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Σκοπός της διπλωματικής αυτής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη ρομποτικής διάταξης οστεογένεσης και πιο συγκεκριμένα η μελέτης της δυναμικής και ο έλεγχος αυτής. Πιο αναλυτικά, τα κεφάλαια που ακολουθούν πραγματεύονται τα ακόλουθα: θα παρουσιαστεί γενικά ο μηχανισμός της οστεογένεσης από ιατρικής πλευράς, καθώς επίσης και οι διάφορες διατάξεις με τις οποίες πραγματοποιείται η διατατική οστεογένεση. Στη συνέχεια θα παρουσιάσουμε τις κινηματικές και δυναμικές εξισώσεις της πλατφόρμας Stewart. Το τελευταίο μέρος αποτελεί και το πειραματικό μέρος της παρούσας εργασίας δηλαδή τον έλεγχο της συγκεκριμένης διάταξης μέσω του SimMechanics toolbox του πακέτου MatLab. Στο παράρτημα παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα των πειραμάτων με μορφή διαγραμμάτων. / Distraction osteogenesis and simulation of stewart platform on Simulink.

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Alors que les systèmes de reconnaissance gestuelle actuels privilégient souvent un usage intérieur, nous nous intéressons à la conception d'un système dont l'utilisation est possible en environnement extérieur et en mobilité. Notre objectif est le contrôle temps-réel d'un robot mobile dont l'usage est destiné aux fantassins débarqués. La contribution principale de cette thèse est le développement d'une chaîne de reconnaissance gestuelle temps réel, qui peut être entraînée en quelques minutes avec: un faible nombre d'exemples ("small data"); des gestes choisis par l'utilisateur; une résilience aux gestes mal réalisés; ainsi qu'une faible empreinte CPU. Ceci est possible grâce à deux innovations clés: d'une part, une technique pour calculer des distances entre séries temporelles en flux, basée sur DTW; d'autre part, une rétro-analyse efficace du flux d'apprentissage afin de déterminer les hyperparamètres du modèle sans intervention de l'utilisateur. D'autre part, nous avons construit notre propre gant de données et nous l'utilisons pour confirmer expérimentalement que la solution de reconnaissance gestuelle permet le contrôle temps réel d'un robot en mobilité. Enfin, nous montrons la flexibilité de notre technique en ce sens qu'elle permet de contrôler non seulement des robots, mais aussi des systèmes de natures différentes. / Although gesture recognition has been studied for several decades, much research stays in the realm of indoors laboratory experiments. In this thesis, we address the problem of designing a truly usable, real- world gesture recognition system, focusing mainly on the real-time control of an outdoors robot for use by military soldiers. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a real-time gesture recognition pipeline, which can be taught in a few minutes with: very sparse input ("small data"); freely user-invented gestures; resilience to user mistakes during training; and low computation requirements. This is achieved thanks to two key innovations: first, a stream-enabled, DTW-inspired technique to compute distances between time series; and second, an efficient stream history analysis procedure to automatically determine model hyperparameters without user intervention. Additionally, a custom, hardened data glove was built and used to demonstrate successful gesture recognition and real-time robot control. We finally show this work's flexibility by furthermore using it beyond robot control to drive other kinds of controllable systems.

This research programme investigates aspects of end effector design and control, to carry out grasping operations in a range of unstructured environments. A conceptual three fingered end effector design has been developed. The articulated finger is operated by a novel mechanism which provides all the finger motions. Detailed force and kinematic analyses have been carried out which establish mechanical integrity of the system and help size the various finger components. A vectorial method of link representation has been used to derive finger kinematics. This representation has been used for position control in the controller. A numerical technique based on the Newton- Raphson method has been derived to undertake the finger's inverse kinematics in realtime. To validate the theoretical operation of the finger drive, a mechanism has been built with the necessary electronic interface, and programmed for position control. A photoelasticity based sensor has been developed which is capable of detecting applied force as well as slip and is largely immune to external disturbances. The sensor has a small size allowing it to be easily incorporated into a robotic finger. Mechanics of slip has been investigated to develop a theoretical model of the slip sensor. This allows modelling of various material and geometrical parameters involved in its design. In order to control the end effector, grasping strategies have been planned and a controller structure defined. The top level of the controller uses the kinematic relation to move the finger to a goal position. When fingers make contact with an object, the controller switches over to an inner fiizzy logic algorithm. The rule base of the fiizzy logic ensures that a stable grasp has been acquired with minimum fingertip force. The implementation of the fuzzy logic has been validated on an experimental test-rig. It has been found that the controller applies different minimum fingertip force to objects of different mass and it responds very quickly to the external disturbances by applying extra force to the object. The fingertip force comes back to its previous level as soon as the disturbance vanishes. The important feature exhibited by the controller is that it forms optimal grasp of objects without knowing their mass and frictional properties. This offers a very useful capability to an end effector controller operating in unstructured environments. A complete model of the end effector has been developed which ensures equilibrium and stability of the grasped object taking dynamic conditions of grasp into account. The model estimates unbalances in position, force and moment of the grasped object and tries to minimise these unbalances. The simulated results have shown that for every grasp situation, the algorithm is capable of minimising the unbalances and the operation of the algorithm is fast enough for real-time applications.

