• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권3호
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• pp.439-446
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• 2014

An amphibious inspection robot system (hereafter AIROS) is being developed to visually inspect the in-containment refueling storage water tank (hereafter IRWST) strainer in APR1400 instead of a human diver. Four IRWST strainers are located in the IRWST, which is filled with boric acid water. Each strainer has 108 sub-assembly strainer fin modules that should be inspected with the VT-3 method according to Reg. guide 1.82 and the operation manual. AIROS has 6 thrusters for submarine voyage and 4 legs for walking on the top of the strainer. An inverse kinematic algorithm was implemented in the robot controller for exact walking on the top of the IRWST strainer. The IRWST strainer has several top cross braces that are extruded on the top of the strainer, which can be obstacles of walking on the strainer, to maintain the frame of the strainer. Therefore, a robot leg should arrive at the position beside the top cross brace. For this reason, we used an image processing technique to find the top cross brace in the sole camera image. The sole camera image is processed to find the existence of the top cross brace using the cross edge detection algorithm in real time. A 5-DOF robot arm that has multiple camera modules for simultaneous inspection of both sides can penetrate narrow gaps. For intuitive presentation of inspection results and for management of inspection data, inspection images are stored in the control PC with camera angles and positions to synthesize and merge the images. The synthesized images are then mapped in a 3D CAD model of the IRWST strainer with the location information. An IRWST strainer mock-up was fabricated to teach the robot arm scanning and gaiting. It is important to arrive at the designated position for inserting the robot arm into all of the gaps. Exact position control without anchor under the water is not easy. Therefore, we designed the multi leg robot for the role of anchoring and positioning. Quadruped robot design of installing sole cameras was a new approach for the exact and stable position control on the IRWST strainer, unlike a traditional robot for underwater facility inspection. The developed robot will be practically used to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the inspection of nuclear power plant components.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제32권8호
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• pp.633-641
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• 2008

Recently, the necessity for diagnosis and management of pipes has emerged as the issue due to contamination of water supply generated by corrosion of pipes. Although inspection has been performed with industrial endoscopes, the method has limits for full diagnosis of pipes due to the lack of working range. As a solution for this problem, many locomotive mechanisms for a micro robot with endoscope functions were proposed. In this paper, we analyze the locomotive mechanism of crawling robot proposed as locomotive device for pipe inspection. Based on a mechanical modeling of motor and micro robot inside small pipe, the theoretical formula for velocity is obtained. This derived theoretical formula is demonstrated the feasibility through the comparison with experimental result. Also, we could find the most important element influencing the moving velocity of micro robot when the robot operates in small pipe. Consequently, it is expected that this study can supply useful information to design of crawling robot to move in small pipe.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 제어로봇시스템학회 1997년도 한국자동제어학술회의논문집; 한국전력공사 서울연수원; 17-18 Oct. 1997
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• pp.237-240
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• 1997

The design of underwater inspection robot system is presented. This robot system is designed for wall inspection in the nuclear plant facility. This paper describes the major components of the robot and its structures. This robot system is consisted of three parts : mechanical electrical and sensing pail. The main problem of designing mechanical part is to select the mechanism of driving. In this system the propeller driving mechanism is selected which can be move the robot continuously. For reducing the size of robot, we designed the CPU and motor controller board. The sensor system is consisted of two parts. One is environment monitoring part and the other is robot localization system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 제어로봇시스템학회 2002년도 ICCAS
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• pp.106.1-106
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• 2002

$\textbullet$ Current status of reliability estimation techniques for robot systems $\textbullet$ Description of Bayesian Belief Nets(BBN) With an example $\textbullet$ Description of proposed reliability estimation method which combines all information necessary $\textbullet$ Application example of the method : the reactor inspection robot $\textbullet$ Results from the reliability estimation of reactor inspection robot $\textbullet$ Discussion on the proposed method (advantages and problems) $\textbullet$ Conclusion

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제60권6호
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• pp.1239-1244
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• 2011

In our previous paper, we developed an insulator inspection robot system for a suspension insulator string in the 345kV power transmission line. However, this robot cannot be applied to a tension insulator string, because its constituent insulators are different in diameter and height from those of a suspension insulator string. To solve this problem, we developed a new live-line insulator inspection robot system that is applicable to both suspension and tension insulator strings. We confirmed its effectiveness through live-line performance tests.

• 한국소음진동공학회논문집
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.169-175
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• 2015

This study aims to improve the dynamic stiffness of an inspection robot frame to prevent derailment from transmission lines. Finite element models for the transmission lines and robot frame are developed for the multi-body dynamic simulation. Natural frequency analysis was conducted using the FE models. Three types of spacer damper clamps installed on 4-conductor transmission lines are used to evaluate the derailment of the robot. Multi-body dynamic simulations with FE models are demonstrated for sub-span oscillation. When the robot operates, derailment of inspection robot from the transmission lines is determined because of resonance. To prevent the resonance, body position was changed and thickness optimization was conducted. The results show that derailment was not occurred because of the natural frequency improvement.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제22권11호
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• pp.888-894
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• 2016

This paper presents the kinematic and dynamic analysis of the robot arm for inspection and rescue operations. The inspection robot arm has Pitch-Pitch-Pitch-Yaw motion for an optimal and stable view of the camera installed at the end of the manipulator. The rescue operation robot arm has Yaw-Pitch-Pitch-Roll motion to handle heavy tools. Additionally, both robot arms are waterproof, as they use the triple-layer O-ring. Furthermore, the dynamic equation including the damping force due to the mechanical seal for waterproofness was derived by using the Newton-Euler method. A control system using the ARM processor was developed and introduced in this paper, and its performance was verified through experiments.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• 제6권5호
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• pp.740-745
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• 2008

This paper presents a new non-contact 3D robotic inspection system to measure the precise positions of screw and punch holes on a car body frame. The newly developed sensor consists of a CCD camera, two laser line generators and LED light. This lightweight sensor can be mounted on an industrial robot hand. An inspection algorithm and system that work with this sensor is presented. In performance evaluation tests, the measurement accuracy of this inspection system was about 200 ${\mu}m$, which is a sufficient accuracy in the automotive industry.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.175-183
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• 2008

In this paper, a new in-pipe inspection robot was developed for inspecting a large number of circular pipe insides of the sea plant, ships, and buildings. A new pressure generation system was devised to inspect circular pipes with different diameters and to move up and down slant or perpendicular slopes inside of the pipe. Also, a design method was analyzed to decide the capacity of driving motor for the robot if the mass and maximum velocity of the robot are identified. According to the design specification, a robot was developed and was tested to verify the performance of the pressure generation system. For tests, a control system was developed.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권5호
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• pp.662-671
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• 2009

In this paper, a robot was developed for in-pipe cleaning and inspecting a large number of circular in-pipes of sea plants, ships, and buildings. A pressure generation mechanism was devised to inspect circular in-pipes with different diameters and to move up and down slant or perpendicular slopes in-pipes. For inspection of the dark inner side of the pipe, a light system using LED which dissipats small electricity was developed. Also, a design method was analyzed to decide the capacity of driving motor for the robot when the mass and maximum velocity of the robot are identified. The robot developed based on the design specification, was tested to verify the performance of the pressure generation mechanism. In addition, a control system was developed for the test.