• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.325-332
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• 1997

The use of a robotic transplanter reduces the labor requirement in the greenhouse by carrying out repetitive tasks in an accurate and reliable manner. The transplanter manipulates seedlings by means of end-effector. The end-effector is designed differently from an industrial robot because it manulates biological seedlings of variable size, shape, position, and orientation. This study was conducted to develop an end-effector of a robotic transplanter for bedding plants. The development of an end-effector included selection of the best finger type for the transplanting operation. The performance of developed end-effector was tested and compared with two different transplanting schemes depending on the leaf-orientation consideration. The end-effector developed in this research reliably handled seedlings during transplanting task. Results showed that the shovel type finger was suitable for transplanting with the damaging seedlings.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.448-451
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• 1999

In this paper, we propose a new object representation method and matching algorithm for object recognition using a 3-fingered robot hand. Each finger tip can measure normal vector and shapes of a contacting surface. Object is represented by the inter-surface description table where the features of a surface are described in the diagonal and the relations between two surfaces are in the upper diagonal. Based on this table, a fast and the efficient matching algorithm has been proposed. This algorithm can be applied to natural quadric objects.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1990.10b
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• pp.985-989
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• 1990

This paper presents a fundamental study of a millimeter-sized master-slave robot driven by conduit-guided wires, which is expected to be applied to the delicate surgical operations, the assembling precise and small parts and so on. This system consists of a millimeter-sized slave robot and a master manipulator of which the size is adapted to a human finger. Displacement and torque of the master side can be reduced and transferred to the slave robot by controlling the motor torque against the master torque by feeding back tension signals. The master can feel the tensions by the motor torque. In this paper, the design method and making process of the master-slave system and the dynamical characteristic of displacement and torque control are proposed.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.154-162
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• 2015

This paper focuses on how cognitive and emotional structures affect humans during long-term interaction. We design an interaction with a turn-based game, the Chopstick Game, in which two agents play with numbers using their fingers. While a human and a robot agent alternate turn, the human user applies herself to play the game and to learn new winning skills from the robot agent. Conventional valence and arousal space is applied to design emotional interaction. For the robotic system, we implement finger gesture recognition and emotional behaviors that are designed for three-dimensional virtual robot. In the experimental tests, the properness of the proposed schemes is verified and the effect of the emotional interaction is discussed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.99-104
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• 2009

This article describes the analysis of stable grasping for multi-fingered robot. An analysis method of stable grasping, which is based on the three-dimensional acceleration convex polytope, is proposed. This method is derived from combining dynamic equations governing object motion and robot motion, force relationship and acceleration relationship between robot fingers and object's gravity center through contact condition, and constraint equations for satisfying no-slip conditions at every contact points. After mapping no-slip condition to torque space, we derived intersected region of given torque bounds and the mapped region in torque space so that the intersected region in torque space guarantees no excessive torque as well as no-slip at the contact points. The intersected region in torque space is mapped to an acceleration convex polytope corresponding to the maximum acceleration boundaries which can be exerted by the robot fingers under the given individual bounds of each joints torque and without causing slip at the contacts. As will be shown through the analysis and examples, the stable grasping depends on the joint driving torque limits, the posture and the mass of robot fingers, the configuration and the mass of an object, the grasp position, the friction coefficients between the object surface and finger end-effectors.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.4 s.247
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• pp.364-372
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• 2006

In this paper, we present a finger tip tactile sensor which can detect contact normal force as well as slip. The sensor is made up of two different materials, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) known as piezoelectric polymer, and pressure variable resistor ink. In order to detect slip on the surface of the object, two PVDF strips are arranged along the normal direction in the robot finger tip and the thumb tip. The surface electrode of the PVDF strip is fabricated using silk-screening technique with silver paste. Also a thin flexible force sensor is fabricated in the form of a matrix using pressure variable resistor ink in order to sense the static force. The developed tactile sensor is physically flexible and it can be deformed three-dimensionally to any shape so that it can be placed on anywhere on the curved surface. In addition, a tactile sensing system is developed, which includes miniaturized charge amplifier to amplify the small signal from the sensor, and the fast signal processing unit. The sensor system is evaluated experimentally and its effectiveness is validated.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1808-1813
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• 2005

In this paper, we present the finger tip tactile sensor which can detect contact normal force as well as slip. The developed sensor is made of two different materials, such as polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) that is known as piezoelectric polymer and pressure variable resistor ink. In order to detect slip to surface of object, a PVDF strip is arranged along the normal direction in the robot finger tip and the thumb tip. The surface electrode of the PVDF strip is fabricated using silk-screening technique with silver paste. Also a thin flexible force sensor is fabricated in the form of a matrix using pressure variable resistor ink in order to sense the static force. The developed tactile sensor is physically flexible and it can be deformed three-dimensionally to any shape so that it can be placed on anywhere on the curved surface. In addition, we developed a tactile sensing system by miniaturizing the charge amplifier, in order to amplify the small signal from the sensor, and the fast signal processing unit. The sensor system is evaluated experimentally and its effectiveness is validated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2014

In this paper, we design a gripping force control system using tactile sensor to prevent slip when gripper tries to grasp and lift an object. We use a flexible tactile sensor for measuring uniplanar pressure on gripper's finger and develop an algorithm to detect the onset of slip using the sensor output. We also use a flexible pressure sensor to measure the normal force. In addition, various signal processing techniques are used to reduce noise included in the sensor output. A 3-finger gripper is used to grasp and lift up a cylindrical object. The tactile sensor is attached on one of fingers, and sends output signals to detect slip. Whenever the sensor signal is similar to the slip pattern, gripper force is increased. In conclusion, this research shows that slip can be detected using the tactile sensor and we can control gripping force to eliminate slip between gripper and object.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

Recently, importance of the rehabilitation of hand pathologies as well as the development of high-technology hand robot has been increased. The biomechanical model of hand is indispensable due to the difficulty of direct measurement of muscle forces and joint forces in hands. In this study, a three-dimensional biomechanical model of four fingers including three joints and ten muscles in each finger was developed and a mathematical relationship between neural commands and finger forces which represents the enslaving effect and the force deficit effect was proposed. When pressing a plate under the flexed posture, the muscle forces and the joint forces were predicted by the optimization technique. The results showed that the major activated muscles were flexion muscles (flexor digitorum profundus, radial interosseous, and ulnar interosseous). In addition, it was found that the antagonistic muscles were also activated rather than the previous models, which is more realistic phenomenon. The present model has considered the interaction among fingers, thus can be more powerful while developing a robot hand that can totally control the multiple fingers like human.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.411-420
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• 1997

The mechanization efficiency using high ability machines such as tractors or combines in a paddy field rice farm is high. Mechanization in harvesting fruits and vegetables is difficult, because they are easy to be damaged. Therefore, Advanced techniques for careful handling fruits and vegetables are necessary in automation and robotization. An apple harvesting robot must have a recognition device to detect the positioning of fruit, manipulators which function like human arms, and hand to take off the fruit. This study is related to the development of a rotatic hand as the first stage in developing the apple harvesting robot. The results are summarized as follows. 1. It was found that a hand that was eccentric in rotatory motion, was better than a hand of semicircular up-and-down motion in harvesting efficiency. 2. The hand was developed to control changes in grasp forces by using tape-type switch sensor which was attatched to fingers' inside. 3. Initial finger positioning was set up to control accurate harvesting by using a tow step fingering position. 4. This study showed the possibility of apple harvesting using the developed robot hand.