• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2000

In the inspection of the reactor pressure vessel using an underwater mobile robot, we developed a new bi-directional guidance control scheme between an underwater mobile robot and a laser pointer. We imposed fanning to the inclinometer embedded in the mobile robot to improve its transient response, and used heuristic control scheme to reduce accidents when the laser pointer losts the mobile robot. We implemented these algorithms to our reactor vessel inspect ion system and performed a series of experiments.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1244-1248
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• 2003

This paper describes visual tracking procedure of the underwater mobile robot for nuclear reactor vessel inspection, which is required to find the foreign objects such as loose parts. The yellowish underwater robot body tends to present a big contrast to boron solute cold water of nuclear reactor vessel, tinged with indigo by Cerenkov effect. In this paper, we have found and tracked the positions of underwater mobile robot using the two color information, yellow and indigo. The center coordinates extraction procedures are as follows. The first step is to segment the underwater robot body to cold water with indigo background. From the RGB color components of the entire monitoring image taken with the color CCD camera, we have selected the red color component. In the selected red image, we extracted the positions of the underwater mobile robot using the following process sequences; binarization, labelling, and centroid extraction techniques. In the experiment carried out at the Youngkwang unit 5 nuclear reactor vessel, we have tracked the center positions of the underwater robot submerged near the cold leg and the hot leg way, which is fathomed to 10m deep in depth.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07e
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• pp.2259-2262
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• 2003

This paper describes visual tracking procedure of the underwater mobile robot for nuclear reactor vessel inspection, which is required to find the foreign objects such as loose parts. The yellowish underwater robot body tend to present a big contrast to boron solute cold water of nuclear reactor vessel, tinged with indigo by Cerenkov effect. In this paper, we have found and tracked the positions of underwater mobile robot using the two color informations, yellow and indigo. The center coordinates extraction procedures is as follows. The first step is to segment the underwater robot body to cold water with indigo background. From the RGB color components of the entire monitoring image taken with the color CCD camera, we have selected the red color component. In the selected red image, we extracted the positions of the underwater mobile robot using the following process sequences: binarization labelling, and centroid extraction techniques. In the experiment carried out at the Youngkwang unit 5 nuclear reactor vessel, we have tracked the center positions of the underwater robot submerged near the cold leg and the hot leg way, which is fathomed to 10m deep in depth.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.199-203
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• 2017

In this paper, we developed an underwater localization system for underwater robot docking using the electromagnetic wave attenuation model. Electromagnetic waves are generally known to be impossible to use in water environment. However, according to the conclusions of the previous studies on the attenuation characteristics in underwater, the attenuation pattern is uniform and its model was accurately proposed and verified in 3-dimensional space via the omnidirectional antenna. In this paper, a docking structure and localization sensor system are developed for a widely used cone type docking mechanism. First, we fabricated electromagnetic wave range sensor transmit modules. And a mobile sensor node is equipped with unmanned underwater vehicle(UUV)s. The mobile node senses the four different signal strength (RSS: Received Signal Strength) from fixed nodes, and the obtained RSS data are transformed to each distance information using the 3-Dimensional EM wave attenuation model. Then, the relative localization between the docking area and underwater robot can be achieved according to optimization algorithm. Finally, experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed localization system for the docking induction by comparing the errors in the actual position of the mobile node and the theoretical position through the model.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.372-378
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• 2013

In this paper, we research the localization problem of the crawler-type inspection robot for underwater structure which travels an outer wall of underwater structure. Since various factors of the underwater environment affect an encoder odometer, it is hard to localize robot itself using only on-board sensors. So in this research we used a depth sensor and an IMU to compensate odometer which has extreme error in the underwater environment through using Extended Kalman Filter(EKF) which is normally used in mobile robotics. To acquire valid measurements, we implemented precision sensor modeling after assuming specific situation that robot travels underwater structure. The depth sensor acquires a vertical position of robot and compensates one of the robot pose, and IMU is used to compensate a bearing. But horizontal position of robot can't be compensated by using only on-board sensors. So we proposed a localization algorithm which makes horizontal direction error bounded by using kinematics relationship. Also we implemented computer simulations and experiments in underwater environment to verify the algorithm performance.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1116-1120
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• 2004

