• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.364-371
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in lower limb exoskeletons. The exoskeleton system is a human-robot cooperation system that enhances the performance of the wearer in various environments while the human operator is in charge of the position control, contextual perception, and motion signal generation through the robot's artificial intelligence. This system is in the form of a mechanical structure that is combined to the exterior of a human body to improve the muscular power of the wearer. This paper is followed by an overview of the development history of exoskeleton systems and their three main applications in military/industrial field, medical/rehabilitation field and social welfare field. Besides the key technologies in exoskeleton systems, the research is presented from several viewpoints of the exoskeleton mechanism, human-robot interface and human-robot cooperation control.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.233-238
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• 2014

In this paper, we developed a finger robot simulating spasticity and contracture which can be used as a testing bed for evaluating performance of hand rehabilitation devices while it can be also used to train clinicians for improving reliability of clinical assessment. The robot is designed for adult finger size and for independent control of Metacarpophalangeal Joint and Proximal Interphalangeal Joint. Algorithm for mimicking spasticity and contracture is implemented. By adjusting the parameters related to contracture and spasticity, the robot can mimic various patterns of responses observed in fingers with spasticity and contracture.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.573-579
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• 2006

Most of the recently developed robots are human friendly robots which imitate an animal or human such as entertainment robot, biomimetic robot and humanoid robot. Interest in these robots is increased because the social trend is focused on health, welfare, and graying. By these social backgrounds, robots become more human friendly and suitable or home or personal environment. The more biomimetic robots resemble living creature, the more human feels familiarity. Human feels close friendship not only when feeding a pet, but also when watching a pet having the food. Most of entertainment robots and pet robots use internal-type batteries and have a self-recharging function. Entertainment robots and pet robots with internal-type batteries are not able to operate during charging the battery. So far there have been a few robots that do not depend on an internal battery. However, they need a bulky energy conversion unit and a slug or foods as an energy source, which is not suitable for home or personal application. In this paper, we introduce a new biomimetic entertainment robot with autonomous eating functionality, called EPRO-1(Eating Pet RObot version 1). The EPRO-1 is able to eat a food (a small battery), by itself and evacuate. We describe the design concept of the autonomous eating mechanism of the EPRO-1, characteristics of sub-parts of the manufactured mechanism and its control system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1153-1157
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• 2004

The report of the Korean National Statistics Office shows that Korea has been emerging as an elderly society rapidly, and it will burden the Korean society with excessive social welfare cost for the aged in the near future. If we can help the aged to live healthy in some ways, the social burden for the health care of the aged will be lessened. In order to help physical and mental health of the elderly person, we have developed an exercise apparatus called intelligent arm wrestling machine system. This paper presents the mechanism and scenario of the proposed intelligent arm wrestling machine system. The proposed mechanism and scenario are peculiar. In particular, the proposed scenario determines randomly who will win between the man and the robot and generates a game process that the arm-wrestler cannot predict in advance.

• Journal of Web Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1239-1264
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• 2022

This study examined ethical ways to use welfare technology in a situation where the demand for non-face-to-face welfare services using Cloud based healthcare systems had increased rapidly in caring for elderly people who live alone. Through focus group interviews with social workers related to the care of elderly people who live alone, in-depth interviews were conducted on the current situation, problems, ethical issues, and development directions arising in the implementation of welfare technology. The main areas of interest were focused on improving safety in caring them using IoT technology and enhancing emotional support in preventing lonely deaths using companion robot and AI speaker. Issues such as the need for individualization, client-centeredness, privacy, self-determination, competence, informed consent, right to know, convenience, and advocacy were identified as important ethical considerations related to use of welfare technology. The research results suggested that various stakeholders should participate in the development of ethical indicators and welfare technology for the ethical use of welfare technology.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.83-90
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• 2010

In this paper, we developed the program related green growth based Educational-Robot in the framework of Convergence for the community child welfare centers' children who are in poverty and broken homes as the way to enhance the competitiveness about education and a solution to cope with actively about the main tasks of the state for human resources in the future. Through the program developed, it has been verified the impact on the energy saving attitude. According to this result, it has been proved that convergence study program linked green growth for children of community welfare child center is effective to energy saving attitude. Through it, it is expected to help to meet the educational needs of the community child welfare centers' children.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2016

