La problématique traitée dans cette thèse concerne la commande de robots manipulateurs à articulations flexibles. Les méthodes développées visent à satisfaire les spécifications de performance et de robustesse en suivi de trajectoire, ainsi qu'à assurer un niveau de sécurité compatible avec un scénario de fonctionnement interactif dans lequel l'homme et le robot partagent un même espace de travail. Seules les mesures moteur sont utilisées dans un contexte d'instrumentation réduite. Le premier objectif de performance de la commande de mouvement est atteint grâce à l'identification expérimentale d'un modèle flexible représentatif du système, et l'usage de ce modèle pour la synthèse de lois de commande avancées intégrées au sein d'une structure cascade. Deux approches complémentaires fondées d'une part sur la commande prédictive de type GPC (Generalized Predictive Control), et d'autre part sur la commande Hinfini, sont considérées pour la synthèse de lois de commande à deux degrés de liberté, prédictives et robustes. Les performances de ces deux approches sont analysées et évaluées expérimentalement. Le deuxième objectif de sécurité est abordé à travers un algorithme de détection de collisions du robot avec son environnement, sans capteur d'effort et en présence d'incertitudes de modélisation. Afin de séparer efficacement les effets dynamiques des collisions de ceux des erreurs de modélisation, une stratégie adaptative de filtrage et de décision tenant compte de l'état du système est proposée. La validation expérimentale montre une très bonne sensibilité de détection, compatible avec les normes et les recommandations de sécurité relatives à la robotique collaborative.

In the last decade, 802.11 wireless devices data-rates have increased by three orders of magnitude, while communications experiencing low throughput are still largely present. Such throughput loss is a fundamental problem of wireless networking that is difficult to diagnose and amend. My research addresses two key causes of throughput loss: MAC layer protocol overhead and destructive link interference. First, I design WiFi-Nano reducing the channel access overhead by an order of magnitude leveraging an innovative speculative technique to transmit preambles. This new concept is based on simultaneous preamble transmission and detection via a self-interference cancellation design, and paves the way to the realization of the collision detection paradigm in wireless networks. Next, I propose 802.11ec (Encoded Control), the first 802.11-based protocol that eliminates the overhead of control packets. Instead, 802.11ec coordinates node transmissions via a set of predefined pseudo-noise codewords, resulting in the dramatic increase of throughput and communication robustness. Finally, I design MIDAS, a model-driven network management tool that alleviates low throughput wireless links identifying key corrective actions. MIDAS' key contribution is to reveal the fundamental role of node transmission coordination in characterizing destructive interference. I implement WiFi-Nano, 802.11ec, and MIDAS using a combination of WARP FPGA-based radio boards, custom emulation platforms, and network simulators. The results obtained show that WiFi-Nano increases the network throughput by up to 100%, 802.11ec improves network access fairness by up to 90%, and MIDAS identifies corrective actions with a prediction error as low as 20%.

This thesis investigates the crucial problem of collision avoidance for autonomous vehicles.  An anti-collision system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is studied in particular. The purpose of this system is to make sure that the own vehicle avoids collision with other aircraft in mid-air. The sensor used to track any possible threat is for a UAV limited basically to a digital video camera. This sensor can only measure the direction to an intruding vehicle, not the range, and is therefore denoted an angle-only sensor. To estimate the position and velocity of the intruder a tracking system, based on an extended Kalman filter, is used. State estimates supplied by this system are very uncertain due to the difficulties of angle-only tracking. Probabilistic methods are therefore required for risk calculation. The risk assessment module is one of the essential parts of the collision avoidance system and has the purpose of continuously evaluating the risk for collision. To do this in a probabilistic way, it is necessary to assume a probability distribution for the tracking system output. A common approach is to assume normality, more out of habit than on actual grounds. This thesis investigates the normality assumption, and it is found that the tracking output rapidly converge towards a good normal distribution approximation. The thesis furthermore investigates the actual risk assessment module to find out how the collision risk should be determined. The traditional way to do this is to focus on a critical time point (time of closest point of approach, time of maximum collision risk etc.). A recently proposed alternative is to evaluate the risk over a horizon of time. The difference between these two concepts is evaluated. An approximate computational method for integrated risk, suitable for real-time implementations, is also validated. It is shown that the risk seen over a horizon of time is much more robust to estimation accuracy than the risk from a critical time point. The integrated risk also gives a more intuitively correct result, which makes it possible to implement the risk assessment module with a direct connection to specified aviation safety rules.

