Physical AI and Robotics Lab Logo

“At PAIR Lab, we develop and apply robotics, control, and AI technologies to solve real-world engineering problems.”

Members

Lead Investigator

Sungmoon Joo

Lead Investigator

Collaborators

Dr. Ikjune Kim

Collaborator

Dr. Dongjun Hyun

Collaborator

Dr. Jongwhan Lee

Collaborator

Mr. Jaehyun Ha

Collaborator

Ongoing Research Projects

Precision Assembly Project
Assembly / Control

Development of Imitation Learning-based Robot Motion Policies for Precision Assembly

Creating robust, learning-based robot manipulation policies that can learn precise and complex assembly tasks from human demonstrations with high efficiency.

Role: PI (Lead) ~ Dec. 2027
Nuclear Emergency response Robot Project
Emergency response / Nuclear

Development of Emergency Response Robots for Operating Nuclear Power Plants

Designing and deploying advanced, radiation-tolerant mobile robotic platforms to carry out emergency operations inside nuclear power plant facilities.

Role: Co-I ~ Dec. 2027
Space Manipulator Project
Space / Manipulator

Development of Robotic Manipulators for Space Operations

Developing space-grade robotic arms and manipulators capable of autonomous docking, servicing, and exploration on orbital and planetary missions.

Role: Co-I ~ Dec. 2028
Physics-aware AI and XR Project
Physics-aware AI / XR

Development of Physics-aware AI and XR-based Teleoperation Technologies for Extreme Environments

Establishing next-generation teleoperation systems leveraging digital twin virtual worlds, physics-informed machine learning, and hyper-sensory XR interfaces.

Role: Co-I ~ Dec. 2029

Previous Research Projects

Project Title Role Period
Space Challenge: Mars exploration system PI Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2025
LiDAR-only semantic SLAM for nuclear application PI Apr. 2022 - Dec. 2023
Object classification & pose estimation using scan data PI Apr. 2019 - Mar. 2022
Robotic digital twin for nuclear decommissioning Co-I Apr. 2022 - Dec. 2024
Robotic cutting system for nuclear decommissioning Co-I Mar. 2017 - Dec. 2021
Jordan Research Reactor, Kijang Research Reactor Co-I Mar. 2015 - Feb. 2017

Publications

Error detection in underwater laser cutting for nuclear facility dismantlement using hydrophone and AI techniques

Ikjune Kim, Jonhwan Lee, Dongjun Hyun, Sungmoon Joo, S. and Jaehyun Ha

Annals of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 222, 111590, 2025

Toward Robotic Nuclear Decommissioning: Deep Learning-based Object Classification and Pose Estimation from Partial-View Scans

Sungmoon Joo

Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 199. pp.1325-1336, Aug. 2025

Remote Dismantling System using a Digital Manufacturing System and Workpiece Localization for Nuclear Facility Decommissioning

Dongjun Hyun, Ikjune Kim, Sungmoon Joo, Jaehyun Ha, and Jongwhan Lee

Annals of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 195, 110182, 2024

Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Classification of Imbalanced Time Series Data

Sungmoon Joo, Hogeon Seo, and Yonggyun Yu

Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing, Vol. 43 (6), pp. 458-467, 2023

3D Point Cloud Acquisition and Correction in Radioactive and Underwater Environments using Industrial 3D scanners

Dongjun Hyun, Ikjune Kim, Sungmoon Joo, and Jongwhan Lee

Sensors, Vol. 22 (23), 9053, 2022

Characteristic Analysis of Data Preprocessing for 3D Point Cloud Classification based on a Deep Neural Network: PointNet

Hogeon Seo, Sungmoon Joo

Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing, Vol. 41 (1), pp. 19-24, 2021

Conferences & Workshops

Hybrid Agentic AI-FSM Framework for Instruction-Based Industrial Manipulation Tasks

Sungmoon Joo and Ikjune Kim

2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Poster Session), Jun. 2026

Hybrid Agentic AI Framework for Reliable Execution of Instruction-based Assembly Tasks

Sungmoon Joo and Ikjune Kim

21st Korea Robotics Society Annual Conference, Feb. 2026

Learning Precise Robot Assembly Tasks from Human Demonstrations

Sungmoon Joo et al.

25th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, Nov. 2025

Robust and Accurate Stair Geometry Extraction Using Point Cloud

Sungmoon Joo and Dongseok Ryu

Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Autumn Meeting, Oct. 2025

Acoustic Representation Learning: A β-VAE Approach for Anomaly Detection in Underwater Robotic Laser Cutting

Sungmoo Joo et al.

ICRA 2025 Workshop on Acoustic Sensing and Representations for Robotics, May 2025

Learning Precise Robot Motion from Demonstration with Constraint-aware Refinement

Sungmoon Joo et al.

2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Poster Session), May 2025

Robot Motion Generation based on Motion and Vision Data for Precision Assembly Task

Sungmoon Joo et al.

Spring Meeting of Korea Society of Mechanical Engineers on Dynamics, Controls, and Robotics, Apr. 2025

LiDAR-based Staircase Detection for Autonomous Nuclear Emergency Response Robots

Sungmoon Joo and Dongseok Ryu

International Symposium on Future I&C for Nuclear Power Plants, Dec. 2024

Conceptual Design of a Rover for a Multi-Vehicle Wide Area Mars Exploration System

Sungmoon Joo et al.

International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, Nov. 2024

Underwater Cutting Status Monitoring for Robotic Nuclear Decommissioning System

Sungmoon Joo et al.

American Nuclear Society Meeting on Decommissioning, Environmental Science and Remote Technology 2024, Nov. 2024

Underwater Laser Cutting Process Monitoring Method

Lee Jongwhan et al.

Korea Society of Radioactive Waste Autumn Meeting, Oct. 2024

Remote Monitoring Methodology for Underwater Laser Cutting in Nuclear Facility Dismantlement

Kim Ikjune et al.

Korea Society of Radioactive Waste Autumn Meeting, Oct. 2024

Application of Unsupervised Domain Adaptation to Underwater Cutting Status Monitoring for Nuclear Decommissioning

Sungmoon Joo et al.

International Topical Workshop on Fukushima-Daiichi Decommissioning Research 2024, Oct. 2024

Gazebo Physical Simulation of a Track based Multi-Purpose Rover

Kim Ikjune et al.

39th Annual Meeting of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, Jul. 2024

Robotic Dismantling for Nuclear Decommissioning

Sungmoo Joo et al.

ICRA 2024 Workshop on Robotics for Nuclear Environments, May 2024

Analysis of Laser Scanning to 3D Mesh Conversion Methods for Digital Modelling of Nuclear Decommissioning Site

Sungmoon Joo and Ikjune Kim

Korea Society of Radioactive Waste Autumn Meeting, Nov. 2023

β-VAE-LSTM Model for Realtime Condition Monitoring with Time Series Data

Sungmoon Joo et al.

38th Annual Meeting of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, Jun. 2023

Application of Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Time Series Data Classification Model Training with Data Imbalance

Sungmoon Joo et al.

38th Annual Meeting of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems, Jun. 2023

Telerobotic Manipulation Framework for Hazardous Material Handling in Nuclear Decommissioning

Sungmoo Joo

ICRA 2023 Workshop on Robot Assisted Safe Manipulation of Hazardous Materials, Jun. 2023

Stairway Detection from Point Cloud Data for Robot Operation in Nuclear Facilities

Sungmoon Joo and Dongseok Ryu

Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Spring Meeting, May 2023

Patents

Patent list is currently being compiled and will be updated soon. Please check back later.