• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2021

Due to various benefits such as unlimited degrees of freedom, environment adaptability, and safety for humans, engineers have used soft materials with hyperelastic behavior in various industrial, medical, rescue, and other sectors. One of the applications of these materials in the fabrication of bending soft actuators (SA) is that they have eliminated many problems in the actuators such as production cost, mechanical complexity, and design algorithm. However, SA has complexities, such as predicting and monitoring behavior despite the many benefits. The first part of this paper deals with the prediction of SA behavior through mathematical models such as Ogden and Darijani, and its comparison with the results of experiments. At first, by examining different geometric models, the cubic structure was selected as the optimal structure in the investigated models. This geometrical structure at the same pressure showed the most significant bending in the simulation. The simulation results were then compared with experimental, and the final gripper model was designed and manufactured using a 3D printer with silicone rubber as for the polymer part. This geometrical structure is capable of bending up to a 90-degree angle at 70 kPa in less than 2 seconds. The second section is dedicated to monitoring the bending behavior created by the strain sensors with different sensitivity and stretchability. In the fabrication of the sensors, silicon is used as a soft material with hyperelastic behavior and carbon fiber as a conductive material in the soft material substrate. The SA designed in this paper is capable of deforming up to 1000 cycles without changing its characteristics and capable of moving objects weigh up to 1200 g. This SA has the capability of being used in soft robots and artificial hand making for high-speed objects harvesting.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.640-655
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• 2019

Technology status was investigated by analyzing patents and development cases of wearable robots. Development direction of wearable robot for wearability was also suggested by understanding the problems of wearability from development cases through the FGI technique. The number of patents per technical field was the most in the field of strength support, but AI in the technology field was different in each country; Korea was found to be poor in the category of daily living assistance. The number of patents by technology category was the most in the category of muscular strength assistance. However, the values of AI in the technology category were different in each country; Korea was found to be poor in the category of daily living assistance. Development cases were focused on rehabilitation, so development is not fulfilled uniformly by use purpose. By wearing body parts, robots with single function type were mainly developed. Rigid material robots were mainly developed. It was confirmed that wearable robot technology is not developed evenly in the category of application because it is in the early stage of the technical proposal and centered on main performance improvement. We derived twelve wearable conditions for wearable robots: Shape and Size Appropriateness, Movement Appropriateness, Composition Appropriateness, Physiological Appropriateness, Performance Satisfaction, Ease of Operation, Safety, Durability, Ease of Dressing, Ease of Cleaning, Portability and Ease of Storage and Appearance Satisfaction. Finally, the development direction of a wearable robot for each wearable condition was suggested.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.36.2-36
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• 2002

.Developing a skeletal framework artificial hand similar to real human hand. .Developing a micro artificial muscle actuated by pneumatic power. .Building a micro pneumatic system including micro atuators and its control devices. .Building a soft driving system for Service robots. .Designning and Fabricating a multi-channel micro pneumatic valve using MEMS technology.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2013

'Multi-scale mass-deployable cooperative robots' is a next generation robotics paradigm where a large number of robots that vary in size cooperate in a hierarchical fashion to collect information in various environments. While this paradigm can exhibit the effective solution for exploration of the wide area consisting of various types of terrain, its technical maturity is still in its infant state and many technical hurdles should be resolved to realize this paradigm. In this paper, we propose to develop new design and manufacturing methodologies for the multi-scale mass-deployable cooperative robots. In doing so, we present various fundamental technologies in four different research fields. (1) Adaptable design methods consist of compliant mechanisms and hierarchical structures which provide robots with a unified way to overcome various and irregular terrains. (2) Soft composite materials realize the compliancy in these structures. (3) Multi-scale integrative manufacturing techniques are convergence of traditional methods for producing various sized robots assembled by such materials. Finally, (4) the control and communication techniques for the massive swarm robot systems enable multiple functionally simple robots to accomplish the complex job by effective job distribution.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1195-1200
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• 2004

We introduce an introductory engineering education course for engineering majors and non-engineering majors. This course does not require any previous knowledge and experience on engineering. It requires strong curiosities and imaginations on current and future society we live in, where technology is inseparable ingredient. Course encourages attendees to explore fundamental issues of engineering: what is proper technology and what are proper ways of exercising engineering, issues dealt in soft engineering. Since course topics cover many aspects of technology, traditional learning methods fail to be successful and efficient. Various efficient learning methods have been proposed and implemented. We utilize various interactive tangible media, which include simulated thought experiments and physical media experiences. About 20 episodes in short film format are produced based on scenario written according to related issues selected. Physical media like interactive robots are introduced for attendees' stimulated experiences. We summarize our exciting experiments on interactive teaching experiences at Pusan National University which include on/off-line interactions, assignments, projects, and evaluations.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.103-110
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• 2020

