This paper describes the research activities at the Laboratory for Control Systems and Automation (LCA) which is a section of the Production Department of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). LCA's research activities are focused on providing fundamental technologies to cope with the current trends in manufacturing automation. The R & D activities at the laboratory cover diverse areas. The research activities at the laboratory are classified into three sections—robotics and automation, fluid servo control, and manufacturing process control. Detailed explanations are given here on robotics and its application to automation. As a laboratory belonging to a nation's leading educational institution, LCA also conducts active educational activities. Such educational programs are also introduced in detail.

The dynamics modeling and payload adaptability of a light-weight flexible one-link manipulator are studied. Using the FEM (Finite-Element Method) model of a flexible manipulator, a lower order Linear Quadratic Gaussian compensator can provide satisfactory performance without controller/observer spillover. Moreover, the payload can be separated from the beam model, therefore, it is expected that the identification algorithm should have better robustness than the other schemes. The simulation results have shown that the proposed payload-adaptation synthesizer, which synthesizes a payload identifier and a nominal regulator/estimator interpolator to obtain a near-optimal compensator, has good adaptability with varying payload. And the resulting synthesizer also provides a near-optimal damping for this sensor-actuator noncolocated system.

This paper addresses the conceptual design of direct-drive manipulators which have good promise for high speed, high precision manipulation. In the design methodology presented, the procedure begins by considering the kinematic aspects and ends by configuring manipulator structures with promising kinematic and dynamic characteristics. Based on the conceptual design considerations, a novel 3 DOF (RRR) direct-drive manipulator is proposed and analyzed. The manipulator structure has only five links and a compact configuration. Manipulator kinematics and dynamics are analyzed. Design guidelines are derived for static balancing of the manipulator and for minimizing the inertias driven by the motors. Operational configurations that either improve or worsen the kinematic and dynamic behaviour or characteristics of the manipulator are identified. The proposed design has an advantage over many currently known direct-drive manipulators for achieving two desirable mechanical features, namely: static balancing and compactness (smaller driven inertias).

A two-dimensional serial-driven manipulator is compared with two different parallel-driven manipulators, using workspace, power requirements and stiffness as criteria. The parallel-driven devices are based on the planar five-bar linkage; one has four revolute joints and one prismatic joint; the other has five revolute joints. Parallel operation is shown to offer advantages.