• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.170-184
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• 2024

With the advancement of autonomous navigation technology in maritime domain, there is an active research on swarming Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) that can fulfill missions with low cost and high efficiency. In this study, we propose a formation control algorithm that maintains a certain shape when multiple unmanned surface vehicles operate in a swarm. In the case of swarming, individual USVs need to be able to accurately follow the target state and avoid collisions with obstacles or other vessels in the swarm. In order to generate guidance commands for swarm formation control, the potential field method has been a major focus of swarm control research, but the method using the potential field only uses the position information of obstacles or other ships, so it cannot effectively respond to moving targets and obstacles. In situations such as the formation change of a swarm of ships, the formation control is performed in a dense environment, so the position and velocity information of the target and nearby obstacles must be considered to effectively change the formation. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper applies a method that considers relative velocity to the potential field-based guidance law to improve target following and collision avoidance performance. Considering the relative velocity of the moving target, the potential field for nearby obstacles is newly defined by utilizing the concept of Velocity Obstacle (VO), and the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method is verified through swarm control simulation, and swarm control experiments using a small scaled unmanned surface vehicle platform.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.243-250
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• 2019

Because of a moving UAV has a lot of potential/kinetic energy, if the UAV falls to the ground, it may have a lot of impact. Because this can lead to human casualities, in this paper, the population density area on the UAV flight path is defined as a dangerous area. The conventional UAV path flight was a passive form in which a UAV moved in accordance with a path preset by a user before the flight. Some UAVs include safety features such as a obstacle avoidance system during flight. Still, it is difficult to respond to changes in the real-time flight environment. Using public Big Data for UAV path flight can improve response to real-time flight environment changes by enabling detection of dangerous areas and avoidance of the areas. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method to detect and avoid dangerous areas for UAVs by utilizing the Big Data collected in real-time. If the routh is designated according to the destination by the proposed method, the dangerous area is determined in real-time and the flight is made to the optimal bypass path. In further research, we will study ways to increase the quality satisfaction of the images acquired by flying under the avoidance flight plan.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2012

In this paper, we proposed a new method which analyzes and eliminates errors occurring by multi-reflection of ultrasonic firing in mobile robot application. This new method allows ultrasonic sensors to fire at rates that are three times faster than those customary in conventional applications readings due to ultrasonic noise disturbance. It is possible them to collect and predict sensor data much faster than conventional methods. Furthermore, this method's capability allows mobile robot to navigate in a complex and unknown environment and to collaborate in the same environment with multiple mobile robot, even if their ultrasonic sensors operate. And it's usefulness to avoid moving obstacles by capability of rapid collecting data. Finally, we present experimental results that demonstrate the performances of the new proposed method by experiments in a multi-reflective environment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.284-294
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• 2008

In this paper, we describe an implementation of small mobile robot that can be used at research and application of mobile sensor networking. This robot that will constitute the sensor network, as a platform of multi-robot system for each to be used as sensor node, has to satisfy restrictions in many aspects in order to perform sensing, communication protocol, and application algorithms. First, the platform must be designed with a robust structure and low power consumption since its maintenance after deployment is difficult. Second, it must have flexibility and modularity to be used effectively in any structure so that it can be used in various applications. Third, it must support the technique of wireless network for ubiquitous computing environment. At last, to let many nodes be scattered, it must be cost-effective and small. Considering the above restrictions of the mobile platform for sensor network, we designed and implemented robots control the current of actuator by using additional circuit for power efficiency. And we chose MSP430 as MCU, CC2420 as RF transceiver, and etc, that have the strength in the aspect of power. For flexibility and modularity, the platform has expansion ports. The results of experiments are described to show that this robot can act as sensor node by RF communication process with Zigbee standard protocol, execute the navigation process with simple obstacle avoidance and the moving action with RSSI(Received Signal Strength Indicator), operate at low-power, and be made with approx. $100.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.145-150
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• 2021

