• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-182
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• 2017

This paper describes an unscented Kalman filter approach to estimate the bias in magnetic field measurements. A microelectromechanical systems attitude heading reference system (MEMS AHRS) was used to measure the magnetic field, together with the acceleration and angular rate. A magnetic field is usually used for yaw detection, while the acceleration serves to detect the roll and pitch. Magnetic field measurements are vulnerable to distortion due to hard-iron effect and soft-iron effect. The bias in the measurement accounts for the hard-iron effect, and this paper focuses on an approach to estimate this bias. The proposed method is compared with other methods through experiments that implement the navigation of an underwater robot using an AHRS and Doppler velocity log. The results verify that the compensation of the bias by the proposed method improves the navigation performance more than or comparable to the compensation by other methods.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.97-103
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• 2022

Low fertility rates and increased life expectancy further exacerbate the process of an aging society. This is also reflected in the gradual increase in the proportion of vulnerable groups in the social population. The demand for improved mobility among vulnerable groups such as the elderly or the disabled has greatly driven the growth of the electric-assisted mobility device market. However, such mobile devices generally require a certain operating capability, which limits the range of vulnerable groups who can use the device and increases the cost of learning. Therefore, autonomous driving technology needs to be introduced to make mobility easier for a wider range of vulnerable groups to meet their needs of work and leisure in different environments. This study uses mini PC Odyssey, Velodyne Lidar VLP-16, electronic device and Linux-based ROS program to realize the functions of working environment recognition, simultaneous localization, map generation and navigation of electric powered mobile devices for vulnerable groups. This autonomous driving mobility device is expected to be of great help to the vulnerable who lack the immediate response in dangerous situations.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2023

In autonomous robots, obstacle avoidance is a key feature. Potential Field is the most widely used method in this field. Such method requires real-time calculation of the nearest point of the obstacle from the robot, which involves difficulty of reliably segmenting the obstacle region from the distance sensor data profile. In this paper, Active Min-Depth Filter is introduced to obtain the nearest point of each obstacle using real-time calculation but without segmentation. Through simulations on various sensor noise environments, the robustness of the Active Min-Depth Filter could be confirmed, and successful results were obtained by applying real-world moving robots.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.912-919
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• 2022

The study is an image-based assessment that uses image processing techniques to determine the condition of concrete with surface cracks. The preparations of the dataset include resizing and image filtering to ensure statistical homogeneity and noise reduction. The image dataset is then segmented, making it more suited for extracting important features and easier to evaluate. The image is transformed into grayscale which removes the hue and saturation but retains the luminance. To create a clean edge map, the edge detection process is utilized to extract the major edge features of the image. The Otsu method is used to minimize intraclass variation between black and white pixels. Additionally, the median filter was employed to reduce noise while keeping the borders of the image. Image processing techniques are used to enhance the significant features of the concrete image, especially the defects. In this study, the tonal zones of the histogram and its properties are used to analyze the condition of the concrete. By examining the histogram, the viewer will be able to determine the information on the image through the number of pixels associated and each tonal characteristic on a graph. The features of the five tonal zones of the histogram which implies the qualities of the concrete image may be evaluated based on the quality of the contrast, brightness, highlights, shadow spikes, or the condition of the shadow region that corresponds to the foreground.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

Robotic arms have been widely utilized in various labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and food services, contributing to increasing productivity. In the development of industrial robotic arms, camera sensors have many advantages due to their cost-effectiveness and small sizes. However, estimating object positions is a challenging problem, and it critically affects to the robustness of object manipulation functions. This paper proposes a method for estimating the 3D positions of objects, and it is applied to a pick-and-place task. A deep learning model is utilized to detect 2D bounding boxes in the image plane, and the pinhole camera model is employed to compute the object positions. To improve the robustness of measuring the 3D positions of objects, we analyze the effect of lens distortion and introduce a false positive filtering process. Experiments were conducted on a real-world scenario for moving medicine bottles by using a camera-based manipulator. Experimental results demonstrated that the distortion removal and false positive filtering are effective to improve the position estimation precision and the manipulation success rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 2024

The objective of this study was to create intelligent rail robots that are optimized for facility management and implement digital twin systems for smart road tunnel management. An autonomous surveillance system is formed by combining the sensing platform consisting of railing robots, fixed cameras and environmental detection sensors with the digital twin data platform technology for tunnel monitoring and early fire suppression. In order to develop mobile rail robots for fire extinguishing, we also designed and manufactured robots for extinguishing & monitoring and fire extinguishing devices, and then we examined the optimization of all parts. Our next step was to build a digital twin for road tunnel management by developing continuous image display system and implementing 3D modeling. After constructing prototypes, we attempted simulations by configuring abnormal symptom scenarios, such as vehicles fires. This study's proposal proposes high-accuracy risk prediction services that will enable intelligent management of risks in the tunnel with early response at each stage, using the data collected from the intelligent rail robots and digital twin systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 2017