In this paper a cervical rehabilitation robot for Mckenzie exercises to be effective to neck pain relief is proposed. The robot has two degrees of freedom (DOF) for Lateral flexion and extension, Dorsal and Vental flexion which enable user to perform cervical stretching and isometric exercises for neck muscles. The mechanical parts of the cervical rehabilitation robot can be mounted on a back- or head-rest of chair, and user can perform the Mckenzie exercise with seated. In experiments we measured the range of motion of cervical part, EMG signals from neck muscles and the contact forces of a head bracket fixing the head part of user, and then evaluated their performances. From the experimental results, we showed a feasibility of the cervical rehabilitation robot proposed in this study.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.02a
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• pp.976-981
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• 2006

수화는 청각장애인이 사용하는 시각적인 언어이다. OpenGL 기반의 가상 현실 공간에서 수화 동작을 표현하기 위해서는 수화 동작 데이터를 삽입하고 수정하는 편집 프로그램이 필요하다. 하지만, 기존의 수화 동작 편집기는 수화를 잘 이해하지 못하는 일반 사용자가 손 모양을 정확하게 편집하거나 얼굴 표정을 표현하는데 어려움이 있다. 또한, 수화 사전에 포함되는 각 수화 단어의 데이터 수가 많기 때문에 이를 효율적으로 생성하고 저장하는 프로그램이 절실히 필요하다. 본 논문에서는 사용자의 편의성을 높이기 위해 수화 동작 그래픽 편집기를 개선하는 방법을 제안한다. 이를 위해 각 손 모양에 대해 21 개의 파라마터로 구성된 데이터를 손가락 별로 분류한 후, 손가락 고유 기호로 변환하고, 손 모양 이름과 일련 번호를 부여하여 손 모양 데이터를 얻었으며, 유사한 손 모양을 그룹으로 묶은 손 모양 그룹 데이터를 구성하여 손 모양 데이터 사전을 구축하였다. 구축된 손 모양 사전을 수화 동작 편집기에 적용함으로써 사용자는 손 모양 그룹과 손 모양 이름, 일련번호를 선택하여 손의 각 관절 움직임을 쉽게 편집할 수 있으며, 이를 가상현실 공간에서 움직여 볼 수 있다. 또한, 얼굴 표정과 안색을 편집할 수 있는 기능을 추가함으로써 수화 동작 중에 얼굴 표정을 쉽게 표현할 수 있도록 하였다.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.196-199
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• 2016

As the children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders(ASD) are increasing, and study of intelligent robot is dynamically proceeding, therapeutic robots are needed to help ASD children who have a lack of social interaction, inadequacy of communication. This paper deals with the design and operation of a cat robot for the treatment. To configure the behavior based on the results of field experiments, emotional treatment is suggested and robot structure considering ASD characteristic is designed with some sensors. In addition, we verified the effectiveness of the operation by field test.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.124-127
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• 2015

Purpose: The emphasis on gait rehabilitation after stroke depends on training support through the lower limbs, balance of body mass over the changing base of support. However, muscle weakness, lack of control of lower limb, and poor balance can interfere with training after stroke. For this case study report, a wearable robot orthosis was applied to stroke patients in order to verify its actual applicability on balance and gait ability in the clinical field. Methods: Two stroke patients participated in the training using the wearable robot orthosis. Wearable robot orthosis provides patient-initiated active assistance contraction during training. Training includes weight shift training, standing up and sitting down, ground walking, and stair up and down Training was applied a total of 20 times, five times a week for 4 weeks, for 30 minutes a day. Gait ability was determined by Stance phase symmetry profile, Swing phase symmetry profile, and velocity using the GAITRite system. Balance ability was measured using the Biodex balance system. Results: Subjects 1, 2 showed improved gait and balance ability with mean individual improvement of 72.4% for velocity, 19.4% for stance phase symmetry profile, 9.6% for swing phase symmetry profile, and 13.6% for balance ability. Conclusion: Training utilizing a wearable robot orthosis can be useful for improvement of the gait and balance ability of stroke patients.