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L'intérêt des recherches dans le domaine de la fusion de données multi-capteurs est en plein essor en raison de la diversité de ses secteurs d'applications. Plus particulièrement, dans le domaine de la robotique et de la localisation, l'exploitation des différentes informations fournies par les capteurs constitue une étape primordiale afin d'assurer une estimation fiable de la position. Dans ce contexte de fusion de données multi-capteurs, nous nous attachons à traiter le diagnostic, menant à l'identification de la cause d'une défaillance, et la tolérance de l'approche proposée aux défauts de capteurs, peu abordés dans la littérature.Nous avons fait le choix de développer une approche basée sur un formalisme purement informationnel : filtre informationnel d'une part, et outils de la théorie de l'information d'autre part. Des résidus basés sur la divergence de Kullback-Leibler sont développés. Via des méthodes optimisées de seuillage, ces résidus conduisent à la détection et à l'exclusion de ces défauts capteurs. La théorie proposée est éprouvée sur deux applications de localisation. La première application concerne la localisation collaborative, tolérante aux défauts d'un système multi-robots. La seconde application traite de la localisation en milieu ouvert utilisant un couplage serré GNSS/odométrie tolérant aux défauts. / The interest of research in the multi-sensor data fusion field is growing because of its various applications sectors. Particularly, in the field of robotics and localization, the use of different sensors informations is a vital step to ensure a reliable position estimation. In this context of multi-sensor data fusion, we consider the diagnosis, leading to the identification of the cause of a failure, and the sensors faults tolerance aspect, discussed in limited work in the literature. We chose to develop an approach based on a purely informational formalism: information filter on the one hand and tools of the information theory on the other. Residuals based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence are developed. These residuals allow to detect and to exclude the faulty sensors through optimized thresholding methods. This theory is tested in two applications. The first application is the fault tolerant collaborative localization of a multi-robot system. The second application is the localization in outdoor environments using a tightly coupled GNSS/odometer with a fault tolerant aspect.

Dans les environnements difficiles résultant de catastrophes naturelles ou d'accidents industriels, des robots mobiles peuvent être utilisés pour réduire les interventions humaines. Ces robots doivent pouvoir parcourir de longues distances, suivre des trajectoires précises, transporter des matériels et instruments, tout en étant robustes aux perturbations et aux défaillances éventuelles de leurs composants (capteurs, actionneurs). Dans cette thèse, nous considérons des systèmes composés de robots mobiles à deux roues motrices (2WD), reliés physiquement entre eux. Nous proposons des lois de commande permettant au système multi-robot de suivre une trajectoire de référence malgré la présence de défauts d'actionneurs. Différentes commandes tolérantes aux fautes (FTC : Fault Tolerant Control) sont proposées. Certaines sont des commandes dîtes passives, qui sont conçues pour être robustes à des défauts actionneurs sélectionnés, d’autres sont dîtes actives puisqu’elles intègrent un algorithme de diagnostic (observateur adaptatif non linéaire) qui détecte, localise et estime les défauts.Des résultats de simulation sont présentés tout au long de la thèse pour vérifier la validité et montrer les performances des algorithmes de commande tolérante proposés. / In harsh environments resulting from natural disasters or industrial accidents, reducing human interventions by increasing robotic operations is desirable. The main challenges to be considered are not only that the robots should be able to go over long distances and operate for relatively long periods, but also make the global system tolerant to actuators’ failures. In this thesis, to overcome these challenges, systems composed of multi-linked two-wheel drive (2WD) mobile robots are considered. The objective of these multi-robot systems is to asymptotically track a reference trajectory, despite the presence of actuator faults. In this thesis, we design original Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) schemes. Some of them are passive methods, i.e. robust control laws to given failures, and other ones are active FTC which include a Fault Diagnosis (FD) algorithm (nonlinear adaptive observer) that detects, localizes and estimates the faults, and finally adapt the control actions to the faulty situations. Simulation results are presented all along the thesis to verify the validity of the proposed control algorithms and to show the performance of the FTC schemes.

