This paper presents an algorithm capable of detecting free space for the autonomous vehicle navigation. The algorithm consists of two main steps: 1) estimation of longitudinal profile of road, 2) detection of free space. The estimation of longitudinal profile of road is detection of v-line in v-disparity image which is corresponded to road slope, using v-disparity image and hough transform, Dijkstra algorithm. To detect free space, we detect u-line in u-disparity image which is a boundary line between free space and obstacle's region, using u-disparity image and dynamic programming. Free space is decided by detected v-line and u-line. The proposed algorithm is proven to be successful through experiments under various traffic scenarios.

Vision-based robot localization is challenging due to the vast amount of visual information available, requiring extensive storage and processing time. To deal with these challenges, we propose the use of features extracted from omni-directional panoramic images and present a method for localization of a mobile robot equipped with an omni-directional camera. The core of the proposed scheme may be summarized as follows : First, we utilize an omni-directional camera which can capture instantaneous $360^{\circ}$ panoramic images around a robot. Second, Nodes around the robot are extracted by the correlation coefficients of Circular Horizontal Line between the landmark and the current captured image. Third, the robot position is determined from the locations by the proposed correlation-based landmark image matching. To accelerate computations, we have assigned the node candidates using color information and the correlation values are calculated based on Fast Fourier Transforms. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective in global localization of mobile robots and robust to lighting variations.

This paper proposes a quasi-optimal linear DOA (Direction-of-Arrival) estimator which is necessary for the development of a real-time robot auditory system tracking moving acoustic source. It is well known that the use of conventional nonlinear filtering schemes may result in the severe performance degradation of DOA estimation and not be preferable for real-time implementation. These are mainly due to the inherent nonlinearity of the acoustic signal model used for DOA estimation. This motivates us to consider a new uncertain linear acoustic signal model based on the linear prediction relation of a noisy sinusoid. Using the suggested measurement model, it is shown that the resultant DOA estimation problem is cast into the NCRKF (Non-Conservative Robust Kalman Filtering) problem [12]. NCRKF-based DOA estimator provides reliable DOA estimates of a fast moving acoustic source in spite of using the noise-corrupted measurement matrix in the filter recursion and, as well, it is suitable for real-time implementation because of its linear recursive filter structure. The computational efficiency and DOA estimation performance of the proposed method are evaluated through the computer simulations.

This paper proposes a single-joint optical torque sensor with one body structure. Conventional optical torque sensors consist of three parts, two plates and an elastic structure. They have slightly slipping problem between plates and elastic structure due to the manufacturing tolerance. Since the order of measurement range of optical sensor is about ten micrometers, the slipping problem causes large measurement error, especially in the case of vibrational or high speed plant. This problem does not occur in the proposed design due to the one body structure. The proposed sensor has advantage of low cost, light weight, and small size. And it is easy to design and manufacture. Simulation works that analysis of stress and strain are performed accurately. To demonstrate the performance of proposed sensor, experiments were implemented to compare with a commercial force/torque sensor (ATI Mini45).

In this paper, we proposed a technique to recognize three states in stance phase of gait cycle. Walking assistive devices are used to help the elderly people walk or to monitor walking behavior of the disabled persons. For the effective assistance, they adopt an intelligent sensor system to understand user's current state in walking. There are three states in stance phase; Loading Response, Midstance, and Terminal Stance. We developed a foot pressure sensor using 24 FSRs (Force Sensing/Sensitive Resistors). The foot pressure patterns were integrated through the interpolation of FSR cell array. The pressure patterns were processed to get the trajectories of COM (Center of Mass). Using the trajectories of COM of foot pressure, we can recognize the three states of stance phase. The experimental results show the effective recognition of stance phase and the possibility of usage on the walking assistive device for better control and/or foot pressure monitoring.

To make a robust object tracking and identifying system for an intelligent robot and/or home system, heterogeneous sensor fusion between visible ray system and infrared ray system is proposed. The proposed system separates the object by combining the ROI (Region of Interest) estimated from two different images based on a heterogeneous sensor that consolidates the ordinary CCD camera and the IR (Infrared) camera. Human's body and face are detected in both images by using different algorithms, such as histogram, optical-flow, skin-color model and Haar model. Also the pose of human body is estimated from the result of body detection in IR image by using PCA algorithm along with AdaBoost algorithm. Then, the results from each detection algorithm are fused to extract the best detection result. To verify the heterogeneous sensor fusion system, few experiments were done in various environments. From the experimental results, the system seems to have good tracking and identification performance regardless of the environmental changes. The application area of the proposed system is not limited to robot or home system but the surveillance system and military system.

