Developing’Iron Man’ in the movie… “Korea might become the first country” [과학을읽다]

[아시아경제 김봉수 기자] “I was in tears while trying to sleep in bed. I used a robot, but it meant a lot to get up.”

Kim Byeong-wook (47, photo), a paraplegic disabled person, recalled in a media interview about the moment when he succeeded in walking with a wearable robot for the first time at the recommendation of medical staff in 2015. He has been living in a wheelchair for more than 20 years after being paralyzed in his entire lower body in a sudden hit and run accident in 1998 when he was in his twenties. Then, the wearable robot I met gave him the power to stand up again like a mythical savior. In the end, Kim achieved a’miracle’ winning the championship in’Cybaslon’, an international wearable robot competition, by recording an amazing walking speed of 3.2 km/h at the end of last November. Mr. Kim said, “I felt like I was born again the day I stood with my two legs in a robot. When I was in bed that night, I shed tears without my wife’s knowledge.”

With the advancement of technologies such as cutting-edge robots, ICT, materials, and artificial intelligence (AI), the’future’ is already approaching us. As one writer said, “It’s just not widespread.” In the case of Mr. Kim, it is a representative example that’Iron Man’ in the movie, which was felt as a distant future, is already becoming a reality, not imagination. In particular, Korea is regarded as one of the world’s foremost players in the field of wearable robot manufacturing, which is the core technology of Iron Man. The holographic technology that Iron Man drives the artificial intelligence’Javis’ in the movie is also the most advanced by Korean researchers. Confidence flows among experts that “the first country to complete Iron Man may be Korea.” Let’s take a look at how the domestic-related core technology development is progressing.

◇ Development status of wearable robots at home and abroad

A wearable robot is called a wearable robot or a wearable robot, and refers to all robots that are worn and combined with the human body to assist and enhance human motor ability and muscle strength. In recent years, the wearable robot market is growing rapidly, centering on the fields of assistance and rehabilitation for the disabled, neuromuscular and musculoskeletal patients, the elderly, etc., and the fields of logistics, manufacturing, construction, and services. In order to cope with this, the development of lightweight and low-cost wearable robots is also fierce. In this regard, the Korean government announced its vision to intensively nurture the wearable robot sector, saying that it will enter the four global powerhouses in the robot industry by 2023 in October of last year.

In particular, Korea is leading the technology development for wearable robots in the medical field. A typical example was that Kim, who wore a’work-on suit’ jointly developed by Gong Gyeong-cheol and Yonsei University’s industry-academia-research center, won the gold medal at the Cybaslon competition last November with an amazing record of 3 minutes and 47 seconds. All. The work-on suit is made of high-strength material and weighs 25kg, but it has almost no weight felt by the user by applying a special design and technology. It is also possible to stand upright for more than 1 minute without wearing a cane. In addition, by applying a gait control algorithm based on a normal gait pattern, it is possible to walk at a maximum speed of 3.2 km/h per hour. It is a record comparable to the walking speed of the general public (2-4km/h per hour), and is the fastest among the world-reported walking records of people with paralyzed paralysis. In addition, it is designed so that there is no difficulty in solving common activities in everyday life, such as sitting and getting up, climbing stairs, and walking on rough terrain.

Using this technology, Professor Gong is actively promoting commercialization by starting a startup called Angel Robotics and receiving investment from LG Electronics in 2017. Already, some products such as’Angelex M’for incomplete lower extremities have been released and are being used for gait training and treatment of patients at Yonsei University Severance Hospital. Professor Gong Gyeong-cheol said, “There are too many people who are struggling because they can’t walk, but nowadays it’s a difficult time to live outside.”

Currently, leading companies such as Israel, the United States, and Japan are leading the global medical wearable robot market. However, experts are showing confidence that Korea can soon lead the medical wearable robot market based on such technology. In fact, in September last year, Samsung Electronics introduced its own wearable walking aid robot’GEMS HIP’. Hyundai Motor Group also announced its intention to enter the robotics industry in earnest by acquiring Boston Dynamics, an American robotics company at the end of last year. In addition, Seoul National University, Korea Institute of Robotics Convergence, and Sogang University’s Industry-Academic Cooperation Group are also working on the development of wearable suit technology to support the walking of paraplegic disabled and the elderly.

The industrial wearable robot market is more and more active. It is showing a high growth rate as demand is soaring around the world. In particular, in the case of Japan, there are reports of empirical cases that the introduction of robots can greatly contribute to labor assistance for workers in a severe aging condition. In Korea, related technology development and research is also active, such as the Hyundai Motors Uiwang Research Center developed a’wearable muscle strength enhancing robot for industrial labor support’ in 2015.

◇ Holographic interactive technology

Iron Man in the movie communicates with artificial intelligence’Javis’ through holograms. It is a futuristic interactive and haptic hologram technology in which a virtual screen and keyboard appear in an empty space and commands and information are inputted through it. There is a high possibility that such a future technology, which seems to be in vain, will be realized, but it is also Korean researchers who are leading the way. The protagonist of Pohang University Professor Roh Jun-seok, who announced the research result of’Meta-surface-based planar lens and complex hologram for realization of augmented/virtual reality’ in November last year is the protagonist.

Currently, there are active studies to implement future display technology using’meta materials’ known to be able to implement new optical functions such as transparent cloaks and super lenses around the world. The problem is that meta-surface-based planar optical devices developed with the current technology cannot change the characteristics of the device once it is fabricated. In other words, it is implemented as a passive metamaterial and can only display the first image entered. To solve this problem, Professor Roh’s team came up with the idea of ​​grafting liquid crystal, which is a variable optical material, into a planar optical device. The meta-surface-based planar optical device manufactured through this was designed to reproduce different holographic images according to incident polarization.

In particular, the geometrical phase of the nanostructure (the phase of the light transmitted or reflected from the nanostructure depending on the geometric characteristics) and the delayed phase (the phase that the light has when the light is transmitted or reflected in a nanostructure with a specific refractive index) is simultaneously performed. Different images of high quality can be reproduced according to the incident right and left polarized light.

The research team also combined a specially designed liquid crystal-based light modulator (a device that can control light intensity, phase, and polarization information through external stimuli) to the meta-surface device. I made it react to external stimuli. It is the first in the world to demonstrate a technology that can modulate the image of a hologram reproduced in response to various external stimuli in real time by creating a liquid crystal cell that responds to electricity, temperature and touch.

Prof. Noh said, “The touch-responsive meta-hologram device can change the holographic image with just a light finger touch, so it is expected that it will become a source technology that can realize the futuristic interactive and haptic hologram technology found in movies.” ㆍIt can also be used as a shock sensor that can be attached to a product.”

Reporter Kim Bong-soo [email protected]