Byung June Choi

Intelligent BioRobot Platform for Integrated Clinical Test

Recently, automation in clinical test is raised as a fusion of bio and robotic technology. Particularly, automation in clinical test becomes a new application area of the robotic technology. In this paper, we present a robot platform for clinical test suitable for small or medium size of hospitals. The platform is designed to minimize the consumption of reagents, and easily integrate various testing equipments since it is functionally modularized. The platform is aimed for accommodating almost 70 kinds of clinical tests, which are the most frequently conducted in the hospitals. The platform consists of several major function blocks such as manipulation, transportation and detection, incubation, reservation, and each of them is designed as a module of the system. Basic ideas of the design are described and each functional block is explained in details

Development of flexible laboratory automation platform using Mobile Agents in the clinical laboratory

Recently, robotic automation in clinical laboratory becomes of keen interest as a fusion of bio and robotic technology. In this paper, we present a new robotic platform for clinical tests suitable for small or medium sized laboratories using mobile robots. The mobile robot called Mobile Agent is designed as transfer system of blood samples, reagents, microplates, and other instruments. Also, the mobile agent can perform diverse tests simultaneously based on its cooperative and distributed ability. The driving circuits for the mobile agent are embedded in the robot, and each mobile agent communicates with other agents by using Bluetooth communication. The RFID system is used to recognize patient information. The BioRobot platform based on mobile agents can control throughput according to the amount of tests. Also, the operation and maintenance of the system can be improved because its components are easily replaceable. To evaluate feasibility for BioRobot platform, the system was manufactured and validated by preliminary experiments.

Development of Flexible BioRobot Platform for Integrated Clinical Test

Recently, robotic automation in clinical test has become a subject of keen interest because it is a fusion of biotechnology and robotic technology. In this article, we present a new robotic platform for clinical test suitable for small- or medium-sized laboratories. The platform is designed to minimize the consumption of reagents, and to easily integrate various testing equipments because it is functionally modularized. It is aimed to accommodate 70 kinds of clinical tests, which are the most frequently conducted in hospitals. The BioRobot platform is developed, and its feasibility is validated experimentally.

Development of an Improved Scheduling Algorithm for Lab Test Operations on a Small-Size Bio Robot Platform

Blood tests are one of the core processes in the clinical laboratory test field. In hospitals, an automated process called total laboratory automation (TLA), which relies on a set of sophisticated equipment, is normally adopted for the tests. Noting that the TLA system typically has a large footprint and requires a significant amount of power, slim, and easy-to-move blood test equipment is necessary for some specific demands such as emergency rooms or small-size local clinics. Although various portable blood test systems are introduced and popularly used in many labs, the test processes of these systems are not usually flexible. In the present work, a new scheduling algorithm called reduced idle time (RIT) is developed for a small-scale portable Bio Robot platform. The RIT can successfully handle a series of components of the Bio Robot such as a liquid handler, six incubators, a newly developed spectrophotometer, and a robot arm. It also shows an enhanced effectiveness in terms of the testing time reduction when it is tested with the developed robot platform. Additionally, the RIT shows a fairly flexible capability to accommodate new incoming samples that might interrupt an on-going process and requires an immediate rescheduling.

Global localization for a small mobile robot using magnetic patterns

In this paper, we present a global localization and local pose error compensation method in a known structured environment using magnetic landmarks. In previous our research, it was possible to compensate the pose error (xe, ye, qe) of a mobile robot correctly on the surface of structured environment with magnetic landmarks. In this work, we propose a methodology of arranging magnetic landmarks on the map such that properly arranged magnetic patterns ease the global localization of a mobile agent. Among total six patterns of magnetic-bar in square arrangement, five unique landmarks are obtained. Therefore, a heuristic pattern search method is applied to build the virtual map using five landmarks. In order to obtain the global pose information, the robot identifies the pattern of magnets, and obtains the current global pose information by comparing the measured neighboring patterns with the map information that is saved in advance. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the magnetic-pattern landmarks for the global localization and local pose control of a mobile robot.

Development of robotic laboratory automation platform with intelligent mobile agents for clinical chemistry

In this research, we propose an innovative robotic platform for clinical tests suitable for small or medium sized laboratories using small-sized multiple mobile robots and a robotic arm. The proposed robotic platform is referred to as “BioRobot platform”. The BioRobot platform not only provides flexibility in test process by carrying out various clinical tests simultaneously through multiple mobile agents, but also increases productivity by having controllable throughput according to amount of tests. Therefore, the various algorithms which are related to robotic technologies have been applied in this platform to operate the entire hardware and several mobile agents simultaneously. To evaluate the performance of the BioRobot platform, various control methods are implemented, which provides parallel processing and scalability. The feasibility of the BioRobot platform with three mobile robotic agents is validated through preliminary experiments.

Automatic Scheduling Algorithm for Personalized Clinical Test

In this paper, we discuss how to arrange the activities of the clinical laboratory tests to minimize the total processing time. The order of each tests is different, but is fixed. Each of which is to be processed one at a time on m or fewer machines. This situation is referred to a job shop problem which consists of n jobs, m machines. The solution of this problem is considered and I simulated some tests

Robotic laboratory automation platform based on mobile agents for flexible clinical tests

In this research, we propose an innovative robotic platform for clinical tests suitable for small or medium sized laboratories. The proposed robotic platform, called “BioRobot platform”, is composed of multiple mobile agents which deliver microplates from one site to another in the platform, a miniature robotic arm, microplate loaders, photometry scanner or other testing devices, and an incubator where mobile agents reside depending on various tests. The BioRobot platform not only provides flexibility in tests by carrying out various clinical tests simultaneously through multiple mobile agents, but also increases productivity by having controllable throughput according to amount of tests. Also, to minimizes the delay time and provides parallel processing, the novel reduced idle time scheduling algorithm is implemented in the platform. The performance of the BioRobot platform is experimentally tested and its feasibility is validated.

Development of Multi-axial Micro Force Measurement Method for Electronic Device Assembly

A multi-axial micro force measurement system that can detect contact information of micro-scaled object interactions is presented. An accurate measurement of forces in the range of milli or micro newtons becomes an essential tool for the development of high-precision robot systems. The presented force measurement system consists of semiconductor strain gauges and 6-axis force/torque sensor. Implementation of the dual semiconductor strain gauges with a 6-axis force/torque sensor that are installed on a small manipulator system enables the identification of the applied force and contact position. Theoretical consideration of the method followed by an experimental verification is provided

Development of Exoskeleton-Type Data Glove for Position/Force Feedback

로브의 유효성을 평가하기 위하여 검지손가락을 위한 구동회로와 센서를 포함한 전체 시스템을 제작하 였으며 가상공간에 동적 시뮬레이션을 통해서 나타낸 물체를 조작하는 실험을 수행하였다. Abstract: In this paper, we present a new exoskeleton-type data glove that can sense the movement of the human finger and reflect the force to the finger The data glove is designed on the basis of the skeletal structure of the human hand, and the finger module has 1 degree-of-freedom because it includes three four-bar mechanism joints in series and a wire-coupling mechanism. In addition, the transmission ratio of the finger module is maintained at 1:1.4:1 over the entire movement range, and hence, the module can perform both extension and flexion. In addition, to enable adduction/abduction motion of the human hand, a unique MCP joint is designed by using two universal joints. To validate the feasibility of the data glove, master-slave control experiments based on force-position control between the data glove and the robot hand are conducted.