This technology is a subway air quality management system that operates by mounting air purification units—consisting of fans, air ducts, and filters—between the subway car roof and the tunnel ceiling. A management server controls both the purification and ventilation units based on real-time data from external and internal air quality, train operations, and ventilation status.
Subway tracks are enclosed spaces with poor natural ventilation, making them prone to trapping harmful pollutants from surface traffic. Furthermore, the piston effect generated by moving trains constantly stirs up fine dust, degrading air quality. Existing methods, which rely on ventilation facilities at tunnel entrances, have been unable to mitigate the piston effect caused by train movement itself.
This technology uses a server to monitor air quality; if external air is cleaner than internal air, it commands the purification filters to open for fresh air intake. If external air is worse, it closes the ventilation units along the route and calculates the required exhaust volume based on track spatial data. The purification units operate at a speed matched to the volume of air pushed by the train, reversing fan rotation to force exhaust in the direction opposite to the train's movement. Applicable to subway cars, station platforms, and long-distance tunnels, this system turns train operations into a mobile air purification process, effectively filtering tunnel air and preventing the influx of polluted air on days with poor outdoor air quality.
This technology is a damper device for building structures where first and second moving units reciprocate on a guide unit along a load-acting line, connected by a shape memory alloy deformation unit. The moving rod of the operating unit pushes the first moving unit under compressive load and pulls the second moving unit under tensile load, configured so that the polyurethane elastomer is compressed and the deformation unit is stretched in either case.
Conventional friction dampers have fixed friction forces and relative travel distances determined during manufacturing, making it impossible to adjust for the actual energy absorption and displacement required based on brace placement or connection types. Furthermore, once external forces are absorbed, the friction surfaces remain displaced, leading to high costs for replacement or repair after an earthquake.
In this technology, the first pressure flange at the end of the moving rod and the expanded second pressure flange in the middle press against opposing inner walls, forcing the two moving units apart regardless of load direction. Fixing pins on the moving walls slide along guide holes, creating friction between the screwed-in head and the guide wall. The deformation unit connects two plates with a narrowed middle section to concentrate deformation, and two or four moving walls can be arranged orthogonally or in parallel. Applicable to steel building bracing, seismic retrofitting for schools and hospitals, and bridge vibration control, the superelastic alloy returns to its original position after an earthquake, and the elastomer self-heals, allowing for reuse without replacement.
This invention was developed through the Ministry of Science and ICT's support for the development of core technology for new damping devices using intelligent materials, as well as structural testing and analysis for seismic performance evaluation.
This technology is an elevated bicycle path consisting of a road section suspended above the sidewalk, supporting pillars, and a bicycle escalator connecting the ground to the road. The escalator is composed of a step unit that creates articulated stairs and an adjacent rail unit that rotates alongside it, allowing the rider to stand on the stairs while the bicycle is placed on the rail, moving both up and down simultaneously.
Existing stairs connecting elevated paths to the ground pose higher safety risks as height increases, while ramps require large installation areas, making them difficult to place in urban centers. Elevators have limited capacity and long cycle times, leading to significant wait times during peak hours. Conveyor-style lifts carry the risk of collisions if a user's foot slips, and they cannot be used for downhill travel.
In this technology, a chain rotates along a guide between a drive wheel at the top of the support frame and a return wheel at the bottom, with the rail driven by a belt linked to the drive wheel. The base of the support frame is inserted into a ground groove, with a pair of lower mounts placed in seating grooves. Between these mounts, an L-shaped dampening member—made of alternating metal and rubber plates bound by shape-memory steel rods—absorbs external forces like earthquakes and returns to its original shape. Applicable to elevated bike paths over urban sidewalks, riverfronts, transit hubs, and parks, it allows commuters to move between the elevated path and the ground without waiting in line, even during rush hour.
This technology is a bridge expansion joint device consisting of a pair of concrete blocks placed facing each other across a joint gap, an expansion joint that changes width based on block movement, and a color-changing sensor coated on the surfaces to indicate deformation.
Expansion joints absorb bridge deck deformation caused by loads, temperature fluctuations, and concrete shrinkage or creep. Traditionally, fiber Bragg grating sensors were used to detect deformation by measuring changes in light properties. However, this required multiple fiber-optic and strain sensors at every joint, leading to complex structures and high installation costs.
