Research Paper by Professor Chang-Hyeon Ji Published in World-Renowned Academic Journal Additive Manufacturing
- 작성처
- Date2022.09.27
- 24311
Expectations for the application of 3D printing technology in fabricating microactuators and commercial application of LiDAR system as an essential technology for fully autonomous driving and smart factories
A research team led by Professor Chang-Hyeon Ji at the Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Engineering developed an electromagnetically-actuated scanning micromirror device for LiDAR systems using three-dimensional (3D) printing and published the results in Additive Manufacturing (IF: 11.632), a prestigious top 1% journal in engineering and manufacturing.
A LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system refers to a remote sensor that measures the distance to a target by shining a light onto the target’s surface using near-infrared light and then detecting the reflective light emitted from the surface with an optical sensor. This allows the system to accurately detect not only the distance to a target but also location and morphology of the target, attracting attention as an essential technology to achieve a fully autonomous vehicle.
The research team of Professor Chang-Hyeon Ji devised a LiDAR scanning micromirror device capable of 360-degree scanning and fabricated the device by multi-jet fusion(MJF) 3D printing, a powder bed fusion process. The device developed by the Ewha research team was fabricated through the 3D printing process while a conventional scanning micromirror was made of silicon wafers using the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. This is a pioneering outcome in fabricating microactuators using 3D printing technology, which is conventionally used for the construction of macro-scale structures. In addition, compared with motor-based scanners applied to mechanical LiDAR systems or scanning micromirrors fabricated using the MEMS technology, it has the capacity to achieve high performance with short production time and low production cost, leading to expectations of the commercial application of LiDAR systems.
The team led by Professor Chang-Hyeon Ji at the Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Engineering drew attention by publishing the research paper, titled “Electromagnetic Omnidirectional Scanning Micromirror with Multi Jet Fusion Printed Structures for Smart Factory Applications,” marking the outcome of the project conducted with support from the Phase 4 Brain Korea 21 (BK21) project, in a renowned journal in the relevant field.
In October last year, Ewha was selected for the smart factory sub-field under the “new industry” category of the innovative talent training program in the BK21 project hosted by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The ‘‘Education and Research Group for training intelligent IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) convergent talents for human-centric smart factories” (led by Professor Jeong Tae Kim) is composed of ten professors from the Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and three professors from the Division of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at ELTEC College of Engineering, and is carrying out several studies focused on the five core areas of smart factories: smart network, AI & big data, smart sensors, human-centric systems, and cyber physical systems.