최근 들어 청각 장애인들에게 정상인들이 소리로부터의 느끼는 청감과 유사한 느낌을 전달하기 위한 방안으로써 시각은 물론 진동감과 같은 촉감을 활용하는 연구가 시도되고 있다. 특히 시각 정보의 보조 감각으로써 스피커나 진동 모터를 이용한 촉감이 제공되는 경우 생동감은 상당히 개선되는 측면이 있으나 정서감 측면에서는 그 효과가 거의 없는 것으로 보고되었다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 유사 청감을 재현할 수 있는 또 하나의 보조 감각으로서 열감을 설정하고 열감이 유사 청감 재현 효과를 가질 수 있는가에 관하여 조사하였다. 이를 위해 열감을 효과적으로 재현할 수 있는 열감 재현 모듈을 구현하였다. 그리고 실험 대상자들에게 시각 정보와 더불어 청각 정보, 진동 촉감, 그리고 열감을 혼합한 다양한 형태의 자극을 제공한 실험을 수행하였다. 실험에서 얻어진 데이터 통계 분석을 통하여 i) 영상과 함께 열감 자극을 제공하거나 또는 ii) 영상과 함께 열감 자극과 진동 자극을 동시에 제공하는 경우가 영상만을 제공하는 경우보다 실험 대상자들이 영상과 소리로부터 느끼는 실제 열감에 더 가까운 유사 열감을 느낄 수 있다는 사실을 확인하였다. 결론적으로 실험 대상자의 피부에 제공되는 열감이 유사 청감 재현 보조 매체로서의 활용 가능성이 있음을 확인할 수 있었다.

A redundantly actuated planar 3-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism is analyzed to show its high application potential as a haptic device. Its structure along with the closed form forward position solutions is briefly discussed. Then its geometric and kinematic characteristics via singularity analysis, the kinematic isotropy index, and the input-output force transmission ratio are investigated both for the redundantly actuated cases and for the non-redundantly actuated case. In addition, comparative joint torque simulations of the mechanism with different number of redundant actuations as well as without redundant actuation are conducted to confirm the improved joint torque distribution characteristics. Through these analyses it is shown that the geometric and kinematic characteristics of the redundantly actuated mechanism are superior to the ones of the mechanism without redundant actuation. Thus, it can be concluded that the suggested planar mechanism with redundant actuation has a very high potential for haptic device applications.

Two novel parallel mechanisms (PMs) employing two or three PaPaRR subchains are suggested. Each of those two PMs has translational 3-DOF motion and employs only revolute joints such that they could be adequate for haptic devices requiring minimal frictions. The position analyses of those two PMs are conducted. The mobility analysis, the kinematic modeling, and singularity analysis of each of two PMs are performed employing the screw theory. Then through optimal kinematic design, each of two PMs has excellent kinematic characteristics as well as useful workspace size adequate for haptic applications. In particular, by applying an additional redundantly actuated joint to the 2-PaPaRR type PM which has a closed-form position solution, it is shown that all of its parallel singularities within reachable workspace are completely removed and that its kinematic characteristics are improved.

It is well-known that when singularities are located within the workspace of the parallel mechanism (PM), the usefulness of its workspace is significantly deteriorated. To handle this problem, we suggest an optimal design method which leads to more useful and larger workspace of the PM by taking its singularity locations into consideration in design process. Kinematic models of three selected planar PMs, a 5R type PM, a 3-RPR type planar PM, and a 3-RRR type planar PM, are derived via screw theory and their singularity analyses are conducted. Then workspace optimal designs for those three PMs are conducted to verify that the suggested design method leads more useful and larger workspace in which deterioration by singularity is minimal.

This article investigates kinematic characteristics of a Schönflies motion generator which represents a mechanism having translational three Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) and rotational one-DOF motion about a fixed axis. The mechanism consists of the base plate and the moving plate, and four identical limbs connecting them. Each limb employs two revolute joints (RR), one parallelogram (Pa), and two revolute joints (RR) from the base plate to the moving plate. The mechanism is driven by four actuators which are placed on the base plate to minimize dynamic loads. It is shown through simulations that the mechanism can be designed to secure large dexterous workspace and thus has very high potential for actual applications such as haptic devices and high-speed requiring tasks such as pick-and-place operations, riveting, screwing tasks, etc.

Most lamp units at ceilings, walls, and streets are static and no automatic motion capabilities are available at all to adjust lamp tilting angles and its zooming position. This paper proposes a new robotic lamp that creates three degrees of freedom (DOF) motion by using a spherical-type parallel mechanism with a unique forward kinematic position. In the robotic lamp, three motors are placed at the base frame to control two tilting angles and one zoom in-and-out motion for a localized light. The kinematic model of this device is derived and the proto type has been developed. The performance of this device was verified through experiment.

Most omni-directional mobile robots have to change their trajectory for avoiding obstacles regardless of the size of the obstacles. However, an omni-directional mobile robot having kinematic redundancy can maintain the trajectory while the robot avoids small obstacles. This works deals with the kinematic modeling and motion planning of an omni-directional mobile robot with kinematic redundancy. This robot consists of three wheel mechanisms. Each wheel mechanism is modeled as having four joints, while only three joints are necessary for creating the omni-directional motion. Thus, each chain has one kinematic redundancy. Two types of wheel mechanisms are compared and its kinematic modeling is introduced. Finally, several motion planning algorithms using the kinematic redundancy are investigated. The usefulness of this robot is shown through experiment.