Research

○ Current Researches

▶ Solar Powered UAV for Sustainable Flight and Communication Relay

A solar-powered UAV is a promising platform to realize sustainable flight for the mission of low altitude operation, such as, forest-fire detection, disaster observation, search and rescue, and communication. At low altitude operations, the solar-powered UAV flight is easily affected by the weather conditions, such as, wind fields, air density and temperature. Moreover, the ability to obtain the solar energy is directly dependent on the sky conditions (precipitation, cloudiness, humidity, etc.). In the case of communication relay applications, the flight velocity and trajectory must be planned in a way that the ground receivers can effectively connect to the signal provided by the aerial platform. In that case, the development of the appropriate channel modeling and signal quality map based on the users requirements is needed.

In this research, the weather conditions which affect the flight performance significantly are modeled and the optimization of flight path based on the model is proposed. Also, in order to counter the effects of adverse weather conditions on the energy acquisition module, prediction of solar radiation using a machine learning approach is considered. For the integration of the global path planning obtained by the predicted solar radiation and the signal quality demand map from the users, a local path planning is proposed.

The proposed methods are evaluated and verified by the simulation, virtual flight testbed, and flight experiment.

The research results are expected to contribute to the design methodology and long endurance of solar-powered UAV operated in the troposphere at low altitude for communication relay applications.

Recent Publication

- Giancarlo Eder Guerra Padilla, Kun-Jung Kim, and Kee-Ho Yu, "Solar Radiation Prediction for Solar-Powered UAV using Deep Learning Algorithm", 2021 International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, pp. 1858-1859, 2021.

- Giancarlo Eder Guerra Padilla, Kun-Jung Kim, Seok-Hwan Park, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Flight Path Planning of Solar-powered UAV for Sustainable Communication Relay,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 6772-6779, 2020. (DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.3014635) [This paper was also presented in IROS 2020 ]

- Seong-Hwan Kim, Giancarlo Eder Guerra Padilla, Kun-Jung Kim, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Flight Path Planning for a Solar Powered UAV in Wind Fields Using Direct Collocation,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 1094-1105, 2020. (DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2019.2926654)

- Joo-Seok Lee and Kee-Ho Yu, “Optimal Path Planning of Solar-Powered UAV Using Gravitational Potential Energy,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol.53, no.3, pp.1442-1451, 2017. (DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2017.2671522)

- Hyeon-Bo Park, Joo-Seok Lee, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Virtual flight experiment and evaluation of solar-powered UAV,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.23, no.1, pp.40-45, 2017. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2017.16.0092)

▶ Wheeled Robot Design for Unstructured Terrain Mobility

For unstructured terrain mobility, such as, lunar exploration, rover mobility is a key aspect of mission success. However lunar surfaces are covered with loose soil and has steep slopes in certain area to be explored under restricted resources. So that improving the mobility performance and overcoming tough driving environment of rover are indispensable and are also difficult problem.

In this research, we analyze wheel-terrain interaction and propose the multidisciplinary optimal wheel design methodology integrating flexible MBD / NSGA-II.

To verify the feasibility of the proposed approach, a wheeled robot platform with body rotational mechanism, which negotiates the extreme operational environment, was developed; and a flexible MBD / experiment was conducted.

Driving environment look-ahead recognition technology based on multi-sensor fusion and hybrid deep learning frameworks for rough terrain scouting unmanned vehicle on unstructured terrain are proposed.

Recent Publications

- Kun-Jung Kim, Byeong-Seop Sim, and Kee-Ho Yu, "Development of Body Rotation Mechanism for Wheeled Robot to Enhance Trafficability and Overcome Mobility Limitation," IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 127117-127130, 2021. (DOI: 10.3390/en13246652)

- Kun-Jung Kim and Kee-Ho Yu, “Multidisciplinary Design Optimization for a Solar-Powered Exploration Rover Considering the Restricted Power Requirement,” Energies, vol. 13, no. 24, pp. 1–28, 2020. (DOI: 10.3390/en13246652)

- Byeong-Seop Sim, Kun-Jung Kim, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Development of Body Rotational Wheeled Robot and its Verification of Effectiveness,” Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 10405-10411, 2020. (DOI: 10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9197047)

