Moosung Choi

Flexible docking mechanism using combination of magnetic force with error-compensation capability

An auto-recharging system for a mobile robot can help the robot to perform its tasks constantly and without human intervention. For implementing the system, a docking mechanism is required. This paper presents a new docking mechanism with a localization error-compensation capability. The proposed mechanism uses the combination of mechanical structure and magnetic forces between the docking connectors. It is a structure to improve the allowance ranges of lateral and directional docking errors, in which the robot is able to dock into the docking station. Consequently, this mechanism reduces dependency of a robot control and allows easy docking with only mechanical configuration. In this paper, the superiority of the proposed mechanism is verified with experimental results.

Study of motor arbiter for a human-like robot

In development of a human-like robot, a motor control has to manage many motors simultaneously. This paper proposes the method of motor control which makes the human-like robot have facial expressions and behaviors similar to a human. It applied the behavior-based control and motor arbiter for performing continuous behaviors by synthesizing unit behaviors of an upper body and a facial expression. The behavior-based control selects the proper behavior and facial expression about a sensor input of a robot and an output of a high task. The motor arbiter exists between the behavior and the motor driver, and arbitrates interfered outputs generated from when one or more behaviors are executed concurrently. The behavior and facial expression of the human-like robot are expressive of smooth and continuous behaviors by using the behavior-based control and motor arbiter which synthesize several unit behaviors.