In the nuclear power plant, there are several cylindrical vessels such as reactor vessel, pressuriser and so on. The vessels are usually constructed by welding large rolled plates, forged sections or nozzle pipes together. In order to assure the integrity of the vessel, these welds should be periodically inspected using sensors such as ultrasonic transducer or visual cameras. This inspection is usually conducted under water to minimize exposure to the radioactively contaminated vessel walls. The inspections have been performed by using a conventional inspection machine with a big structural sturdy column, however, it is so huge and heavy that maintenance and handling of the machine are extremely difficult. It requires much effort to transport the system to the site and also requires continuous use of the utility's polar crane to move the manipulator into the building and then onto the vessel. Setup beside the vessel requires a large volume of work preparation area and several shifts to complete. In order to resolve these problems, we have developed an underwater mobile robot guided by the laser pointer, and performed a series of experiments both in the mockup and in the real reactor vessel. This paper introduces our robotic inspection system and the laser guidance of the mobile robot as well as the results of the functional test.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.1030-1035
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• 2011

The remote control of mobile robot is widely used to perform dangerous and complex tasks such as underwater exploration and cleaning of nuclear reactor. For this purpose, the obstacle avoidance process will proceed to ensure a safe drive. In this paper, we tested that mobile robot drive in which replaced a pipe with a box. After we measured the distance around the obstacle through a sensor of robot, we got the information that changed haptic force from the distance of the obstacle.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2005

Obstacle avoidance of underwater robots based on a modified virtual force field algorithm is proposed in this paper. The VFF(Virtual Force Field) algorithm, which is widely used in the field of mobile robots, is modified for application to the obstacle avoidance of underwater robots. This Modified Virtual Force Field(MVFF) algorithm using the fuzzy lgoc can be used in moving obstacles avoidance. A fuzzy algorithm is devised to handle various situations which can be faced during autonomous navigation of underwater robots. The proposed obstacle avoidance algorithm has ability to handle multiple moving obstacles. Results of simulation show that the proposed algorithm can be efficiently applied to obstacle avoidance of the underwater robots.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2019

In the ground environment, mobile robot research uses sensors such as GPS and optical cameras to localize surrounding landmarks and to estimate the position of the robot. However, an underwater environment restricts the use of sensors such as optical cameras and GPS. Also, unlike the ground environment, it is difficult to make a continuous observation of landmarks for location estimation. So, in underwater research, artificial markers are installed to generate a strong and lasting landmark. When artificial markers are acquired with an underwater sonar sensor, different types of noise are caused in the underwater sonar image. This noise is one of the factors that reduces object detection performance. This paper aims to improve object detection performance through distortion and rotation augmentation of training data. Object detection is detected using a Faster R-CNN.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2003

Autonomous mobile robots based on the Web have been already used in public places such as museums. There are many kinds of problems to be solved because of the limitation of Web and the dynamically changing environment. We present a methodology for intelligent mobile robot that demonstrates a certain degree of autonomy in navigation applications. In this paper, we focus on a mobile robot navigator equipped with neuro-fuzzy controller which perceives the environment, make decisions, and take actions. The neuro-fuzzy controller equipped with collision avoidance behavior and target trace behavior enables the mobile robot to navigate in dynamic environment from the start location to goal location. Most telerobotics system workable on the Web have used standard Internet techniques such as HTTP, CGI and Scripting languages. However, for mobile robot navigations, these tools have significant limitations. In our study, C# and ASP.NET are used for both the client and the server side programs because of their interactivity and quick responsibility. Two kinds of simulations are performed to verify our proposed method. Our approach is verified through computer simulations of collision avoidance and target trace.