This thesis presents the design, construction and experiments done on a microcontroller board called 'SMARTY BOARD' targeted at small mobile robot applications. The primary motivation for this work was the lack of commercially available and cheap controller boards that would have all their components including interfaces on a single board. Having a single board simplifies the construction of programmable robots that can be used as platforms for teaching and learning robotics. Reducing the cost of the board as much as possible was one of the main design objectives. The target user groups for this device are the secondary and tertiary students, and hobbyists. Previous studies have shown that equipment cost is one of the major obstacles for teaching robotics in Australia. The other design objectives were robustness, reliability and functionality of the board. Most of the early technological learners such as high school students lack experience and expert knowledge for interfacing a controller board with other components. To prevent the learners from making errors, connectors on our board have been made foolproof (the user cannot damage the components of the board by plugging cables in the wrong sockets). Commercially available designs lack these essential features. After reviewing the commercially available micro-controller boards with respect to their suitability as teaching tools, we concluded that none of the existing microcontroller boards met our requirements. We then designed a new controller board based on previous boards. The main advantage of this new controller board is that it is a single board whereas the other controller boards are multi-board. Moreover, it is more foolproof. The new controller board was demonstrated at high-school seminars. In these demonstrations the new controller board was used for controlling two robots that we built. These robots are available as kits. The response from the high school teachers was very positive. The board has been selected as the platform for a robotic competition.

As a contribution toward the objective of developing useful walking machines, this dissertation considers solutions to some of the problems involved with bipedal robot development. The main area of focus involves control system design and implementation for dynamically balanced walking robots. A new algorithm “Torso Driven Walking” is presented, which reduces the complexity of the control problem to that of balancing the robot’s torso. All other aspects of the system are indirectly controlled by the changing robot state resulting from direct control of the robot’s torso. The result is literally a “top-down” approach to control, where the control system actively balances the top-most component of the robot’s body, leaving the control of the lower limbs to a passive “state-driven” system designed to ensure the robot always keeps at least one leg between the torso and the ground. A series of low-cost robots and simulation systems have been constructed as experimental platforms for testing the proposed new control system. The robots have been designed to balance on “point” feet, and so the control system must be able to dynamically maintain balance, while moving at a variable velocity. The Torso Driven Walking control system achieves a fully dynamic, variable speed walking behaviour that does not rely on maintaining a stable supporting polygon for balance. In addition, the system exhibits a high degree of tolerance for low frequency “bias” or “drift” errors. These measurement errors are commonly encountered when using sensors for detecting torso inclination.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια, υπάρχει μια αλματώδης εξέλιξη στην τεχνολογία των τοπογραφικών οργάνων και των γεωδιατικών εφαρμογών. Τα νέα όργανα συνδυάζουν διαφορετικές τεχνολογίες που βοηθούν το χρήστη να διορθώνει αυτόματα οποιαδήποτε σφάλματα προκύπτουν, κυρίώς όσον αφορά στο χρόνο. Χαρακτηριστικό παράδειγμα αποτελεί ο συνδυασμός ρομποτικού θεοδόλιχου (RTS) με δέκτη GPS προσαρμοσμένο επάνω του. Όμως, τα καινούρια αυτά όργανα αφ’ενός έχουν υψηλό κόστος και αφ’ετέρου δεν είναι ακόμα ευρέως διαδεδομένα. Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία γίνεται έρευνα για το πως μπορούν να συγχρονιστούν οι καταγραφές δύο διαφορετικών οργάνων (RTS και GPS), τα οποία καταγράφουν την ίδια κίνηση ταυτόχρονα. Η διερεύνηση του συγχρονισμού προκύπτει από επεξεργασία μετρήσεων μιας σειράς είκοσι πειραμάτων, που αποτελούνται από μετακίνηση στήλου επάνω σε ράγα. Στη συνέχεια αναπτύσσεται μοντέλο επεξεργασίας των πειραμάτων, ώστε να βρεθεί ο βέλτιστος τρόπος συγχρονισμού των οργάνων μέσω της εύρεσης των πιο αξιόπιστων πειραμάτων. / In recent years, there is a rapid development in technology, surveying and geodiatikon applications. The new instruments combine different technologies that help the user to automatically correct any errors occur, notably at the time. An example is the combination of robotic theodolite (RTS) with a GPS receiver adapted on it. But the new institutions on the one hand they have high costs and on the other hand is not yet widespread. This thesis research on how to synchronize the recording of two different organs (RTS and GPS), which record the same movement simultaneously. The investigation of synchronization resulting from processing a series of twenty measurements experiments, consisting of a column moving on track. Then a model processing of experiments is developed to find the best way to synchronize the instrument by finding the most reliable experiments.