La modélisation de robots souples est extrêmement difficile, à cause notamment du nombre théoriquement infini des degrés de liberté. Cette difficulté est accentuée lorsque les robots ont des configurations complexes. Ce problème de modélisation entraîne de nouveaux défis pour la calibration et la conception des commandes des robots, mais également de nouvelles opportunités avec de nouvelles stratégies de détection de force possibles. Cette thèse a pour objectif de proposer des solutions nouvelles et générales utilisant la modélisation et la vision. La thèse présente dans un premier temps un modèle cinématique à temps discret pour les robots souples reposant sur la méthode des éléments finis (FEM) en temps réel. Ensuite, une méthode de calibration basée sur la vision du système de capteur-robot et des actionneurs est étudiée. Deux contrôleurs de position en boucle fermée sont conçus. En outre, pour traiter le problème de la perte d'image, une stratégie de commande commutable est proposée en combinant à la fois le contrôleur à boucle ouverte et le contrôleur à boucle fermée. Deux méthodes (avec et sans marqueur(s)) de détection de force externe pour les robots déformables sont proposées. L'approche est basée sur la fusion de mesures basées sur la vision et le modèle par FEM. En utilisant les deux méthodes, il est possible d'estimer non seulement les intensités, mais également l'emplacement des forces externes. Enfin, nous proposons une application concrète : un robot cathéter dont la flexion à l'extrémité est piloté par des câbles. Le robot est contrôlé par une stratégie de contrôle découplée qui permet de contrôler l’insertion et la flexion indépendamment, tout en se basant sur un modèle FEM. / The modeling of soft robots which have, theoretically, infinite degrees of freedom, are extremely difficult especially when the robots have complex configurations. This difficulty of modeling leads to new challenges for the calibration and the control design of the robots, but also new opportunities with possible new force sensing strategies. This dissertation aims to provide new and general solutions using modeling and vision. The thesis at first presents a discrete-time kinematic model for soft robots based on the real-time Finite Element (FE) method. Then, a vision-based simultaneous calibration of sensor-robot system and actuators is investigated. Two closed-loop position controllers are designed. Besides, to deal with the problem of image feature loss, a switched control strategy is proposed by combining both the open-loop controller and the closed-loop controller. Using soft robot itself as a force sensor is available due to the deformable feature of soft structures. Two methods (marker-based and marker-free) of external force sensing for soft robots are proposed based on the fusion of vision-based measurements and FE model. Using both methods, not only the intensities but also the locations of the external forces can be estimated.As a specific application, a cable-driven continuum catheter robot through contacts is modeled based on FE method. Then, the robot is controlled by a decoupled control strategy which allows to control insertion and bending independently. Both the control inputs and the contact forces along the entire catheter can be computed by solving a quadratic programming (QP) problem with a linear complementarity constraint (QPCC).

A unified approach to the design and development of distributed control software is presented. This method is the result of a 'tight' integration between a formal method for concurrent systems (CSP) and a structured method for distributed control system (DARTS). The work presented in this thesis does not seek to extend the semantic model of CSP nor to design a specific control algorithm, rather, efforts are made to apply the existing specification and verification techniques to enhance the formality of the well established and case-proven structured counterparts that benefits are captured from both methods. As a methodology is the central aim, the suggested approach is a first step towards a complete unified software development environment, which engineers can follow from organising design ideas to system implementation with proven correctness. The thesis develops a set of parameterised CSP predicates for expressing concurrency and communication together with a corresponding set of generic processes to reflect these specified behaviours. These generic processes are formal building blocks for generating system implementations at different levels of abstraction. Utilisation of DARTS criteria and the parameterised CSP objects frame the refinement strategies. Also, mappings of generic processes to pictorial representations are suggested which enable easy assimilation of the evolving designs. Applicability of the approach is demonstrated through a high level software design of a highperformance robot control system where its suitability is shown via requirement specifications, properties verification and implementation of salient behaviours using generic building blocks. Although verification often means rigorous mathematical reasoning, the thesis presents a proof assistant the Causality Diagram Evaluation Tool to automate the manipulation of CSP processes according to the defined algebraic laws. It is shown to be of value in reasoning with designs and implementations of the robot system. It is found that the analysis facility and the graphical interpretation of communication provided by the tool allow effective analysis and manipulation of early designs. The results derived from specifying essential design details, from transforming highly abstracted implementation models, and from investigation of system behaviours through formal reasoning and simulation conclude that formal methods, in particular CSP, has a niche value in enhancing software reliability at the sub-system level as well as providing a better underpinning to the structured method DARTS. The end product is a method to generate a correct and unambiguous document of the system concerned that is amenable to a direct implementation.