• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1051-1058
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• 2011

Unmanned autonomous forklifts have a great potential to enhance the productivity of material handling in various applications because these forklifts can pick up and deliver loads without an operator and any fixed guide. Especially, automation of pallet loading and unloading technique is useful for enhancing performance of logistics and reducing cost for automation system. There are, however, many technical difficulties in developing such forklifts including localization, map building, sensor fusion, control, and so on. This is because the system requires numerous sensors, actuators, and controllers that need to be connected with each other, and the number of connections grows very rapidly as the number of devices grows. This paper presents a vision sensorbased autonomous loading and unloading for network-based unmanned forklift where system components are connected to a shared CAN network. Functions such as image processing and control algorithm are divided into small tasks that are distributed over a number of microcontrollers with a limited computing capacity. And the experimental results show that proposed architecture can be an appropriate choice for autonomous loading in the unmanned forklift.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2005

Loading/Unloading task in the real industry is performed by crane, but most of the loading/unloading task with the weight of 5kg∼30kg is done by human workers and this kind of work causes industrial disaster of workers. Therefore it is necessary to develop low cost loading/unloading manipulator system to prevent this kind of industrial accidents. This paper is concerned with the design and fabrication of 2 axis pneumatic manipulators using on/off solenoid valves and accurate position control without respect to the external load and low damping in the pneumatic rotary actuator. To overcome the change of external load, switching of control parameter using LVQNN (Learning Vector Quantization Neural Network) is newly applied, which estimates the external loads in the pneumatic cylinder. As an underlying controller, a state feedback controller using position, velocity and acceleration is applied to the switching control system. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithms are demonstrated through experiments of pneumatic cylinder with various loads.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.672-678
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to develop a stacking guidance system (SGS) of containers in the mobile harbor (MH). A mobile harbor is a floating structure especially designed for loading and unloading containers from and to a large container ship. A novel stacking guidance system was proposed for unloading the container in an effective way against possible vibrations of the floating body. The guidance system works as an aid for loading containers with a wider opening for easier stacking of a container into a moving storage cell due to waves. In order to determine the most effective inclination angle of the cell-guide, this study performed the dynamic analysis of the SGS equipped in the MH subject to fluctuations of the sea. The motions of the guidance system and a container loaded were calculated using ADAMS. The simulation results of the contact force between the two rigid bodies showed that a desirable angle of the cell-guide should be around 20 degrees from the vertical. This proposed SGS can considerably reduce the loading and unloading time, and will enhance the performance of the MH.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 2024

Large warehouses are building automation systems to increase efficiency. However, small warehouses, military bases, and local stores are unable to introduce automated logistics systems due to lack of space and budget, and are handling tasks manually, failing to improve efficiency. To solve this problem, this study designed small loading and unloading equipment that can be mounted on transportation vehicles. The equipment can be controlled remotely and is automatically controlled from the point where pallets loaded with cargo are visible using real-time video from an attached camera. Cargo recognition and control command generation for automatic control are achieved through a newly designed deep learning model. This model is designed to be optimized for loading and unloading equipment and mission environments based on the YOLOv3 structure. The trained model recognized 10 types of palettes with different shapes and colors with an average accuracy of 100% and estimated the state with an accuracy of 99.47%. In addition, control commands were created to insert forks into pallets without failure in 14 scenarios assuming actual loading and unloading situations.

• Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.140-151
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• 2014

Storing, and the loading and unloading of materials at production sites in the manufacturing sector for mass production is a critical problem that affects various aspects: the layout of the factory, line-side space, logistics, workers' work paths and ease of work, automatic procurement of components, and transfer and supply. Traditionally, the nesting problem has been an issue to improve the efficiency of raw materials; further, research into mainly 2D optimization has progressed. Also, recently, research into the expanded usage of 3D models to implement packing optimization has been actively carried out. Nevertheless, packing algorithms using 3D models are not widely used in practice, due to the large decrease in efficiency, owing to the complexity and excessive computational time. In this paper, the problem of efficiently loading and unloading freeform 3D objects into a given container has been solved, by considering the 3D form, ease of loading and unloading, and packing density. For this reason, a Group Packing Approach for workers has been developed, by using analyzed truck packing work patterns and Group Technology, which is to enhance the efficiency of storage in the manufacturing sector. Also, an algorithm for 3D packing has been developed, and implemented in a commercial 3D CAD modeling system. The 3D packing method consists of a grouping algorithm, a sequencing algorithm, an orientating algorithm, and a loading algorithm. These algorithms concern the respective aspects: the packing order, orientation decisions of parts, collision checking among parts and processing, position decisions of parts, efficiency verification, and loading and unloading simulation. Storage optimization and examination of the ease of loading and unloading are possible, and various kinds of engineering analysis, such as work performance analysis, are facilitated through the intelligent 3D packing method developed in this paper, by using the results of the 3D model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.22 no.4 s.75
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• pp.19-30
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• 2004

