This technology is a frequency-based robot manipulator control method that calculates estimated joint torque using an external force estimation observer based on joint torque sensor data. It distinguishes between intentional task contact and unintentional collisions in the frequency domain by extracting high-frequency components, allowing for the execution of specific control modes for each.
Existing active control methods struggle with rapid response during collisions due to sensor and computational latency, while passive control methods face challenges with non-linear motion control and limited design flexibility.
This technology determines collision intent by comparing the high-frequency components of the joint torque calculated by the external force estimation observer against a threshold. If a collision is detected, it calculates the direction and location of the impact to trigger evasive movement in the opposite direction. Applicable to collaborative robots and automated assembly equipment, it ensures safety by reacting immediately to dangerous collisions without interfering with normal operations.
This technology is a lift device that elevates a frame by applying an inchworm-style movement mechanism to vertical rails on a building's exterior. It performs continuous vertical movement by controlling two rail-moving units that alternately engage and disengage around an elevating ball screw.
Conventional wire-rope gondolas are vulnerable to environmental factors like wind and offer low operational stability. Furthermore, they suffer from blind spots and reduced construction efficiency due to their fixed working areas when maintaining the exterior of high-rise buildings.
This technology proposes an inchworm drive system using an elevating ball screw and two rail-moving units that alternately engage and disengage from vertical rails via docking pins, with an L-shaped frame that allows movement even to building corners. It can be applied to the exterior maintenance of high-rise buildings, enabling precise elevation unaffected by wind and expanding the work range to include previously inaccessible blind spots.
This invention was developed with support from the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement for the development of an intelligent robot system for high-rise building exterior maintenance.
This technology generates a semantic grid map by integrating semantic indices into existing occupancy grid maps based on environmental data acquired from laser scanners and downward-facing distance sensors. It then utilizes this map to extract boundaries of unknown areas and plan exploration paths.
Conventional occupancy grid maps can only identify the presence of obstacles and fail to distinguish between specific types, such as doors or drop-off areas, making it difficult to ensure driving safety. Furthermore, these maps suffer from high memory overhead during mapping and exploration, as well as risks in path planning.
This technology identifies door features by extracting line segments from environmental data and detects drop-off areas using downward-facing distance sensors, classifying them with semantic indices. It also proposes a method for setting exploration candidate nodes by clustering the boundaries between unknown and known areas. It can be applied to indoor autonomous exploration robots to prevent accidents by proactively identifying hazards such as stairs or cliffs.
This technology features an obstacle-climbing robot that connects a first driving unit with a pair of first caterpillars to a second driving unit with a second caterpillar using a variable-length linkage. Each driving unit is equipped with an independent rotation motor and gear system to adjust the driving angle.
Existing robots have fixed hardware structures and movement trajectories, which limits their ability to overcome obstacles or stairs above a certain height.
This technology uses a linkage to adjust the distance between the two driving units, while the first and second rotation motors independently drive their respective axes to adjust the caterpillar angles to match the shape of the obstacle. It can be applied to disaster site exploration, indoor delivery, and military reconnaissance robots, allowing them to perform missions without movement restrictions even in environments with a mix of stairs and uneven terrain.
This technology features a gripper device that integrates first and second gripping units with rotation axes at different heights into a single finger unit. By utilizing interference with a finger stopper during finger movement, it adjusts the rotation angle of the gripping mechanism to handle objects of various sizes and heights.
Conventional grippers optimized for a single form factor often suffer from low operational efficiency, as they require frequent gripper changes or complex control systems to handle objects of diverse sizes and shapes.
This technology implements a structure that varies the posture of the gripping unit by utilizing the relative rotation between the finger stopper and the connection mount, allowing it to grasp objects of various shapes without changing the gripper. It can be applied to food and beverage service robots, logistics picking, and automated unmanned stores, significantly increasing throughput while reducing equipment replacement costs.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for the development of service robot technology for collecting empty dishes after meals.
This technology utilizes the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanism of a robot manipulator supporting an electromagnetic coil assembly to precisely adjust the shape and intensity of the magnetic field by varying the coil's position (longitudinal/lateral) and orientation (rolling/yawing).
