• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1005-1012
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• 2024

Wearable walking assistance robots for people with complete paralysis utilize trajectory tracking control methods. In inclined environments, it is important to generate appropriate walking trajectories based on ground inclination. This paper presents the design of a shoe-mounted ground inclination measurement system using Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors and Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors. The proposed system measures the absolute angle of the foot using the IMU sensor and the relative angle between the foot and the ground using the ToF sensor to derive the absolute angle of the ground. Walking experiments conducted on flat and inclined surfaces confirmed the feasibility of measuring ground inclination.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.936-941
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• 2014

Walking mechanisms are very important for legged robots to ensure their stable locomotion. In this research, Klann-linkage is suggested as a walking mechanism for a water-running robot and is optimized using level average analysis. The structure of the Klann-linkage is introduced first and design variables for the Klann-linkage are identified considering the kinematic task of the walking mechanism. Next, the design problem is formulated as a path generation optimization problem. Specifically, the desired path for the foot-pad is defined and the objective function is defined as the structural error between the desired and the generated paths. A process for solving the optimization problem is suggested utilizing the sensitivity analysis of the design variables. As a result, optimized lengths of Klann-linkage are obtained and the optimum trajectory is obtained. It is found that the optimized trajectory improves the cost function by about 62% from the initial one. It is expected that the results from this research can be used as a good example for designing legged robots.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2003

For the moving objects with environmental sensors such as object tracking moving robot with audio and video sensors, environmental information acquired from sensors keep changing according to movements of objects. In such case, due to lack of adaptability and system complexity, conventional control schemes show limitations on control performance, and therefore, sensory-motor systems, which can intuitively respond to various types of environmental information, are desirable. And also, to improve the system robustness, it is desirable to fuse more than two types of sensory information simultaneously. In this paper, based on Braitenberg's model, we propose a sensory-motor based fusion system, which can trace the moving objects adaptively to environmental changes. With the nature of direct connecting structure, sensory-motor based fusion system can control each motor simultaneously, and the neural networks are used to fuse information from various types of sensors. And also, even if the system receives noisy information from one sensor, the system still robustly works with information from other sensors which compensates the noisy information through sensor fusion. In order to examine the performance, sensory-motor based fusion model is applied to object-tracking four-foot robot equipped with audio and video sensors. The experimental results show that the sensory-motor based fusion system can tract moving objects robustly with simpler control mechanism than model-based control approaches.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.79-86
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• 2008

This paper describes the development of wearing intelligent shoe system to measure applied forces and moments (ground reaction forces and moments) on the soles of feet during human walking. In order to walk safely, robot must get the intelligent feet with 6-axis force/moment sensors (Fx sensor (x-direction force sensor), Fy sensor, Fz sensor, Mx sensor (Mx : x-direction moment sensor), My sensor, and Mz sensor) and detect the forces and moments data from the sensors. And the feet must be controlled with the data and controllers. While a human is walking, the forces and moments should be measured and analyzed for robot's intelligent feet. Therefore, the wearing intelligent shoe system should be developed. In this paper, four 6-axis farce/moment sensors and two high speed measuring devices were designed and fabricated, and the wearing intelligent shoe system was made using these. The characteristic tests of the wearing intelligent shoe system were performed, and the forces and moments were detected using it.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.547-555
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• 2005

A fault-tolerant gait of multi-legged robots with static walking is a gait which can maintain gait stability and continue its walking against an occurrence of a leg failure. This paper proposes fault-tolerant gait planning of a quadruped robot walking over a rough planar terrain. The considered fault is a locked joint failure, which prevents a joint of a leg from moving and makes it locked in a known position. In this Paper, two-phase discontinuous gaits are presented as a new fault-tolerant gait for quadruped robots suffering from a locked joint failure. By comparing with previously developed one-phase discontinuous gaits, it is shown that the proposed gait has great advantages in gait performance such as the stride length and terrain adaptability. Based on the two-phase discontinuous gait, quasi follow-the-leader(FTL) gaits are constructed which enable a quadruped robot to traverse two-dimensional rough terrain after an occurrence of a locked joint failure. During walking, two front legs undergo the foot adjustment procedure for avoiding stepping on forbidden areas. The Proposed wait planning is verified by using computer graphics simulations.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