Syftet med denna studie är att granska hur man som nautiker skall framföra sitt fartyg med hänsyn tagen till säkerheten och sjövägsreglerna i en korsande situation där ett väjningsskyldigt fartyg inte väjer. Vi genomförde en fallstudie bestående av en simulatorövning för ovetande styrmän och semistrukturerade intervjuer med nautiker från Stena Line, Scandlines och Wallenius. Genom att testa intervjurespondenternas lösningar i fartygssimulatorn på Sjöbefälsskolan i Kalmar kom vi fram till för- och nackdelar med olika sätt att agera. Vi har fått en ökad förståelse för hur sjövägsreglerna bör tillämpas i korsande situationer som vi vill att läsaren ska kunna tillgodogöra sig genom att läsa vårt arbete. Styrmännen som intervjuades berättade att de upplever att det är vanligt med fartyg som inte följer sjövägsreglerna. / The purpose of this study is to examine how a Navigating Officer should pilot his vessel safely while taking the Collision Regulations (COLREGs) into account whilst in a crossing situation in which a give-way vessel does not give way. We have examined how these situations can be solved by obtaining qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with Navigating Officers from Stena Line, Scandlines and Wallenius. All the officers whom we have interviewed told us that, in their experience, it is common to meet a ship that does not follow the COLREGs. By putting our respondents’ solutions to the test in the ship simulator at Kalmar Maritime Academy we were able to conclude the pros and cons of different approaches to the problem arising in a crossing situation when a give-way vessel coming from port does not give way. Through this process we (the writers) have gained a better understanding as to how the COLREGS should be applied in crossing situations and we hope that all readers can assimilate this knowledge by reading our thesis.

This thesis project was carried out at Volvo Car Corporation. It is based on an EU project called Locust in which a bio-inspired visual sensor system (the Locust sensor system) for automotive collision avoidance was developed. The Locust sensor system is designed to emulate the collision avoidance functionality of the Locust grasshopper, which is well-known for its extraordinary vision based collision avoidance ability, in particular with regard to its fast reaction times to perceived threats. Volvo Car Corporation is interested in the possibility of using the bio-inspired technology developed in the Locust project to improve its already existing collision avoidance systems. Pedestrian collision avoidance is of high interest, for which the properties of the Locust grasshopper are desirable. The purpose of this thesis project is to develop two demonstrator vehicles to test the performance of the Locust sensor system, carry out the testing, and evaluate its usability for Volvo Car Corporation. The first vehicle is a scale 1:5 model car that was originally developed in a thesis project at KTH, and the second a full scale Volvo XC90. It was found in the testing that the Locust sensor system is promising for pedestrian collision avoidance applications. The results for detecting other vehicles were also acceptable, but Volvo Car Corporation already has other collision avoidance systems with better performance in this regard. In general the test results were very good for speeds up to about 40 km/h. This indicates that the Locust sensor system would be most usable in a city driving environment, parking lot situations, and for driving in residential areas.

In passive RFID systems, how to reduce the collision among tags is an important issue at the medium access control layer. The Framed Slotted ALOHA and its variations are well-known anti-collision algorithms for RFID systems. However, when the Framed Slotted ALOHA is used, the system efficiency and the average time delay deteriorate rapidly when the total number of tags increases. On the other hand, the total number of slots in a frame can¡¦t be infinity. In this thesis, we first compare existing anti-collision protocols and then propose a novel algorithm based on the Enhanced Dynamic Framed Slotted ALOHA (EDFSA) and the Progressing Scanning (PS) algorithm. The proposed algorithm is called Dynamic Grouping (DG). The DG algorithm partitions the RFID tags according to the distances from tags to the reader in order to avoid using too many slots in a frame. Inparticular, the DG algorithm estimates the spatial distribution of tags based on previous scanning results and then adjusts the partition accordingly. Unlike PS algorithm, the DG algorithm is applicable when the RFID tags are uniformly distributed or normally distributed.

A numerical analysis scheme has been developed to extract dynamic information from experimental images by the three-dimensional sliced fluorescence imaging method. The present scheme is based on a generalized framework in analyzing fluorescence images from the photo-initiated dynamic process. Specifically, image quality optimization, noise reduction and numerical fitting codes have been implemented in the present scheme to determine differential cross sections of the state-to-state inelastic collisions between CN(A 2£S) and He. These codes are indispensable in extracting state-to-state dynamic information from experimental images in any photo-initiated collision experiment, no matter it is executed in the beam or bulb environment.