BACKGROUND: Uterine fibroids affect a quarter of the female population. The advent of minimally invasive gynecological surgery has revolutionized fibroid removal. The aims of this study were to analyze the variables correlated to myomectomies and establish predictive variable models. METHODS: From 2007 to 2009, 966 patients underwent myomectomy. 30 variables surrounding the myomectomies were analyzed. All variables were transformed into categorical variable and analyzed for normal distribution. The variables were cross-tabulated and analyzed for correlation using a Pearson Chi-Square statistic. Correlated variables underwent multinomial logistic regression analysis to obtain predictive models. Conclusion: A complete examination of all types of myomectomies support existing relationships between variables and provide novel correlations and predictions.

Control of mechatronic systems remain an open problem in control theory despite the research work worldwide in the last decade. Uncertainties in mechatronic systems, which includes faults, and disturbance, will often cause undesired behaviours, affecting the systems performances, may lead to the system failure, or even causing safety issues. Control reconfiguration is an active approach in control systems field. However, controller reconfiguration involves changes in its parameters and structure. System stability might not be able to be guaranteed during the parameters tuning, which might cause more damage to system stability, sometimes may cause safety issues. Due the on-line reconfiguration has a scope, during which the system stability can not be guaranteed. This leads that the systems must be turned off during reconfiguration process. In many industrial areas, such as metallurgy, forging, and manufacturing, shutting down the streamline leads to significant levels of lost productivity and unacceptable economic losses. As alternative to control reconfiguration approach, in this thesis two methods are proposed to deal with faults and disturbances. The first method is the fault matrix observer and the second one is the set-point re-planning. The idea of both methods is to compensate the faults and disturbances which affect the system performances without changing the controller structure or controller parameters.

A principal forma de transporte de petróleo e derivados, entre outras substâncias, são os dutos, e um dos processos críticos relacionados é a sua inspeção periódica, que é necessária e obrigatória, de alto custo devido à sua complexidade, e que na maioria das vezes são realizadas manualmente, em procedimentos demorados, pouco confiáveis e insalubres devido ao meio e aos riscos a que o trabalhador é exposto. Este trabalho tem o objetivo de testar diversas aplicações e situações de um sistema de inspeção de dutos robótico desenvolvido. O interesse de observação foi a praticidade e facilidade de montagem e desmontagem do equipamento sobre a tubulação, a agilidade dos graus de liberdade propostos para o sistema, a flexibilidade do equipamento para utilização de diferentes métodos de inspeção, a rapidez e confiabilidade dos resultados de inspeção por ultrassom para varredura de espessuras em busca de corrosão generalizada interna de uma tubulação e a capacidade de precisão e resolução desta inspeção por ultrassom. Para abordar estes pontos, foram realizados uma série de testes, inicialmente para verificação do bom funcionamento dos graus de liberdade do sistema, e posteriormente com métodos diferenciados de inspeção, como testes para medição geométrica externa de uma tubulação, testes com sistemas de ultrassom embarcado em laboratório e em campo com diferentes malhas de inspeção e com um ou múltiplos cabeçotes, e para diferentes tubulações e formatos de redução de espessuras de parede na tubulação. / The main way for transporting petroleum and substances alike is through ducts, and one of the most critic processes involved is the periodic inspection, wich is necessary and mandatory, with a high cost due to its complexity, and, in most cases, done manually in long time consuming procedures and with little reliability and high risk for the workers involved. This work is intended to test various situations of a robotic inspection system developed. The observation interest was the practicity and easiness of assembling and disassembling the equipment on the pipes, the agility of degrees of freedom proposed for the system, the flexibility of the equipment for the use in different methods of inspection, the quickness and reliability of the results by ultrasound for scanning different thicknesses of a duct in search of "generalized internal corrosion" and the level of precision and resolution of this ultrasound scan. To approach this topics, a series of test were conducted, at first to check if the degrees of freedom of the system were working as intended and afterwards with different methods of inspection, such as external geometric measurements of the pipes, tests with onboard ultrasound systems in lab and on the field with different inspection grades and with one or multiple ultrasound sensors, and for different kinds of pipes and thickness reduction shapes of the pipe's walls.

