paper to reduce cost or it can be painted using retro-reflective paint in order to make invisible and prevent undesirable visual effects. Existing localization methods using artificial landmarks have the disadvantage that landmark locations must be known a priori. In contrast, the proposed method can build a map and estimate robot location even if landmark locations are not known a priori. Hence, it reduces installation time and setup cost. The proposed method works good even when only one fiducial marker is seen at a scene. We perform computer simulation to evaluate proposed method.

A intelligent mobile hexapod robot with various types of sensors and wireless camera is introduced. We show this mobile robot can detect objects well by combining the results of active sensors and image processing algorithm. First, to detect objects, active sensors such as infrared rays sensors and supersonic waves sensors are employed together and calculates the distance in real time between the object and the robot using sensor's output. The difference between the measured value and calculated value is less than 5%. This paper suggests effective visual detecting system for moving objects with specified color and motion information. The proposed method includes the object extraction and definition process which uses color transformation and AWUPC computation to decide the existence of moving object. We add weighing values to each results from sensors and the camera. Final results are combined to only one value which represents the probability of an object in the limited distance. Sensor fusion technique improves the detection rate at least 7% higher than the technique using individual sensor.

For effective mobility control of unmanned ground vehicles in outdoor off-road environments, terrain cover classification technology using passive sensors is vital. This paper presents a novel method far terrain classification based on color and texture information of off-road images. It uses a neural network classifier and wavelet features. We exploit the wavelet mean and energy features extracted from multi-channel wavelet transformed images and also utilize the terrain class spatial coordinates of images to include additional features. By comparing the classification performance according to applied features, the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a promising result and potential possibilities for autonomous navigation.

A human gaze detection and tracing method is importantly required for HMI(Human-Machine-Interface) like a Human-Serving robot. This paper proposed a novel three-dimension (3D) human gaze estimation method by using a face recognition, an orientation estimation and SVMs (Support Vector Machines). 2,400 images with the pan orientation range of $-90^{\circ}{\sim}90^{\circ}$ and tilt range of $-40^{\circ}{\sim}70^{\circ}$ with intervals unit of $10^{\circ}$ were used. A stereo camera was used to obtain the global coordinate of the center point between eyes and Gabor filter banks of horizontal and vertical orientation with 4 scales were used to extract the facial features. The experiment result shows that the error rate of proposed method is much improved than Liddell's.

This paper deals with the enhancement of the complex potential navigation for wheeled mobile robots. The circle theorem from complex function theory is used to avoid an obstacle, and the enhancement to avoid multiple obstacles is proposed. The limit cycle navigation can be combined for robot to kick the ball to the intentioned direction. Avoiding step and superposing twin vortices can be applied to adjust the direction of robot's trajectory. The proposed method is verified through a set of simulation works, and the feasibilities for the enhancement of complex potential theory are successful.

In this paper, we design an on-road vehicle detection system based on the combination of a camera and a LIDAR system. In the proposed system, the candidate area is selected from the LIDAR data using a grouping algorithm. Then, the selected candidate area is scanned by an SVM to find an actual vehicle. The morphological edged images are used as features in a camera. The principal components of the edged images called eigencar are employed to train the SVM. We conducted experiments to show that the on-road vehicle detection system developed in this paper demonstrates about 80% accuracy and runs with 20 scans per second on LIDAR and 10 frames per second on camera.

This paper presents the notion of time-coobservability as a core condition far the existence of a decentralized supervisor achieving a given language specification in a timed discrete event system (TDES). A TDES is modeled by the framework of Brandin & Wonham [5], and the decentralized supervisory control architecture presented is extended from the untimed architecture of Yoo & Lafortune [1]. To develop the time-coobservability of a language specification, specifically this paper presents the C&P time-coobservability and D&A time-coobservability in the consideration of the event tick and forcing mechanism of decentralized supervisors.

A new method for the catadioptric omnidirectional stereo vision with single camera is presented in this paper. The proposed method uses a concave lens with a convex mirror. Since the optical part of the proposed method is simple and commercially available, the resultant omnidirectional stereo system becomes versatile and cost-effective. The closed-form solution for 3D distance computation is presented based on the simple optics including the reflection and the reflection of the convex mirror and the concave lens. The compactness of the system and the simplicity of the image processing make the omnidirectional stereo system appropriate for real-time applications such as autonomous navigation of a mobile robot or the object manipulation. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed method, an experimental prototype is implemented.

