When using commercialized robot assisted laparoscopic, surgeon has met some problems to depend only on image of the surgical field. To solve it, there were various researches. The previous study showed that it is possible to estimate the operation force on the commercialized instrument inside patient without sensors. To apply the estimated force to a haptic master console for the laparoscopy surgical robot system, the light haptic master console should be designed. This paper suggests the design of lighter master console handle to reduce a weight of the console whose structure can match with the joint and DOF of an instrument. A cable-conduit mechanism is designed to make light structure to perform a delicate manipulation. The cable-conduit mechanism removes the weight and inertia of link caused by haptic actuator and encoder which is separated from handle link of a manipulator.

In spite of the difficulties and uncertain characteristic of cable driven method, surgical robot instrument has adopted it as driving mechanism for various reasons. To overcome the problem of cable system, previous research applied SMCSPO (sliding mode control with sliding perturbation observer) algorithm as robust controller to control the instrument and found that the value of SPO (sliding perturbation observer) followed force disturbance, reaction force loaded on the tip very similarly. Thus, this paper confirms that the perturbation observer is sufficient estimator which finds out the mount of loaded force on the surgical robot instrument. To prove the proposition, simulation using the similar model with an actual instrument and experimental evaluation are performed. The results show that it is possible to substitute SPO for sensors to measure the reaction force. This estimated reaction force will be used to realize haptic function by sending the reaction force to a master device for a surgeon. The results will contribute to create surgical benefit such as shortening the practice time of a surgeon and giving haptic information to surgeon by using it as haptic signal to protect an organ by making force boundary.

This paper presents a new approach for mobile robot heading detection using MEMS Gyro north finding method in the indoor environment. Based on this, the robot heading angle measurement scheme is proposed; improved north finding theory and algorithm are also explained. Several approaches are applied to confirm system’s precision and effectiveness. In order to find out the heading angle, a single axis MEMS gyroscope to sense the angle between the robot heading direction and the north is used. To reach enough estimation accuracy and reduce detection time,the least square method (LSM) for the signal fitting and parameter estimation is applied. Through a turn‐table, we setup a carouseling system to decrease the substantial bias effect on gyroscope’s heading angle. For the evaluation of the proposed method, this system is implemented to the Pioneer robot platform. The performance and heading error are analyzed after the test. From the simulation and experimental results, system’s accuracy, usefulness and adaptability are shown.

Robots have been used in many fields due to its performance improvement and variety of its functionality, to the extent which robots can replace human tasks. Individual feature and better performance of robots are expected and required to be created. As their performances and functions have increased, systems have gotten more complicated. Multi mobile robots can perform complex tasks with simple robot system and algorithm. But multi mobile robots face much more complex driving problem than singular driving. To solve the problem, in this study, driving algorithm based on the energy method is applied to the individual robot in a group. This makes a cluster be in a formation automatically and suggests a cluster the automatic driving method so that they stably arrive at the target. The energy method mentioned above is applying attractive force and repulsive force to a special target, other robots or obstacles. This creates the potential energy, and the robot is controlled to drive in the direction of decreasing energy, which basically satisfies lyapunov function. Through this method, a cluster robot is able to create a formation and stably arrives at its target.