MFR (Multipurpose Field Robot) for installing construction materials

The objective of the study was to propose a MFR (Multipurpose Field Robot) in hazardous operation environments. This system combines a basic system composed of a multi-DOF (Degree Of Freedom) manipulator and a mobile platform with an additional module for construction, national defense and emergency-rescue. According to an additional module type combined with a basic system, it can be used in a various fields. In this study, we describe a prototype of construction robot which helps a human operator handle easily construction materials in case of using the cooperation system on construction site. This study introduces an additional module for construction and a robot control algorithm for a HRC (Human-Robot Cooperation). In addition, it proposes a novel construction method to install construction materials with robot on construction site. Seung Yeol Lee received the B.S. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Myungji University, Seoul, Korea in 2002, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 2005. He is a Ph.D. degree candidate from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. From 2003, He is currently a visiting researcher in the Research Institute of Technology, Construction Group at the Samsung Corporation, Korea conducting the design and implementation of construction robot and automation system for construction project. His research interests include design, control, and application of construction robots, field robotic systems and ergonomic design of robotic systems. He is a member of the Korea Society of Mechanical Engineers, Architectural Institute of Korea, and Ergonomics Society of Korea. Yong Seok Lee received the B.S. degree from the Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering, Kunsan national University, Kunsan, Korea in 2002, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 2005. Currently, he is the Post Master in Hanyang University, Korea. His major interests include design and kinematic/dynamic analysis on multi-purpose field robots and service robots. He is a member of the Architectural Institute of Korea. Bum Seok Park received the B.S. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan, Kyung-gi Do, Korea in 1993, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 1998. He is a Ph.D. from the Department of Mechatronics System Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea From 2006. He is currently the post-doctor in Hanyang University, Korea. His major interests include embedded robot control system on multi-purpose field robot and service robot. He is a member of the Korea Society of Mechanical Engineers, Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers. Sang Heon Lee graduated with the B.S. degree in Precision Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 1992. He received the M.S. degree in Precision Engineering from KAIST, Taejon, Korea in 1994 and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from KAIST in 2001. Currently, he is a senior researcher in Samsung Corporation, Korea. His major interests include the kinematic/dynamic analysis on multi-body system, application of field robots, and automation in construction. ChangSoo Han received the B.S. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University Technology, Seoul, Korea in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, in 1985 and 1989, respectively. From May 1988 to September 1989, he was a Research Assistant, Robotics Lab in Mechanical Engineering about manufacturing of the high resolution micro manipulator module. In March 1990, he joined Hanyang University, Ansan, Kyungki-Do, Korea as a Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. From March 1993 to February 1995, he was a Vice President, The Research Institute of Engineering & Technology of the Hanyang University. From August 1996 to July 1997, he was a Visiting Professor, Univ. of California at Berkeley. From September 1997 to February 1999, he was a Director, Hanyang Business Incubator. In August 2000, he joined a Branch President, The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers. In January 2002, he joined a Committee Member, The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers. From January 2001 to December 2001, he was an International Cooperation Director, The Institute of Control, Automation and Systems, Korea. His research interests include design, control, and application of robot, automation systems, and advanced vehicle.     

Generation of Discrete Bicubic G^1 B-Spline Ship Hullform Surfaces from a Given Curve Network Using Virtual Iso-Parametric Curves

We propose a method that automatically generates discrete bicubic G^1 continuous B-spline surfaces that interpolate the curve network of a ship huliform.First,the curves in the network are classified into two types;boundary curves and ＂reference curves＂,The boundary curves correspond to a set of rectangular（or triangular）topological type that can be representes with tensot-product （or degenerate）B-spline surface patches.Next,in the interior of the patches,surface fitting points and cross boundary derivatives are estimated from the reference curves by constructing ＂virtual＂isoparametric curves.Finally,a discrete G^1 continuous B-spline surface is gencrated by a surface fitting algorithm.Several smooth ship hullform surfaces generated from curve networks corresponding to actual ship hullforms demonstrate the quality of the method.     