This technology features an expansion joint composed of support brackets on the blocks, a V-shaped gutter, interlocking finger plates, and a buffer between the plates and blocks. A stress-sensitive polydiacetylene-based polymer sensor is applied across the boundaries of these components, changing color when displacement occurs. The sensor is created by polymerizing diisocyanate, amino-terminated polydimethylsiloxane, and diacetylene via UV or heat. Applicable to highway bridge joints, urban elevated railways, and long-span bridges, it allows for visual inspection of joint behavior directly from the road surface without fiber-optic wiring or instrumentation, enabling proactive maintenance.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of a durability evaluation platform for stress visualization and quantification based on stimuli-responsive polymer composites.
본 기술은 주행 휠이 달린 로봇 바디 앞쪽에 나란히 놓인 두 개의 회전 청소 브러쉬를 각각 연결 링크로 바디에 축 결합하고, 두 링크 사이에 둔 흡입구가 브러쉬 회전으로 끌려온 쓰레기를 빨아들이는 모바일 청소 로봇입니다.
흡연 구역은 담배 냄새와 잔여 연기, 꽁초, 재, 침 같은 다양한 오염물 때문에 청소가 힘들고 작업자가 간접흡연 피해까지 입어 무인 청소가 필요했습니다. 그러나 기존 기술은 흡연부스 공기정화나 모니터링에 치우쳐 있었고, 시판 꽁초 흡입기는 강한 흡입력에만 의존하는 건식이라 침이나 오염물을 제거하기 어렵고 작업자를 따라다녀야만 움직일 수 있는 한계가 있었습니다.
본 기술은 각 브러쉬에 털 끝이 낮은 제1영역과 더 높은 제2영역을 두고, 두 브러쉬의 제2영역을 진행 방향 기준으로 서로 다른 각도에 배치해 회전 중 교차하게 함으로써 꽁초 같은 쓰레기를 가운데 흡입구 쪽으로 쓸어 모읍니다. 제2영역은 외주에서 중심으로 갈수록 낮아지는 부채꼴이며, 흡입구는 뒤로 갈수록 좁아지는 유로를 갖고 흡입 배관에 대해 회동해 링크 움직임에 따라 방향을 바꾸고, 탄성 스프링이 링크를 바디에 붙잡아 노면 굴곡을 따라가게 합니다. 공공건물과 역사 주변 흡연구역, 대학 캠퍼스와 공원 보행로, 상가 이면도로 노면 청소에 적용될 수 있어 작업자가 연기와 오물에 노출되지 않고도 자율주행으로 꽁초 수거와 물청소를 함께 처리할 수 있습니다.
This technology is a bridge deformation sensing device consisting of a bearing that absorbs shocks and vibrations between the pier and the superstructure, and a color-changing sensor coated from the bearing to the pier, which changes color when the bearing or pier deforms.
Bridge bearings are critical components that transfer loads and absorb expansion caused by earthquakes, wind, and temperature changes; failure to detect deformation in time can lead to accidents and casualties. However, conventional visual inspections rely on the inspector's subjective judgment, making it difficult to detect deformation immediately. Furthermore, attached strain gauges are limited in measurement range, prone to errors or damage, and incur high installation and maintenance costs.
This technology configures the bearing with upper and lower sole plates and an elastic pad in between, with the sensor coated continuously across the elastic pad, lower sole plate, and pier to reveal even slight misalignments through color changes. The sensor is created by reacting a diisocyanate solution with an amino-terminated polydimethylsiloxane solution, adding diacetylene to form a polymer, and polymerizing it via UV or heat to produce a polydiacetylene polymer that changes color under stress. It can be applied to highway and railway bridge bearings, piers requiring emergency post-earthquake inspection, and hard-to-reach river or marine bridge bearings, allowing inspectors to identify damage locations instantly by color change without power or measuring equipment, facilitating rapid safety diagnosis and repair.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of a durability evaluation platform for stress visualization and quantification based on stimuli-responsive polymer composites.
This technology features a modular building facade consisting of a case with an internal space formed by a rear panel attached to the building wall, a facing front panel, and edge frames. Inside, water spray nozzles and a heat exchanger cool incoming outside air from the lower first damper before it is exhausted through the upper second damper. Thermoelectric elements are placed on the exterior of the front panel to generate electricity from the temperature difference between the interior and exterior.
Existing functional exterior materials have focused solely on insulation, soundproofing, and waterproofing. Meanwhile, air conditioner outdoor units placed on rooftops or balconies suffer from reduced heat exchange efficiency in summer due to hot outside air, and decreased heating efficiency in winter as low temperatures impede refrigerant flow.
