• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제11권11호
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• pp.936-942
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• 2005

Recently the exoskeletal power assistive equipment which is a kind of wearable robot has been widely developed to help the human body motion. For the elderly people and patients, however, some limits exist due to the weight and volume of the equipments. As a feasible solution, a tendon-driven exoskeletal power assistive device fur the lower body, and caster walker are proposed in this research. Since the caster walker carries the heavy items, the weight and volume of the wearable exoskeleton are minimized. The key control is used to generate the joint torque required to assist motions such as sitting, standing and walking. Experiments were performed for several motions and the EMG sensors were used to measure the magnitude of assistance. When the motion of sitting down and standing up was compared with and without wearing the proposed device, the $25\%$ assistance was acquired.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권5호
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• pp.1630-1643
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• 2023

The correct situation awareness (SA) of operators is important for managing nuclear power plants (NPPs), particularly in accident-related situations. Among the three levels of SA suggested by Ensley, Level 3 SA (i.e., projection of the future status of the situation) is challenging because of the complexity of NPPs as well as the uncertainty of accidents. Hence, several prediction methods using artificial intelligence techniques have been proposed to assist operators in accident prediction. However, these methods only predict short-term plant status (e.g., the status after a few minutes) and do not provide information regarding the uncertainty associated with the prediction. This paper proposes an algorithm that can predict the multivariate and long-term behavior of plant parameters for 2 h with 120 steps and provide the uncertainty of the prediction. The algorithm applies bidirectional long short-term memory and an attention mechanism, which enable the algorithm to predict the precise long-term trends of the parameters with high prediction accuracy. A conditional variational autoencoder was used to provide uncertainty information about the network prediction. The algorithm was trained, optimized, and validated using a compact nuclear simulator for a Westinghouse 900 MWe NPP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.396-410
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• 2018

To assist operators to properly assess the current situation of the plant, accurate fault diagnosis methodology should be available and used. A reliable fault diagnosis method is beneficial for the safety of nuclear power plants. The major idea proposed in this work is integrating the merits of different fault diagnosis methodologies to offset their obvious disadvantages and enhance the accuracy and credibility of on-line fault diagnosis. This methodology uses the principle component analysis-based model and multi-flow model to diagnose fault type. To ensure the accuracy of results from the multi-flow model, a mechanical simulation model is implemented to do the quantitative calculation. More significantly, mechanism simulation is implemented to provide training data with fault signatures. Furthermore, one of the distance formulas in similarity measurement-Mahalanobis distance-is applied for on-line failure degree evaluation. The performance of this methodology was evaluated by applying it to the reactor coolant system of a pressurized water reactor. The results of simulation analysis show the effectiveness and accuracy of this methodology, leading to better confidence of it being integrated as a part of the computerized operator support system to assist operators in decision-making.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.158-170
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• 2021

Virtualization technologies are being adopted and broadly utilized in many fields and at different levels. In cloud computing, achieving load balancing across large distributed virtual machines is considered a complex optimization problem with an essential importance in cloud computing systems and data centers as the overloading or underloading of tasks on VMs may cause multiple issues in the cloud system like longer execution time, machine failure, high power consumption, etc. Therefore, load balancing mechanism is an important aspect in cloud computing that assist in overcoming different performance issues. In this research, we propose a new approach that combines the advantages of different task allocation algorithms like Round robin algorithm, and Random allocation with different threshold techniques like the VM utilization and the number of allocation counts using least connection mechanism. We performed extensive simulations and experiments that augment different scheduling policies to overcome the resource utilization problem without compromising other performance measures like makespan and execution time of the tasks. The proposed system provided better results compared to the original round robin as it takes into consideration the dynamic state of the system.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제11권11호
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• pp.5338-5359
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• 2017