If we require higher yields from dairy cows, we have to provide them with good living conditions. It is necessary to know their natural behaviour and give them a chance to show it. One of the possibilities to make better living conditions to dairy cows seems to be an introduction of the automatic milking system to cowshed. The aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate basic behaviour of dairy cows during all day in two cowsheds with automatic milking system, and to create a data file of dairy cows in two cowsheds with breeding of two different kinds of cattle - Czech Spotted cattle and Holstein dairy cows, and two different automatic milking systems ? Lely Astronaut and DeLaval. The results were evaluated by particular applicative statistics methods and the differences between the breeds and types of robots were compared. The thesis concerns three ethological observations in 2010 and 2011 which took place in Agricultural Cooperative Kluky near Písek, where Holstein dairy cows is bred and automatic milking system Lely Astronaut is used, and also three ethological observations in 2009 on a family farm in Chlumeček near Křemže, where Czech Spotted cattle is bred and automatic system DeLaval is used. The Holstein dairy cows spent feeding from 3,4 to 3,9 hours per day and Czech Spotted cattle spent feeding from 5,6 to 6,3 hours per day during all observation. In category standing were included: plain standing, standing with other activities (standing ? drinking, standing ? urinating, standing ? defecating, standing ? comfort behavior) and milking in robot. The Holstein dairy cows and Czech Spotted cattle spent standing from 5,6 to 6,3 hours per day. In the category of lying, significant differences were found. The Holstein dairy cows spent lying from 14,1 to 15 hours per day. The Czech Spotted cattle spent lying from 11,6 to 12 hours per day. Last observed category was moving. The Holstein dairy cows spent moving 0,4 hours per day and the Czech Spotted cattle spent moving from 0,9 to 1,1 hours per day. The quantity of milk of Holstein dairy cows per lactation was 6701 kg in average with quantity of protein 229,694 kg with content of 3,375%. The quantity of milk of Czech Spotted cattle was 4690 kg with quantity of protein 159,33 kg. The length of insemination interval of Holstein dairy cows was 71,35 days in average and service period was 159,97 days in average. The length of insemination interval of Czech Spotted cattle was 130,49 days in average and service period was 159,97 days in average. The data was processed with the help of Microsoft Excel and Statistica 10.

abstract: Wearable robots including exoskeletons, powered prosthetics, and powered orthotics must add energy to the person at an appropriate time to enhance, augment, or supplement human performance. Adding energy while not being in sync with the user can dramatically hurt performance making it necessary to have correct timing with the user. Many human tasks such as walking, running, and hopping are repeating or cyclic tasks and a robot can add energy in sync with the repeating pattern for assistance. A method has been developed to add energy at the appropriate time to the repeating limit cycle based on a phase oscillator. The phase oscillator eliminates time from the forcing function which is based purely on the motion of the user. This approach has been simulated, implemented and tested in a robotic backpack which facilitates carrying heavy loads. The device oscillates the load of the backpack, based on the motion of the user, in order to add energy at the correct time and thus reduce the amount of energy required for walking with a heavy load. Models were developed in Working Model 2-D, a dynamics simulation software, in conjunction with MATLAB to verify theory and test control methods. The control system developed is robust and has successfully operated on a range of different users, each with their own different and distinct gait. The results of experimental testing validated the corresponding models. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2014