This technology recycles water by sending condensate from indoor units to spray nozzles via pipes and control valves, or by pumping water collected in a floor tray. Nozzles spray water over the heat exchanger, where fluid and air passages allow cooled outside air and refrigerant to exchange heat. A control unit opens both dampers and sprays water when the indoor temperature exceeds 26°C and outdoor humidity is above 70%. It stops spraying and only ventilates when the indoor temperature is 20–26°C or the outdoor temperature is above 5°C, and seals the case in winter to trap solar heat. Electricity from thermoelectric elements is stored in batteries to power the dampers and spray system. Applicable to apartment balconies, office curtain walls, and urban building renovations with limited space, this facade acts as a cooling tower, improving HVAC efficiency using waste condensate and solar heat while generating its own power.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT’s laboratory research program for harvesting and utilizing unused energy to realize carbon-neutral buildings.
This technology utilizes a multi-joint pivoting support structure linked to the hip joint of a wearable robot to track human movement. It features a bolt-fastened height-adjustable connection plate and a gear-meshing pivot joint to accommodate variations in the wearer's body type and height.
Conventional wearable robot lumbar support structures are often fixed or complex to fasten, causing discomfort and failing to adapt flexibly to changes in the user's body dimensions. Furthermore, the robot's movement during walking often interferes with the human body, hindering natural activity.
This technology features a 3-degree-of-freedom pivoting support structure consisting of L-shaped pivot rods, height-adjustable connection plates, and left/right lumbar supports capable of horizontal axis rotation. It also integrates an exoskeleton for lower-limb strength assistance, an MR damper, and a power transmission cutoff system using levers.
This technology features a surgical robot arm design that implements 2-axis (X and Y) rotation by placing a ball joint at the center of the surgical gripper and controlling disk wires connected to three points on the circumference of the gripper support disk via a motor drive unit.
Conventional surgical robot arms suffer from technical limitations such as complex joint structures that result in low rigidity, difficult maintenance in the event of failure, and complex control for precise multi-axis rotation.
This technology fixes the center of rotation using a center bar and ball joint, performs 2-axis rotation by independently controlling three disk wires with motor drive units (bolt-nut type), and includes a ball joint locking control function using a support member.
This technology involves cleaning and drying porous aggregate, vacuum-impregnating it with liquid phase-change materials (PCMs), and coating the surface using an ethyl silicate-based sol-gel process to prevent PCM leakage. Concrete containing this aggregate can be used in concrete-filled tube (CFT) columns by filling carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) tubes.
With building heating accounting for approximately 30% of domestic greenhouse gas emissions, conventional reinforced concrete and CFT columns suffer from low energy efficiency due to their inability to store heat. Furthermore, steel-based CFTs are difficult to transport and install due to their weight, and they are prone to corrosion in humid environments, leading to reduced durability, higher maintenance costs, and increased collapse risks. Existing solutions like increasing concrete cover, epoxy coating, or galvanization are limited by excessive concrete usage and higher budgets.
This technology removes residual PCM from the aggregate surface after impregnation, then creates a sol by mixing ethyl silicate and ethanol in a 1:4 molar ratio, heating and stirring, adding a silane coupling agent, and reacting with hydrochloric acid at pH 3–4. The sol is neutralized with ammonia water, mixed with the aggregate, gelled, dried, and pulverized. The resulting fine aggregate concrete is filled into CFRP tubes, with an ultra-high-strength concrete column containing a heating wire placed in the center to compensate for strength loss and improve thermal conductivity. Applicable to heat-storage building columns, walls, structures in coastal or humid areas, and low-carbon green building frames, these rust-free, lightweight columns store daytime heat and release it at night, reducing HVAC energy costs.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for the development of carbon-polymer corrosion-zero reinforcement alternatives.
This technology is a heating and cooling energy-saving system that features an intake double-skin section for drawing in and supplying outdoor air to the floor, and an exhaust double-skin section for venting indoor air. A control unit manages air intake/exhaust regulators and ventilation devices based on set modes to optimize airflow.
Conventional multi-story double-skin systems provide active buoyancy-driven circulation but lack individual room control. Conversely, single-story systems allow for individual control but suffer from reduced performance due to height constraints limiting air circulation. Furthermore, varying internal heat loads and occupant temperature preferences make it difficult to manage these systems effectively using only the double-skin structure.
This technology divides the intake double-skin section into upper and lower compartments using a partition, which can be selectively connected via a controlled opening. In natural ventilation/cooling mode, the opening closes to circulate warmed air to the exhaust, while fresh air is drawn in. In preheating/heating mode, the opening connects the compartments, allowing air to be preheated before entering the room, while indoor air is vented through the top. Ideal for multi-tenant office buildings, curtain-wall public buildings, and green remodeling projects, this system allows for independent room-level operation while utilizing the full height of the hollow layer to reduce temperature extremes and save energy.