In-band full-duplex (IBFD) wireless communication supports symmetric dual transmission between two nodes and asymmetric dual transmission among three nodes, which allows improved throughput for distributed IBFD wireless networks. However, inter-node interference (INI) can affect desired packet reception in the downlink of three-node topology. The current Half-duplex (HD) medium access control (MAC) mechanism RTS/CTS is unable to establish an asymmetric dual link and consequently to suppress INI. In this paper, we propose a medium access control mechanism for use in distributed IBFD wireless networks, FD-DMAC (Full-Duplex Distributed MAC). In this approach, communication nodes only require single channel access to establish symmetric or asymmetric dual link, and we fully consider the two transmission modes of asymmetric dual link. Through FD-DMAC medium access, the neighbors of communication nodes can clearly know network transmission status, which will provide other opportunities of asymmetric IBFD dual communication and solve hidden node problem. Additionally, we leverage FD-DMAC to transmit received power information. This approach can assist communication nodes to adjust transmit powers and suppress INI. Finally, we give a theoretical analysis of network performance using a discrete-time Markov model. The numerical results show that FD-DMAC achieves a significant improvement over RTS/CTS in terms of throughput and delay.

• 한국생산제조학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.89-99
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• 2017

This paper describes the development of a thigh wearable robot for power assistance during stair climbing. In the wearable robot developed in this study, high-power BLDC motors and high-capacity harmonic reduction gears are used to effectively assist the thigh muscle during stair climbing. In particular, normal ground and stair are distinguished accurately by using wireless smart shoes, and the stair climbing assistance is performed by activating the actuators at an appropriate time. Impedance of the hip joint was effectively reduced by performing friction compensation of the gears, and a wearing adjustment mechanism was designed to fit the robot to the thigh by conveniently modifying the width and tilting angle of the robot using set collars. Consequently, the performance of the developed thigh wearable robot was verified through stair climbing experiments with EMG measurement.

• 환경정책연구
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.83-118
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• 2009

교토의 정서에 따른 청정개발체제(Clean Development Mechanism, CDM) 사업은 두 가지 목적을 가지고 있다. 하나는 온실가스 감축의무가 있는 나라가 다른 나라에서 온실가스 감축사업을 하여 생긴 감축량으로 자국의 감축의무 이행에 사용할 수 있게 허용하여 비용효과적인 감축의무 이행을 도와주는 것이고 다른 하나는 개발도상국에 대한 투자를 통해 개도국에 기술 이전과 지속가능한 발전을 도모하는 것이다. 그러나 CDM 사업의 현실을 보면 전자의 목적은 달성하고 있으나 후자의 목적은 별로 충족하지 못하고 있다는 지적이 많다. 본 연구는 이러한 상황을 반영하여 우리나라에 맞는 지속가능성 평가 기준을 제시하고자 시도하였다. 여러 가지 의사결정 방법론을 비교하여 다기준분석법(MCA)의 하나인 다속성효용이론(MAUT)을 이용하는 것이 가장 유용하다는 판단에 따라 그에 적절한 요건을 갖는 지속가능성 기준을 파악하고자 하였다. 국내에서는 초기단계에 있는 연구이기 때문에, 국내 전문가의 의견만으로는 보편적 국제적 기준을 놓칠 우려가 있어 외국의 사례에 대한 광범위한 조사를 하였다. 국내 전문가들에게는 GRI가 제시한 기준과 국내외 사례에서 뽑은 37개의 예비 기준을 제시하여 지표의 적합성(relevance), 개선 가능성(possibility of real improvement), 자료수집의 용이성(easiness of data collection), 주관적 선호도(preferences) 등 네 가지 측면에서 1-3점을 각각 부여하도록 설문하였다. 분석 결과는 외국의 11개 사례에서 나온 상위 15개 기준과 국내 설문 결과 상위 15위 기준을 취합하여 12개의 핵심 기준과 10개의 부가 기준을 제시할 수 있었다. 이후 이를 구체적 사업에 적용하여 사례 분석을 시도하였다. 평가 대상 사업으로는 세계 최대의 조력발전 CDM 사업인 "시화호 발전사업"을 선정하고 핵심 지표 12개에 의미있다고 판단되는 3개의 부가지표를 더해 총 15개의 적용지표를 선정한 후, 각 지표별 가중치 설정을 위하여 경제, 환경 사회 각 부문의 전문가에게 두 기준 간의 상대적 선호도를 묻는 AHP 설문을 수행하였다. 이를 Expert Choice라는 전문 소프트웨어를 이용하여 분석하였다. 일관성이 확인된 14명의 응답을 기준으로 종합 점수를 계산한 결과 (+)53.082의 점수가 확인되었고 다양한 경우에 대한 민감도 분석의 결과도 모두 (+)44.667과 (+)65.522 사이에 분포하여 지속가능한 발전에 기여하는 순편익이 더 높은 것으로 확인되었다.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.255-263
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• 2013