Conventional electromagnetic coil systems feature fixed coil assemblies, resulting in uniform magnetic field patterns and intensities that limit the control of objects within the field. Adding more coils to address this issue leads to increased equipment size and structural complexity.
This technology employs a manipulator structure comprising a main body, a pivoting arm, a rotating support plate, and a mobile plate capable of lateral movement and rotation. By utilizing cylinders, motors, screws, and gear mechanisms, it enables longitudinal/lateral movement and rolling/yawing control of the coil assembly. Applicable to industrial robots and automation systems, it provides a robot control system that facilitates smooth movement—including longitudinal, lateral, and rolling motions—thereby improving the dynamic movement of objects manipulated by magnetic fields in electromagnetic coil systems.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning for the development of 3D precision microstructures and cell/drug delivery-based technologies.
This technology utilizes a multi-joint link manipulator that controls rotational axes and actuators (active/passive) to guide the user's upper limb movement trajectory through active, passive, or resistive exercise.
Existing devices struggle to integrate various movements (horizontal, inclined, vertical) and functions (active, passive, resistive, assistive) into a single unit, and this technology aims to address the high cost of implementation associated with current systems.
This technology implements an upper limb rehabilitation robot device that features a multi-joint link unit combining active and passive actuators on a base frame capable of elevation and rotation, supporting various positions and force control modes tailored to the user's rehabilitation movements. Applicable to rehabilitation training, gait assistance, and medical/welfare services, it provides multiple forms and diverse functions from a single device, thereby improving the functionality and usability of conventional rehabilitation robot systems.
This technology is an exterior wall climbing device that includes a mechanical docking guide and a hook-based docking stabilization assembly to ensure stable coupling and decoupling between a lift unit moving along vertical rails installed on a building's exterior and a horizontal movement unit moving along horizontal rails.
Existing rope or gondola methods for exterior building maintenance pose safety risks, and robots often experience incomplete docking or detachment at the intersections of horizontal and vertical rails due to a loss of wheel traction.
This technology proposes a method that forces the seating and detachment of units using a docking stabilization assembly composed of a hook member, a hook hole, and a screw drive unit, rather than relying on the horizontal movement unit's own propulsion. It can be applied to exterior maintenance robots to reliably prevent falls caused by docking failures at rail intersections.
This invention was developed with support from the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement for the development of an intelligent robot system for the maintenance of high-rise building exteriors.
This technology is a cam-based integrated safety joint unit that transmits input torque through a hollow shaft to a harmonic gear reducer. A spring-supported roller block contacts a slanted cam to maintain stiffness below a threshold, while deforming non-linearly to absorb shock when an impact exceeds that threshold.
Conventional active control methods struggle to respond to instantaneous impacts due to sensor and control system latency, while passive control methods are limited by the linear characteristics of springs, which can cause unnecessary deflection or restrict design flexibility.
This technology proposes a method that achieves mechanical safety through non-linear stiffness implemented via the contact structure between rollers and a slanted cam, combined with a cam buckling structure and precise torque sensing using torque sensor spokes. It can be applied to the joints of collaborative robots, providing ideal safety characteristics that remain rigid during normal operation and become instantly flexible upon collision.
This technology enables automatic fluid replenishment in exterior wall maintenance climbing devices through a docking mechanism between the lift unit and the horizontal movement unit. It utilizes a rack-and-pinion gear-based valve movement mechanism and a valve-coupling structure to optimize fluid storage and replenishment efficiency.
Existing exterior wall maintenance methods face issues such as aesthetic damage and restricted movement due to long hose connections, as well as reduced stability and frequent downtime for refilling caused by the limited capacity of onboard storage tanks.
This technology introduces an automatic water supply system via a valve-coupling interface between the lift unit's primary storage tank and the horizontal movement unit's secondary storage tank. During docking, the lift supplies fluid, optimizing the robot's onboard capacity and distributing the load. Applicable to exterior wall cleaning robots, it enables continuous operation without hoses, enhancing both work efficiency and building aesthetics.
This invention was developed with support from the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement for the development of intelligent robot systems for high-rise building exterior maintenance.