IM-MS is a 2-D technique which provides separations based on ion shape (ion-neutral collision cross-section, Ω) and mass (m/z ratio). Ion structures can be deduced from the measured collision cross-section (Ωmeas) by calculating the collision cross-sections (Ωcalc) of candidates generated by molecular dynamics (MD) and compared with the experiment results. A database of Ωs for singly-charged peptide ions is presented. Standard proteins are digested using different enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin and pepsin), resulting in peptides that differ in amino acid composition. The majority (63%) of the peptide ion correlates well with the globular structures, but some exhibit Ωs that are significantly larger or smaller than the average correlation. Of the peptide ions having larger Ωs, approximately 71% are derived from trypsin digestion and most of the peptide ions that have smaller Ωs are derived from pepsin digestion (90%). We use computational simulations and clustering methods to assign backbone conformations for singly-protonated ions of the model peptide (NH2-Met-Ile-Phe-Ala-Gly-Ile-Lys-COOH) formed by both MALDI and ESI and compare the structures of MIFAGIK derivatives to test the ‘sensitivity’ of the cluster analysis method. Cluster analysis suggests that [MIFAGIK + H]+ ions formed by MALDI have a predominantly turn structure even though the low energy ions prefer partial helical conformers. Although the ions formed by ESI have Ωs that are different from those formed by MALDI, the results of cluster analysis indicate that the ions backbone structures are similar. Chemical modifications (N-acetyl, methylester, as well as addition of Boc or Fmoc groups) of MIFAGIK alter the distribution of various conformers, the most dramatic changes are observed for the [M + Na]+ ion, which show a strong preference for random coil conformers owing to the strong solvation by the backbone amide groups. Ωmeas of oligodeoxynucleotides in different length have been measured in both positive and negative modes. For a given molecular weight and charge state, Ωmeas of the oligodeoxynucleotide ions are smaller than those of the peptides, indicating their different packing efficiency. A novel generalized non-Boltzman sampling MD has been utilized to investigate the gas-phase ion conformations of dGGATC based on the free energy values. Theory predicts only one low-energy conformer for the zwitterionic form of dGGATC- while dGGATC+ ions have several stable conformers in both canonical and zwitterionic form in the gas phase, in good agreement with the experiment.

Recent years have witnessed several real threats to the most widely used hash functions which are generally inspired from MD4, such as MD5, RIPEMD, SHA0 and SHA1. These extraordinary developments in cryptanalysis of hash functions brought the attention of the cryptology researchers to the alternative designs. Tiger is an important type of alternative hash functions and is proved to be secure so far as there is no known collision attack on the full (24 rounds) Tiger. It is designed by Biham and Anderson in 1995 to be very fast on modern computers. In two years some weaknesses have been found for Tiger-hash function. First, in FSE 006 Kelsey and Lucks found a collision for 16-17 rounds of Tiger and a pseudo-near-collision for 20 rounds. Then, Mendel et al extended this attack to find 19-round collision and 22-round pseudo-near-collision. Finally in 2007, Mendel and Rijmen found a pseudo-near-collision for the full Tiger. In this work, we modify the attack of Kelsey and Lucks slightly and present the exact values of the differences used in the attack. Moreover, there have been several cryptanalysis papers investigating the randomness properties of the designed hash functions under the encryption modes. In these papers, related-key boomerang and related-key rectangle attacks are performed on MD4,MD5, HAVAL and SHA. In this thesis, we introduce our 17,19 and 21-round related-key boomerang and rectangle distinguishers to the encryption mode of Tiger.

Les travaux présentés portent sur la formation d'étoiles dans l'environnement inhabituel des débris de collision, étudiée pour la première fois en tant que telle. Ces régions particulières ont un milieu interstellaire, en particulier une métallicité, similaire à celui des régions de formation d'étoiles dans les disques galactiques tout en ne subissant pas certains effets d'environnement comme les ondes densité des bras spiraux par exemple.<br /><br />Cette étude a été menée sur une sélection de systèmes exceptionnels ayant en commun d'avoir éjecté de grandes quantités de gaz dans le milieu intergalactique et présentant des régions intergalactiques de formation d'étoiles. Des observations multi-longueurs d'onde, tant PI que provenant d'archives, en spectroscopie et en imagerie allant de l'ultraviolet lointain à l'infrarouge moyen ont été utilisées. En outre un modèle a été construit permettant de reproduire les distributions spectrales d'énergie des régions intergalactiques de formation d'étoiles afin de contraindre leur histoire de formation d'étoiles, leur extinction et leur fraction d'étoiles provenant du disque des galaxies parents. Des comparaisons ont aussi été menées sur les estimations des taux de formation d'étoiles en infrarouge, Halpha ainsi qu'en ultraviolet.<br /><br />Cette thèse a permis d'apporter les résultats nouveaux principaux suivants :<br />- certaines régions semblent dépourvues de toute population d'étoiles âgées, ce sont des laboratoires idéaux pour l'étude de la formation d'étoiles ;<br />- l'estimateur du taux de formation d'étoiles à partir de l'infrarouge moyen est aussi fiable qu'il l'est pour les galaxies spirales ;<br />- la dispersion des estimations de taux de formation d'étoiles dans différentes bandes est similaire à celle observée dans les galaxies spirales et elle est principalement due à des effets d'âge ;<br />- la combinaison de la raie Halpha non corrigée de l'extinction et de l'émission en infrarouge moyen produit une bonne estimation du taux de formation d'étoiles réel ;<br />- une fraction importante de la formation d'étoiles, pouvant atteindre 85%, se produit dans le milieu intergalactique montrant que pour un univers jeune où ce type de système est beaucoup plus répandu que dans l'univers proche, la formation d'étoiles dans les débris de collision pourrait être un facteur important d'enrichissement du milieu intergalactique.