Prof. Hyouk Ryeol CHOI (Sungkyunkwan University, School of Mechanical Engineering) established the Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronics System Laboratory (IRMS; it has been changed to Robotics Innovatory, abbreviated RI) in 1995 and has performed research mainly focused on professional service robotics during the last 20 years. For example, smart inpipe inspection robots, ultra long span bridge inspection robots, maintenance robots for sewer and water supply systems, quadruped walking robots for field operations, multi-fingered robot hands and manipulation technology, soft actuators and sensors, and interaction sensing technology for robotics are the subjects of research done by Prof. CHOI with governmental and industrial funding. In addition, Prof. CHOI actively collaborates with researchers from foreign countries such as UNLA, UCLA, UNLV, Qatar University, etc.



One of the field robots developed by Prof. CHOI can be MRINSPECT VII. This robot contains most of the core technologies developed by Prof. CHOI on inpipe robot technologies, which can intelligently move inside of urban gas pipelines in service without external support. Its operation has been tested recently in real gas pipelines and proved to be effective in practical applications.



MRC^2 IN Series is another field robot dedicated to bridge maintenance service. Among them MRC^2 IN has been built recently for service in cable-supported suspension bridges, which can move over 100mm during the operation. The robot has been tested in Yongjong Grand Bridge in Incheon and validated.



Interaction sensing technologies are for sensing physical interactions between robots and the environment such as humans, and thus, force, torque, and proximity caused by the interaction are sensed. Prof. CHOI leads the world's best interaction sensing technologies, especially capacitive type technologies. He has many patents and transferred to the company for commercialization,notably the 6-axis force/torque sensor RFT series. The sensor becomes a strong competitor in the market dominanted by US and Japanese companies.

Prof. CHOI has outstanding academic achievements with more than 170 journal papers, books, and 380 proceedings, as well as over 130 domestic and international patents. With these contributions, he received the Grand Robot Prize from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce in 2014, the Academic Career Award from the Korea Robotics Society, the Korea Patent Award, The 10th Achievement Award of Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and the IEEE ICRA Best Human Robot Interaction Paper Award.. He will be the president of the Korea Robotics Society in 2018 (homepage: http://mecha.skku.ac.kr).