Design and analysis of the Dual-Torus Network

In this paper, we propose a new topology called theDual Torus Network (DTN) which is constructed by adding interleaved edges to a torus. The DTN has many advantages over meshes and tori such as better extendibility, smaller diameter, higher bisection width, and robust link connectivity. The most important property of the DTN is that it can be partitioned into sub-tori of different sizes. This is not possible for mesh and torus-based systems. The DTN is investigated with respect to allocation, embedding, and fault-tolerant embedding. It is shown that the sub-torus allocation problem in the DTN reduces to the sub-mesh allocation problem in the torus. With respect to embedding, it is shown that a topology that can be embedded into a mesh with dilation δ can also be embedded into the DTN with less dilation. In fault-tolerant embedding, a fault-tolerant embedding method based on rotation, column insertion, and column skip is proposed. This method can embed any rectangular grid into its optimal square DTN when the number of faulty nodes is fewer than the number of unused nodes. In conclusion, the DTN is a scalable topology well-suited for massively parallel computation. Sang-Ho Chae, M.S.: He received the B.S. in the Computer Science and Engineering from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 1994, and the M.E. in 1996. Since 1996, he works as an Associate Research Engineer in the Central R&D Center of the SK Telecom Co. Ltd. He took part in developing SK Telecom Short Message Server whose subscribers are now over 3.5 million and Advanced Paging System in which he designed and implemented high availability concepts. His research interests are the Fault Tolerance, Parallel Processing, and Parallel Topolgies. Jong Kim, Ph.D.: He received the B.S. degree in Electronic Engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, in 1981, the M.S. degree in Computer Science from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea, in 1983, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A., in 1991. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea. Prior to this appointment, he was a research fellow in the Real-Time Computing Laboratory of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan from 1991 to 1992. From 1983 to 1986, he was a System Engineer in the Korea Securities Computer Corporation, Seoul, Korea. His major areas of interest are Fault-Tolerant Computing, Performance Evaluation, and Parallel and Distributed Computing. Sung Je Hong, Ph.D.: He received the B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1973, the M.S. degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University, Ames, U.S.A., in 1979, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana, U.S.A., in 1983. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea. From 1983 to 1989, he was a staff member of Corporate Research and Development, General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY, U.S.A. From 1975 to 1976, he was with Oriental Computer Engineering, Korea, as a Logic Design Engineer. His current research interest includes VLSI Design, CAD Algorithms, Testing, and Parallel Processing. Sunggu Lee, Ph.D.: He received the B.S.E.E. degree with highest distinction from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in 1985 and the M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1987 and 1990, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea. Prior to this appointment, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, U.S.A. From June 1997 to July 1998, he spent one year as a Visiting Scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. His research interests are in Parallel, Distributed, and Fault-Tolerant Computing. Currently, his main research focus is on the high-level and low-level aspects of Inter-Processor Communications for Parallel Computers.     

An enhanced force and contact position sensor for micro-manipulations

In micro-manipulations, force sensing devices play an important role in the control and the assembly of micro-objects. To protect these micro-objects from damage, we must have the ability to detect the value of the minute amount of interactive force (about a few μN) upon contact between the tip and the object. To detect this micro-force, we need an optimized design of force sensor to increase the strain values at the positions we place sensing components. Stress concentration can effectively amplify the strain values measured by the force sensors. This paper investigates the effect that the notches have on increasing the strain values at the positions we attach the sensing elements. In addition, the optimal design with a flexible structure improves the sensitivity of the sensor. An algorithm that can calculate both contact force and contact position on the sensor tip is also mentioned. Besides, an optimal location of strain gauges will ensure the accuracy and stability of the measurement. Finally, analysis and experiment are done to verify the proposed idea. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This research was supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korean Industrial Technology Foundation through the Human Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology. Tri Cong Phung received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the HCM University of Technology, Vietnam in 2004 and the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2007. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronic System Laboratory (IRMS Lab), Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include dexterous manipulation and touch sensors. Seung Hwa Ha received the B.S. degree in Korean University of Technology and Education, Korea in 2004. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2008. He is currently working in Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd. His research interests are about strain gauge and high precision control. Yong Seok Ihn received the B.S. degree in School of Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Korea in 2006. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, in 2008. He is currently working toward a Ph. D. degree in the Computer Aided Modeling & Simulation Laboratory (CAMAS Lab), School of Mechanical Engineering at the Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His research interests are precision mechatronics, dynamic system modeling, and control. Byung June Choi received the B.S. degree in School of Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Korea in 2002. He received the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineer-ing from the Sungkyunkwan University, in 2005. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronic System Laboratory (IRMS Lab), School of Mechanical Engineering at the Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His research interests are mechanisms design, multi-robot system control, cooperation, path planning and task allocation algorithm. Sang Moo Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and educated in Seoul. He received the Ph.D. degree from the Seoul National University in Korea, in 1999. He is currently a Principal Researcher of Division for Applied Robot Technology at Korean Institute of Industrial Technology. His research interests include high-precision robot control, motion field network, and location system in outdoor environment for robots. Ja Choon Koo is an Associate Professor of School of Mechanical Engineering in Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His major researches are in the field of design, analysis, and control of dynamics systems, especially micro precision mechatronic systems and energy transducers. He was an Advisory Engineer for IBM, San Jose, California, USA and a Staff Engineer for SISA, San Jose, CA, USA. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the B.S. from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Hyouk Ryeol Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984, the M.S. degree from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea, in 1994, all in Mechanical Engineering. From 1986 to 1989, he was an Associate Engineer at LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory, Seoul. From 1993 to 1995, he was at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, as a Grantee of scholarship from the Japanese Educational Ministry. From 2000 to 2001, he visited Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Fellow. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics and International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS), and IEEE Transactions on Robotics. His current research interests include dexterous mechanism, field application of robots, and artificial muscle actuators.     

