• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.116-123
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• 2017

Wearable robots are receiving great attention from the public, as well as researchers, because its motivation is to improve the quality of lives of people. Above all, complete paraplegic patients due to spinal cord injury (SCI) might be the most adequate target users of the wearable robots, because they definitely need physical assistance due to the complete loss of muscular strength and sensory functions. Furthermore, the medical care of complete paraplegics by using the wearable robots have significantly reduced the mortality rate and improved the life expectancy. The requirements of the wearable robot for complete paraplegics are actuation torque, locomotion speed, wearing sensation, robust gait stability, safety, and practicality (i.e., size, volume, weight, and energy efficiency). A WalkON Suit is the wearable robot that has satisfied the requirements of the wearable robot for complete paraplegics and participated in the powered exoskeleton race of Cybathlon 2016. In this paper, configuration of the WalkON Suit, human-machine interface, gait pattern, control algorithm, and evaluation results are introduced.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.807-813
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• 2011

High precision of planning in the preoperative phase can contribute to increase operational safety during computer-aided spinal fusion surgery, which requires extreme caution on the part of the surgeon, due to the complexity and delicacy of the procedure. In this paper, an advanced preoperative planning framework for spinal fusion is presented. The framework is based on spinal pedicle data obtained from CT (Computed Tomography) images, and provides optimal insertion trajectories and pedicle screw sizes. The proposed approach begins with safety margin estimation for each potential insertion trajectory that passes through the pedicle volume, followed by procedures to collect a set of insertion trajectories that satisfy operation safety objectives. The radius of a pedicle screw was chosen as 70% of the pedicle radius. This framework has been tested on 68 spinal pedicles of 8 patients requiring spinal fusion. It was successfully applied, resulting in an average success rate of 100% and a final safety margin of $2.44{\pm}0.51mm$.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.322-327
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• 2013

Recently many people have been troubled with perennial allergic rhinitis. But there is no way to cure for root of it until now. Therefore many medical treatments to release symptoms of perennial allergic rhinitis have been researched. One of them is localized aerosol hyperthermia, which injects $42^{\circ}C{\sim}43^{\circ}C$ vapor into nasal cavity. Vapor inhalator for localized aerosol hyperthermia has been researched in foreign country. But on the other hand it has rarely been researched inside of the country. Since most clinics and hospitals have used imported vapor inhalator, it is needed to develop domestic vapor inhalator. In the paper, a superior vapor inhalator compared to former developed one is developed. The superiority of it comes from direct-vapor heating instead of water heating to control vapor temperature. The developed vapor inhalator has shorter rising time than the existing one because of direct-vapor heating. Furthermore vapor generation part and control part of the vapor inhalator developed as one piece mock-up. It enables the vapor inhalator to have smaller size. Many laboratory tests are performed and compared to existing results to prove its performance.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 1995

For use in patients with severe forms of heart disease for which no surgical repair is possible, development of artificial hearts has many importance in point of economics, medical and industrial applications. To provide a sufficient cardiac output to the physiological demands of circulatory systems is the objective of control systems for an electromechanical artificial heart, which is based on the stable controller design for the motor in the artificial heart. In this paper, an implantable microcontroller-based brushless DC motor control system with the implantability, reliability, and stability is introduced. The developed control system for the artificial heart has the following advantages: (1) It is possible to be implanted in a body by realizing the fundamental functions such as a motor speed detection, proportional-intergral control, timer, and PWM generation through a software programming. (2) Thus, the power consumed in the controller is reduced. (3) The reliability and stability are improved through the reduction of electronic parts and line connetions at the controller. The performance of the artificial hearts and control system developed was evaluated through a series of mock circulatory experiments and a reliability test for one and half years. A sheep with the artificial heart and control system was survived for three days.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2008

This study developed a novel augmented reality interface for minimally invasive surgery. The augmented reality technique can alleviate the sensory feedback problem inherent to laparoscopic surgery. An augmented reality system merges real laparoscope image and reconstructed 3D patient model based on diagnostic medical image such as CT, MRI data. By using reconstructed 3D patient model, AR interface could express structure of patient body that is invisible outside visual field of laparoscope. Therefore, an augmented reality system improved sight information of limited laparoscope. In our augmented reality system, the laparoscopic view is located at the center of a wide-angle concave screen and reconstructed 3D patient model is displayed outside the laparoscope. By using a joystick, the laparoscopic view and the reconstructed 3D patient model view are changed concurrently. With our augmented reality system, the surgeon can see the peritoneal cavity from a wide angle of view, without having to move the laparoscope. Since the concave screen serves immersive environments, the surgeon can feel as if she is in the patient body. For these reasons, a surgeon can recognize easily depth information about inner parts of patient and position information of surgical instruments without laparoscope motion. It is possible for surgeon to manipulate surgical instruments more exact and fast. Therefore immersive augmented reality interface for minimally invasive surgery will reduce bodily, environmental load of a surgeon and increase efficiency of MIS.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.1 no.5
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• pp.433-439
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• 2017

