Jeong-Hwan Kwak

Adaptive driving mode control of mobile platform with wheel-track hybrid type for rough terrain in the civil environment

Various robot platforms have been designed and developed to perform given tasks in a hazardous environment for the purpose of surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and etc. We have considered a terrain adaptive hybrid robot platform which is equipped with rapid navigation on flat floors and good performance on overcoming stairs or obstacles. Since our special consideration is posed to its flexibility for real application, we devised a design of a transformable robot structure which consists of an ordinary wheeled structure to navigate fast on flat floor and a variable tracked structure to climb stairs effectively. Especially, track arms installed in front side, rear side, and mid side are used for navigation mode transition between flatland navigation and stairs climbing. The mode transition is determined and implemented by adaptive driving mode control of mobile robot. The wheel and track hybrid mobile platform apparatus applied off-road driving mechanism for various professional service robots is verified through experiments for navigation performance in real and test-bed environment.

Terrain-adaptive and user-friendly remote control of wheel-track hybrid mobile robot platform

Various robot platforms have been designed and developed to perform given tasks in a hazardous environment for surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, etc. We considered a terrain-adaptive and transformable hybrid robot platform that is equipped for rapid navigation on flat floors and good performance in overcoming stairs or obstacles. The mode transition is determined and implemented by adaptive driving mode control of the mobile robot. The terrain-adaptive and user-friendly remote control was verified through its navigation performance experiments in real and test-bed environments.

Localization strategy based on multi-robot collaboration for indoor service robot applications

In this paper, we propose a multi-robot collaborative localization strategy for a group of mobile robots to enhance their formation-control and navigation performance even when the robots share only limited navigation information during indoor, multi-robot service applications.

Design and implementation of data acquisition board for F/T sensor embedded in robot end-effector

In the field of robotics, force-torque sensors are usually used to control multi-axial force-torque. The performance of force-torque sensors depends on the elastic structure, which serves as a sensor frame, and the sensitivity of the strain gauge. To ensure better performance of force-torque sensors, the transducer should be comprised of an elastic structure and a strain gauge. It is also extremely important for the data acquisition board, responsible for signal data processing, to be well-designed. In this paper, we carried out a performance evaluation of components based on conformance of hardware configuration to specifications of the data acquisition board for force-torque sensors embedded in robot end-effector, adequacy of components, and linearity testing of signal.

Miniature force-torque sensor using semiconductor strain gage sensor frame design and analysis for development

In order for a robot to handle various objects and perform or assist the tasks of a person, the robot has to be similar to the hand of a human and manipulation tools with the same functions were necessary. To properly perform such object manipulation functions, research and development of manipulation tools with integrated sensor technology utilizing sensors are being pursued. Although the force-torque sensor is the most general among such sensor technologies, miniaturization is necessary in order to apply the sensor to an intricate manipulation tool such as that of the human hand. In this regard, this study is about the sensor frame design and analysis for the development of a miniature force-torque sensor.

Development of Terrain-Adaptive Attitude Controller for Hybrid Mobile Platform with Wheel & Track

This paper describes terrain-adaptive attitude controller for a hybrid mobile platform which operates in wheel & track mode. The wheel mode of the hybrid mobile platform allows quick driving performance in the flatland, while the track mode provides adaptive movement in the rough ground or stairway. The switching of the platform between two modes is automatically controlled by attitude controller algorithm. In addition, in the track mode, the platform automatically adjusts its attitude angle to overcome the obstacles in front. This paper demonstrates the attitude controller for the aforementioned wheel-track hybrid mobile platform in order to overcome terrain obstacles by using an adaptive method. The driving performance of the hybrid mobile platform has been tested and verified in various surrounding environments in both wheel and track mode. Further, this paper presents the experiments by using the track structure of mobile platform on forming adaptive attitude under various types of obstacles. The practicability and effectiveness of the proposed attitude controller of the platform has been demonstrated in urban building and a test-bed.

Enhanced obstacle recognition method based on complementary use of multiple sensors

Various robot platforms have been designed and developed to perform given tasks in hazardous environments for surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, etc. A robot must be capable of overcoming and navigating these diverse environments. Awareness of the environment surrounding the robot so as to detect and avoid obstacles is a very important technology. For this purpose, ambient space recognition techniques are needed by complementarily using multiple distance sensors to enhance autonomous driving performance of the robot.

Design and Development of Terrain-adaptive and User-friendly Remote Controller for Wheel-Track Hybrid Mobile Robot Platform

Various robot platforms have been designed and developed to perform given tasks in a hazardous environment for surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, etc. We considered a terrain-adaptive and transformable hybrid robot platform that is equipped with rapid navigation capability on flat floors and good performance in overcoming stairs or obstacles. The navigation mode transition is determined and implemented by adaptive driving mode control of the mobile robot. In order to maximize the usability of wheel-track hybrid robot platform, we propose a terrain-adaptive and user-friendly remote controller and verify the efficiency and performance through its navigation performance experiments in real and test-bed environments.