• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2519-2523
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• 2003

Ultrasonic sensors are widely used in mobile robot applications to recognize external environments, because they are cheap, easy to use, and robust under varying lighting conditions. In most cases, a single ultrasonic sensor is used to measure the distance to an object based on time-of-flight (TOF) information, whereas multiple sensors are used to recognize the shape of an object, such as a corner, plane, or edge. However, the conventional sequential driving technique involves a long measurement time. This problem can be resolved by pulse coding ultrasonic signals, which allows multi-sensors to be fired simultaneously and adjacent objects to be distinguished. Accordingly, the current presents a new simultaneous coded driving system for an ultrasonic sensor array for object recognition in autonomous mobile robots. The proposed system is designed and implemented using a DSP and FPGA. A micro-controller board is made using a DSP, Polaroid 6500 ranging modules are modified for firing the coded signals, and a 5-channel coded signal generating board is made using a FPGA. To verify the proposed method, experiments were conducted in an environment with overlapping signals, and the flight distances for each sensor were obtained from the received overlapping signals using correlations and conversion to a bipolar PCM-NRZ signal.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.299-306
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• 2015

A conventional phased array system can control an ultrasonic beam electronically by adjusting the excitation time delay of individual elements in a multi-element probe and produce an ultrasonic image. In Contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that allows receiving ultrasonic signals from one single shot of the phased array transducer element through all the other elements and captures the complete dataset from every possible transmit-receive combination. This FMC data can be used to create the ultrasonic image in post processing. It is possible to produce not only images equivalent to conventional phased array image but also total focusing method (TFM) images with improved resolution and sharpness, which is virtually focused at any point in a region of interest. In this paper, the system that can perform FMC by using a conventional phased array instrument is developed, and a study was conducted on the imaging algorithms to reconstruct sector B-scan and TFM images from FMC dataset.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.69-76
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• 2010

The structural material with the highest possibility of new materials that will be used in the future construction field is fiber reinforced polymer. The current studies on FRP members by using such excellent material characteristics mostly focused on stability, composite problem, and durability of FRP members. The initially constructed FRP members secure excellent stability and durability compared to reinforced concrete and steel materials, but measures for defections during the periodical inspection, methods for detecting breakages, and maintenance and reinforcement are not insufficient. Accordingly, this study proposed a measurement system using the FRP sensor to evaluate the safety of the FRP modular box member, and applied the phased array ultrasonic technique to detect the defects and damage likely to occur during the performance period.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.40-45
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• 2008

There exist many types of pipe and component fatigue through vibrations, thermal fatigues or shifting. In some cases of thermal stratification/thermal fatigue, pipes & components are receiving thermal stress by means of material expansion and shrinkage by continuous thermal repetitive variation. Small cracks initially occur on the inside surface by thermal stress. These cracks grow in depth the pipe wall and finally come to a rupture. Pipe parts of susceptibility to thermal stratification and thermal fatigue are now being examined by conventional UT(ultrasonic test) as volumetric examination. It is difficult to fully satisfy the code & standards requirements because 3" weldolet weldments of RCS 16" pipe to 3" branch connection lines have complex structural shape. To solve the problems of conventional UT examination, we made a realistic mock-up and UT calibration block. We performed a simulation of phased array UT utilizing CIVA as NDE(Non-Destructive Examination) simulation software. Also we designed phased array UT transducer and wedge, optimal frequency by using simulation data. We performed phased array UT experiment through mock-up including artificial flaws(notch). The phased array UT technique is finally developed to improve the reliability of ultrasonic test at RCS 16" pipe to 3" branch connection weld.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.361-367
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• 2024

Ultrasound in the air is widely used in industry as a measurement technique to prevent abnormalities in the machinery. Recently, the use of airborne ultrasound imaging techniques, which can find the location of abnormalities using an array transducers, is increasing. A beamforming method that uses the phase difference for each sensor is used to visualize the location of the ultrasonic sound source. We exploit a random sparse ultrasonic array and obtain beamforming power distribution on the source in a certain distance away from the array. Conventional beamforming methods inevitably have limited spatial resolution depending on the number of sensors used and the aperture size. A high-resolution ultrasound imaging technique was implemented by applying functional beamforming as a method to overcome the geometric constraints of the array. The functional beamforming method can be expressed as a generalized beam forming method mathematically, and has the advantage of being able to obtain high-resolution imaging by reducing main-lobe width and side lobes. As a result of observation through computer simulation, it was verified that the resolution of the ultrasonic source in the air was successfully increased by functional beamforming using the ultrasonic sparse array.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.368-375
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• 2013

