• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.448-453
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• 2012

There are many researches to develop robots that improve its mobility to adapt in various uneven environments. In the paper, a hybrid wheeled and legged mobile robot is designed and a obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed based on low power walking using LRF(Laser Range Finder). In order to stabilize the robot's motion and reduce energy consumption, we implement a low-power walking algorithm through comparison of the current value of each motors and correction of posture balance. A low-power obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed by using LRF sensor. We improve walking stability by distributing power consumption and reduce energy consumption by selecting a shortest navigation path of the robot. The proposed methods are verified through walking and navigation experiments with the developed hybrid robot.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.139-148
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• 2018

PURPOSE: This study compared the effects of indoor and outdoor environmental changes on the activity of the major lower limb muscles and walking factors in people 40-50 years and those aged older than 70 years. METHODS: Ten middle-aged people in their forties (age:$44.2{\pm}2.7$, BMI:$21.8{\pm}1.8$) and 10 elderly aged more than 70 years (age:$76.4{\pm}5.9$, BMI:$22.2{\pm}1.9$) with a normal walking ability were included. The participants walked 100 m both indoors and outdoors at their own speed. Using a 3D motion analyzer and EMG, the walking speed, angle of the ankle and activity changes of the lower limb muscles were compared. RESULTS: Significant differences in walking speed and peak-plantar flexion angle were observed between the two groups (p<.05). The muscular activity of the gastrocnemius muscle (GCM) was significantly different outdoors in the swing phase between the two groups (p<.05). In the people aged in their forties, the muscular activity of the rectus femoris (RF) was significantly higher outdoors than indoors (p<.05). In the elderly, however, the muscular activity of the RF was lower outdoors than indoors (p<.05). When compared to those in there forties, the muscular activity of the outdoor RF significantly decreased in the elderly group (P<.05). The muscular activity of the biceps femoris (BF) in the elderly decreased significantly outdoors compared to indoors (p<.05). CONCLUSION: For the elderly, increasing the exposure to the new environments or focusing on the performance of repeated movements for gradual speed control and precise movements is required to maintain normal gaits and movements that are less affected by environmental changes.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.268-274
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• 2023

Background: Ankle sprains occur frequently among humans who undertake various body movements. Diverse walking environments and dual tasks, that can affect ankle sprains, have been studied. However, there is a lack of research on inter-trial variability according to the changes in gait speed. Objects: The purpose of this study was to compare the adaptive ability of walking between the subjects with chronic ankle instability and healthy adults while performing a walking task with different walking speeds. Methods: In this study, 24 people in the chronic ankle instability group and 24 people in the healthy ankle group were selected as subjects. The length of the pre-measurement and the actual walking measurement were both set to 4.6 m. Once the subjects entered the measurement section, they changed their gait speed according to the randomly assigned speed change. Gait was measured twice and the average value was used for the analysis. Results: The coefficient of variation (CV) of cycle time in subjects with chronic ankle instability showed a significant difference in all cases except when the subjects changed their speed from preferred to slow and from slow to preferred. The CV of step length demonstrated a significant difference in all cases except for the change from slow to preferred and from preferred to fast. The cycle time and step length differential showed a significant difference only when the subjects changed the speed from slow to fast. Conclusion: The subjects with chronic ankle instability were found to have significantly reduced walking adaptability while performing inter-trial variability tasks with different gait speeds compared to healthy subjects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2016

There are many researches to develop robots that improve its mobility and task planning to adapt in various uneven environments. In this paper, we propose the design method and task planning of quadruped robot which can have top-bottom docking structure. The proposed quadruped robot is designed to adjust leg length using linear actuators and perform top-bottom docking and undocking using octagonal cone shaped docking module. Also, to stable walking and information gathering in the various environments, a geomagnetic sensor, PSD sensor, LRF sensor and camera. We propose an obstacle avoidance method and the topbottom docking algorithm of the two quadruped robots using linear actuator. The robot can overcome obstacles using adjusting leg length and activate the top-bottom docking function. The top-bottom docking robots of two quadruped robot can walk 4 legged walking and 6 legged walking, and use 4 arms or 2 arms the upper. We verified that the docking robots can carry objects using 4 leg of the upper robot.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.615-627
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• 2014