Zikimi: A Case Study in Micro Kernel Design for Multimedia Applications

Due to recent rapid deployment of Internet Appliances and PostPC products, the importance of developing lightweight embedded operating system is being emphasized more. In this article, we like to present the details of design and implementation experience of low cost embedded system, Zikimi, for multimedia data processing. We use the skeleton of existing Linux operating system and develop a micro-kernel to perform a number of specific tasks efficiently and effectively. Internet Appliances and PostPC products usually have very limited amount of hardware resources to execute very specific tasks. We carefully analyze the system requirement of multimedia processing device. Weremove the unnecessary features, e.g. virtual memory, multitasking, a number of different file systems, and etc. The salient features of Zikimi micro kernel are (i) linear memory system and (ii) user level control of I/O device. The result of performance experiment shows that LMS (linear memory system) of Zikimi micro kernel achieves significant performance improvement on memory allocationagainst legacy virtual memory management system of Linux. By exploiting the computational capability of graphics processor and its local memory, we achieve 2.5 times increase in video processing speed. Supported by KOSEF through Statistical Research Center for Complex Systems at Seoul National University. Funded by Faculty Research Institute Program 2001, Sahmyook University, Korea. Sang-Yeob Lee received his B.S. and M.S degree from Hanyang University, seoul, Korea in 1995. He is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree in Devision of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Since 1998, he has been on the faculty of Information Management System at Sahmyook university, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include robot vision systems, pattern recognition, Multimedia systems. He is a member of IEEE. Youjip Won received the B.S and M.S degree in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 1990 and 1992, respectively and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1997. After finishing his Ph.D., He worked as Server Performance Analysts at Server Architecture Lab., Intel Corp. Since 1999, he has been on the board of faculty members in Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. His current research interests include Multimedia Systems, Internet Technology, Database and Performance Modeling and Analysis. He is a member of ACM and IEEE. Whoi-Yul Kim received his B.S. degree in Electronic Engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 1980. He received his M.S. from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, in 1983 and his Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, in 1989, both in Electrical Engineering. From 1989 to 1994, he was with the Erick Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Since 1994, he has been on the faculty of Electronic Engineering at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. He has been involved with research development of various range sensors and their use in robot vision systems. Recently, his work has focused on content-based image retrieval system. He is a member of IEEE.     

Asynchronous action-reward learning for nonstationary serial supply chain inventory control

Action-reward learning is a reinforcement learning method. In this machine learning approach, an agent interacts with non-deterministic control domain. The agent selects actions at decision epochs and the control domain gives rise to rewards with which the performance measures of the actions are updated. The objective of the agent is to select the future best actions based on the updated performance measures. In this paper, we develop an asynchronous action-reward learning model which updates the performance measures of actions faster than conventional action-reward learning. This learning model is suitable to apply to nonstationary control domain where the rewards for actions vary over time. Based on the asynchronous action-reward learning, two situation reactive inventory control models (centralized and decentralized models) are proposed for a two-stage serial supply chain with nonstationary customer demand. A simulation based experiment was performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed two models. Chang Ouk Kim received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1996 and his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Korea University, Republic of Korea in 1988 and 1990, respectively. From 1998--2001, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering at Myongji University, Republic of Korea. In 2002, he joined the Department of Information and Industrial Engineering at Yonsei University, Republic of Korea and is now an associate professor. He has published more than 30 articles at international journals. He is currently working on applications of artificial intelligence and adaptive control theory in supply chain management, RFID based logistics information system design, and advanced process control in semiconductor manufacturing. Ick-Hyun Kwon is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previous to this position, Dr. Kwon was a research assistant professor in the Research Institute for Information and Communication Technology at Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Korea University, in 1998, 2000, and 2006, respectively. His current research interests are supply chain management, inventory control, production planning and scheduling. Jun-Geol Baek is an assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration at Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 1993, 1995, and 2001 respectively. From March 2002 to February 2007, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering at Induk Institute of Technology, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include machine learning, data mining, intelligent machine diagnosis, and ubiquitous logistics information systems. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Central pattern generator parameter search for a biped walking robot using nonparametric estimation based Particle Swarm Optimization

A parameter search for a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) for biped walking is difficult because there is no methodology to set the parameters and the search space is broad. These characteristics of the parameter search result in numerous fitness evaluations. In this paper, nonparametric estimation based Particle Swarm Optimization (NEPSO) is suggested to effectively search the parameters of CPG. The NEPSO uses a concept experience repository to store a previous position and the fitness of particles in a PSO and estimated best position to accelerate a convergence speed. The proposed method is compared with PSO variants in numerical experiments and is tested in a three dimensional dynamic simulator for bipedal walking. The NEPSO effectively finds CPG parameters that produce a gait of a biped robot. Moreover, NEPSO has a fast convergence property which reduces the evaluation of fitness in a real environment. Recommended by Editorial Board member Euntai Kim under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. Jeong-Jung Kim received the B.S. degree in Electronics and Information Engineering from Chonbuk National University in 2006 and the M.S. degree in Robotics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2008. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. His research interests include biologically inspired robotics and machine learning. Jun-Woo Lee received the B.S. degree in Electronics, Electrical and Communication Engineering from Pusan National University in 2007. He is currently working toward an M.S. in the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. His research interests include swarm intelligence and machine learning. Ju-Jang Lee was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1948. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1973 and 1977, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, in 1984. From 1977 to 1978, he was a Research Engineer at the Korean Electric Research and Testing Institute, Seoul. From 1978 to 1979, he was a Design and Processing Engineer at G. T. E. Automatic Electric Company, Waukesha, WI. For a brief period in 1983, he was the Project Engineer for the Research and Development Department of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Milwaukee. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, in 1984, where he is currently a Professor. In 1987, he was a Visiting Professor at the Robotics Laboratory of the Imperial College Science and Technology, London, U.K. From 1991 to 1992, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Robotics Department of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. His research interests are in the areas of intelligent control of mobile robots, service robotics for the disabled, space robotics, evolutionary computation, variable structure control, chaotic control systems, electronic control units for automobiles, and power system stabilizers. Dr. Lee is a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, the IEEE Evolutionary Computation Society, the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IEEK, KITE, and KISS. He is also a former President of ICROS in Korea and a Counselor of SICE in Japan. He is a Fellow of SICE and ICROS. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.     