This invention was developed with support from the Plus Energy Building Innovation Technology Research Center of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
This technology improves steering performance and driving stability by integrating real-time robot distance sensor (laser/ultrasonic) data with camera video feeds, overlaying them on a remote controller display, and providing force or haptic (vibration motor) feedback to the joystick based on obstacles in the robot's vicinity.
Existing remote control systems rely on narrow camera fields of view and 2D video, making it difficult to accurately perceive depth between the robot and obstacles. This often leads to reduced operational efficiency, such as collisions or the robot becoming stuck during non-line-of-sight navigation.
This technology visualizes obstacle distance information by overlaying it onto the video feed. If the operator attempts to steer toward an obstacle within a set safety distance, a feedback control mechanism triggers a vibration motor (haptic) or braking system (force feedback) in the joystick to alert the operator. Applicable to rehabilitation training, gait assistance, and medical/welfare services, it enhances operability by providing wide-range situational awareness and haptic feedback, thereby reducing collisions and isolation in remote control scenarios.
This technology is a multi-robot control system based on a WPAN wireless network that performs auto-spacing and cooperative localization through a master-slave architecture. The master robot receives commands from a central controller and retransmits them to slave robots or issues self-generated commands, while the slave robots control their real-time movement based on the received commands and distance information.
When controlling multiple mobile units simultaneously in environments with poor communication infrastructure, such as disaster sites, there have been challenges regarding communication range limitations, radio frequency interference, and ensuring the sequentiality and accuracy of control signals.
This technology utilizes the WPAN (IEEE 802.15.4a) wireless protocol to establish a network between multiple robots and implements a distance-based control algorithm that measures distance information from other robots in real-time upon receiving an auto-spacing command, executing movement commands only when the distance exceeds a set value. It can be applied to industrial robots and automated systems, improving the control of multiple mobile units by enabling efficient communication and coordination between the robots and the central controller.
This technology is a buckling-restrained brace featuring a rectangular core member placed inside a hollow, elongated external casing. An unbonded band, narrower than the width of the long side, is attached only to the center of both long sides of the core member, and the remaining space is filled with filler material.
Braces that resist seismic loads are prone to lateral or local buckling under high compressive forces, which reduces their strength before yielding; thus, buckling-restrained braces were developed to prevent this. However, in conventional buckling-restrained braces, high-order mode buckling in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions occurs in the space occupied by the debonding material between the mortar and the core, causing the external casing to bulge locally. To prevent this, the non-load-bearing casing is often made thicker, leading to uneconomical steel consumption.
This technology prevents the external casing from being pushed outward when the core member undergoes out-of-plane deformation due to compression, as the unbonded band at the center of the long side interrupts stress transfer between the filler and the core. By adding a closed-section steel tube or U-shaped steel plate covers at both ends with vertical bent supports, the filler can be protected from bearing stress bypassing the band. Thinner unbonded covers and casings with arc-shaped sides can also be used. Applicable to 20–50 story braced frame high-rises, schools and hospitals requiring seismic retrofitting, and steel factories or warehouses, this design suppresses local out-of-plane deformation without increasing casing thickness, reducing steel usage per brace while ensuring stable energy dissipation until yielding.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's project for the development of integrated risk management package technology for facility safety.
This technology is a road drainage grating featuring solar cells. Solar cell blocks are inserted into each drainage hole of the grating, and a lifting mechanism automatically raises or lowers the support beneath the blocks to keep the holes closed during dry weather and open them when it rains.
Road gratings are designed with a grid pattern to allow rainwater to pass through while preventing people and vehicles from falling in. However, these holes are frequently clogged with trash, fallen leaves, cigarette butts, and debris. This leads to recurring issues, such as foul odors rising from the accumulated waste and rainwater backing up and overflowing during heavy downpours.
When the first humidity sensor inside the transparent cover detects precipitation on the road surface, this technology lowers the support to remove the block and open the waterway. If the second humidity sensor on the support detects backflow inside the drain, it raises the support to seal the drainage holes. Signal converters send four types of signals to a lifting mechanism composed of a motor, right-angle gears, and a rack-and-pinion system. Electricity generated by the solar cells is stored in a battery to power the motor and LED signage. An elastic transparent cover and elastic members under the support plate absorb vehicle impact. Suitable for urban side streets, busy commercial pedestrian areas, flood-prone low-lying zones, and smart city infrastructure, this system blocks odors and debris on clear days, opens automatically when it rains, and closes if backflow begins, effectively reducing flood damage.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for the development of an expandable transparent solar cell platform.
