• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.968-974
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• 2006

We are moving into the era of ubiquitous computing. Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) is a base of such computing paradigm, where recognizing the identification and the position of objects is important. For the object identification, RFID tags are commonly used. For the object positioning, use of sensors such as laser and ultrasonic scanners is popular. Recently, there have been a few attempts to apply RFID technology in robot localization by replacing the sensors with RFID readers to achieve simpler and unified USN settings. However, RFID does not provide enough sensing accuracy for some USN applications such as robot navigation, mainly because of its inaccuracy in distance measurements. In this paper, we describe our approach on achieving accurate navigation using RFID. We solely rely on RFID mechanism for the localization by providing coordinate information through RFID tag installed floors. With the accurate positional information stored in the RFID tag, we complement coordinate errors accumulated during the wheel based robot navigation. We especially focus on how to distribute RFID tags (tag pattern) and how many to place (tag granularity) on the RFID tag-floor. To determine efficient tag granularities and tag patterns, we developed a simulation program. We define the error in navigation and use it to compare the effectiveness of the navigation. We analyze the simulation results to determine the efficient granularities and tag arrangement patterns that can improve the effectiveness of RFID navigation in general.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.1369-1379
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• 2001

This paper focuses on a development of a sensor system measuring locations of a vehicle to localize a mobile robot while it tracks on the track (location sensor) . Also it focuses on a system configuration identifying the vehicle's orientation and distance from the object while it is stationary at certain station (position sensor) . As for the location sensor it consists of a set of sensors with a combined guiding and counting sensor, and an address-coded sensor to localize the vehicle while moving on the rail. For the position sensor a PSD (Position Sensitive Device) sensor with photo-switches sensor to measure the offset and orientation of the vehicle at each station is introduced. Both sensor systems are integrated with a microprocessor as a data relay to the main computer controlling the vehicle. The location sensor system is developed and its performance for a mobile robot is verified by experiments. The position measuring system is proposed and is robust to the environmental variation. Moreover, the two kinds of sensor systems guarantee a low cost application and high reliability.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.423-428
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• 2005

This paper proposes a new edge detection method using a $3{\times}3$ ideal binary pattern and lookup table (LUT) for the mobile robot localization without any parameter adjustments. We take the mean of the pixels within the $3{\times}3$ block as a threshold by which the pixels are divided into two groups. The edge magnitude and orientation are calculated by taking the difference of average intensities of the two groups and by searching directional code in the LUT, respectively. And also the input image is not only partitioned into multiple groups according to their intensity similarities by the histogram, but also the threshold of each group is determined by fuzzy reasoning automatically. Finally, the edges are determined through non-maximum suppression using edge confidence measure and edge linking. Applying this edge detection method to the mobile robot localization using projective invariance of the cross ratio. we demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method to the illumination changes in a corridor environment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2011

This paper proposes a novel control method using phase plane for a hydraulic biped humanoid robot. In biped walking control, it is much more difficult to control the posture of a biped robot in the coronal plane because the supporting area formed by the both feet in the coronal plane is much narrower than that of the sagittal plane. When the biped robot walks stably, the phase portrait of the pelvis in the coronal plane makes an elliptical shape. From this point of view, we develop an ankle torque controller and a foot placement controller for tracking the desired phase portrait during walking. We design these controllers by using simulations of a simplified compass gait biped model to regulate the desired phase portrait of pelvis. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is proved through full-body dynamic walking simulations and real experiments of the SARCOS hydraulic biped humanoid.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2010

The multiple block localization method in a wide area for multiple robots using iGS is proposed in this paper. The iGS is developed for the indoor global localization using ultrasonic and RF sensors. To measure the distance between a mobile robot and a beacon, the tag on the mobile robot wakes up one beacon to send out the ultrasonic signal and measures the traveling time from the beacon to the mobile robot. As the number of robots is increased, the sampling time of localization also becomes longer. Note that only one robot can localize its own position calling beacons one by one during each of the sampling interval. This is a severe constraint for the localization of multiple robots in a wide area. This paper proposes an efficient localization algorithm for the multiple robots in a wide area which can be divided into multiple blocks. For a given block, a master beacon is designated to synchronize robots. By the access of the synchronization signal, each beacon in the selected group sends out an ultrasonic signal. When the robots in the block receive the ultrasonic signal, they can calculate their own locations based on the distances to the beacons, which are obtained by the multiplication of flight time and velocity of the ultrasonic signal. The efficiency of the algorithm is verified through the real experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1145-1151
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• 2013