A principal forma de transporte de petróleo e derivados, entre outras substâncias, são os dutos, e um dos processos críticos relacionados é a sua inspeção periódica, que é necessária e obrigatória, de alto custo devido à sua complexidade, e que na maioria das vezes são realizadas manualmente, em procedimentos demorados, pouco confiáveis e insalubres devido ao meio e aos riscos a que o trabalhador é exposto. Este trabalho tem o objetivo de testar diversas aplicações e situações de um sistema de inspeção de dutos robótico desenvolvido. O interesse de observação foi a praticidade e facilidade de montagem e desmontagem do equipamento sobre a tubulação, a agilidade dos graus de liberdade propostos para o sistema, a flexibilidade do equipamento para utilização de diferentes métodos de inspeção, a rapidez e confiabilidade dos resultados de inspeção por ultrassom para varredura de espessuras em busca de corrosão generalizada interna de uma tubulação e a capacidade de precisão e resolução desta inspeção por ultrassom. Para abordar estes pontos, foram realizados uma série de testes, inicialmente para verificação do bom funcionamento dos graus de liberdade do sistema, e posteriormente com métodos diferenciados de inspeção, como testes para medição geométrica externa de uma tubulação, testes com sistemas de ultrassom embarcado em laboratório e em campo com diferentes malhas de inspeção e com um ou múltiplos cabeçotes, e para diferentes tubulações e formatos de redução de espessuras de parede na tubulação. / The main way for transporting petroleum and substances alike is through ducts, and one of the most critic processes involved is the periodic inspection, wich is necessary and mandatory, with a high cost due to its complexity, and, in most cases, done manually in long time consuming procedures and with little reliability and high risk for the workers involved. This work is intended to test various situations of a robotic inspection system developed. The observation interest was the practicity and easiness of assembling and disassembling the equipment on the pipes, the agility of degrees of freedom proposed for the system, the flexibility of the equipment for the use in different methods of inspection, the quickness and reliability of the results by ultrasound for scanning different thicknesses of a duct in search of "generalized internal corrosion" and the level of precision and resolution of this ultrasound scan. To approach this topics, a series of test were conducted, at first to check if the degrees of freedom of the system were working as intended and afterwards with different methods of inspection, such as external geometric measurements of the pipes, tests with onboard ultrasound systems in lab and on the field with different inspection grades and with one or multiple ultrasound sensors, and for different kinds of pipes and thickness reduction shapes of the pipe's walls.

La curiethérapie constitue 25% à 30% des opérations de traitement utilisées sur les 40.000 cas de cancer de prostate par an en France. Elle consiste à mettre manuellement une trentaine d'aiguilles creuses dans la prostate, à travers le périnée, en utilisant des images échographiques pour localiser la prostate et les aiguilles. Au moyen de ces aiguilles, des grains radioactifs sont insérés dans la prostate à des endroits précis pré-planifiés grâce à l'imagerie. Le succès de l'opération est étroitement lié à la répartition et l'homogénéité de la dose radioactive répartie dans la prostate, donc à la précision avec laquelle les grains y sont placés. Cette précision est affectée par plusieurs facteurs. Premièrement, la prostate bouge et se déforme pendant l'insertion des aiguilles et lors des déplacements de la sonde échographique pour les acquisitions d'images. Deuxièmement, la taille de la prostate est susceptible d'augmenter pendant l'opération à cause des saignements occasionnés. Enfin, les aiguilles sont très minces et susceptibles de se courber pendant leur insertion.Le laboratoire TIMC-IMAG (équipe GMCAO) a mis au point un système robotisé d'insertion d'aiguilles transpérinéale, guidé par échographie 3D avec le but d'améliorer la précision, la fiabilité et l'efficacité de la pose des grains. Ces travaux ont montré une première faisabilité globale de l'approche avec un premier prototype de laboratoire. Cependant l'approche actuelle permet de corriger seulement en partie les bougés et déformations de la prostate en cours de geste grâce au couplage avec des méthodes d'imagerie 3D. La correction ne tire pas parti des informations très riches issues de l'imagerie : seule la profondeur d'insertion est modifiée pendant le geste. Le LIRMM (équipe DEXTER) a développé récemment une approche de planification adaptative pour le guidage d'aiguille flexible lors de leur insertion dans des procédures percutanées. La technique proposée permet la mise à jour du chemin suivi par l'aiguille en intégrant des informations obtenues en ligne par un retour visuel. Cette stratégie de planification et de contrôle est définie dans une architecture en boucle fermée et permet ainsi de compenser les incertitudes du système et les perturbations (déformations des organes, inhomogénéité des tissus, etc) auxquelles il est soumis.Le but de ces travaux de thèse est donc de coupler