ECG is used on purpose to keep good health or monitor cardiac function of aged person as well as on purpose to diagnose the disease of heart patients. The ambulatory ECG monitoring system under guarantee of safety and accuracy is very efficient to prevent the progress of heart disease and sudden death. These systems can detect the temporary change of ECG that is very significant to diagnose heart disease such as myocardial ischemia, arrhyamia and cardiac infarction. In this paper, we describe the ECG signal analysis algorithm and measurement device for ECG monitoring. The authors designed a small-size portable ECG device that consisted of instrumentation amplifier, micro-controller, filter and RF module. The device measures ECG with four electrodes on the body and detects QRS complex and ST level change in realtime. Also it transmits the measured signals to the personal computer. The developed software for ECG analysis in personal computer has the function to detect the feature points and ST level changes.

A decentralized adaptive control method is proposed for large-scale systems with unknown time-delayed nonlinear interconnections unmatched in control inputs. It is assumed that the time-delayed interaction terms are bounded by unknown nonlinear bounding functions. The nonlinear bounding functions and uncertain nonlinear functions of large-scale systems are compensated by the function approximation technique using neural networks. The dynamic surface control method is extended to design the proposed memoryless local controller for each subsystem of uncertain nonlinear large-scale time delay systems. Therefore, although the interconnected systems consist of a large number of subsystems, the proposed controller can be designed simply. We prove that all the signals in the total closed-loop system are semiglobally uniformly bounded and the control errors converge to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin. Finally, an example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed scheme.

In this paper, image detection and recognition algorithms are studied with respect to embedded carrier system. There are many suggested techniques to detect and recognize objects. But they have the propensity to need much calculation for high hit rate. Advanced and modified method needs to study for embedded systems that low power consumption and real time response are requested. The proposed methods were implemented using Intel(R) Open Source Computer Vision Library provided by Intel Corporation. And they run and tested on embedded system using a ARM920T processor by cross-compiling. They showed 1.6sec response time and 95% hit rate and supported the automated moving carrier system smoothly.

In this paper, redundancy resolution of UVMS (underwater vehicle-manipulate. system) is addressed. In general, UVMS has redundant DOFs (degrees of freedom) as many as DOFs of manipulator and these redundant DOFs can be used to optimize the configuration of UVMS while satisfying given tasks. We propose a performance index for redundancy resolution which minimizes the restoring moments of UVMS. The restoring moment can cause unintentional change of poses of UVMS. If the restoring moments remain small, control effort for keeping the poses of UVMS decreases. This means that energy consumption can be reduced by minimizing the restoring moments during conducting tasks. Proposed performance measure is optimized by gradient projection method. Generated trajectories by this redundancy resolution are tracked by robust PID controller. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate performance of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we propose the robust features extraction method of human by using the skeleton model and hybrid silhouette model. The proposed feature extraction method is divided by hands, shoulder line and elbow region extraction. We use the peer's color information to find the position of hands and propose the circle detection method to extract the shoulder line and elbow. Finally, we show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method through some experiments.

Recently, a wide range of next-generation's game consoles has been developed by many game makers. Particularly, active interaction between users and games is required more than ever before for giving gamers the fullest pleasure. In this work, an infrared image sensor based position recognition system which can be used for virtual game interface is proposed. Furthermore, two kinds of compensation algorithms and Extended Kalman Filter are utilized to enhance the performance of the proposed system. The proposed system can effectively generate the position of the gamer in the face of the coordinate distortion and noise. To verity the feasibilities of the proposed system, various experiments are carried out.

This paper presents a new mobile robot localization method for indoor robot navigation. The method uses hexagon distributed color-coded patches on the ceiling and a camera is installed on the robot facing the ceiling to recognize these patches. The proposed "cell-coded map", with the use of only seven different kinds of color-coded landmarks distributed in hexagonal way, helps reduce the complexity of the landmark structure and the error of landmark recognition. This technique is applicable for navigation in an unlimited size of indoor space. The structure of the landmarks and the recognition method are introduced. And 2 rigid rules are also used to ensure the correctness of the recognition. Experimental results prove that the method is useful.

This paper provides a comparison of global path planning method in single string by using pulled and pushed SOFM (Self-Organizing Feature Map) which is a method among a number of neural network. The self-organizing feature map uses a randomized small valued initial-weight-vectors, selects the neuron whose weight vector best matches input as the winning neuron, and trains the weight vectors such that neurons within the activity bubble are move toward the input vector. On the other hand, the modified SOFM method in this research uses a predetermined initial weight vectors of the one dimensional string, gives the systematic input vector whose position best matches obstacles, and trains the weight vectors such that neurons within the activity bubble are move toward or reverse the input vector, by rising a pulled- or a pushed-SOFM. According to simulation results one can conclude that the modified neural networks in single string are useful tool for the global path planning problem of a mobile robot. In comparison of the number of iteration for converging to the solution the pushed-SOFM is more useful than the pulled-SOFM in global path planning for mobile robot.