- Kun-Jung Kim, Giancarlo Eder Guerra Padilla, Byeong-Seop Sim, and Kee-Ho Yu, "Path Planning and Following based on the Fast Marching Method(FMM)/Feedback Control for Lunar Exploration Rover on Digital Elevation Model(DEM)," Journal of institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 1109-1115, 2019. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2019.19.8003)

- Kun-Jung Kim, Byeong-Seop Sim, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Driving Analysis and Dynamics Modeling of the Wheel-terrain Interaction for a Planetary Exploration Rover Based on Multi-body Dynamics,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.24, no.12, pp.1152-1160, 2018. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2018.18.0131)

- Kun-Jung Kim, Byeong-Seop Sim, Seong-Hwan Kim, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Wheel Design Methodology for a Lunar Exploration Rover in Order to Improve Trafficability Considering Operation Environment,” Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp.904-909, 2018. (DOI: 0.1109/ICRA.2018.8460824)

- Byeong-Seop Sim, Kun-Jung Kim, and Kee-Ho Yu, “Design of Exploration Rover Platform with Movable Center of Mass for Enhancement of Trafficability and Stability,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.23, no.10, pp.873-878, 2017. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2017.17.0141)

- Kun-Jung Kim, Byeong-Seop Sim, and Kee-Ho Yu, "Prediction and evaluation of the mobility performance for a lunar exploration rover based on the terramechanics," Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.23, no.4, pp.279-286, 2017. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2017.17.8004)

▶ Multicopter Drone Control and Applications

Recent Publications

- Lee, Ji-Won, and Kee-Ho Yu. "Wearable Drone Controller: Machine Learning-Based Hand Gesture Recognition and Vibrotactile Feedback." Sensors 23.5 ,2023. (DOI: 10.3390/s23052666 )

- Seong-Hwan Kim, et.al., “Flight planning of unmanned aerial vehicle for photovoltaic-plant inspection,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.24, no.9, pp.896-903, 2018. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2018.18.0074)

- Kwang-Soo Park, et.al., “Operational Performance Evaluation of Remote Controllers for Manual Control of UAV,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.24, no.4, pp.315-320, 2018. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2018.18.8001)

- Seong-Hwan Kim, et.al., “Design and flight tests of a drone for delivery service,” Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, vol.22, no.3, pp.204-209, 2016. (DOI: 10.5302/J.ICROS.2016.16.8001)

○ Recent Projects

- Development of Digital Operational Environment and Design Technology of Crashworthiness Improved Lightweight Landing Gear for Urban Air Mobility, supported by Regional Innovation Strategy (2023.10 ~ 2025.02)

- Optimal Path Planning and Flight Operation of Solar-powered LALE UAV for Disaster Aid Communication Relay Based on Spatiotemporal Forecasting, supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (2021.03 ~ 2024.02)

- 인공지능기반 태양광 발전량 예견기술 및 태양광 발전설비 운영관리 시스템개발, 중소벤처기업부 (2020.10 ~ 2022.09)

- Optimal Path Planning and Sustainable Flight of Solar-Powered UAV Considering Weather Conditions, supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (2017.06 ~ 2020.05)

- Design of Traction Mechanism and Evaluation of Mobility Performance of Rover Based on Mission Environment of Lunar Exploration, supported by NRF Space Program (2016. 05 ~ 2019.04)

○ Recent Patents

- 제스처 드론 컨트롤 시스템 (Gesture Drone Control System)

- 진동촉각 피드백 장치 (Vibrotactile Feedback Device)

- 질량중심 가변 메커니즘을 갖는 로버 플랫폼 (Rover platform with center-of-mass variable mechanism) (DOI: 10.8080/1020180020876)

- 비행경로생성 알고리즘을 이용한 태양광 모듈 감시 시스템 및 이를 이용한 태양광 모듈 감시 방법 (Solar module monitoring system using flight path generation algorithm and monitoring method of solar module using it) (DOI: 10.8080/1020180007815 )

- 무선조종 비행체용 무선조종기 (RC CONTROLLER) (DOI: 10.8080/1020160088410)

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