Due to the inefficient operation of the existing logistic facilities, the complicated distribution structure, and closed utilization of logistic information are causing high logistic costs. The general improvement in the distribution structure and the expansion of the logistic facilities are needed for solving these problems. However, existing unit-scale forecast is not considering the loading and unloading characteristics of the trucks and the improvement of operation efficiency from the mechanization and automation of the loading and unloading works. The queuing theory based on the status quo of the cargo trucks to the cargo terminals is considered in this study. The optimal scale estimation method(OSCM) which the loading and unloading characteristics of the cargo trucks were taken into consideration was suggested. Also, the relationship between the optimal scale of the cargo terminal and the mechanization, automation, and informationization of the present loading and unloading system was investigated. As a result, it showed that the regularity of the truck arrival and service times had less influence on the scale of the cargo terminal, but the improvement of the loading and unloading speeds and the service rate of the trucks did more influence on it.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2023

In modern society, the delivery service market has grown explosively due to rapid changes in social structure and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, various problems such as injury to workers and an increase in human accidents are occurring due to the loading and unloading of parcels. In order to solve this problem, domestic company n is developing a "robot-based cargo loading and unloading system". In developing a new technology system, quantitative reliability targets should be set for efficient operation and development. In this paper, reliability analysis was conducted through field data for the pneumatic gripper of the "robot-based cargo loading system". The reliability of the failure data was analyzed to estimate the distribution parameters and MTTF. Random data was derived for the probability of occurrence of a failure with the estimated value. By repeating the simulation to predict the number and year of failures according to the estimated parameters of the probability distribution, it was proposed as a method that reflects realistic probabilities rather than calculating with simple arithmetic using the average MTTF previously used in the field.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.555-562
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• 2009

At container terminals, a major measurement of productivity can be work-efficiency in quay-side. At the apron, containers are loaded onto the ship and unloaded to apron by Q/C(Quay Crane). For improving the productivity of quay crane, the more efficient Y/T(Yard Tractor) operation method is necessary in container terminals. Between quay-side and yard area, current transferring methods is single-cycling which doesn't start loading unless it finishes unloading. Dual-cycling is a technique that can be used to improve the productivity of quay-side and utility of yard tractor by ship loading and unloading simultaneously. Using the dual-cycling at terminals only necessitates an operational change without purchasing extra equipment. Exactly, Y/T operation method has to be changed the dedicate system to pooling system. This paper presents an efficient ship loading and unloading plan in container terminals, which use the dual-cycling. We propose genetic and tabu search algorithm for this problem.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.223-230
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• 2004

In this paper, we will introduce a control strategy based on the permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) container transfer system using soft-computing algorithm. Linear motor-based container transport system (LMCTS) is horizontal transfer system for the yard automation, which has been proposed to take the place of automated guided vehicle in the maritime container terminal. LMCTS is considered as that the system is changed its model suddenly and variously by loading and unloading container. The proposed control system is consisted of two DR-FNNs that act the role of controller and system emulator. Consequently, the system had the predictable structure and an ability to adapt for a huge variation of rolling friction, detent force, and sudden changes of its weight by loading and unloading.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.458-463
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• 2011

A CHS(Container Handling System) is a system to load and to unload ISO 2000 or ISO 4000 standard containers which is widely used for various industrial transport purpose. A new light type of CHS is introduced in this paper, in order to reduce weight of cargos and to give the convenience in cargo loading and unloading without additional lifting equipments. The structural models of this system are created to assemble the smooth integration of system and to interface the each composing units with the specification of truck chassis to be mounted. These models are applied to find the suitable design parameters under the condition of force restrictions of each units. Finally, the stability of this system are investigated by analyzing the dynamic simulation using Visual NASTRAN 4D, and it could be recommend the good design parameters for the manufacturing purpose.