A fish robot driven by piezoceramic actuators and a miniaturized power supply

In this paper, we have introduced a prototype of a fish robot driven by unimorph piezoceramic actuators. To improve the swimming performance of the fish robot in terms of tail-beat angle, swimming speed, and thrust force, we used four light-weight piezo-composite actuators (LIPCAs) instead of the two LIPCAs used in the previous model. We also developed a new actuation mechanism consisting of links and gears. Performance tests of the fish robot were conducted in water at various tail-beat frequencies to measure the tail-beat angle, swimming speed, and thrust force. The tail-beat angle was significantly better than that of the previous model. The best tail-beat frequency of the fish robot was 1.4 Hz and the maximum thrust force was 0.0048 N. A miniaturized power supply, which was developed to excite the LIPCAs, was installed inside the fish robot body for free swimming. The maximum free-swimming speed was 3.2 cm/s. Recommended by Editorial Board member Hyoukryeol Choi under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation under grant KRF-2004-005-D00045. Quang Sang Nguyen received the BS (2001) and MS (2006) from Hochiminh City University of Technology, Vietnam. Formerly an assistant lecturer of Naval Architect and Marine Engineering, Hochiminh City University of Technology, Vietnam (2001-2006), he is currently a Ph.D. student at the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University. His specialty is biomimetic system design and smart material application. Seok Heo received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Dongguk University in 1998, 2000, and 2003, Respectively. Currently he is a Research Professor at the Artificial Muscle Researcch Center, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include biomimetics, vibration analysis, system design and control, and smart materials and structures. Hoon Cheol Park received the B.S. (1985) and M.S. (1987) from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and Ph.D. (1994) from the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA. He joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea, in 1995, and he is currently a Professor in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His professional experience includes Kia Motors (1986–1988) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (1994–1995). His specialty is finite element analysis and his recent research has focused on biomimetics. Nam Seo Goo graduated with honors in 1990 from the Department of Aeronautics Engineering of Seoul National University, and he got a masters degree and Ph.D. from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the same university in 1992 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was on the structural dynamics of aerospace systems. As soon as he obtained the Ph.D. he entered the Agency for Defense development as a senior researcher. In 2002, after four years of service, he joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, where he is currently serving as an Associate Professor of the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His current research interests include structural dynamics of small systems, smart structures and materials, and MEMS applications. Taesam Kang is a Professor of the Department of Aerospace and Information System Engineering, Konkuk University. He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Seoul National University in 1986, 1988 and 1992, respectively. His current research areas are robust control theories and the application of those theories with regard to flight control, development of micro-aerial vehicles and fish robots. Kwang Joon Yoon was awarded the BS (1981) and M.S. (1983) in Aeronautics Engineering from Seoul National University and Ph.D. (1990) in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering from Purdue. Since 1991 he has been a Professor at Konkuk University in Korea, where he is currently a Professor of Aerospace Engineering, the Director of the National Research Laboratory for Active Structures and Materials, the Director of the Artificial Muscle Research Center, and the Director of the Smart Robot Center. His current research interests include smart structures and materials, micro-aerial vehicles, and insect-mimetic micro-robot systems. Seung Sik Lee received the B.S. (1996) and M.S. (1998) in Civil Engineering from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea and Ph.D. (2003) in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, GA, USA. Currently he is a Senior Researcher at Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion.     

Biologically inspired control of quadruped walking robot

In this paper, we present a control method for a quadruped walking robot inspired from the locomotion of quadrupeds. A simple and useful framework for controlling a quadruped walking robot is presented, which is obtained by observing the stimulus-reaction mechanism, the gravity load receptor and the manner of generating repetitive motions from quadrupeds. In addition, we propose a new rhythmic pattern generator that can relieve the large computational burden on solving the kinematics. The proposed method is tested via a dynamic simulation and validated by implementation in a quadruped walking robot, called AiDIN-I (Artificial Digitigrade for Natural Environment I). Recommended by Editorial Board member Sangdeok Park under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2005-D00031). Ig Mo Koo received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Myongji University, Yongin, Korea, in 2003, the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2005, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include artificial muscle actuators, haptics, tactile display, biomimetics and quadruped walking robots systems. Tae Hun Kang received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, in 2000, 2002, and 2006, respectively. His current research interests focus on biomimetics and quadruped walking robot. Gia Loc Vo received the B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering form Ha Noi University of Technology in Vietnam 2003, the M.S. degree Mechanical Engineering form Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2006, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include legged locomotion, walking and climbing robot. Tran Duc Trong received the B.S degree in Mechatronics from HoChiMinh City University of Technology in Vietnam in 2005, where he is currently working toward a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include biological inspired control and adaptive control of quadruped walking robot. Young Kuk Song received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2006, where he is currently working toward a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include biomimetics, hydraulic robotics system and quadruped walking robot. Hyouk Ryeol Choi received the B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984, the M.S. degree from the Korea Advanced Technology of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea, in 1994. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He was an Associate Engineer with LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory, Seoul, Korea, from 1986 to 1989. From 1993 to 1995, he was with Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, as a grantee of scholarship funds from the Japanese Educational Administry. He visited the Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a JSPS Fellow from 1999 to 2000. He is now an Associate Editor in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics, International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS). His interests includes dexterous mechanisms, field application of robots, and artificial muscle actua tors.     