In this study, nonhierarchical K-mean cluster analysis is used to classify the types of 230 local governments and the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis analysis are used to analyze the characteristics of pedestrian accidents by region types. With empirical analysis of pedestrian accidents, this study suggests improvements of walking environments reflecting local characteristics. Type 1-A (relatively dominant urban commercial areas), Type 1-B (predominantly urban residence) and Type 2 (rural areas) have been classified using nonhierarchical K-mean cluster analysis. According to the results, pedestrian accident rate on community roads was more than 60% for all types and incidence rate in rural areas was higher than that in urban areas. In addition, pedestrian accidents of Type 1-B have been found to occur more frequently than Type 2 in intersections and crossings, while the number of roadside casualties for Type 2 was highest.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop neighborhood assessment tools from the perspective of women in order to evaluate neighborhood environments and suggest better policies and planning practices for women-friendly neighborhood environments. To do so, we analyze correlations between women's quality of life and the neighborhood environment. Specifically, we gave female participants a mapping survey, interview, and questionnaire to collect data targeting women living in Onyang 2-dong and 5-dong in Asan city. First, we developed a neighborhood assessment tool derived from an extensive literature review and particular case studies. The mapping and interview surveys indicated that specific aspects neighborhood life needed to be improved in a similar area. In particular, women complained about Onyangoncheon station, a commercial area, and detached house area. Second, analysis of the neighborhood environmental factors affecting women's neighborhood satisfaction, crime safety, traffic and walking environment, accessibility of living facilities, green and public spaces and childcare environment were statistically significant. Of these, the inclusion of green and public spaces was the most influential factor. Third, the neighborhood environmental factors affecting women's neighborhood attachment, crime safety, traffic and walking environment, accessibility of living facilities, green and public spaces and childcare environment were statistically significant. Of these, accessibility of living facilities appeared to be the most influential factor. Fourth, the neighborhood environmental factors affecting women's housing mobility decisions, crime safety, traffic and walking environment, accessibility of living facilities, green and public spaces and childcare environment were statistically significant. Of these, childcare environment was the most influential factor.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.45-52
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• 2023

Recently, as the importance of walking in daily life has been emphasized, projects to guarantee walking rights and create a pedestrian environment are being promoted throughout the region. In previous studies, a pedestrian environment assessment was conducted using Jeonju-si road images, and an image comparison pair data set was constructed. However, data sets expressed in numbers have difficulty in generalizing the judgment criteria of pedestrian environment assessors or visually identifying the pedestrian environment preferred by pedestrians. Therefore, this study proposes a method to interpret the results of the pedestrian environment assessment through data visualization by building a web application. According to the semantic segmentation result of analyzing the walking environment components that affect pedestrian environment assessors, it was confirmed that pedestrians did not prefer environments with a lot of "earth" and "grass," and preferred environments with "signboards" and "sidewalks." The proposed study is expected to identify and analyze the results randomly selected by participants in the future pedestrian environment evaluation, and believed that more improved accuracy can be obtained by pre-processing the data purification process.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2015

Purpose: Maximizing human comfort in design of medical environments depends immensely on specialized architects particularly critical care design; the study proposes Evidence-Based Design as an apparent analog to Evidence-Based Medicine. Healthcare facility designs are substantially based on the findings of study in an effort to design environments that augment care by improving patient safety and being therapeutic. On SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) t-test is applied to simulate two independent variables of PDR (Pre Design-Research) and POE (Post- Occupancy Evaluation). PDR is conducted on relatively new hospital Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital to analyse visibility from researchers' point of view, here the ICU is arranged in I-Shape. POE is applied on Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital to simulate walking on LogWare where two NS are designed based on L- Shape and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea where five NS are functional for ICU Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), Korean Oriental Medical Care Unit which are mostly arranged in U-Shape, and walking pattern is recognized to be in a zigzag path. Method: T-Test is applied on two dependent communication variables: walkability and visibility, with confidence interval of 95%. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Station (NS) typo-morphology, and simulates nurse horizontal circulation, by computing round route visits to patient's bed, then estimating minimum round route on LogWare stop sequence software. The visual connectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim is to reduce staff stress and fatigue for better patients care by minimizing staff horizontal travel time and to facilitate nurse walk path and support space distribution by increasing effectiveness in delivering care. Result: Applying visibility graph and isovist field on space syntax on I- Shape, L- Shape and U- Shape ICU (SICU, MICU and CCU) configuration, I-shape facilitated 20% more patients in linear view as they stir to rise from their beds from nurse station compared to U-shape. In conclusion, it was proved that U-Shape supply minimum walking and maximum visibility; and L shape provides just visibility as the nurse is at pivot. I shape provides panoramic view from the Nurse Station but very rigorous walking.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2013

In order to apply a biped robot in real world, the robot requires a robust walking and a function of localization, path planning and navigation. Recently, localization and path planning using RFID of mobile robot has been studying. However, when the biped robot walks, it has unstability and tends to leave the path. In the paper we propose a method of walking stabilization using FSR(Force Sensing Resistor), Gyro and accelerometer for the real biped robot. Also a path tracking algorithm using RFID sensor attached in robot's foot is proposed based on localization of the robot. The proposed algorithm is verified from walking experiments using real biped robot on uneven terrain and path tracking experiments on the RFID environments.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.237-242
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• 2023

Research on high-performance walking robots is being actively conducted, and quadruped walking robots are receiving a lot of attention due to their excellent mobility and adaptability on uneven terrain, but they are difficult to introduce and utilize due to high cost. In this paper, to increase utilization by applying intelligent functions to a low-cost quadruped robot, we present a method of improving uneven terrain overcoming ability by mounting IMU and reinforcement learning on embedded board and automatically detecting objects using camera and deep learning. The robot consists of the legs of a quadruped mammal, and each leg has three degrees of freedom. We train complex terrain in simulation environments with designed 3D model and apply it to real robot. Through the application of this research method, it was confirmed that there was no significant difference in walking ability between flat and non-flat terrain, and the behavior of performing person detection in real time under limited experimental conditions was confirmed.