• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.257-263
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• 2013

In case of image observation equipments, CCTV for short distance visual field is usually installed and operated mostly as the means of crime-prevention. However, the extensive demand for monitoring problems in case of the increase in intelligent crimes and disasters has led to the necessity of the development of long-distance observation equipments embedded with Night View functions. In case of the Night View equipments, the relevant market is set up to be focused mostly on Thermal Observation Device(hereinafter, TOD), but some shortcomings such as the limitation of image visibility and excessive maintenance cost, etc. have actually caused the necessity of new long distance Night View equipment. Moreover there might follow lots of difficulties in long-distance visualization in the event that irregular reflection is generated by minute particles in the atmosphere such as fog, smog, and dust, etc. These factors are motivate the work presented in this study. Our study is aimed at the realization of Pulsed Laser Illuminator and newly proposed Range-Gated image acquisition technology. And also the implementation of Tracker for continuous trace of the objects of interest from the obtained sequence images.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.247-253
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• 2019

In this paper, we present a new method for real-time tracking of human walking around a laser sensor system. The method converts range data with $r-{\theta}$ coordinates to a 2D image with x-y coordinates. Then human tracking is performed using human's features, i.e. appearances of human walking pattern, and the input range data. The laser sensor based human tracking method has the advantage of simplicity over conventional methods which extract human face in the vision data. In our method, the problem of estimating 2D positions and orientations of two walking human's ankle level is formulated based on a moving trajectory algorithm. In addition, the proposed tracking system employs a HMM to robustly track human in case of occlusions. Experimental results using a real system demonstrate usefulness of the proposed method.

• Journal of Platform Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.60-70
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• 2021

This paper proposes a method capable of stably tracking the coordinates of a patterned laser image in a curved screen shooting system using two or more channels of multiple cameras. This method can track and acquire target points very effectively when applied to a multi-screen shooting method that can replace the HMD shooting method. Images of curved screens with severe deformation obtained from individual cameras are corrected through image normalization, image binarization, and noise removal. This corrected image is created and applied as an Euclidean space map that is easy to track the firing point based on the matching point. As a result of the experiment, the image coordinates of the pattern laser were stably extracted in the curved screen shooting system, and the error of the target point position of the real-world coordinate position and the broadband Euclidean map was minimized. The reliability of the proposed method was confirmed through the experiment.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.521-535
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• 2022

Efficient management of deteriorating civil infrastructure is one of the most important research topics in many developed countries. In particular, the remote displacement measurement of bridges using linear variable differential transformers, global positioning systems, laser Doppler vibrometers, and computer vision technologies has been attempted extensively. This paper proposes a remote displacement measurement system using closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) and a computer-vision-based method for in-situ bridge bearings having relatively large displacement due to temperature change in long term. The hardware of the system is composed of a reference target for displacement measurement, a CCTV to capture target images, a gateway to transmit images via a mobile network, and a central server to store and process transmitted images. The usage of CCTV capable of night vision capture and wireless data communication enable long-term 24-hour monitoring on wide range of bridge area. The computer vision algorithm to estimate displacement from the images involves image preprocessing for enhancing the circular features of the target, circular Hough transformation for detecting circles on the target in the whole field-of-view (FOV), and homography transformation for converting the movement of the target in the images into an actual expansion displacement. The simple target design and robust circle detection algorithm help to measure displacement using target images where the targets are far apart from each other. The proposed system is installed at the Tancheon Overpass located in Seoul, and field experiments are performed to evaluate the accuracy of circle detection and displacement measurements. The circle detection accuracy is evaluated using 28,542 images captured from 71 CCTVs installed at the testbed, and only 48 images (0.168%) fail to detect the circles on the target because of subpar imaging conditions. The accuracy of displacement measurement is evaluated using images captured for 17 days from three CCTVs; the average and root-mean-square errors are 0.10 and 0.131 mm, respectively, compared with a similar displacement measurement. The long-term operation of the system, as evaluated using 8-month data, shows high accuracy and stability of the proposed system.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2012

Purpose: An autonomous robot was developed for harvesting strawberries cultivated in bench-type systems. Methods: The harvest robot consisted of four main components: an autonomous vehicle, a manipulator with four degrees of freedom (DOF), an end effector with two DOFs, and a color computer vision system. Strawberry detection was performed based on 3D image and distance information obtained from a stereo CCD color camera and a laser device, respectively. Results: In this work, a Cartesian type manipulator system was designed, including an intermediate revolute axis and a double driven arm-based joint axis, so that it could generate collision-free motions during harvesting. A DC servomotor-driven end-effector, consisting of a gripper and a cutter, was designed for gripping and cutting the strawberry stem without damaging the strawberry itself. Real-time position tracking algorithms were developed to detect, recognize, trace, and approach strawberries under natural light conditions. Conclusion: The developed robot system could harvest a strawberry within 7 seconds without damage.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.99-106
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• 1996