Recently, as the number of facilities using chemicals is increasing, the amount of handling is rapidly increasing. However, chemical spills are occurring steadily, and if large quantities of chemicals are leaked in time, they are likely to cause major damage. These industrial complexes use information obtained from a number of sensors to detect and monitor leaking areas, and are used in industrial fields by applying existing fixed sensors to robots and drones. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a sensor placement method at the interface for rapid detection and response based on various leaking scenarios reflecting leaking conditions and environmental conditions of the chemical handling process. In this study, COMSOL was used to analyze the actual accident scenarios by applying the medium parameter to the case of chemical leaks. Based on the accident scenarios, the objective function is selected so that the velocity of each robot is calculated by attaching importance to each item of sensor detection probability, sensing time and sensing scenario number. We also confirmed the feasibility of this method of reliability analysis for unexpected leak accidents. Based on the above results, it is expected that it will be helpful to trace back the leakage source based on the concentration data of the portable sensor to be applied later.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.287-292
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• 2012

In this study, Multi-Channel Magnetic Flux Leakage(MFL) sensor - based inspection system was applied to monitor the condition of cables. This inspection system measures magnetic flux to detect the local faults(LF) of steel cable. To verify the feasibility of the proposed damage detection technique, an 8-channel MFL sensor head prototype was designed and fabricated. A steel cable bunch specimen with several types of damage was fabricated and scanned by the MFL sensor head to measure the magnetic flux density of the specimen. To interpret the condition of the steel cable, magnetic flux signals were used to determine the locations of the flaws and the level of damage. Measured signals from the damaged specimen were compared with thresholds set for objective decision making. In addition, the magnetic flux density values measured from every channel were summed to focus on the detection of axial location. And, sum of flux density were displayed with threshold. Finally, the results were compared with information on actual inflicted damages to confirm the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed cable monitoring method.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.45
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• pp.285.1-285.10
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• 2018

Background: Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is a feasible treatment option for high-risk prostate cancer (PCa). While patients may achieve undetectable prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels after RARP, the risk of disease progression is relatively high. We investigated metastasis-free survival, cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) outcomes and prognosticators in such patients. Methods: In a single-center cohort of 342 patients with high-risk PCa (clinical stage ${\geq}T3$, biopsy Gleason score ${\geq}8$, and/or PSA levels ${\geq}20ng/mL$) treated with RARP and pelvic lymph node dissection between August 2005 and June 2011, we identified 251 (73.4%) patients (median age, 66.5 years; interquartile range [IQR], 63.0-71.0 years) who achieved undetectable PSA levels (< 0.01 ng/mL) postoperatively. Survival outcomes were evaluated for the entire study sample and in groups stratified according to the time to biochemical recurrence dichotomized at 60 months. Results: During the median follow-up of 75.9 months (IQR, 59.4-85.8 months), metastasis occurred in 38 (15.1%) patients, most often to the bones, followed by the lymph nodes, lungs, and liver. The 5-year metastasis-free, cancer-specific, and OS rates were 87.1%, 94.8%, and 94.3%, respectively. Multivariate Cox-regression analysis revealed time to recurrence as an independent predictor of metastasis (P < 0.001). Time to metastasis was an independent predictor of OS (P = 0.003). Metastasis-free and CSS rates were significantly lower among patients with recurrence within 60 months of RARP (log-rank P < 0.001). Conclusion: RARP confers acceptable oncological outcomes for high-risk PCa. Close monitoring beyond 5 years is warranted for early detection of disease progression and for timely adjuvant therapy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1036-1043
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• 2022

This paper discusses about the development of a visual sensor that can be installed in an automatic mooring device to detect the berthing condition of a vessel. Despite controlling the ship's speed and confirming its location to prevent accidents while berthing a vessel, ship collision occurs at the pier every year, causing great economic and environmental damage. Therefore, it is important to develop a visual system that can quickly obtain the information on the speed and location of the vessel to ensure safety of the berthing vessel. In this study, a visual sensor was developed to observe a ship through an image while berthing, and to properly check the ship's status according to the surrounding environment. To obtain the adequacy of the visual sensor to be developed, the sensor characteristics were analyzed in terms of information provided from the existing sensors, that is, detection range, real-timeness, accuracy, and precision. Based on these analysis data, we developed a 3D visual module that can acquire information on objects in real time by conducting conceptual designs of LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) type 3D visual system, driving mechanism, and position and force controller for motion tilting system. Finally, performance evaluation of the control system and scan speed test were executed, and the effectiveness of the developed system was confirmed through experiments.