Escaping route method for a trap situation in local path planning

This paper introduces a new framework for escaping from a local minimum in path planning based on artificial potential functions (APFs). In particular, this paper presents a set of analytical guidelines for designing potential functions to avoid local minima in a trap situation (in this case, the robot is trapped in a local minimum by the potential of obstacles). The virtual escaping route method is proposed to allow a robot to escape from a local minimum in a trap situation where the total forces are composed of repulsive forces by obstacles and attractive force by a goal are zero. The example results show that the proposed scheme can effectively construct a path planning system with the capability of reaching a goal and avoiding obstacles, despite a trapped situation under possible local minima. Recommended by Editorial Board member Sooyong Lee under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Kyungnam University Foundation Grant, 2007. Dong Hun Kim received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Hanyang University, Korea, in 1995, 1997 and 2001, respectively. From 2001 to 2003, he was a Research Associate under several grants in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, NC, USA. In 2003, he joined Boston University, MA, USA, as a Visiting Assistant Professor under several grants in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. In 2004, he was engaged in postdoctoral research at the School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Japan. Since 2005, he has been an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kyungnam University, Korea. His research interests include swarm intelligence, self-organization of swarm systems, mobile robot path planning, decentralized control of autonomous vehicles, intelligent control, and adaptive nonlinear control.     

Auto-generation of IEC standard PLC code using t-MPSG

The objective of this paper is to reduce the development time of a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) by automating the task of code generation. For this purpose, we applied t-MPSG (Timed-Message Based Part State Graph). The t-MPSG is an extended finite state automata used to model and generate an execution module for a real-time shop floor controller system. In our proposed method, t-MPSG is used to model the formal specification of the controller system that can be translated into textual structure. After the verification of the t-MPSG model, it can be used as an input to the plc-builder tool. The plc-builder tool is an extended version of a conventional MPSG simulator. It can be used to translate the textual structure of the t-MPSG into an IEC standard PLC code. Finally, the generated code can be downloaded to a PLC emulator or a PLC device for the purpose of simulation and execution. The similarity in the hierarchical structure of the t-MPSG and the IEC standard PLC program has made it convenient to transform from one form to another. Furthermore, an illustration of the methodology to auto-generate IEC standard PLC code using t-MPSG is explained with a suitable example. Recommended by Editorial Board member Young Soo Suh under the direction of Editor Jae Weon Choi. This work was partially supported by Defense Acquisition Program Administration and Agency for Defense Development under the contract (UD080042AD). Devinder Thapa is a Postdoc Research Fellow in the Department of Industrial & information systems at Ajou University, Korea. He completed his Ph.D. from Ajou University in Industrial and Information Systems Engineering. His area of research is related to manufacturing automation and intelligent decision support systems. Chang Mok Park is a Professor in the Department of Technology & Systems Management at Induk Institute of Technology. He completed his Ph.D. in 2002 from Ajou University in Industrial Engineering. His research interest is related to manufacturing optimization, discrete event system simulation and signal analysis. Sang C. Park is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering at Ajou University. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from KAIST in 1994, 1996, and 2000, respectively, all in Industrial Engineering. His research interests include geometric algorithms in CAD/CAM, process planning, engineering knowledge management, and discrete event system simulation. Gi-Nam Wang is the Head and a Professor in the Department of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering at Ajou University, Korea. He completed his Ph.D. in 1992 from Texas A&M University, in Industrial Engineering. He has worked as Visiting Professor at University of Texas at Austin during 2000–2001. His area of research is related to Intelligent Information & manufacturing systems, system integration & automation, e-Business solutions and image processing.     

Balance control of a biped robot using camera image of reference object

This paper presents a new balance control scheme for a biped robot. Instead of using dynamic sensors to measure the pose of a biped robot, this paper uses only the visual information of a specific reference object in the workspace. The zero moment point (ZMP) of the biped robot can be calculated from the robot’s pose, which is measured from the reference object image acquired by a CCD camera on the robot’s head. For balance control of the biped robot a servo controller uses an error between the reference ZMP and the current ZMP, estimated by Kalman filter. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm has been proven by the experiments performed on both flat and uneven floors with unknown thin obstacles. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD). This research was supported by the MKE(The Ministry of Knowledge Economy), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program supervised by the IITA(Institute for Information Technology Advancement) (IITA-2008-C1090-0803-0006). Sangbum Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Electronic Engineering of Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea, in 2004 and 2006 respectively. He has been with School of Electronic Engineering, Soongsil University since 2006, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. His current research interests include biped walking robot, robotics vision. Youngjoon Han received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronic Engineering from Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea, in 1996, 1998, and 2003, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Electornic Engineering at Soongsil University. His research interests include robot vision system, and visual servo control. Hernsoo Hahn received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronic Engineering at Soongsil University and Younsei University, Korea in 1982 and 1983 respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from University of Southern California in 1991, and became an Assistant Professor at the School Electroncis Engneering in Soongsil University in 1992. Currently, he is a Professor. His research interests include application of vision sensors to mobile robots and measurement systems.     

