Professor Seo, Tae-won(School of Mechanical Engineering) developed new hiking robot by applying manual flexible joints.

He won 'Best Thesis Award of 2014' from the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

[May 21, 2014]

 YU School of Mechanical Engineering Seo Tae-won (33) received the 'Best Thesis Award of 2014' from the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

 IEEE and ASME selects a thesis with the best research performance among the studies published in the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechantronics, the world's most authoritative journal in mechanical, electric/electronic/production and manufacturing sectors published by IEEE and ASME every year to give the 'Best Thesis Award'.

 Professor Seo published his research results on 'Development of track-forming module-based hiking robot using manual flexible joints' in the February 2013 issue of the 'IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics'.

 Professor Seo's research was on a new conceptual hiking robot that applies manual flexible joints. He applied flexible manual joints to multi-joint hiking robot that operated with active joints so that it could easily adapt to outdoor environments, and was designed to overcome various obstacles. The robot developed by Professor Seo can quickly move on walls of various materials, while also being able to move with a heavy load.

 Research is actively being made in the field of hiking robots, and is being used for inspection of accident sites, probing rough terrain, cleaning walls, and for painting at shipyards.

 Professor Seo said, "The achievement of this study is that it presented the possibility of using hiking robots in various terrains by expanding the usage range of these robots, which were limited to flat surfaces, to more complex structures." He added, "We are currently carrying out design and control research for not only hiking robots, but also underwater work robots, robots that can quickly approach nuclear plant accident sites, bio-simulation water and land walking robots."

 Professor Seo earned his bachelor's, master's and PhD at the Seoul National University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. After working as a researcher at the Carnegie Mellon University from 2009 to August, 2010, he was appointed as a professor at YU from September 2010. His main field of research is 'robot design, control and optimization', and he has published a total of 29 theses, including 21 in SCI-grade journals.

 On another note, Professor Seo is scheduled to receive his award at the 'IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics', scheduled to be held in France in July.