Pioneer in the area of control engineering such as optimization theory, AI robot, fuzzy theory, etc.
Trailblazing of the development of Korea’s first industrial robot and AI robot research
Appointed as IEEE Fellow for his contribution to the global technology development of robot systems
(Late) Professor Zeung Nam Bien (1943~2017)
Honorary Professor, KAIST
Honorary Professor, UNIST
- Academic background
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1962~1969
B.S., Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Seoul National University
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1970~1972
M.S., Electronic Engineering, Iowa University
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1972~1975
M.S., Mathematics, Iowa University
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1972~1975
Ph.D., Electronic Engineering, Iowa University
- Professional career
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1976~1977
Assistant Professor, Iowa University
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1977~2009
Professor, Dept. of Electric and Electronic Engineering, KAIST
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1990~1995
First President, Korea Fuzzy Theory Society
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2001~2002
President, Korea Electronic Engineering Society
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2004~2006
First & Second President, Korea Robot Engineering
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2009~2017
Honorary Professor, KAIST; Honorary Professor, UNIST
- Award
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2002
Merit Award, World Automation Congress
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2003
Hyeoksin Medal, Order of Science and Technology Merit
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2003
Joseph Engelberger Robotics Award
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2017
Presidential Commendation
Professor Zeung Nam Bien led various intelligent robot research projects, beginning with the development of ‘KAISEM’, Korea’s first industrial robot. He was a pioneering robot engineer who provided guidance to many junior researchers.
Born in Seoul in 1943, he graduated from Gyeonggi High School and Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Seoul National University after when he left for study in USA at Iowa University. His major at Iowa University was control engineering. He was captivated by the process in control engineering that allows for automatic operation of engineering systems and conducted research on the topic of optimal control for his doctoral research. In 1975, he acquired a doctoral degree and joined the KAIST (then, Korea Advanced Institute of Science) at the Dept. of Electric and Electronic Engineering. Back then, he thought he would be able to control every thing in the world with control engineering as a control engineer.
After several years of service at KAIST, he received a proposal to conduct research about industrial use robots from the Korea Science Foundation in 1978. Although robots were an unfamiliar topic for him, he accepted the proposal as he was familiar with control systems. During the process of his research, he developed a robot manipulator named ‘KAISEM’ that featured a 5 degree of freedom with drum, coordinate-type body and gripper hands. The manipulator was a robot that was developed to be used for attaching and detaching, as well as for transporting CNC machine tools processing objects. On launching of the KAISEM project, Korean media showed great interest, describing the robot as the first industrial robot developed in Korea.
Making use of the opportunity to develop KAISEM, he began research on robot engineering in earnest. He showed interest in non-industrial robots as well as industrial robots. After KAISEM, he developed a series of four-legged walking robots, such as ‘Centaur’ and ‘KAISER.’ Based on those achievements, he began to focus on developing assistant robots to serve disabled persons. He proceeded with research on sign language robots for hearing-impaired persons and on sign language recognition systems that employ a camera from early 1990s. In 1997, he developed ‘KARES’, a robot arm that could be attached to a wheelchair. With those achievements, he established Human-friendly Welfare Robot System Research Institute in 1999 and led the research on intelligent living space and assistant robots for the elderly and disabled people.
As he developed robots that were operational for industrial and non-industrial uses, he advanced sophisticated theories derived from the existing control theory, intelligence theory, and human-robot interaction theory. Specifically, he adopted a positive attitude towards fuzzy theory which handles the aspect of uncertainty in systems and developed the theory further. He developed an intelligent control theory. He became the first president of the Korea Fuzzy Theory Society in 1990s and published various theory papers such as the expandable fuzzy inference processor, the fuzzy rule handling with contradictions, etc. in international journals. He assumed the position of the President of the International Fuzzy Systems Association in 2003.
Recognized of these merits, he was appointed as IEEE Fellow as well as IFSA Fellow in 2007. In addition, he received many merit awards from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Korea Electronic Engineering Society, the Korea Electric Society, the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology, Samsung Electronics, Korea Science Foundation, etc. In 2003, he received Hyeoksin Medal, Order of Science and Technology Merit and in 2012, Sudang Award. As per international awards, he won the merit award at World Automation Congress in 2002, the first Korean, and the Joseph Engelberger Robotics Award at International Robot Symposium in 2003. In 2017, he received the Presidential Commendation.
His research projects, produced many of the next generation of researchers. As a professor at KAIST who produced the Ph.Ds, he educated future robot engineers including 122 masters students and 69 doctors students. That group includes outstanding researchers like Sang-Rok Oh (KIST), Il-Hong Seo (Hanyang Univ.), Won-Gyeong Song (National Rehabilitation Center), Young-Jo Jo (ETRI), and Wan-Sik Yu (Semics). These people may be said to be the true inheritance he left to robot research in Korea. Having exerted himself for research and for the education of junior scholars, taking up the leading role for the various intelligent robot development, as well as industrial products, for such a long period, he is remembered as the ‘Father of Korean Robot’.