In this paper, we measured human body signals in order to verify a active harness system that we developed for gait and balance training. The experimental procedure was validated by tests with 20 healthy male subjects. They conducted motions of Activities of Daily Living(ADL)(Normal Walking, Stand-to-Sit, Sit-to-Stand, Stair Walking Up, and Stair Walking Down) according to body weight support rates (0%, 30%, 50% of subjects' body weight). The effectiveness of the active harness system is verified by using the results of foot pressure distribution. In normal walking, the decrease of fore-foot pressure, lateral soleus muscle and biceps femoris muscle were remarkable. The result of stand-to-sit results motion indicated that the rear-foot pressure and tibialis anterior muscle activities exceptionally decreased according to body weight support. The stair walking down show the marked drop of fore-foot pressure and rectus femoris muscle activities. The sit-to-stand and stair walking up activities were inadequate about the effect of body weight support because the velocity of body weight support system was slower than male's activity.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.522-530
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• 2018

In this study, we developed a robotic walker that actively controls its speed and direction of movement according to the user's gait intention. Sensor fusion between a low-cost light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor and inertia measurement units (IMUs) helps determine the user's gait intention. The LiDAR determines the walking direction by detecting both knees, and the IMUs attached on each foot obtain the angular rate of the gait. The user's gait intention is given as the directional angle and the speed of movement. The two motors in the robotic walker are controlled with these two variables, which represent the user's gait intention. The estimated direction angle is verified by comparison with a Kinect sensor that detects the centroid trajectory of both the user's feet. We validated the robotic walker with an experiment by controlling it using the estimated gait intention.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2012

Human generally uses three methods to keep balance. One of them is using reactive momentum such as swing an upper body or arms. In this study, we proposed a balancing controller for the reactive momentum method using an inverted pendulum. We simplified a human or a humanoid robot as a two-link inverted pendulum having two edges. In addition, we proposed a distinctive condition for controller transition. If a human is pushed, he has to change a balancing controller from using an ankle torque to using a reactive momentum or changing foot placement. When the balancing controller is changed from using an ankle torque to using a reactive momentum, it is required a proper timing to keep a stability and make smooth movement. In the experiment, the proposed controller and distinctive condition were verified.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.98-100
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• 1997

This paper proposes a mathematical model of impact force generated by collision between landing foot and ground, by which a dynamic analysis and a supplementation of existing stability criteria are made. By using the proposed dynamic analysis, an energy-optimized gaital algorithm is proposed. To prove the effectiveness of the algorithm, simulation results are shown compared to the result of previous gaital algorithm.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.207-214
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to investigate upper and lower limb muscle activity using EMG(electromyogram) sensors while walking and identify normal gait pattern using FSR(force sensing resistor) sensor. Fifteen college students participated in this study and their EMG and FSR signal were measured during stopping and walking trials. EMG signals from upper(pectoralis major and trapezius) and lower limbs(rectus femoris, biceps femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, soleus, peroneus longus, gastrocnemius medialis, and gastrocnemius lateralis) were obtained using the surface electrodes. FSR measured pressures on 8 areas of the sole of the foot during walking. EMG results showed that all muscle activities except for vastus lateralis and semimembranosus during walking had higher amplitudes than stopping. Additionally, muscle activities associated with stance and swing phase during walking were identified. Results on FSR showed that stance and swing phases were detected by FSR signals during a gait cycle. Eight gait phases－initial contact, loading response, mid stance, terminal stance, pre swing, initial swing, mid swing, and terminal swing- were classified.