Kinematic modeling is a prerequisite for motion planning and the control of mobile robots. In this paper, we proposed a new method of kinematic modeling for a type of mobile robot based on differential motion transformation. The differential motion implies a small translation and rotation in three-dimensional space in a small time interval. Thus, transformation of the differential motion gives the velocity relationship, i.e., Jacobian between two coordinate frames. Since the theory of the differential motion transformation is well-developed, it is useful for the systematic velocity kinematic modeling of mobile robots. In order to show the validity for application of the differential motion transformation, we obtained velocity kinematic models for a type of exemplar mobile robot including spherical ballbots.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1067-1071
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• 2013

A 3D visual sensing method using a laser structured beam is presented for robotic tracking applications in a simple and reliable manner. A cylindrical shaped laser structured beam is proposed to measure the pose and position of the target surface. When the proposed laser beam intersects on the surface along the target trajectory, an elliptic pattern is generated. Its ellipse parameters can be induced mathematically by the geometrical relationship of the sensor coordinate and target coordinate. The depth and orientation of the target surface are directly determined by the ellipse parameters. In particular, two discontinuous points on the ellipse pattern, induced by seam trajectory, indicate mathematically the 3D direction for robotic tracking. To investigate the performance of this method, experiments with a 6 axis robot system are conducted on two different types of seam trajectories. The results show that this method is very suitable for robot seam tracking applications due to its excellence in accuracy and efficiency.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.915-920
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• 2013

Payload capacity and transition ability are essential for climbing robots to apply the robots to various applications such as inspection and exploration. This paper presents a new climbing robotic platform with multi-link structure of track-wheel modules to enhance payload capacity and transition ability, and its tracking controller design and experimental results. The compliances between track-wheel modules achieve stable internal and external transitions while the large adhesion area of the track-wheel module enhances the payload capacity of the robot. Kinematic model-based tracking controller is designed and implemented for autonomous internal transition, and the gains of the controller are optimized by experimental design. Experiments on the automatic internal transitions are performed and the results guarantee autonomous internal transition with little tracking error.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.904-911
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• 2016

This paper presents a novel driving system by the humanoid robot to drive a vehicle in disaster response situations. To enhance robot's capability for substituting human activities in responding to natural and man-made disaster, the one of prerequisite skills for the rescue robot is the mounted mobility to maneuver a vehicle safely in disaster site. Therefore, our driving system for the humanoid is developed in order to steer a vehicle through unknown obstacles even under poor communication conditions such as time-delay and black-out. Especially, the proposed system includes a tele-manipulation interface and stable navigation strategies. First, we propose a new type of path estimation method to overcome limited communication. Second, we establish navigation strategies when the operator cannot recognize obstacles based on Dynamic Window Approach. The effectiveness of the proposed developments is verified through simulation and experiments, which demonstrate suitable system for driving a vehicle in disaster response.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.283-294
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• 2007

In this paper, a nonlinear controller based on adaptive sliding-mode method which has a sliding surface vector including new boundizing function is proposed and applied to a two-wheeled welding mobile robot (WMR). This controller makes the welding point of WMR achieve tracking a reference point which is moving on a smooth curved welding path with a desired constant velocity. The mobile robot is considered in view of a kinematic model and a dynamic model in Cartesian coordinates. The proposed controller can overcome uncertainties and external disturbances by adaptive sliding-mode technique. To design the controller, the tracking error vector is defined, and then the sliding surface vector including new boundizing function and the adaptation laws are chosen to guarantee that the error vector converges to zero asymptotically. The stability of the dynamic system is shown through the Lyapunov method. In addition, a simple way of measuring the errors by potentiometers is introduced. The simulations and experimental results are shown to prove the effectiveness of the proposed controller.