Vibration suppression of a flexible robot manipulator with a lightweight piezo-composite actuator

The increasing demand for high-speed performance and low energy consumption has necessitated the design of lightweight mechanical systems. The active vibration suppression of a flexible manipulator is important in many engineering applications, such as robot manipulators and high-speed flexible mechanisms, because the flexibility of lightweight manipulators induces a vibration problem. Frequently, the optimal parameters determined for a certain control algorithm might not cover a wide range of operating conditions. Hence, we have proposed and developed a lookup table control method for a flexible manipulator that can tune itself to optimal parameters on the basis of the initial maximum responses of the controlled system and a genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm is used to search for optimal parameters with regard to positive position feedback and thereby minimizes the objective functions determined from the initial maximum responses. Our lookup table, which has the optimal parameters of the positive position feedback as a function of the initial maximum responses, can be used in a real-time control algorithm. Recommended by Editorial Board member Hyoukryeol Choi under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation under grant KRF 2006-005-J03302 and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under grant KOSEF R0A-2007-000-20012-0. Van Phuoc Phan received the BS (2006) from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, HCM University of Technology, Vietnam. Currently, he is a Master student at the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. His interests are structural dynamics of small systems, smart structure and material, and finite element analysis. Nam Seo Goo graduated from the Department of Aeronautics Engineering of Seoul National University with honors in 1990, and got master and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Aerospace Engineering at the same university in 1992 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D. degree was on the structural dynamics of aerospace systems. As soon as he got a Ph.D. degree, he entered the agency for defense development as a Senior Researcher. After four years’ service, he joined Department of Aerospace Engineering in Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea in 2002, currently serving an Associate Professor of Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His current research interests are structural dynamics of small systems, smart structure and material, and MEMS applications. Hoon Cheol Park received his BS (1985) and MS(1987) degrees from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and Ph.D.(1994) degree from the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA. He joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea in 1995, and he is currently a Professor in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His professional experience includes Kia Motors (1986–1988) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (1994–1995). His specialty is the finite element analysis and recent research topic is mainly biomimetics.     

Application of perturbation/correlation based gradient estimation for environment exploration

Mobile robots are increasingly being used to perform tasks in unknown environments. The potential of robots to undertake such tasks lies in their ability to intelligently and efficiently search in an environment. This paper introduced an algorithm for robots that explore the environment so that they can measure physical properties (dust in this paper). While the robot is moving, it measures the amount of dust and registers the value in the corresponding grid cell. At first, the robot moves from local maximum to local minimum, then to another local maximum, and repeats. To reach the local maximum or minimum, the robot simply follows the gradient which is estimated using perturbation/correlation. By introducing the probability of each grid cell, and considering the probability distribution, the robot doesn’t have to visit all the grid cells in the environment while still providing fast and efficient sensing. Robust estimation of the gradient using perturbation/correlation, which is very effective when an analytical solution is not available, is described. To verify the effectiveness of perturbation/correlation based estimation, the simulation results of gradient estimation which were compared to three other numerical methods are presented. The proposed algorithm was performed by the simulation and the comparison of exploration results according to the gradient estimation method is shown. Recommended by Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MKE/IITA [2008-F-045-01, Development of Obstacle Detection and Indoor Localization System for the Blind] and also by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (NO. R01-2007-000-20977-0). Jungyun Bae received the B.S. and M.S degrees from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. She worked for one year for Division of Applied Robot Technology of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) in Ansan, Korea. Presently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Texas A&M University. Her interested research areas are Mobile Robotics and Intelligence Robots. Gon Woo Kim received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Chung-Ang University, Korea in 2000, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the School of Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2002 and 2006, respectively. Since 2008, he has been with Wonkwang University, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Division of Electrical Electronic and Information Engineering. He worked as a Researcher with Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) from 2006 to 2008. His research interests include mobile robotics, sensor fusion/integration, map building, and SLAM. Sooyong Lee received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 1989, and 1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from MIT, Cambridge, MA, in 1996. He worked as a Senior Research Scientist at KIST and then as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He joined Hongik University, Seoul, Korea in 2003 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and System Design Engineering Department. His current research includes mobile robot localization and navigation, and active sensing.     

An LMI approach to robust reduced-order H ∞ filter design for polytopic uncertain systems

This paper proposes a method for robust reduced-order H _∞ filter design for polytopic uncertain systems, using linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Sufficient LMI conditions for both robust full- and reduced-order H _∞ filter design are derived. Convex optimization problems are formulated and solved to obtain optimal H _∞ filters by using the resulting LMI conditions. The resulting conditions do not involve any non-convex rank constraints, and thus the proposed method for H _∞ filter design guarantees global optimum solutions. Numerical examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Recommended by Editorial Board member Huanshui Zhang under the direction of Editor Young Il Lee. This work was supported by the Brain Korea 21 Project and the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under grant R01-2006-000-11373-0. Hyoun-Chul Choi received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Control and Instrumentation Engineering from Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, in 1995, 1997, and 2006, respectively. He was a Visiting Researcher at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, from 2001 to 2002, and a Postdoctoral researcher at Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, from 2006 to 2007. Since 2008, he has been with ASRI, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher. His research interests include LMI-based control, optimal and robust control, network-based control, and mechatronics. Dongkyoung Chwa received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Control and Instrumentation Engineering in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2001, all from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. From 2001 to 2003, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with Seoul National University. In 2003, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at The University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, and was the Honorary Visiting Academic at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. In 2004, he was a BK21 Assistant Professor with Seoul National University. Since 2005, he has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea. His research interests are nonlinear, robust, and adaptive control theories and their applications to the robotics, underactuated systems including wheeled mobile robots, underactuated ships, cranes, and guidance and control of flight systems. Suk-Kyo Hong received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1971, 1973, and 1981, respectively. His major graduate research works were centered on speed control of induction motors. He was an Exchange Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, from 1982 to 1983, and at the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, France, from 1988 to 1989. He has been with the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, since 1976, and was a Visiting Professor at Griffith University, Australia, in 2001 and 2002. His current research interests include robust robot control, microprocessor applications, factory automation, and computer integrated manufacturing.     