Development of an automatic TIG welding system incorporating a vision sensor and torch control mechanism leads to an improved welding quality and greater production efficiency. The automatic welding system should be greatly restricted in its size and weight for the LNG(Liquefied Natural Gas) storage tank and also provide a unique torch rotating mechanism which keeps the torch tip in the constant position while the angle is changed continuously to maintain the welding torch substantially perpendicular to the weld line. The developed system is driven by two translation axes X, Z and one rotational axis. A moving line window method is adopted to the image recognition of the corrugated membranes with specular reflection. This method decides original laser stripe patterns in image which is affected by multi-reflection. A self-teaching algorithm, which guides the automatic welding machine with the information provided by the CCD camera without any previous learning of a reference trajectory, was developed for tracking the corrugated membrane of the LNG tank along the weld line.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.195-204
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• 2014

This paper presents the depth evaluation for object detection by automated assembling robots. Pattern distortion analysis from a structured light system identifies an object with the greatest depth from its background. An automated assembling robot should prior select and pick an object with the greatest depth to reduce the physical harm during the picking action of the robot arm. Object detection is then combined with a depth evaluation to provide contour, showing the edges of an object with the greatest depth. The contour provides shape information to an automated assembling robot, which equips the laser based proxy sensor, for picking up and placing an object in the intended place. The depth evaluation process using structured light for an automated electronics assembling robot is accelerated for an image frame to be used for computation using the simplest experimental set, which consists of a single camera and projector. The experiments for the depth evaluation process required 31 ms to 32 ms, which were optimized for the robot vision system that equips a 30-frames-per-second camera.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.643-646
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• 2000

In this study, we constructed a preview-sensing visual sensor system for weld seam tracking in real time in GMA welding. A sensor part consists of a CCD camera, a band-pass filter, a diode laser system with a cylindrical lens, and a vision board for inter frame process. We used a commercialized robot system which includes a GMA welding machine. To extract the weld seam we used a inter frame process in vision board from that we could remove the noise due to the spatters and fume in the image. Since the image was very reasonable by using the inter frame process, we could use the simplest way to extract the weld seam from the image, such as first differential and central difference method. Also we used a moving average method to the successive position data of weld seam for reducing the data fluctuation. In experiment the developed robot system with visual sensor could be able to track a most popular weld seam, such as a fillet-joint, a V-groove, and a lap-joint of which weld seam include planar and height directional variation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.71-78
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• 2007

There have been continuous efforts to automate welding processes. This automation process could be said to fall into two categories, weld seam tracking and weld quality evaluation. Recently, the attempts to achieve these two functions simultaneously are on the increase. For the study presented in this paper, a vision sensor is made, and using this, the 3 dimensional geometry of the bead is measured in real time. For the application in welding, which is the characteristic of nonlinear process, a fuzzy controller is designed. And with this, an adaptive control system is proposed which acquires the bead height and the coordinates of the point on the bead along the horizontal fillet joint, performs seam tracking with those data, and also at the same time, controls the bead geometry to a uniform shape. A communication system, which enables the communication with the industrial robot, is designed to control the bead geometry and to track the weld seam. Experiments are made with varied offset angles from the pre-taught weld path, and they showed the adaptive system works favorable results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2008

For the precision measurement of industrial products, the location of holes inside the products, if they exist, are often selected as feature points. The measurement of hole location would be performed by vision and laser-vision sensor. However, the usage of those sensors is limited in case of big change of light intensity and reflective shiny surface of the products. In order to overcome the difficulties, we have developed a hole displacement measuring device using contact-type displacement sensors (LVDTs). The developed measurement device attached to a robot measures small displacement of a hole by allowing its X-Y movement due to the contact forces between the hole and its own circular cone. The developed device consists of three plates which are connected in series for its own function. The first plate is used for the attachment to an industrial robot with ball-bush joints and springs. The second and third plates allow X-Y direction as LM guides. The bottom of the third plate is designed that various circular cones can be easily attached according to the shape of the hole. The developed system was implemented for its effectiveness that its measurement accuracy is less than 0.05mm.