Purpose: It is not easy to drive a rice-transplanter avoiding underlapped or overlapped transplanting in paddy fields. An automated guidance system for the riding-type rice-transplanter would be necessary to operate the rice-transplanter autonomously or to assist the beginning drivers as a driving aid. Methods: A prototype of guidance system was composed of embedded computers, RTK-GPS, and a power-steering mechanism. Two Kalman filters were adopted to overcome sparse positioning data (1 Hz) from the RTK-GPS. A global Kalman filter estimated the posture of rice-transplanter every one second, and a local Kalman filter calculated the posture from every new estimation of the global Kalman filter with an interval of 200 ms. A PID controller was applied to the row-following mode control. A control method of U-turning mode was developed as well. A stepping motor with a reduction gear set was used to rotate the shaft of steering wheel. Results: Test trials for U-turning and row-following modes were done in a paddy field after some parameters have been tuned at the ground speed range of 0.3 ~ 1.2 m/s. The minimum RMS error of offset was 3.13 cm at the ground speed of 0.3 m/s while the maximum RMS error was 13.01 cm at 1.2 m/s. The offset RMS error tended to increase as the ground speed increased. The target point distance, LT also affected the system performance and PID controller parameters should be adjusted on different ground speeds. Conclusions: A target angle-based PID controller plus stationary steering angle controller made it possible for the rice-transplanter to steer autonomously by following a reference line accurately and even on U-turning mode. However, as condition in paddy fields is very complicated, the system should control the ground speed that prevents it from deviating too much due to ditch and slope.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.135-142
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• 2013

목적 : 본 연구는 노년층의 여성에게 신맥(BL62), 조해(KI6)혈에 대한 저주파자극이 뇌파에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 알아보고 뇌 기능을 개선하는데 비화학적이고 비침습적인 자극 방법의 후보로써 가능성을 탐구해보고자 실시된 탐색적 연구이다. 방법 : 31명의 건강한 여성 피험자(평균연령, 54.5세)를 대상으로 이중맹검 무작위배정 임상연구가 12세션동안 실시되었다. 시험군에서는 감지할 수 없는 최대의 저주파자극이 실시되었으며(평균전류량, $0.04{\mu}A$), 대조군에서는 거짓자극이 실시되었다. 결과분석을 위해 12세션을 전후로 배경뇌파가 측정되었다. 결과 : 12세션의 자극이 실시된 후 대조군에 비해 실험군의 알파파 상대값은 11채널에서 유의한 증가를 보였으며(p<0.05), 감마파의 상대값은 7채널에서, 세타파의 상대값은 10채널에서 유의한 감소를 보였다. 결론 : 발목관절에 있는 신맥(BL62), 조해(KI6)혈에 대한 저주파 자극은 노년의 여성의 뇌에 베타, 세타, 감마파의 감소를 일으키는 반면 알파파를 선택적으로 증가시켜 뇌를 안정시키는 효과가 있는 것으로 보인다. 이러한 결과는 저주파자극이 향후 스트레스와 관련된 인지 문제를 치료하는 비침습적이고 비화학적인 도구로써의 가능성을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 보이며, 그 기전에 대한 추가적 연구가 필요할 것으로 보인다.