Failure of small bore piping welds is a recurring problem at nuclear power plants. And the socket weld cracking in small bore piping has caused unplanned plant shutdowns for repair and high economic impact on the plants. Consequently, early crack detection, including the detection of manufacturing defects, is of the utmost importance. Until now, the surface inspection methods has been applied according to ASME Section XI requirements. But the ultrasonic inspection as a volumetric method is also applying to enforce the inspection requirement. However, the conventional manual ultrasonic inspection techniques are used to detect service induced fatigue cracks. And there was uncertainty on manual ultrasonic inspection because of limited access to the welds and difficulties with contact between the ultrasonic probe and the OD(outer diameter) surface of small bore piping. In this study, phased array ultrasonic inspection technique is applied to increase inspection speed and reliability. To achieve this object, the 3.5 MHz phased array ultrasonic transducer are designed and fabricated. The manually encoded scanner was also developed to enhance contact conditions and maintain constant signal quality. Additionally inspection system is configured and inspection procedure is developed.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.1113-1116
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• 1999

For mobile robot, the navigation effectiveness can be improved by providing autonomy, but this autonomy requires the mobile robot to detect unknown obstacles and avoid collisions while moving it toward the target. This paper presents an effective method for autonomous navigation of the mobile robot in structured environments. This method uses ultrasonic sensor array to detect obstacles and utilizes force relationship between the obstacles and the target for avoiding collisions. Accuracy of sensory data produced by ultrasonic sensors is improved by employing error eliminating rapid ultrasonic firing (EERUF) technique. Navigation algorithm controlling both the velocity and steering simultaneously is developed, implemented to the mobile robot and tested on the floor filled with the cluttered obstacles. It is verified that from the results of the field tests the mobile robot can move at a maximum speed of 0.66 m/sec without any collisions.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1418-1425
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• 2014

In ultrasonic medical imaging, spatial compounding of images is a technique where ultrasonic beam is steered to examine patient tissues in multiple angles. In the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging, the steering of the ultrasonic beam is achieved electronically using the phased array transducer elements. In this paper, a spatial compounding approach is presented where the ultrasonic probe element is rotated mechanically and the beam steering is achieved mechanically. In the spatial compounding, target position is computed using the value of the rotation axis and the transducer array angular position. However, in the process of the rotation mechanism construction and the control system there arises the inevitable uncertainties in these values. These geometric parameter errors result in the target position error, and the consequence is a blurry compounded image. In order to reduce these target position errors, we present a spatial compounding scheme where error correcting transformation matrices are computed and applied to the raw images before spatial compounding to reduce the blurriness in the compounded image. The proposed scheme is illustrated using phantom and live scan images of human knee, and it is shown that the blurriness is effectively reduced.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.29-35
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• 2015

Pipes, commonly used in energy and petrochemical facilities, have various types of defects induced by diverse factors and this is often issued in NDE society. Ultrasonic guided wave inspection method are normally adopted to insure the healthiness of industry pipes. Recently, ultrasonic guided wave inspection is shifted to adopt arrayed probes and system. And here we developed an array guided wave ultrasonic testing system can adapt arrayed probes and focusing methods. In this paper, an array guided wave ultrasonic testing system is presented including a transmitting focusing technique and flaw signal level enhancement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.550-556
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• 2009

In an application of a time reversal(TR) focusing of array transducer on a defect inside the test material, we employ a new time delay focusing technique based the TR process. In order to realize this idea, a multi-channel ultrasonic system is constructed capable of applying necessary time delays to each channel. The TR-based focusing procedure first measures the backscattered signals after firing one of the array elements. A phase slope method is then used to determine the time-of-flights of the backscattered signals received by all elements of the array. These time delays are used to adjust the time of excitation of the elements for transmission focusing on the defect. In addition to the TR focusing, the classical phased array focusing is also considered for comparison. Experimental results show that the TR-based time delay focusing produces much stronger backscattered signals than the phased array focusing, demonstrating the enhanced capability of the TR focusing.