The rodent model has been used frequently to understand stroke pathophysiology, due to its low cost and the large spectrum of genetic strains available. Here, we present a diffuse speckle contrast analysis system (DSCA) with a $1{\times}2$ optical switch that was used to non-invasively assess cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in the rat during intraluminal suturing for middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery. The blood flow index (BFI) in the left hemisphere was lower than that in the right hemisphere because the left middle cerebral artery was occluded. Furthermore, the performance of the DSCA system was compared with that of commercial laser Doppler flowmetry. The changes in the BFI measured by the two systems were correlated strongly. The DSCA system was less sensitive to motion artifacts and able to measure relatively deep tissue flow in the rat's brain. In conclusion, the DSCA system secured CBF monitoring during surgery in a rodent model without craniotomy.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.577-584
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• 2003

Traditional ankle rehabilitation procedures are tedious, repetitive, and require therapist's help. Therefore, they do not provide patients with good motivation to actively participate in the rehabilitation exercises. In addition, objective diagnosis and evaluation of the treatment progress have been difficult because records of exercise history are made by passive instruments from time to time. The virtual reality technology can make these procedures more fun so that patients can perform everyday rehabilitation exercises more actively. Moreover, haptics technology can give active resistance to the patients ankle motion to improve strength of muscles as well as can record ankle's motion and force histories for objective diagnosis and evaluation. This paper summarizes development of a virtual environment fur reforming the conventional ankle rehabilitation procedures. First of all, conventional rehabilitation procedures have been summarized. Secondly, haptic design and control, user interface design, virtual environment contents design are described. Lastly, mutual cooperation among many developers including medical doctors and therapists and future works are commented.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.292-301
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• 2010

To restore visual sensation of blind patients, we have proposed a fully implantable retinal prosthesis comprising an three dimensionally (3D) stacked retinal chip for transforming optical signal to electrical signal, a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for stimulating retina cells, and coupling coils for power transmission. The 3D stacked retinal chip is consisted of several LSI chips such as photodetector, signal processing circuit, and stimulus current generator. They are vertically stacked and electrically connected using 3D integration technology. Our retinal prosthesis has a small size and lightweight with high resolution, therefore it could increase the patients` quality of life (QOL). For realizing the fully implantable retinal prosthesis, we developed a retinal prosthesis module comprising a retinal prosthesis chip and a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for generating optimal stimulus current. In this study, we used a 2D retinal chip as a prototype retinal prosthesis chip. We fabricated the polymide-based flexible cable of $20{\mu}m$ thickness where 16 channels Pt stimulus electrode array was formed in the cable. Pt electrode has an impedance of $9.9k{\Omega}$ at 400Hz frequency. The retinal prosthesis chip was mounted on the flexible cable by an epoxy and electrically connected by Au wire. The retinal prosthesis chip was cappted by a silicone to pretect from corrosive environments in an eyeball. Then, the fabricated retinal prosthesis module was implanted into an eyeball of a rabbit. We successfully recorded electrically evoked potential (EEP) elicited from the rabbit brain by the current stimulation supplied from the implanted retinal prosthesis module. EEP amplitude was increased linearly with illumination intensity and irradiation time of incident light. The retinal prosthesis chip was well functioned after implanting into the eyeball of the rabbit.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1781-1785
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• 2004

In existing factory, robot has less necessity that consider person. However, person should be considered at design and use of service robot. To service robot can be used in everyday life along with this, more functions are required. Specially, medical service robot needs function that is intelligence function. Especially, to help patient brain disease patient (cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, imbecility), gait assistance Mobile robot consider ergonomic element necessarily. In order to develop the medical support service robot, the ergonomic design should be considered. This robot ergonomic design parameters are treated in ("evelopment of Medical Support Service Robot Using Ergonomic Design" 2003, ICASS) Fig2 show this Robot. In this study, navigation algorithm of walk assistance robot is analyzed in ergonomic view. Navigation algorithm of Mobile robot can divide by two patterns. Traditional derivative method has shortcoming in dynamic environment. Reactive method is result that react excellently in dynamic environment. However, number of behavior function is limited. So hybrid navigation algorithm was proposed by the alternative way. We consider enough user specificity at navigation algorithm application of gait assistance robot.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.264-267
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• 2008

The da Vinci telemanipulator system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA USA) is the most advanced robotic surgical system and has been increasingly used for cardiac surgical procedures. We report out first clinical experience of use of the da Vinci telemanipulator system for endoscopic harvesting of the bilateral thoracic artery andmulti-vessel small thoracotomy off pump CABG for 3-vessel disease. The da Vinci telemanipulator system has been previously utilized primarily for mitral valve surgery.