• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1495-1499
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• 2003

There is some equipment that helps user to exercise and to walk. But almost all equipments require some physical strength of their muscles. So we developed a system that could assist walking action of the people with lower-limb disability. The system called as walking stand adopted the balancing mechanism which assures the stable walking, and the 4 link-based mechanism that had 2 degrees of freedom on each leg. The walking stand uses four motors and has two sets of the special link-structure to simulate the human walking mechanism. With our system, even serious disabled with lower-limb disability may enjoy walking rehabilitation. And by adjusting the power, it can be used as the walking assistant mechanism instead of conventional wheelchairs. Experiments showed that our walking stand is applicable to the rehabilitation and also to the mobile device in our daily life for those people who do not have enough physical ability to walk by themselves.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1638-1641
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• 2004

Many walking stands, and assisting tools have been developed for the people with low-limb disability to prevent diseases from bedridden state and to help them walk again. But many of those equipments require user to have some physical strength or balancing ability. In our last research, we developed walking assist system for the people with lower-limb disability. With the system, user can be assisted by actuators, and do not have to worry about falling down. The system adapted the unique closed links structure with four servomotors, three PICs as controller, and four limit switches as HMI (human man interface). We confirmed the adaptability of the system by the experiment. In this research, Muscle Stiffness Sensor was tested as the advanced HMI for walking assist system, and confirmed the adaptability by the experiment. As Muscle Stiffness Sensor can attain the muscle activity, user can interface with any device he want to control. Experimental result with Muscle Stiffness sonsor showed that user could easily control the walking assist system as his will, just by changing his muscle strength.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.353-359
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• 2017

This paper describes the design and manufacture of a ankle two-axis force sensor of a walking assist robot for hemiplegic leg patient. The walking assist robot for the hemiplegic leg patient can safely control the robot by detecting whether the foot wearing the walking assist robot is in contact with the obstacle or not. To do so, a two-axis force sensor should be attached to the robot's ankle. The sensor is used to measure the force of a patient's ankle lower part. The two-axis force sensor is composed of a Fx force sensor, a Fy force sensor and a pulley, and they detect the x and y direction forces, respectively. The two-axis force sensor was designed using by FEM(Finite Element Method), and manufactured using by strain-gages. The characteristics experiment of the two-axis force sensor was carried out respectively. The test results indicated that the interference error of the two-axis force sensor was less than 1.2%, the repeatability error and the non-linearity of the two-axis force sensor was less than 0.04% respectively. Therefore, the fabricated two-axis force sensor can be used to measure the force of ankle lower part in the walking assist robot.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.294-301
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• 2010

In order to produce a convenient robot for the aged and the lower limb disabled, it is needed for the research detecting implicit walking intention and controlling robot by a user's intention. In this study, we developed sensor module system to control the walking- assist robot using FSR sensor and tilt sensor, and analyzed the signals being acquired from two sensors. The sensor module system consisted of the assist device control unit, communication unit by wire/wireless, information collection unit, information operation unit, and information processing PC which handles integrated processing of assist device control. The FSR sensors attached user's the palm and the soles of foot are sensing force/pressure signals from these areas and are used for detecting the walking intention and states. The tilt sensor acquires roll and pitch signal from area of vertebrae lumbales and reflects the pose of the upper limb. We could recognize the more detailed user's walking intention such as 'start walking', 'start of right or left foot forward', and 'stop walking' by the combination of FSR and tilt signals can recognize.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 2017

This paper describes the design and fabrication of a three-axis force sensor with parallel plate beams (PPSs) for measuring the calf force while a patient with a walking assist robot is walking. Current walking assist robots can't measure the weight of the patient's leg and the robot's leg which required for robot control. So, the three-axis force sensor in the calf link is designed and manufactured, it is composed of a Fx force sensor, a Fy force sensor and a Fz force sensor. The three-axis force sensor was designed using by FEM(Finite Element Method), and fabricated using strain-gages. The characteristics experiment of the three-axis force sensor was carried out respectively. The test results indicated that the repeatability error and the non-linearity error of three-axis force sensor was less than 0.04% respectively. Therefore, the fabricated three-axis force sensor in the calf link can be used to measure the patient's calf force in the walking assist robot.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2018

In this paper, a torque sensor is designed and fabricated to measure the knee joint torque of a walking assist robot for stroke patients. The torque sensor sensing part was modeled on the link of the part connected to the knee joint motor. The torque capacity of the knee joint was calculated by simulation and the size of the torque sensor sensing part was designed using the finite element method. The torque sensor was fabricated by attaching a strain gauge to the sensing part. Characteristic experiments were conducted to characterize the torque sensor, and the torque sensor was calibrated to utilize it for the control of the walking assist robot. As a result of the characteristics test, the reproducibility error and the nonlinearity error of the torque sensor were 0.03% and 0.04%, respectively. Therefore, it is considered that the developed torque sensor can be used to measure the torque applied to the knee joint when walking on a walking assist robot.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.933-938
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose the organization of a sensor system and user's intent detection algorithm for walking assist rehabilitation robots. The main purpose of walking assist rehabilitation robots is assisting SCI patients to walk in normal environment. To use walking assist rehabilitation robot in normal environment, it is needed to consider various factors about user's safety and detection of user's intent and so on. For these purposes, we have analyzed the use case of rehabilitation robots and organized the system of sensors for walking assist rehabilitation robots and finally, we have developed the algorithm which is used to detect user's intent for those. We applied our proposal method in the rehabilitation robot, ROBIN, and verified their effectiveness by normal, not patient.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.15-22
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• 2012

The mechanical system of wearable walking assist robot needs to be optimized for adapting with human body structure and the planned control algorithm should have a secure procedure when a incongruity situation which can cause musculoskeletal injury occurs because a wearable robot is attached to a body. The understanding of walking or musculoskeletal motions characteristics must be preceeded and analyzed for developing novel wearable walking assist robot. In this study we tried to find out the capacities of powers and torques of joint actuators to design optimized performances of system and to obtain the analysis data to figure out the characteristics of joint movements during some types of walk. The major types of walk and motion are stair climbing and descending, sit-to-stand motion, and slope walking. In this study all these motions were analyzed experimentally except slope walking.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.32.2-32
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• 2001

We have developed the power assistive leg called HAL (Hybrid Assistive Leg) which provide the walking aid for walking disorder persons or aged persons without nursing person. We developed HAL-3 by considering some problems of HAL-1,2 which had developed previously. The mechanism of HAL-3 actuator could be simplified and sophisticated by using the harmonic drive. As the control signal of HAL-3 EMG signal was used. We proposed a calibration method to identify parameters which relates the EMG to joint torque by using HAL-3. We could obtain suitable torque estimated by EMG and realize power assist in walking according to the intention of the operator To the remove discomfort for quick motion power assist, the feedforward controller was installed at the beginning of motion ...

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.1473-1474
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• 2011