• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

This paper reviews trends of the rehabilitation welfare devices on the basis of products and markets. Latest assistive devices tend to have a fold function. Auxiliary power assist module has been added. The completion of products has been improved. The folding function has strong relationship with portability. Specifically, various mobility devices, including foldable devices, are associated with enhanced portability. Powered auxiliary wheels and upper extremity supporting modules have entered the market. The leading-edge technology like Segway's control technology applies to two-wheel wheelchairs. The brand- new technology, lower extremity robotic exoskeleton, applies to markets. Standing wheelchairs, ramps, stair climbing assistive devices becomes more common. In addition, a combination of a variety of smart devices is being promoted to the classical assistive devices' part. Rehabilitation welfare devices can be more valuable due to nice industrial design, improved materials, and processing technology.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.108-117
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• 2011

This paper proposes an optimal ARS control of a two-wheel mobile inverted pendulum robot. Conventional researches are highly concentrated on the robust control of a mobile inverted pendulum on the flat ground, $i.e.$, mostly focus on the compensation of gyroscope signals. This newly proposed algorithm deals with a climbing control of a slanted surface based on the dynamic modeling using the conventional structure. During the climbing control of the robot, unexpected disturbance forces are essentially caused by the irregular contact force which comes from the irregular contact angle between the wheel and the terrain. The disturbances have effects on the optimal posture of the mobile robot to compensate the slanted angle. Therefore the dynamics equations through physical interpretation are derived for the selection of optimum climbing posture through ARS. Also using the ultrasonic sensor the slope information is obtained to compensate for the force of gravity. The control inputs are dynamically adjusted to climb up the slanted surface effectively. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated through the real experiments.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-13
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• 2018

Divers types of Personal Mobility(PM) are appeared on the market after the Segway is introduced. PMs have propagated very rapidly with their ease of use, and accidents related with PM show a sudden increase. Many studies on the PM are performed as its trend, but dring safety of passengers are excluded. In this study, criteria which can be adopted for PM's driving safety evaluation are reviewed. Also result of driving safety evaluation on 3 types of PM(wheel chair, kickboard, scooter(seating/standing) and walking using deducted criteria is given. COG(Center of the gravity) and SM(Stability Metric) are finally selected two criteria among many of them used in other fields. COG indicates how the center of mass deviates from the direction of the gravity. SM is a normalized value of generated force when PM moves as internal force, angular momentum, and ground reaction force. 0 means stop, and negative value means rollover, so it can be used for safety evaluation of PM. Average and standard deviation of measurement are standard of safety on the COG analysis. Wheel chair is the most safe and kickboard is the most unstable on the COG analysis. Wheel chair is also ranked as top safe on the SM analysis. Among two riding types(seating and standing) on the scooter, seating type is evaluated more safer than standing type. It is proposed that more various type of PMs are need to get safety evaluation for drivers and devices themselves together.