Doo-Yeol Koh

Centipede robot for uneven terrain exploration: Design and experiment of the flexible biomimetic robot mechanism

Recently, various robots that are inspired by creatures in nature are developed for uneven terrain exploration. These robots are commonly referred as bio-inspired or biomimetic robot. Most biomimetic robot mechanisms have focused on studying the gait or leg mechanism of the target creature. However, unlike the real creatures, the robot has a disadvantage of contact losses between legs and ground due to the rigid body structure. Moreover, this rigid body structure makes the robot difficult to move uneven terrains. In this paper, biomimetic robot mechanism which is inspired by the flexible body and ripple gait motion of the centipede is proposed to tackle this problem. The prototype of the robot is experimented to assess its locomotion performance over various obstacles.

The Direction of EOD Robot(Manipulator) Developments in ROK

In this paper, we propose the direction of development for EOD robot. We collected and analyzed the opinions of EOD teams. In order to verify the opinions, we conducted QFD(Quality Function Deployment) analysis. Based on the QFD analysis, we work out the priority of EOD robot development. And we establish the goal of development(target system) and suggest the development direction of EOD robot on each issue.

The Method of Vertical Obstacle Negotiation Inspired from a Centipede

Mobility is one of the most important issues for search and rescue robots. To increase mobility for small size robot we have focused on the mechanism and algorithm inspired from centipede. In spite of small size, using many legs and flexible long body, centipede can overcome high obstacles and move in rough terrains stably. This research focused on those points and imitated their legs and body that are good for obstacle negotiation. Based on similarity of a centipede`s legs and tracks, serially connected tracks are used for climbing obstacles higher than the robot`s height. And a centipede perceives environments using antennae on its head instead of eyes. Inspired from that, 3 IR sensors are attached on the front, top and bottom of the first module to imitate the antenna. Using the information gotten from the sensors, the robot decides next behavior automatically. In experiments, the robot can climb up to 45 cm height vertical wall and it is 600 % of the robot`s height and 58 % of the robot`s length.

Study of classification of failure states for Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle by response surface methodology

SUGV(Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle) used for human rescue and military operation is need to overcome the environment that tough terrains such as a hole or high obstacles. As far as the survival of the vehicle and the preserving ability of the information in the vehicle are concerned, it is essential to have an approach for recognizing unattainable driving states. However, despite the fact that the study of obstacle avoidance and stabilization of SUGV is focused on, it is hardly found out ways of classifying unattainable driving states with the sensors mounted on the SUGV unit. In order to overcome the problem, this paper proposes a practical way for classifying SUGV Failure State(SFS) with the meaningful parameters by statistical method, response surface methodology(RSM).

Posture Stabilization Algorithm of A Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Turnover Prevention

Small unmanned ground vehicles(SUGVs) are typically operational on unstructured environments such as crashed building, mountain area, caves, and so on. On those terrains, driving control can suffer from the unexpected ground disturbances which occasionally lead turnover situation. In this paper, we have proposed an algorithm which sustains driving stability of a SUGV as preventing from turnover. The algorithm exploits potential field method in order to determine the stability of the robot. Then, the flipper and manipulator posture of the SUGV is optimized from local optimization algorithm known as gradient descent method. The proposed algorithm is verified using 3D dynamic simulation, and results showed that the proposed algorithm contributes to driving stability of SUGV.

Study of the Design of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Manipulator for Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle

In this paper, mechanism design of the explosive ordnance disposal(EOD) manipulator for small unmanned ground vehicle(SUGV) is presented from the conceptual to detailed design. EOD manipulator has been widely developed in the world due to the growing threat of the improvised explosive devices at war. It has distinctive characteristics, such as small size and high loading performance, compared to the industrial manipulator which is fixed on the floor. Design of new EOD manipulator must take into account various functional requirements and constraints simultaneously. We focused on developing the EOD manipulator that has suitable size for the SUGV and maximum 15kg payload capacity. Design approach taken in this paper is based on axiomatic design procedure and comparison among many possible candidates of each joint structure to obtain appropriate entire structure of EOD manipulator.