• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.246-257
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• 2010

Autonomous guided robot navigation which consists of following unknown paths and avoiding unknown obstacles has been a fundamental technique for unmanned robots in outdoor environments. The unknown path following requires techniques such as path recognition, path planning, and robot pose estimation. In this paper, we propose a novel sensor fusion system for autonomous guided robot navigation in outdoor environments. The proposed system consists of three monocular cameras and an array of nine infrared range sensors. The two cameras equipped on the robot's right and left sides are used to recognize unknown paths and estimate relative robot pose on these paths through bayesian sensor fusion method, and the other camera equipped at the front of the robot is used to recognize abrupt curves and unknown obstacles. The infrared range sensor array is used to improve the robustness of obstacle avoidance. The forward camera and the infrared range sensor array are fused through rule-based method for obstacle avoidance. Experiments in outdoor environments show the mobile robot with the proposed sensor fusion system performed successfully real-time autonomous guided navigation.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2019

Reinforcement learning has been applied to various problems in robotics. However, it was still hard to train complex robotic manipulation tasks since there is a few models which can be applicable to general tasks. Such general models require a lot of training episodes. In these reasons, deep neural networks which have shown to be good function approximators have not been actively used for robot manipulation task. Recently, some of these challenges are solved by a set of methods, such as Guided Policy Search, which guide or limit search directions while training of a deep neural network based policy model. These frameworks are already applied to a humanoid robot, PR2. However, in robotics, it is not trivial to adjust existing algorithms designed for one robot to another robot. In this paper, we present our implementation of Guided Policy Search to the robotic arms of the Baxter Research Robot. To meet the goals and needs of the project, we build on an existing implementation of Baxter Agent class for the Guided Policy Search algorithm code using the built-in Python interface. This work is expected to play an important role in popularizing robot manipulation reinforcement learning methods on cost-effective robot platforms.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.265-270
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• 2005

A new Computer Integrated Surgical Robot system is composed of a surgical robot, a surgical planning system, and an optical tracking system. The system plays roles of an assisting surgeon and taking the place of surgeons for inserting a pedicle screw in spinal fusion. Compared to pure surgical navigation systems as well as conventional methods for spinal fusion, it is able to achieve better accuracy through compensating for the portending movement of the surgical target area. Furthermore, the robot can position and guide needles, drills, and other surgical instruments or conducts drilling/screwing directly. Preoperatively, the desired entry point, orientation, and depth of surgical tools for pedicle screw insertion are determined by the surgical planning system based on CT/MR images. Intra-operatively, position information on surgical instruments and targeted surgical areas is obtained from the navigation system. Two exemplary experiments employing the developed image-guided surgical robot system are conducted.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.1287-1296
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• 2014

This paper is about control of Automated Guided Vehicle for path following using fuzzy logic controller. The Automated Guided Vehicle is a tricycle wheeled mobile robot with three wheels, two fixed passive wheels and one steering driving wheel. First, kinematic and dynamic modeling for Automated Guided Vehicle is presented. Second, a controller that integrates two control loops, kinematic control loop and dynamic control loop, is designed for Automated Guided Vehicle to follow an unknown path. The kinematic control loop based on Fuzzy logic framework and the dynamic control loop based on two PID controllers are proposed. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.1113-1114
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• 1996

We describe an algorithm to control an autonomous guided vehicle with 2-diagonal driving wheels, which navigates in the clean room.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1990.10b
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• pp.985-989
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• 1990

This paper presents a fundamental study of a millimeter-sized master-slave robot driven by conduit-guided wires, which is expected to be applied to the delicate surgical operations, the assembling precise and small parts and so on. This system consists of a millimeter-sized slave robot and a master manipulator of which the size is adapted to a human finger. Displacement and torque of the master side can be reduced and transferred to the slave robot by controlling the motor torque against the master torque by feeding back tension signals. The master can feel the tensions by the motor torque. In this paper, the design method and making process of the master-slave system and the dynamical characteristic of displacement and torque control are proposed.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.249-249
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• 2000

This paper introduces a clean mobile robot fur 4th generation LCD cassette, which is guided by optical sensor and position compensation using vision module. The mobile robot for LCD cassette transfer might be controlled by AGV controller which has powerful algorithms. It offers optimum routes to the destination of clean mobile robot by using dynamic dispatch algorithm and MAP data. This clean mobile robot is equipped with 4 axes fork type manipulator providing repeatability accuracy of $\pm$ 0.05mm.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1989.10a
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• pp.226-229
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• 1989

This paper presents a navigation control method for a vision guided robot. The robot is equipped with one camera, an IBM/AT compatible PC, and a sonar system. The robot can either follow track specified on a monitor screen or navigate to a destination avoiding any obstacles on its way. The robot finds its current position as well as its moving direction by taking an image of a circular pattern placed on the ceiling.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1116-1120
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• 2004

In the nuclear power plant, there are several cylindrical vessels such as reactor vessel, pressuriser and so on. The vessels are usually constructed by welding large rolled plates, forged sections or nozzle pipes together. In order to assure the integrity of the vessel, these welds should be periodically inspected using sensors such as ultrasonic transducer or visual cameras. This inspection is usually conducted under water to minimize exposure to the radioactively contaminated vessel walls. The inspections have been performed by using a conventional inspection machine with a big structural sturdy column, however, it is so huge and heavy that maintenance and handling of the machine are extremely difficult. It requires much effort to transport the system to the site and also requires continuous use of the utility's polar crane to move the manipulator into the building and then onto the vessel. Setup beside the vessel requires a large volume of work preparation area and several shifts to complete. In order to resolve these problems, we have developed an underwater mobile robot guided by the laser pointer, and performed a series of experiments both in the mockup and in the real reactor vessel. This paper introduces our robotic inspection system and the laser guidance of the mobile robot as well as the results of the functional test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.543-548
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• 2000

In this study, an interactive programming method for robot in electronic part assembly task is proposed. Many of industrial robots are still taught and programmed by a teach pendant. The robot is guided by a human operator to the desired application locations. These motions are recorded and are later edited, within the robotic language using in the robot controller, and play back repetitively to perform robot task. This conventional teaching method is time-consuming and somewhat dangerous. In the proposed method, the operator teaches the desired locations on the image acquired through CCD camera mounted on the robot hand. The robotic language program is automatically generated and downloaded to the robot controller. This teaching process is implemented through an off-line programming software. The OLP is developed for an robotic assembly system used in this study. In order to transform the location on image coordinates into robot coordinates, a calibration process is established. The proposed teaching method is implemented and evaluated on an assembly system for soldering electronic parts on a circuit board. A six-axis articulated robot executes assembly task according to the off-line teaching in the system.