UNIST Receives Korean Commendation

A research team led by professor Joonbum Bae at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has received the Minister of Public Safety and Security’s commendation from the South Korean government through the 2016 Korea Disaster Safety Technology Award contest.

Professor Joonbum Bae's tele-operation system where a robot hand replicates human hand motion and provides feedback between the robot and the human. Courtesy of UNIST.

Bae and his team received the award in recognition of their project to develop collaborative rescue robots that can be deployed on the field. The humanoid avatar robots for disaster response comprise a teleoperating system with a wearable interface. The robot’s hand replicates human hand motion, with a feedback algorithm between the robot and the human.

The research team hopes to find ways to apply fundamental robotic technologies to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief tasks in the three categories of robot platforms, human-robot interaction and control and modeling of a disaster environment. They expect their teleoperations robot to play a role in relief operations for disasters such as nuclear accidents, conflagrations and building collapse.

"Robotic technologies are used in various fields including the manufacturing and service sectors," Bae said. "We hope to contribute to further developing and expanding bilateral cooperation in the robotics area by developing robot technologies that is capable of handling disasters that restrict human access."

The Korea Disaster Safety Technology Award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions to their field.