• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.247-248
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• 2010

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.371-376
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to develop a walking assistance system with mobility support and life support functions so that the elderly with reduced physical ability and patients who are uncomfortable when moving can move comfortably indoors and outdoors, and help social life. An obstacle recognition sensor module that can be applied indoors and outdoors is installed on a lightweight walking aid. The purpose of this study is to develop a walking assistance system with mobility support and life support functions so that the elderly with reduced physical ability and patients who are uncomfortable when moving can move comfortably indoors and outdoors, and help social life. An obstacle recognition sensor module that can be applied indoors and outdoors is installed on a lightweight walking aid. It is a system structure of an integrated actuator and brake system that can avoid obstacles in consideration of the safety of the elderly and is easy to install on the device. In this paper, the design of a lightweight walking aid was designed to increase the convenience of the socially disadvantaged and the elderly with reduced exercise ability. In addition, in order to overcome the disadvantage of being inconvenient to use indoors due to the noise and vibration of the motor during operation, an In-Wheel type motor is applied to develop and apply a low noise, low vibration and high efficiency drive system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.2138-2142
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• 2005

A wearable sensor system is proposed as a man-machine interface to control a device for walking assistance. The sensor system is composed of small sensors to detect the information about the user's body motion such as the activity level of skeletal muscles and the acceleration of each body parts. Each sensor includes a microcomputer and all the sensors are connected into a network by using the serial communication function of the microcomputer. The whole network is integrated into a belt made of soft fabric, thus, users can put on/off very easily. The sensor system is very reliable because of its decentralized network configuration. The body information obtained from the sensor system is used for controlling the assisting device to achieve a comfortable and an effective walking training.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.223-228
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• 2011

In this paper, we proposed a technique to recognize three states in stance phase of gait cycle. Walking assistive devices are used to help the elderly people walk or to monitor walking behavior of the disabled persons. For the effective assistance, they adopt an intelligent sensor system to understand user's current state in walking. There are three states in stance phase; Loading Response, Midstance, and Terminal Stance. We developed a foot pressure sensor using 24 FSRs (Force Sensing/Sensitive Resistors). The foot pressure patterns were integrated through the interpolation of FSR cell array. The pressure patterns were processed to get the trajectories of COM (Center of Mass). Using the trajectories of COM of foot pressure, we can recognize the three states of stance phase. The experimental results show the effective recognition of stance phase and the possibility of usage on the walking assistive device for better control and/or foot pressure monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.108-119
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• 2024

In this study, we aimed to propose enhancements to the dimensions and design of walking aids tailored for elderly women. Specifically, we focused on wheeled walking assistance devices and aligned each structural component with the appropriate human body dimensions to suggest appropriate product dimensions organized by size clusters, aiming to maximize the practicality of the results. We extracted essential factors required for product design, including human body size elements. The dimension extraction method was clustered to establish connections between key human body parameters-such as height, weight, and age groups-and product dimensions. We conducted a comparative analysis of walking aid product dimensions according to the design elements and sizes of models currently available in the market. The outcomes of this study offer objective, data-driven insights into areas where existing models on the market could benefit from improvement and we anticipate that the findings of this study will provide a solid, quantitative foundation for individuals when selecting the most suitable model for their needs.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.936-942
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• 2005

Recently the exoskeletal power assistive equipment which is a kind of wearable robot has been widely developed to help the human body motion. For the elderly people and patients, however, some limits exist due to the weight and volume of the equipments. As a feasible solution, a tendon-driven exoskeletal power assistive device fur the lower body, and caster walker are proposed in this research. Since the caster walker carries the heavy items, the weight and volume of the wearable exoskeleton are minimized. The key control is used to generate the joint torque required to assist motions such as sitting, standing and walking. Experiments were performed for several motions and the EMG sensors were used to measure the magnitude of assistance. When the motion of sitting down and standing up was compared with and without wearing the proposed device, the $25\%$ assistance was acquired.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2016

In accordance to rapid aging of population, the accidents of elderly pedestrian and pedestrian safety are becoming very important issues. In terms of smartphone technologies, older people are increasingly looking for useful and friendly ICT services that which can add a value on their silver life. This paper introduced a new IT-based service for elderly walking assist using a smart-phone accompanied by a wearable watch. We describe the functional requirements and a systems architecture model with an interface between a smart-phone and wearable watch. Moreover, this study attempted to verify what services are needed and to estimate elderly pedestrians' WTP (willingness to pay) for IT-based walking assistance device. A total of 189 elderly pedestrians were randomly surveyed through face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire consisted of 3 categories: (1) questions pertaining to socio-economic status, (2) 12 questions regarding walking attitudes, and (3) a question to measure WTP. With this gathered data, factor analysis and path model estimating were conducted. The results identified the elderly user requirements and the use-value of new innovative products for IT-based walking assistance services by two groups(latent elderly and elderly). The modeling result shows that elderly's service preference would increase the possibilities for the commercialization of IT-based walking device with improving their walking safety.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.814-823
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• 2011

Nowadays many neurological diseases such as stroke and Parkinson diseases are continually increasing. Orthotic devices as well as exoskeletons have been widely developed for supporting movement assistance and therapy of patients. Robotic knee orthosis can compensate stiff-knee gait of the paralyzed limb and can provide patients consistent assistance at wearable environments. With keeping a robotic orthosis wearable, however, it is not easy to develop a compact and safe actuator with fast rotation and high torque for consistent supports of patients during walking. In this paper, we propose a novel kinematic model for a robotic knee orthosis to drive a knee joint with independent actuation during swing and stance phases, which can allow an actuator with fast rotation to control swing motions and an actuator with high torque to control stance motions, respectively. The suggested kinematic model is composed of a hamstring device with a slide-crank mechanism, a quadriceps device with five-bar/six-bar links, and a patella device for knee covering. The quadriceps device operates in five-bar links with 2-dof motions during swing phase and is changed to six-bar links during stance phase by the contact motion to the patella device. The hamstring device operates in a slider-crank mechanism for entire gait cycle. The kinematics and velocity/force relations are analyzed for the quadriceps and hamstring devices. Finally, the adequate actuators for the suggested kinematic model are designed based on normal gait requirements. The suggested kinematic model will allow a robotic knee orthosis to use compact and light actuators with full support during walking.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2010

Case of patients with weakness in cardiopulmonary system, other ambulatory function is normal, but oxygen supply function is problem. So they need reduce energy consumption for gait by assistance system. In this study, we designed and developed walking assistant device which helps flexion and extension of hip joint for cardiopulmonary patients. There are two motors, each at the left and right side of pelvis, providing torque to the hip joint. The target angle of the flexion and extension in the hip joint is set according to the normal gait. As a result, reduction of energy consumption was 14.8% by gait assistive device.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.121-127
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• 2017

Recently, many patients in a hospital are threatened life by fire disaster. Because many patients like vulnerable people have more evacuation problem than ordinary person. So a patient who can escape by oneself with walking assistance device like crutches or wheelchair and another patient who can't escape by oneself are should be supported safety technologies and service. Earlier research of 'hospital evacuation' led by actual experiments or computer evacuation simulation. Actual experiment is effective to gain credibility of result but it is difficult for patients to experiment repeatedly and it requires consideration for spatial problem and economic problems. Although computer evacuation simulation have been used to solve these problems, almost have concluded only results based on velocity without evacuation device. In this study, evacuation results with support device application or not are analysed used by computer evacuation simulation based on MAS(Multi Agent System). As a result, it is drawn through proof of efficiency of evacuation device in the vertical space like stairs that can improve the evacuation plan for vulnerable people in the hospital.