Bio-inspired underwater robots have been studied to improve the dynamic performance of fins, such as swimming speed and efficiency, which is the most basic performance. Among them, bio-inspired soft robots with a compliant tail fin can have high degrees of freedom. On the other hand, to improve the driving efficiency of the compliant fins, the stiffness of the tail fin should be changed with the driving frequency. Therefore, a new type of variable stiffness mechanism has been developed and verified. This study, which was inspired by the anatomy of a real dolphin, assessed a process of designing and manufacturing a robotic dolphin with a variable stiffness mechanism. By mimicking the vertebrae of a dolphin, the variable stiffness driving part was manufactured using subtractive and additive manufacturing. A driving tendon was placed considering the location of the tendon in the actual dolphin, and the additional tendon was installed to change its stiffness. A robotic dolphin was designed and manufactured in a streamlined shape, and the swimming speed was measured by varying the stiffness. When the stiffness of the tail fin was varied at the same driving frequency, the swimming speed and thrust changed by approximately 1.24 and 1.5 times, respectively.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.667-685
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• 2022

This paper aims to investigate 4D printing materials for soft robots. 4D printing is a targeted evolution of the 3D printed structure in shape, property, and functionality. It is capable of self-assembly, multi-functionality, and self-repair. In addition, it is time-dependent, printer-independent, and predictable. The shape-shifting behaviors considered in 4D printing include folding, bending, twisting, linear or nonlinear expansion/contraction, surface curling, and generating surface topographical features. The shapes can shift from 1D to 1D, 1D to 2D, 2D to 2D, 1D to 3D, 2D to 3D, and 3D to 3D. In the 4D printing auxetic structure, the kinetiX is a cellular-based material design composed of rigid plates and elastic hinges. In pneumatic auxetics based on the kirigami structure, an inverse optimization method for designing and fabricating morphs three-dimensional shapes out of patterns laid out flat. When 4D printing material is molded into a deformable 3D structure, it can be applied to the exoskeleton material of soft robots such as upper and lower limbs, fingers, hands, toes, and feet. Research on 4D printing materials for soft robots is essential in developing smart clothing for healthcare in the textile and fashion industry.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.270-277
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• 2019

Inspired by small insects, which perform rapid and stable locomotion based on body softness and tripod gait, various milli-scale six-legged crawling robots were developed to move rapidly in harsh environment. In particular, cockroach's leg compliance was resembled to enhance the locomotion performance of the crawling robots. In this paper, we investigated the effects of changing leg compliance for the locomotion performance of the small light weight legged crawling robot under various payload condition. First, we developed robust milli-scale six-leg crawling robot which actuated by one motor and fabricated in SCM method with light and soft material. Using this robot platform, we measured the running velocity of the robot depending on the leg stiffness and payload. In result, there was optimal range of the leg stiffness enhancing the locomotion ability at each payload condition in the experiment. It suggests that the performance of the crawling robot can be improved by adjusting stiffness of the legs in given payload condition.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2072-2077
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• 2003

Animal-like robots are serving an important role as a linkage between biology and engineering. So, in this paper, we aim to develop a biomimetic microrobot that mimics the locomotion mechanism of a gastropod. This microrobot has 3 DOF (x, y translation and rotation), and has small size, unlimited traveling range, high resolution and low cost. Its movement can be made using propagation wave that is generated by the controllable sinusoidal voltage source and piezoelectric effects. This soft motion that can be generated by propagation wave and piezoelectric mechanism would be useful for the motion on the slippery surface. So we modeled the propagation wave mechanism including piezoelectric effect and friction on the contact surface, and could know the velocity of the microrobot is dependent on the driving frequency, input voltage peak, propagation wavelength and surface friction coefficient. With these results we design the microrobot, and accomplish its fabrication and experimentation. The development of this microrobot shall be aimed to design an autonomous moving actuator like animal. Also it can be used from micromanipulation system technology to biology and medicine.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.930-939
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• 2004

In this paper, both dynamic constraints and kinematic constraints are considered for the analysis of manipulability of robotic systems comprised of multiple cooperating arms. Given bounds on the torques of each Joint actuator for every robot, the purpose of this study is to drive the bounds of task-space acceleration of object carried by the system. Bounds on each joint torque, described as a polytope, is transformed to the task-space acceleration through matrices related with robot dynamics, robot kinematics, object dynamics, grasp conditions, and contact conditions. A series of mathematical manipulations including the procedure calculating minimum infinite-norm solution of linear equation is applied to get the reachable acceleration bounds from given actuator dynamic constrains. Several examples including two robot systems as well as three robot system are shown with the assumptions of complete-constraint contact model(or' very soft contact') and insufficient or proper degree of freedom robot.