The terminal sliding mode control schemes have been studied a lot since they can guarantee that the state error gets to zero in a finite time. However, the conventional terminal sliding surfaces have been designed using power function whose exponent is a rational number between 0 and 1, and whose numerator and denominator should be odd integers. It is clearly restrictive. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel terminal sliding surface using power function whose exponent can be a real number between 0 and 1.

This paper is intended to improve efficiency of two-phase BLDC motor using analytical and statistical methods, and then the stability of the starting for the designed model is investigated. The characteristics of the motor according to magnetization directions of permanent magnet are analyzed through the analytical method, and design variables that affect the efficiency are selected. Preliminary optimal design is performed using the analytical method with the design variable. The RSM (Response Surface Method) based on the FEA (Finite Element Analysis) is applied to complement errors of the analytical method. As a result, the optimal design is determined. Finally, the stability of the starting for the optimal designed model is evaluated by analyzing cogging torque, and it is verified through the FEA.

This paper proposes the robust matching algorithm for optical images obtained by WSI(White-light Scanning Interferometer) machine. The matching algorithms are divided by two part according to the matching points: algorithm whether the matching points between two images exist or not. Also, after matching the images, we propose the algorithm to smooth the matched image. Finally, we show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method through some experiments.

This study was performed to development a dental three-dimensional laser scanning system and measure the accuracy of new adjustable lower dental impression trays. Multiple impressions of a resin master model were made with custom, stock and new adjustable trays and vinyl polysiloxane impression material. The lower master model and resulting cast were compared using an dental scanning system. Each 3D image was superimposed onto the lower master model image and analyzed with custom software. Multiple measurements of the lower master model and casts were analyzed to determine the accuracy of tray types.

In the bilateral tele-operation system, time delay may be a critical problem. Even if system modeling error or time delay occurs, when applied to wave transformation system, the system's stability can be achieved. Using the characteristic b which is an important parameter of wave transformation, the system can display robust performance for time delay. However, since assuming and that the time delay was fixed developing a theory, a stability cannot be guaranteed about the time-varying delay. Therefore, In the paper, Therefore, in this paper, we studied for the method that controls this by applying the fuzzy algorithm which surveyed the timevarying delay characteristics and can adjust the b according to it adaptively.

This paper presents a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) type Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) with only 3 rules. The choice of parameters of FLC is very difficult job on design FLC. Therefore, the choice of appropriate linguistic variable is an important part of the design of fuzzy controller. However, since fuzzy controller is nonlinear, it is difficult to analyze mathematically the affection of the linguistic variable. So this choice is depend on the expert's experience and trial and error method. In this paper, we propose the method to choose the consequence linear equation's parameter of T-S type FLC. The parameters of consequence linear equations of FLC are tuned according to the system error that is the input of FLC. The full equation of T-S type FLC is presented and using this equation, the relation between output and parameters can represented. The parameters are tuned with gradient algorithm. The parameters are changed depending on output. The simulation results demonstrate the usefulness of this T-S type 3 rule fuzzy controller.

This paper proposes a novel control method using phase plane for a hydraulic biped humanoid robot. In biped walking control, it is much more difficult to control the posture of a biped robot in the coronal plane because the supporting area formed by the both feet in the coronal plane is much narrower than that of the sagittal plane. When the biped robot walks stably, the phase portrait of the pelvis in the coronal plane makes an elliptical shape. From this point of view, we develop an ankle torque controller and a foot placement controller for tracking the desired phase portrait during walking. We design these controllers by using simulations of a simplified compass gait biped model to regulate the desired phase portrait of pelvis. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is proved through full-body dynamic walking simulations and real experiments of the SARCOS hydraulic biped humanoid.

This paper describes a sensor fusion-based semantic map building which can improve the capabilities of a mobile robot in various domains including localization, path-planning and mapping. To build a semantic map, various environmental information, such as doors and cliff areas, should be extracted autonomously. Therefore, we propose a method to detect doors, cliff areas and robust visual features using a laser scanner and a vision sensor. The GHT (General Hough Transform) based recognition of door handles and the geometrical features of a door are used to detect doors. To detect the cliff area and robust visual features, the tilting laser scanner and SIFT features are used, respectively. The proposed method was verified by various experiments and showed that the robot could build a semantic map autonomously in various indoor environments.

In this paper, an adaptive signal tracking loop for a GPS L1/L2C/L5 receiver is designed. The design parameters is adjusted according to the receiver's operating conditions such as the signal strength and the receiver dynamics by using the different characteristics of GPS L1, L2C and L5 signal. Simulation results show that the tracking accuracy of the proposed signal tracking loop is better than those of L1, L2C and L5 only signal tracking loop.