This technology is a modular joint mechanism that improves load imbalance during rotation by placing the drive unit between the first and second housings that support a pair of links, respectively, and positioning the center of the drive unit at the housing connection. It transmits power from the rotation axis to the second housing and supports axial external forces through a motor housing, connecting shaft, and bearing configuration.
Existing robot joints often suffer from structural weight imbalances, such as drive units (motors) protruding to the side of the link or the use of bevel gears. These issues lead to increased joint size, backlash, reduced operational precision, and higher design and manufacturing costs.
This technology optimizes weight balance by arranging the first and second housings to be rotatable relative to each other and positioning the center of the drive unit at the connection between the two housings. Furthermore, by applying a combination of a motor housing, connecting shaft, ball bearings, and thrust bearings, it achieves precise control of the drive unit and supports external loads. It can be applied to collaborative robots, industrial robots, and modular manipulators, reducing backlash while enhancing operational precision and design efficiency.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy for the development of 2/3 DOF mechanisms for shoulders and wrists.
This technology enables intuitive 3D motion control by aligning the mechanical structures of master and slave devices through a continuum elastic body, cylinders, and a wire-based actuation and encoder feedback mechanism.
Conventional joystick-based surgical robot master devices require a high level of proficiency to control the multi-jointed 3D movements of slave devices. Furthermore, the absence of a wire restoration system often leads to reduced operational precision, while the addition of separate restoration devices increases structural complexity and operational force.
This technology features a master/slave device configuration based on a longitudinally symmetric wire structure for elastic bodies. By winding a pair of wires in opposite directions around a single wheel to maintain constant tension, it provides a mechanical mechanism that precisely detects and reproduces 3D bending motions without the need for separate restoration devices. Applicable to surgical robots, remote operation, and medical automation, it enhances operational intuitiveness by accurately reproducing 3D movements without additional restoration hardware.
This technology features a micro-scale actuation mechanism consisting of a body with an internal storage compartment and a magnetic layer, sealed by a cap. By applying an external rotating magnetic field, the device is propelled to a target location, where the cap is detached to release its contents.
Existing microrobots are limited to specific targets, such as cancer cells that secrete certain substances, and often require invasive procedures or the insertion of mechanical equipment for localized drug delivery.
This technology uses an external rotating magnetic field to generate propulsion for the magnetic-layered actuator, guiding it to a target site. By adjusting the characteristics (direction and intensity) of the magnetic field, the cap is detached from the actuator, allowing for the direct, localized release of drugs or other substances. Applicable to surgical robots, interventional systems, and medical automation, it enhances biocompatibility and reduces side effects during insertion and delivery.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning for the development of 3D precision microstructures and cell/drug delivery-based technologies.
This technology is a remote control system that enables 1:N collaboration by generating operation command signals and autonomous motion command signals to control multiple field robots at a remote location.
Limitations of 1:1 remote control methods include increased operational complexity, higher operator fatigue, control instability due to time delays, and constraints in handling large or heavy objects.
This technology allows users to select an operating mode (e.g., exclusive, follow, object, playback) to generate task commands and autonomous motion commands for collaboration between field robots, which are then transmitted to the robots via a communication unit. Applicable to industrial robots and automation systems, it enhances the efficiency and quality of remote control tasks, reduces operator fatigue, and minimizes the risk of accidents.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy for the development of remote operation service engines for remote tasks and force-feedback remote-controlled robot system technologies.
This technology is a torque-free robot arm that mechanically offsets the torque caused by the link's own weight by applying a spring, wire, pulley, and counterbalancer structure to the link joints, and aligns the reference angles of multi-degree-of-freedom links using a double parallelogram unit.
When designing robot arms, the torque generated at the joints due to the arm's own weight necessitates high-performance, expensive motors and reducers, which increases manufacturing costs and limits the general-purpose use of these arms in service robots.
This technology proposes a method that uses a counterbalancer utilizing spring compression and wire tension at each joint to offset self-weight torque, while also compensating for the gravitational torque exerted on lower links by the rotation of upper links through a parallelogram wire structure. Applicable to service and collaborative robots, it enables operation with low-cost, compact motors, thereby accelerating the mass adoption of robot arms.
