• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.380-385
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• 2015

In the development of an underwater construction robot, the reliability of the operating system is the most important issue because of its huge maintenance cost, especially in a deep sea application. In this paper, we propose a new redundant architectural design for the hydraulic control system of an underwater construction robot. The proposed architecture consists of dual independent modular redundancy management systems linked with a commercial profibus network. A cold standby redundancy management system consisting of a preprocessing switch circuit is applied to the signal network, and a hot standby redundancy management system is adapted to utilize two main controllers.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.708-713
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• 2004

This research develops a sensorless hydraulic servo system of Parallel-Typed robot for harbour construction. Purpose of the robot is to mechanize the construction, which is accomplished through a joystick's operating by a stoneworker (or diver). The robot is attached on the end of an excavator as its attachment or transported by a crane to reach the desired place. The embedded compact controller is installed on the robot body and controlled by wireless telecommunication. For underwater work, it is necessary to waterproof the robot and its sensors. Especially, a sensor waterproof is a main drawback for the underwater robot. This leads us to develop a hydraulic robot position controller using an observer which gives the position information without any position sensor. We design a neural network to identify the displacement change according to the command voltage to servo valve. To verify the sensorless controller, this paper presents the performance of the sensorless control for which the position is given by the observer comparing with that of the sensor control for which the position is measured by LVDT sensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2012.06a
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• pp.9-10
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• 2012

This paper presents an observer to measure the lengths of cylinders of an underwater robot for harbour construction using a pressure sensor. In harbour constructing, we place heavy armour stones weighing over 2~3 tons on the surface of the bank to protect it from storming wave. This work typically done by a diver is difficult and dangerous so that we have developed Stone Diver which is the underwater robot for harbour construction. The robot needs a position sensor to control the hydraulic cylinder. The position sensors mounted outside the cylinders cause poor durability in construction site where shock and dust usually occur. However, the pressure sensor mounted inside a waterproof box improves the durability. Based on the dynamic parameters and the pressures in the cylinder, the observer measures the cylinder's position. This paper presents the positional accuracy of the pressure based observer and the performance of the underwater robot to assemble the armour stones.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.865-871
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• 2012

This paper presents an observer to estimate the displacement of hydraulic cylinders of an underwater robot for harbour construction using a pressure sensor. In harbour constructing, we place heavy armour stones weighing over 2~3 tons on the surface of the bank to protect it from storming wave. This work typically done by a diver is difficult and dangerous so that we have developed Stone Diver which is the underwater robot for harbour construction. The robot needs a displacement sensors to control the position of hydraulic cylinders. The position sensors mounted outside the cylinders cause poor durability in construction site where shock and dust usually occur. However, the pressure sensor mounted inside a waterproof box improves the durability. Based on the dynamic parameters and the pressures in the cylinder, the observer estimates the cylinder's position. This paper presents the positional accuracy of the pressure based observer and the performance of the underwater robot to assemble the armour stones.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1781-1786
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• 2003

This research develops a robot as the device which constructs underwater harbour. This construction is to build a breakwater, which is dangerous and difficult. The hydraulic parallel mechanism-typed robot is developed to mechanize the construction by operating of a stoneworker (or diver) through a joystick. The six-dof robot is able to carry 2-3 tons' heavy stone and put it on the surface of breakwater. This paper presents the mechanical design of a miniature robot, its control and application for the breakwater construction.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 2021

This paper introduces model-based meta reinforcement learning as a control for the manipulator of an underwater construction robot. Model-based meta reinforcement learning updates the model fast using recent experience in a real application and transfers the model to model predictive control which computes control inputs of the manipulator to reach the target position. The simulation environment for model-based meta reinforcement learning is established using MuJoCo and Gazebo. The real environment of manipulator control for underwater construction robot is set to deal with model uncertainties.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.323-330
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• 2009

We have been developing an underwater robot for harbour construction using a parallel mechanism The robot is attached to the rope of a crane, which curries a large stone into the undersea The robot's yaw and pitch are controlled by hydraulic cylinders but its roll is uncontrollable. We mount propellers in both side of the robot to generate the roll motion This paper studies on the control for the roll motion of a underwater robot. A gyro-sensor is used to measure the angle in a roll motion We develop the dynamic model to describe the robot's roll motion by a second order non-linear system and identify the model parameters by recursive least square and adaptive identifier. PD control, recursive model based control and adaptive model based control are applied with the dynamic model which computes the control input to compensate disturbances. This paper introduces the underwater robot system and presents the simulated and experimental results of the proposed controller.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2015

There are many efforts to mechanize the process for underwater port construction due to the severe and adverse working environment. This paper presents an underwater construction robot to level rubbles on the seabed for port construction. The robot is composed of a blade and a multi-functional arm to flatten the rubble mound with respect to the reference level at uneven terrain and to dig and dump the rubbles. This research analyzes the kinematics of the blade and the multi-functional arm including track and swing motions with respect to a world coordinate assigned to a reference depth sensor. This analysis is conducted interfacing with the position and orientation sensors installed at the robot. A hydraulic control system is developed to control a track, a blade and a multi-functional arm for rubble leveling work. The experimental results of rubble leveling work conducted by the robot are presented in land and subsea. The working speed of the robot is eight times faster than that of a human diver, and the working quality is acceptable. The robot is expected to have much higher efficiency in deep water where a human diver is unable to work.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2016

This paper presents an underwater structure 3D reconstruction method using a 2D multibeam imaging sonar. Compared with other underwater environmental recognition sensors, the 2D multibeam imaging sonar offers high resolution images in water with a high turbidity level by showing the reflection intensity data in real-time. With such advantages, almost all underwater applications, including ROVs, have applied this 2D multibeam imaging sonar. However, the elevation data are missing in sonar images, which causes difficulties with correctly understanding the underwater topography. To solve this problem, this paper concentrates on the physical relationship between the sonar image and the scene topography to find the elevation information. First, the modeling of the sonar reflection intensity data is studied using the distances and angles of the sonar beams and underwater objects. Second, the elevation data are determined based on parameters like the reflection intensity and shadow length. Then, the elevation information is applied to the 3D underwater reconstruction. This paper evaluates the presented real-time 3D reconstruction method using real underwater environments. Experimental results are shown to appraise the performance of the method. Additionally, with the utilization of ROVs, the contour and texture image mapping results from the obtained 3D reconstruction results are presented as applications.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.361-370
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• 2020

We developed a heavy-duty work class ROV trencher named URI-T (Underwater robot it's trencher) that can conduct burial and maintenance tasks for underwater cables and small diameter pipelines. It requires various supporting systems, including a dynamic positioning (DP) vessel, launch and recovery system (LARS), A-frame, and winch in order to perform burial tasks because of its dimensions (6.5 m × 5.0 m × 4.5 m, 20 t) and the tough working environment. However, operating a DP vessel has disadvantages as it is expensive to rent and operate and it is difficult to adjust the working schedule for some domestic coast construction cases. In this paper, we propose a method using a barge instead of a DP vessel to avoid the above disadvantages. Although burying the cable and pipeline using a barge has lower working efficiency than a DP vessel, it can save construction expenses and does not require a large crew. The proposed method was applied over two months at the construction of the water supply in Yokji-do, and the results were verified.