• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.226-237
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• 2020

As the number of reported COVID-19 cases rises around the world, regions affected by the virus are taking serious measures to contain its spread. Face shields are one of the highest-need personal protective equipment (PPE) during COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond traditional face masks, as known cases of the coronavirus soar, currently there is a significant shortage of face shields around the world. In response, the protective face shields were designed and fabricated with open-source 3D modelling software and 3D printing technology, respectively. Our face shield consisted of two parts only; a reusable 3D printed headband and a visor made of transparent plastic sheet, as barrier. The resulting 3D printed face shields are affordable, lightweight, one-size-fits-most and ready-to-wear with minimal assemblies, and go on easily over glass, goggle and face mask. To ensure being donated to the healthcare professionals without risk infected by any pathogens, the 3D printed face shields were successfully be disinfected with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI dosage of 1000 mJ/cm²) and 70% alcohol. For routine disinfection a UVGI chamber was designed and optimized to provide uniform UV-C illumination with an appreciated fluence for complete decontamination. More than 1,000 face shields were produced already and donated to the special hospitals for COVID-19 patients, quarantines, government and medical agencies in Ethiopia as well as in East-African countries. With certainty, our intention goes beyond the hospitals and other first responders, but not limited for all those who have to stay in the service or be in contact with many other people in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.89-100
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• 2023

Recently, on-device artificial intelligence (AI) solutions using mobile devices and embedded edge devices have emerged in various fields, such as computer vision, to address network traffic burdens, low-energy operations, and security problems. Although vision transformer deep learning models have outperformed conventional convolutional neural network (CNN) models in computer vision, they require more computations and parameters than CNN models. Thus, they are not directly applicable to embedded edge devices with limited hardware resources. Many researchers have proposed various model compression methods or lightweight architectures for vision transformers; however, there are only a few studies evaluating the effects of model compression techniques of vision transformers on performance. Regarding this problem, this paper presents a performance evaluation of vision transformers on embedded platforms. We investigated the behaviors of three vision transformers: DeiT, LeViT, and MobileViT. Each model performance was evaluated by accuracy and inference time on edge devices using the ImageNet dataset. We assessed the effects of the quantization method applied to the models on latency enhancement and accuracy degradation by profiling the proportion of response time occupied by major operations. In addition, we evaluated the performance of each model on GPU and EdgeTPU-based edge devices. In our experimental results, LeViT showed the best performance in CPU-based edge devices, and DeiT-small showed the highest performance improvement in GPU-based edge devices. In addition, only MobileViT models showed performance improvement on EdgeTPU. Summarizing the analysis results through profiling, the degree of performance improvement of each vision transformer model was highly dependent on the proportion of parts that could be optimized in the target edge device. In summary, to apply vision transformers to on-device AI solutions, either proper operation composition and optimizations specific to target edge devices must be considered.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.136-142
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• 2018

Additive manufacturing process technology, known as the 3D printing process, is expanding its utilization from simple model realization to commercialized part production based on continuous material development. Recently, research and development have been actively carried out to fabricate lightweight and high-strength parts using polymers, such as polyamide (polyamide), which is a high-strength engineering plastic material. In this study, the Izod impact characteristics were analyzed for polyamide 12 (PA12) materials. For the specimen production, selective laser sintering process technology, which has excellent mechanical properties of finished products, was applied. In addition, PA12 and glass bead reinforced PA12 materials were produced. The specimens were classified according to the production direction on the production platform, and each specimen was subjected to an Izod test at test temperatures of $-25^{\circ}C$, $25^{\circ}C$, and $60^{\circ}C$. As a result, the impact strength of PA12 and glass bead-reinforced PA12 of vertical direction specimens were 48.8% and 16.3% lower than those of the parallel specimens at a $25^{\circ}C$ test temperature and the impact strength of parallel specimens was improved by 46.5% and 20.4% at a test temperature of $60^{\circ}C$ compared to that at $-25^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.270-276
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• 2020

3D printing is an additive manufacturing technology that can produce complex shapes in a single process for a range of materials, such as polymers, ceramics, and metals. Recent 3D printing technology has developed to a level that enables the mass-production through an improvement of the printing speed and the continuous development of applicable materials. In this study, 3D printing technology using a laser was applied to manufacture a heat exchanger for an air compressor in a railway vehicle. First, the optimal design of the heat exchanger was carried out by focusing on weight reduction and compactness as a shape suitable for 3D printing. Based on the design derived, heat exchanger prototypes were made of AlSi10Mg alloy material by applying the SLM technique. Moreover, the manufactured prototypes were attached to an existing air compressor, and the heat exchange performance of the compressed air was tested. The test results of the 3D printed prototypes showed a heat exchange performance of approximately 80% and 85% at low and high-pressure, respectively, compared to the existing heat exchanger. From the 𝓔-NTU method results with an external cooling air condition similar to that of the existing heat exchanger, the calculated heat transfer amount of 3D printed parts showed similar performance compared to the existing heat exchanger. As a result, the 3D printed heat exchanger is lightweight with good performance.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.474-480
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• 2018

FRP is a new material that is lightweight, has high strength and high durability, and is emerging as a third construction material in many countries. The composite material panel targeted in this study was a curved member and is the most frequently used arch-shaped member of a structures, such as tunnels. Composite curved panels can be produced in high quality and large quantities through automation operations. On the other hand, the frequency of application is low, and the design criteria and experimental data are lacking. Therefore, this study examined the mechanical performance of the member unit first to verify its performance as structural members of the FRP curved panel. For this purpose, tensile, compression, and connection performance tests were carried out. The tensile tests showed greater tensile strength of specimens with larger curvature, and the compression tests showed that the composite section of a composite material has greater compressive strength than the concrete section. Finally, the test of the performance of the connection showed that the attachment performance of the connection was more than equal to that of the FRP composite material panel.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