A path following control of an unmanned autonomous forklift

In this paper, the development of an unmanned autonomous forklift is discussed. A system configuration using vision, laser ranger finder, sonar, etc. for autonomous navigation is presented. The kinematics of a spin-turn mechanism is analyzed first, and then the obtained kinematics equations are transformed to the equations represented by path variables. These equations are nonlinear state equations to be used for control purposes. A time varying feedback control law via the chained form of Murray and Sastry [12] is derived. The effectiveness of the proposed control law is examined through simulations and experiments. Recommended by Editorial Board member Sooyong Lee under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (The Regional Research Universities Program/Institute of Logistics Information Technology). Tua Agustinus Tamba received the B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from Institute of Technology Bandung, Indonesia, in 2006. He is currently a graduate student at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea. His research interests include control of unmanned vehicles and path planning technologies for autonomous robots. Bonghee Hong received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from Seoul National University in 1982, 1984, and 1988, respectively. Dr. Hong joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Pusan National University (PNU) in 1989 and now he is a Professor. Dr. Hong is the Director of the Research Institute of Logistics Information Technology (LIT) at PNU. Dr. Hong received the Korean Minister Award in 2006 and the University Excellence Innovation Award in 2007. His current research interests include theory of database systems, RTLS systems, RFID middleware, RFID database, and stream data processing. Keum-Shik Hong received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Seoul National University in 1979, the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, in 1987, and both the M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1991. From 1991 to 1992, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UIUC. Since Dr. Hong joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at Pusan National University, Korea, in 1993, he is now a Professor. During 1982–85, he was with Daewoo Heavy Industries, Incheon, Korea, where he worked on vibration, noise, and emission problems of vehicles and engines. Dr. Hong serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology and serves as an Associate Editor in various IEEE and IFAC conferences editorial boards. He also served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems Engineering and has been serving as an Associate Editor for Automatica (2000–2006) and as an Editor for the International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems (2003–2005). His laboratory, Integrated Dynamics and Control Engineering Laboratory, was designated as a National Research Laboratory by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea in 2003. Dr. Hong received Fumio Harashima Mechatronics Award in 2003 and the Korean Government Presidential Award in 2007. He is a Member of ASME, IEEE, ICROS, KSME, KSPE, KIEE, and KINPR. Dr. Hong’s current research interests include nonlinear systems theory, adaptive control, distributed parameter system control, robotics, vehicle control, and innovative control applications to engineering problems.     

Feedback linearization vs. adaptive sliding mode control for a quadrotor helicopter

This paper presents two types of nonlinear controllers for an autonomous quadrotor helicopter. One type, a feedback linearization controller involves high-order derivative terms and turns out to be quite sensitive to sensor noise as well as modeling uncertainty. The second type involves a new approach to an adaptive sliding mode controller using input augmentation in order to account for the underactuated property of the helicopter, sensor noise, and uncertainty without using control inputs of large magnitude. The sliding mode controller performs very well under noisy conditions, and adaptation can effectively estimate uncertainty such as ground effects. Recommended by Editorial Board member Hyo-Choong Bang under the direction of Editor Hyun Seok Yang. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant (MOEHRD) KRF-2005-204-D00002, the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation(KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government(MOST) R0A-2007-000-10017-0 and Engineering Research Institute at Seoul National University. Daewon Lee received the B.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, Korea, in 2005, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He has been a member of the UAV research team at SNU since 2005. His research interests include applications of nonlinear control and vision-based control of UAV. H. Jin Kim received the B.S. degree from Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST) in 1995, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley in 1999 and 2001, respectively. From 2002–2004, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). From 2004–2009, she was an Assistant Professor in the School of in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, Korea, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Her research interests include applications of nonlinear control theory and artificial intelligence for robotics, motion planning algorithms. Shankar Sastry received the B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1977, and the M.S. degree in EECS, the M.A. degree in mathematics, and the Ph.D. degree in EECS from UC Berkeley, in 1979, 1980, and 1981, respectively. He is currently Dean of the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. He was formerly the Director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). He served as Chair of the EECS Department from January, 2001 through June 2004. In 2000, he served as Director of the Information Technology Office at DARPA. From 1996 to 1999, he was the Director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at Berkeley (an organized research unit on the Berkeley campus conducting research in computer sciences and all aspects of electrical engineering). He is the NEC Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, EECS and Mechanical Engineering. Prior to joining the EECS faculty in 1983 he was a Professor with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the IEEE.     

