• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.531-537
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• 2015

Hand function is one of the essential functions required to perform the activities of daily living, and wearable robots that assist or recover hand functions have been consistently developed. Previously, wearable robots commonly employed conventional robotic technology such as linkage which consists of rigid links and pin joints. Recently, as the interest in soft robotics has increased, many attempts to develop a wearable robot with a soft structure have been made and are in progress in order to reduce size and weight. This paper presents the concept of a soft wearable robot composed of a soft structure by comparing it with conventional wearable robots. After that, currently developed soft wearable robots and related issues are introduced.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1864-1874
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• 2005

This paper describes a wearable multi-modal user interface design and its implementation for a teleoperated field robot system. Recently some teleoperated field robots are employed for hazard environment applications (e.g. rescue, explosive ordnance disposal, security). To complete these missions in outdoor environment, the robot system must have appropriate functions, accuracy and reliability. However, the more functions it has, the more difficulties occur in operation of the functions. To cope up with this problem, an effective user interface should be developed. Furthermore, the user interface is needed to be wearable for portability and prompt action. This research starts at the question: how to teleoperate the complicated slave robot easily. The main challenge is to make a simple and intuitive user interface with a wearable shape and size. This research provides multi-modalities such as visual, auditory and haptic sense. It enables an operator to control every functions of a field robot more intuitively. As a result, an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) demonstration is conducted to verify the validity of the proposed wearable multi-modal user interface.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.444-455
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• 2023

In this report, a specialization plan for wearable robots by mission profile was investigated and analyzed to derive an application plan. The final goal of this study was to derive the operating requirements of wearable robots according to specialized plans, and to conduct a specialized study on wearable robots by mission profile through investigation/analysis of specialized plans for each mission profile. In the study, 1) Research on technology trends related to military wearable robots such as patents and papers, 2) Research/analysis of mission profiles to characterize wearable robots, 3) Analysis of wearable robot specialization plans according to mission profiles, and 4) Requirements for wearable robot operation were derived. In the first time of the study, a survey on technology trends related to wearable robots for soldiers such as patents and papers was completed, and a military consultative body was conducted to derive measures to characterize wearable robots. In addition, a survey was conducted on mission profiles, and the second time study derived Key Performance Parameters (KPP) for operational performance, core performance, and system performance based on scenarios by mission profile. However, it is revealed that the KPP derived from the research results was not covered in this paper because it was judged that more in-depth research was needed prior to disclosure. In order to prepare for future battlefield situations and increase the usability of wearable robots, this study was conducted to characterize wearable robots by considering the characteristics of soldiers' equipment according to mission profiles and to characterize wearable robots by mission profile.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.286-292
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• 2009

This paper proposes a knee-wearable robot system for assisting the muscle power of human knee by processing EMG (Electromyogram) signals. Although there are many muscles affecting the knee joint motion, the rectus femoris and biceps femoris among them play a core role in the extension and flexion motion, respectively, of the knee joint. The proposed knee-wearable robot system consists of three parts; the sensor for measuring and processing EMG signals, controller for estimating and applying the required knee torque, and actuator for driving the knee-wearable mechanism. Ultimately, we suggest the motion control method for knee-wearable robot system by processing the EMG signals of corresponding two muscles in this paper. Also, we show the effectiveness of the proposed knee-wearable robot system through the experimental results.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

In this paper, we propose a methodology for classifying types of lower limb disability and their mechanical structure, based on extensive survey of previous developments. We also propose a task-oriented design with human-friendly and energy-efficient assistive system. The result can be used for optimal design of wearable walking-assistive robot considering the type of disability and the content of task.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.116-123
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• 2017

Wearable robots are receiving great attention from the public, as well as researchers, because its motivation is to improve the quality of lives of people. Above all, complete paraplegic patients due to spinal cord injury (SCI) might be the most adequate target users of the wearable robots, because they definitely need physical assistance due to the complete loss of muscular strength and sensory functions. Furthermore, the medical care of complete paraplegics by using the wearable robots have significantly reduced the mortality rate and improved the life expectancy. The requirements of the wearable robot for complete paraplegics are actuation torque, locomotion speed, wearing sensation, robust gait stability, safety, and practicality (i.e., size, volume, weight, and energy efficiency). A WalkON Suit is the wearable robot that has satisfied the requirements of the wearable robot for complete paraplegics and participated in the powered exoskeleton race of Cybathlon 2016. In this paper, configuration of the WalkON Suit, human-machine interface, gait pattern, control algorithm, and evaluation results are introduced.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.524-530
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• 2015

Early wearable robotic devices were big, powerful and manipulator-like. Recently, various applications of wearable robotics have shown a greater demand for lower weight and compliancy. One approach to achieve these objectives is the use of novel actuators such as twisted string actuators. These actuator are very light, quiet, mechanically simple and compliant. Therefore, they can drastically decrease the weight and size of robotic systems such as exoskeletons. However, one drawback of this actuator is its nonlinear transmission ratio, which is established as a ratio between the angle of twisting of the strings and their resulting contraction. In this paper, we propose a transmission mechanism with rotational motion as the output incorporating a twisted string actuator (TSA). The designed mechanism allows the linearization of the relationships between the input and output displacements and forces of a TSA. The proposed design has been validated theoretically and through a set of computer simulations. A detailed analysis of the performance of the proposed mechanism is presented in this paper along with a design guideline.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2017

An important characteristic of people with partially impaired walking ability, such as incomplete paraplegics, is that they are able to generate voluntary motion of lower-limbs. Therefore, wearable robots for the incomplete paraplegic patients require a different assistance method compared to those of complete paraplegics. First, the wearable robot should be controlled to not resist wearer's motion. Second, it should be able to generate assistive torque accurately when needed. In this paper, a wearable robot, called EROWA, for the incomplete paraplegic patients is introduced. EROWA utilizes compact rotary series elastic actuators (cRSEAs) and a control method called the zero impedance control to reduce the mechanical resistance. An assistive torque trajectory is proposed to assist gait in this paper. The proposed method is verified by simulation and experimental studies.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.205-209
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• 2007

Today, there are research trends about the wearable sensor device that measures various bio-signals and provides healthcare services to user using e-Health technology. This study describes the wearable sensor glove using pulse-wave sensor, conducting fabric and embedded system. This wearable sensor glove is based on the pulse-wave measurement system which is able to measure the pulse wave signal in much use of oriental medicine on the basis of a research trend of e-Health system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.374-380
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• 2010

This paper proposes a wearable interface for a tendon-driven robotic hand prosthesis. The proposed interface is composed of a dataglove to measure finger and wrist joint angle, and a micro-control board with a wireless RF module. The interface is used for posture control of the robotic hand prosthesis. The measured joint angles by the dataglove are transferred to the main controller via the wireless module. The controller works for directly controlling the joint angle of the hand or for recognizing hand postures using a pattern recognition method such as LDA and k-NN. The recognized hand postures in this study are the paper, the rock, the scissors, the precision grasp, and the tip grasp. In experiments, we show the performances of the wearable interface including the pattern recognition method.