• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.96-103
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• 2009

This paper describes a humanoid robot's intelligent foot with two six-axis force/moment sensors. The developed humanoid robots didn't get the intelligent feet for walking on uneven surface safely. In order to walk on uneven surface safely, the robot should measure the reaction forces and moments applied on the sales of the feet, and they should be controlled with the measured the forces and moments. In this paper, an intelligent foot for a humanoid robot was developed. First, the body of foot was designed to be rotated the toe and the heel to all directions, second, the six-axis force/moment sensors were manufactured, third, the high-speed controller was manufactured using DSP(digital signal processor), fourth, the humanoid robot's intelligent foot was manufactured using the body of foot, two six-axis force/moment sensors and the high-speed controller, finally, the characteristic test of the intelligent foot was carried out. It is thought that the foot could be used for a humanoid robot.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1250-1258
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• 1997

This paper reports on the development of a new foot for a quadrupedal jointed-leg type walking robot. The foot has 2 toes, one at the front and the other at the rear side, for stable landing on uneven ground by point contact. The toes can move up and down independantly, guided by double-wishbone shaped parallel links which enable the lower leg to rotate with respect to a remote center on the ground surface. The motion of each toe is damped by a hydropneumatic shock absorber integrated in the foot in order to absorb the dynamic landing shock. Furthermore, the new foot can reduce the maximum hip joint drive torque by shortening the moment arm length between the hip joint and the landing force vector on the ground. Intensive experiments were carried out in this study by using a one-leg walking model to investigate the soft landing performance of the foot which could be hardly offered by conventional robot feet such as a flat plate with a gimbal type ankle joint. And it was confirmed that the hip joint torque of the leg walking on the flat surface could be reduced remarkably by using the new foot.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.667-673
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• 2010

This paper proposes a control method based on a pseudo-impedance model to control the motion of biped robots walking on an uneven surface. The pseudo-impedance model simulates the action of the ankle of a foot landing on the ground when a human walks. When the foot is in contact with the ground, the human ankle goes through two different phases. In the first phase, the human exerts little or no effort and applies no torque on the ankle so that the orientation of the foot is effortlessly and passively adjusted with respect to the ground. In the second phase of landing, the ankle generates a significant amount of torque in order to rotate and move the main part of the human body forward and to support the weight of the human; this phase is called the weight acceptance phase. Computer simulations of a 12-DOF biped robot with a 6-DOF environment model were performed to determine the effectiveness of the proposed pseudo-impedance control. The simulation results show that stable locomotion can be achieved on an irregular surface by using the proposed model.

• Korean Journal of Rural Living Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 1994

This study was conducted to provide a counterplan for preventing so celled “plastic house syndrome” revealed among farmers spending much time in the plastic houses. For this, working environment inside a plastic house was observed. Then, experiments were carried out mostly in a climatic chamber with three kinds of working posture on uneven($D_1-F_1$) or even($D_2-F_2$) ground surface. Tested work loads with three kinds of working posture were : moving in a sitting posture with attaching breast to legs and waving arms ($A_1$), moving in a bending posture with waving arms ($B_1$), and moving a 6kg weighting luggage in a standing posture ($C_1$) Physiological responses in the workers to three different work loads were observed in a climatic chamber, with or without using some instruments, to evaluate work efficiencies. The results obtained are summerized as follows. 1. $C_1$ was the hardest work and $B_1$ was harder than $A_1$ on the even ground. 2. Worker's physiological fatigue and physical loads remarkably decreased when using the instruments such as a chair and a cart with some rollers on the even ground. 3. Working with pushing a cart($F_1$) was the hardest work, and standing($D_1$) was harder than walking($E_1$) on the uneven ground. 4. Worker's physiological fatigues and physical loads remarkably decreased on the even ground. 5. Similar results were obtained when the same experiment was carried out in a plastic house.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.692-697
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• 2011

There are many researches to develop robots that improve its mobility to adapt in various uneven environments. In the paper, a hybrid mobile robot that can dock with the other robot and transforms between wheeled robot and legged robot is proposed. The hybrid mobile robot platform has docking device with a peg and a cup module. In addition, the robot is possible to walk and drive according to condition of the road. A navigation algorithm of the hybrid mobile robot is proposed to improve the mobility of robots using docking algorithm based on image processing on the broken road and uneven terrain. The proposed method recognizes road condition through PSD sensor attached in front and bottom of the robot and selects an appropriate navigation method according to terrain surface. The proposed docking and navigation methods are verified through experiments using hybrid mobile robots.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.4 s.175
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• pp.1007-1015
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• 2000

This paper proposes an adaptive trajectory generation strategy of using on-line ZMP information and an impedance control method for biped robots. Since robots experience various disturbances during their locomotion, their walking mechanism should have the robustness against those disturbances, which requires an on-line adaptation capability. In this context, an on-line trajectory planner is proposed to compensate the required moment for recovering stability. The ZMP equation and sensed ZMP information are used in this trajectory generation strategy. In order to control a biped robot to be able to walk stably, its controller should guarantee stable footing at the moment of feet contacts with the ground as well as maintaining good trajectory tracking performance. Otherwise, the stability of robot will be significantly compromised. To reduce the magnitude of an impact and guarantee a stable footing when a foot contacts with the ground, this paper. proposes to increase the damping of the leg drastically and to modify the reference trajectory of the leg. In the proposed control scheme, the constrained leg is controlled by impedance control using the impedance model with respect to the base link. Computer simulations performed with a 3-dof environment model that consists of combination of a nonlinear and linear compliant contact model show that the proposed controller performs well and that it has robustness against unknown uneven surface. Moreover, the biped robot with the proposed trajectory generator can walk even when it is pushed with a certain amount of external force.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.304-309
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• 2014

In this paper, we design a hybrid wheeled and legged mobile robot with a waist joint. The proposed hybrid mobile robot is designed to have a hybrid structure with leg and wheel for the efficient movement in flat and uneven surfaces. The proposed robot have a waist joint that is used to stably transform from wheeled driving to legged walking of the robot and to overcome non-flat surface. In order to recognize various environments we use LRF sensor, PSD sensor, CCD camera. Also, a motion planning method for hybrid mobile robot with a waist joint is proposed to select wheeled driving motion and legged walking motion of the robot based the environment types. We verify the efficient mobility of the developed hybrid mobile robot through navigation experiments using the proposed motion planning method in various environments.