An optimal H 2 decoupling design for non-square plant systems based on the two-degree-of-freedom standard model

We obtain an optimal H ₂ decoupling controller for rectangular plants in a standard two-degree-of-freedom controller configuration model. The class of all stabilizing and decoupling loop controllers is parameterized in terms of free diagonal parameter matrices. We determined the optimal decoupling controller from these free parameters. Inner-outer factorization and the Khatri-Rao product expression for the vector operation to a diagonal matrix are the key steps in obtaining the H ₂ optimal solution. We provide a compact set of assumptions to assure the existence of the optimal solution. Recommended by Editorial Board member Jietae Lee under the direction of Editor Young Il Lee. Goon-Ho Choi received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Control Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, on February 1993, 1995 and 1999, respectively. From 1999 to 2005, he worked as a Senior Engineer in the research and development area of Han-Mi Semiconductor Co. Ltd, Hanool Robotics Co., and Dasa Robot Co. Ltd, respectively. Since 2006, he has been a lecturer in the School of Mechanical Engineering, at Korea University of Technology and Education, Chungnam, Korea. His research interests include robust optimal control, robotics, motion control, sequence control, and the human-machine interface of an automated machine. Kiheon Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea in 1978 and 1980, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in System Engineering from Polytechnic University, NY, in 1987. From 1980 to 1983, he served in the Korean Navy as a Full-time Instructor at the Naval Academy. He was the recipient of a Korea Electric Association Scholarship from 1983 to 1986. From 1988 to 1990, he worked for the Electronic and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon, Korea, where he was involved in a factory automation project. Since March 1990, he has been with the School of Information and Communication Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor. His research interests include linear multivariable control, decoupling controller design, vibration control and networked control systems. Joon-Hong Jung received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2005. From 2007 to 2008, he was a Visiting Professor at Sungkyunkwan University. Since 2005, he has been with the R&D Department at Korea Electric Power Data Network Co., Ltd., where he is currently a Staff Researcher. His research interests include network-based control system, robust control, and power system monitoring and diagnosis.     

Object-spatial layout-route based hybrid map and global localization for mobile robots

This paper presents new object-spatial layout-route based hybrid map representation and global localization approaches using a stereo camera. By representing objects as high-level features in a map, a robot can deal more effectively with different contexts such as dynamic environments, human-robot interaction, and semantic information. However, the use of objects alone for map representation has inherent problems. For example, it is difficult to represent empty spaces for robot navigation, and objects are limited to readily recognizable things. One way to overcome these problems is to develop a hybrid map that includes objects and the spatial layout of a local space. The map developed in this research has a hybrid structure that combines a global topological map and a local hybrid map. The topological map represents the spatial relationships between local spaces. The local hybrid map combines the spatial layout of the local space with the objects found in that space. Based on the proposed map, we suggest a novel coarse-to-fine global localization method that uses object recognition, point cloud fitting and probabilistic scan matching. This approach can accurately estimate robot pose with respect to the correct local space. Recommended by Editor Jae-Bok Song. This research was performed for the Intelligent Robotics Development Program, one of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Programs funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea. Soonyong Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea, in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Since 2001, he has been a student researcher in the Center for Cognitive Robotics Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, Korea. His research interests include mobile robot navigation and computer vision. Mignon Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronics from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1973 and 1977, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in University of Tokyo, Japan, 1982. He was a researcher with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan, from 1972 to 1982, as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and the University of California Berkeley, in 1982. He was a visiting researcher in Robotics Division, Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Tsukuba, Japan, from 1986 to 1987. He has been a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in Yonsei University, since 1982. His research interests include fuzzy control and application, robotics, and fuzzy biomedical system. Sung-Kee Park is a principal research scientist for Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1987 and 1989, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree (2000) from Korea Advanced Institue of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, in the area of computer vision. Since then, he has been working for the center for cognitive robotics research at KIST. During his period at KIST, he held a visiting position at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in 2005, where he did research on object recognition. His recent work has been on cognitive visual processing, object recognition, visual navigation, and human-robot interaction.     

A noise robust gait representation: Motion energy image

Gait-based human identification aims to discriminate individuals by the way they walk. A unique advantage of gait as a biometric is that it requires no subject contact and is easily acquired at a distance, which stands in contrast to other biometric techniques involving face, fingerprints, iris, etc. This paper proposes a new gait representation called motion energy image (MEI). Compared with other gait features, MEI is more robust against noise that can be included in binary gait silhouette images due to various factors. The effectiveness of the proposed method for gait recognition is demonstrated using experiments performed on the NLPR database. Recommended by Editorial Board member Jang Myung Lee under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the Biometrics Engineering Research Center (BERC) at Yonsei University. Grant Number: R11-2002-105-09002-0 (2009). Heesung Lee received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate of Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Yonsei University. His current research interests include computational intelligence, pattern recognition, biometrics, and neural network. Sungjun Hong received the B.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2005. He is a graduate student of the combined master’s and doctoral degree programs at Yonsei University. He has studied machine learning, biometrics and optimization Imran Fareed Nizami received the B.S. degree from University of Engg. & Tech. Taxila, Pakistan and the M.S. degree in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He is currently a senior lecturer in Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan. His research interests include biometrics, gait recognition, Bayesian and neural networks. Euntai Kim received the B.S. (with top honors), M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronic Engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1992, 1994, and 1999, respectively. From 1999 to 2002, he was a Full-time Lecturer with the Department of Control and Instrumentation Engineering at Hankyong National University, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Since 2002, he has been with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Yonsei University, where he is currently an associate professor. He was a Visiting Scholar with the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and the Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC), UC Berkeley, USA, in 2003 and 2008, respectively. His current research interests include computational intelligence and machine learning and their application to intelligent service robots, unmanned vehicles, home networks, biometrics, and evolvable hardware.