les savoir-faire de chacun des deux laboratoires afin d’apporter une solution de guidage d’aiguilles flexibles pour la curiethérapie de prostate. La réalisation de cet objectif passe, dans un premier temps, par l’élaboration d’un algorithme de suivi d’aiguille sous échographie 3D. Cet algorithme est confronté à la faible visibilité des aiguilles offerte par cette modalité d’imagerie, associée à diverses sources de bruit. Ces conditions rendent très difficile la détection de l’aiguille. Dans le but d’améliorer la robustesse de cet algorithme, la zone de recherche de l’aiguille dans le volume est déterminée par un modèle prédictif, qui constitue une première contribution de ce manuscrit. Le contrôle de l’aiguille par planification en boucle fermée a été adapté aux spécificités de l’imagerie échographique 3D ainsi qu’à celles du robot développé précédemment. Ce contrôle est couplé au retour visuel de l’aiguille donné par l’algorithme de détection. Ce dispositif a, par la suite, été testé sur fantômes puis sur pièce anatomique afin de déterminer la viabilité et la pertinence du système proposé.Ce travail constitue donc une première étape vers une future application clinique du guidage d’aiguilles flexibles. Si voir un système robotique insérer seul une aiguille flexible en clinique est encore un rêve lointain, l’idée d’un système d’assistance à l’insertion d’aiguille, où le clinicien et le robot travaillent de pairs, est une solution envisageable dès maintenant. / In France, 25% to 30% of the 40,000 prostate cancer cases per year are treated with brachytherapy. During this procedure, about thirty needles are manually inserted into the prostate through the perineum using ultrasound images to locate the prostate and needles. Radioactive seeds are then inserted into the prostate specific pre-planned locations using needle cannula. The success of the operation is closely related to the distribution and homogeneity of the radioactive dose distribution in the prostate, therefore the precision with which the seeds are positioned. This accuracy is affected by many factors. Firstly, the prostate moves and deforms due to the insertion of the needles and to the movements of the ultrasonic probe. Secondly, the size of the prostate increases due to tissue inflammation and bleeding. Finally, the needles are very thin and could bend during insertion.The TIMC-IMAG laboratory (CAMI team) has developed a robotic system for transperineal needle insertion. This system is guided by 3D ultrasound to improve the precision, reliability and efficiency of the radioactive source positioning. These works showed a first proof of concept using a laboratory prototype. However the current approach can only partially correct prostate movements and deformations using 3D imaging methods. The correction does not take advantage of the rich information of this imaging modality: only the insertion depth is changed during the gesture. LIRMM (DEXTER team) recently developed an adaptive planning approach to guide a flexible needle during its insertion in percutaneous procedures. The proposed technique allows to update the path followed by the needle using online information from the visual feedback. This planning and control approach forms a closed-loop architecture and allows to compensate system disturbances (organ deformities, tissue inhomogeneity, etc.).The purpose of this thesis is to combine the expertise of the two laboratories to provide a flexible needle steering system for prostate brachytherapy purposes. This objective is achieved first by developing a needle tracking algorithm in 3D ultrasound. This algorithm deals with low visibility of the needles offered by this imaging modality, combined with various noises. These conditions complicate the detection of the needle. In order to improve the robustness of our algorithm, a search area is defined to detect the needle in the volume. This area is then determined by a predictive model, which is a first contribution of this manuscript. Control of the closed-loop planning needle is adapted to the specifications of the 3D ultrasound imaging system as well as those of the previously developed robot. This control is coupled to the needle visual feedback given by the detection algorithm. This device is tested on phantoms then on anatomical specimen to assess the viability and relevance of the proposed system.This work is therefore a first step towards a future clinical application of flexible needle steering. The entirely automatic insertion of flexible needle in clinic is a distant dream. However, the idea of an assistance system for needle insertion, where the clinician and the robot work together, is reachable from now.