• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.380-385
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• 2020

Over the past decade, small robots have been of particular interest in the engineering field. Among the various types of small robots, biomimetic robots, which mimic animals and insects, have been developed for special activities in areas where humans cannot physically access. The optimal motion of a walking robot can be determined by the characteristics of the traversed surface (e.g., roughness, curvature, slope, materials, etc.). This study proposes three types of piezoelectric structures using different driving mechanisms, depending on the application range of the small walking robots. Dynamic modeling using computer-aided engineering optimized the shape of the robot to maximize its moving characteristics, and the results were also verified through its fabrication and experimentation. Three types of robots, named by their actuator shapes as I, π, & T-shape, were proposed regarding application for small scale ambulatory robots to different terrain conditions. Among these, the T-shaped robots were shown to have a wide range of speeds (from 2 mm/s up to 255 mm/s) and good carrying capacity (up to 10 g at 50 mm/s) through driving experiments. Based on this study, we proposed possible application areas for the three types of walking robot actuators.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.444-449
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• 2020

I proposed small ambulatory robot actuators using piezoelectric benders. In order to make the motion of the biomimetic robot legs similar to the movements of the cockroaches or similar insects, two pairs of legs in the diagonal direction in the four leg structures are required to make the same movement. And elliptical displacement is realized by taking into account horizontal and vertical displacement of multimode oscillations and driving them by electrical signals with differences step by step, for example of 90° the T-shaped robot actuator showed wide range of speed (From 2 mm/sec. up to 266 mm/sec.) and ability of transportation (up to 10 g with 50 mm/s). Locomotive performance of the robot was competitive to the preceding robots, and moreover, the modular type actuators of a segmented myriapods robot could be added and removed for different tasks or performances.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.337-343
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• 2020

This study proposed piezoelectric ceramic bender actuators for application to small walking robots. As the space where human access has recently become increasingly restricted (e.g., highly concentrated radioactive storage areas, viral contaminated areas, terrorist zones, etc.), the scope of using robots is becoming more diverse, and many actions that were possible only in the past have been attempted to be replaced by small robots. This robotic concept has the advantage of being simple in structure, making it compact and producing a large size work force. The dynamic modeling, using finite element analysis, maximized the robot's mobility performance by optimizing the shape of the actuator, and the results were verified through fabrication and experimentation. The actuator moved at a maximum speed of 236 mm/s under no load conditions, and it could move at a speed of 156 mm/s under load conditions of 5g. The proposed actuator has the advantage of modular additions depending on the mission and required performance, which ensured that they are competitive against similar drive sources previously created.