The use of materials for modern lightweight auto-bodies is becoming more complex than hitherto assemblies. The high strength materials nowadays frequently used for more specific fields such as the front and rear sub frames, seat belts and seats are mounted to the assembled body structure using bolt joints. It is desirable to use nuts attached to the assembled sheets by projection welding to decrease the number of loose parts which improves the quality. In this study, nut projection welding was carried out between a nut of both boron steel and carbon steel and ultra-high strength hot-stamped steel sheets. Then, the joints were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscope. The mechanical properties of the joints were evaluated by microhardness measurements and pullout tests. An indigenously designed sample fixture set-up was used for the pull-out tests to induce a tensile load in the weld. The fractography analysis revealed the dominant interfacial fracture between boron steel nut weld which is related to the shrinkage cavity and small size fusion zone. A non-interfacial fracture was observed in carbon steel nut weld, the lower hardness of HAZ caused the initiation of failure and allowed the pull-out failure which have higher in tensile strengths and superior weldability. Hence, the fracture load and failure mode characteristics can be considered as an indication of the weldability of materials in nut projection welding.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.565-575
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of weight of load and time on the physical workload of repetitive upper-limb tasks with handling light weight loads using EMG and perceived discomfort, and to investigate the relationship between EMG and perceived discomfort for those repetitive tasks of moving light weight loads. Background: Repetitive upper-limb motion is known as one of the main risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders, and a lot of repetitive tasks are carried out while handling light weight loads in the industry. In evaluating the workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads, EMG and perceived discomfort can be used, though their relationship in those work conditions are not much investigated. Method: A laboratory experiment with 18 healthy males were conducted to record EMG signals from 5 muscle sites of the right arm and shoulder and rate perceived discomforts for the body parts and the whole body while carrying out repetitive materials-handling tasks for 52min. The subjects were divided into 3 groups which handled the loads of 1kg, 2kg and 3kg, respectively. ANOVAs were conducted to analyze the effects of the weight and time on RMS of EMG amplitude (normalized RMS: NRMS), median frequency of power spectrum of EMG (normalized MDF: NMDF) and perceived discomfort. The correlations between NRMS and NMDF and perceived discomfort were also analyzed. Results: Statistically significant muscular fatigue effects were not found from NRMS and NMDF in most muscles, while there were significant increases of discomfort as the task time elapsed. It was shown that there were an increasing trend of the muscular activity as the weight of load increased and a decreasing trend of median frequency of EMG of upper and lower arms as time elapsed. It was found that there were significant negative correlations between NMDFs from the lower arm and discomfort ratings, though the relationships were weak. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the working conditions adopted in this study were not enough to induce muscular fatigue, while there was significant increase in perceived discomfort. A further study is necessary to integrate the objective and subjective measures for more reliable and sensitive evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks of handling light weight loads. Application: This study can be used as a basic study for the evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2018.10a
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• pp.72-75
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• 2018

Internet of Things (IOT) technology is rapidly becoming a reality in many parts of our lives through various products and services. Currently, the perception of Internet services for things is becoming common, and the B2C (Business to Consumer) market is explosively increasing as consumers are increasingly willing to purchase Internet devices. In particular, the economic effects of the Internet based smart home sector are known to be very large, and global manufacturers are launching various consumer oriented products based on smart home services.However, current smart home service products are closed systems because they provide independent devices for each manufacturer and provide only specific devices and services linked to them. There is a need for an environment that can provide intelligent smart home service through linkage between objects or services, and a controller that can provide smart control is needed. Therefore, this paper proposes a smart home remote control that can control the Internet devices and services of objects. The proposed smart home remote control provides an environment in which users can directly rescue services through the IFTTT automated service platform, which is an independent platform for each manufacturer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.8-14
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• 2017

Gearboxes for power transmission of a rotorcraft transfer power generated by an engine to the fan and the pusher for up, down and forward flight. The gearboxes are divided into the main gearbox and the sub-gearbox. The main goal of the gearbox design is to design the weight as light as possible within a range that satisfies all given requirements (transmission power, mounting space, etc.). In particular, the initial conceptual design is very important to reduce the weight of the gearbox, since the weight can vary greatly depending on the system configuration, even if it has the same function. In this study, various conceptual designs of the gearbox according to the installation position of the engine were presented. Also, the element parts such as gears and bearings in each concept design were designed by sizing for their life, and the estimated weights of the conceptual system configuration were compared.

• Journal of Convergence Society for SMB
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.27-32
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• 2013

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) have been made possible by the emergence of small and lightweight wireless systems such as Bluetooth, enabled devices and PDAs. Antennas are an essential part of any WBAN system and due to various technical requirements and physical constraints, careful consideration of their design and deployment is needed. This paper is proposing on the design of wearable antenna as parts of clothing to serve communications functions, such as tracking and navigation in health care applications. The substrates of the wearable antennas will be made from textile materials and since it is wearable, it should have a small size, be light weight, low maintenance, and unobtrusive. This proposed paper will also investigate the influence of different parameters for wearable antenna including types of textile/substrate to ensure that the antenna design satisfies WBAN requirements. The characteristics and behavior of the antenna need to adhere to specifications set by wireless standards and system technology requirements. This means that the transmitting and receiving frequency bands of the various units need to be chosen accordingly. Since there are restrictions on the level of power to which the human body can be exposed to, the antenna as well as other RF system components must be designed to meet these restrictions. Antenna gain, which directly affects power transmitted, is a critical parameter in ensuring power levels fall within the safety guidelines and so will be of primary importance in the design. The electromagnetic interaction between WBAN antennas and devices and the human body will also be explored.