In order to continuously perform quarantine in public places, it is not easy to secure manpower, but using self-driving-based robots can solve problems caused by manpower. Self-driving-based quarantine robots can continuously prevent the spread of harmful viruses and diseases in public institutions and hospitals without additional manpower. The location of the autonomous driving function was estimated by applying the Pinnacle filter algorithm, and the UV sterilization system and chlorine dioxide injection system were applied for quarantine. The driving time is more than 3 hours and the position error is 0.5m.Soon, the stop-avoidance function was operated at 95% and the obstacle detection distance was 1.5 m, and the automatic charge recovery was charged by moving to the charging cradle at the remaining 10% of the battery capacity. As a result of quarantine with an unmanned quarantine system, UV sterilization is 99% and chlorine dioxide is sterilized more than 95%, which can contribute to reducing enormous social costs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.639-645
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• 2018

This paper is intended to develop a decision model that can be applied to autonomous vehicles and autonomous mobile vehicles. The developed module has an independent configuration for application in various driving environments and is based on a platform for organically operating them. Each module is studied for decision making on lane changes and for securing safety through reinforcement learning using a deep learning technique. The autonomous mobile moving body operating to change the driving state has a characteristic where the next operation of the mobile body can be determined only if the definition of the speed determination model (according to its functions) and the lane change decision are correctly preceded. Also, if all the moving bodies traveling on a general road are equipped with an autonomous driving function, it is difficult to consider the factors that may occur between each mobile unit from unexpected environmental changes. Considering these factors, we applied the decision model to the platform and studied the lane change decision system for implementation of the platform. We studied the decision model using a modular learning method to reduce system complexity, to reduce the learning time, and to consider model replacement.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 2018

In this paper, the problem of a double-parked car has been investigated and a method to solve it is studied. Double parking is very common in a public parking lot with insufficient parking space. If a double-parked car blocked the way, a person needs to push the double-parked car to move it. The problem is that moving a double-parked car with hands is very hard and dangerous, especially for the old and the weak. To solve the above mentioned problem, an automatic mover for a double-parked car is proposed and developed. The basic idea is that a double-parked car can be moved by rolling its one wheel. Two rollers are designed and manufactured, which are used to roll a wheel of a double-parked car. The developed automatic mover has two rollers, two driving wheels, and four castors. It also has several ultrasonic sensors so that it can detect obstacles in the way and prevent possible collision. It is verified through several experiments that the developed automatic mover can move a double-parked car safely and easily.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.312-321
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• 2003

In this paper, we implement robot which are ability to recognize obstacles and moving automatically to destination. we present two results in this paper; hardware implementation of image processing board and software implementation of visual feedback algorithm for a self-controlled robot. In the first part, the mobile robot depends on commands from a control board which is doing image processing part. We have studied the self controlled mobile robot system equipped with a CCD camera for a long time. This robot system consists of a image processing board implemented with DSPs, a stepping motor, a CCD camera. We will propose an algorithm in which commands are delivered for the robot to move in the planned path. The distance that the robot is supposed to move is calculated on the basis of the absolute coordinate and the coordinate of the target spot. And the image signal acquired by the CCD camera mounted on the robot is captured at every sampling time in order for the robot to automatically avoid the obstacle and finally to reach the destination. The image processing board consists of DSP (TMS320VC33), ADV611, SAA7111, ADV7l76A, CPLD(EPM7256ATC144), and SRAM memories. In the second part, the visual feedback control has two types of vision algorithms: obstacle avoidance and path planning. The first algorithm is cell, part of the image divided by blob analysis. We will do image preprocessing to improve the input image. This image preprocessing consists of filtering, edge detection, NOR converting, and threshold-ing. This major image processing includes labeling, segmentation, and pixel density calculation. In the second algorithm, after an image frame went through preprocessing (edge detection, converting, thresholding), the histogram is measured vertically (the y-axis direction). Then, the binary histogram of the image shows waveforms with only black and white variations. Here we use the fact that since obstacles appear as sectional diagrams as if they were walls, there is no variation in the histogram. The intensities of the line histogram are measured as vertically at intervals of 20 pixels. So, we can find uniform and nonuniform regions of the waveforms and define the period of uniform waveforms as an obstacle region. We can see that the algorithm is very useful for the robot to move avoiding obstacles.