Elliptical trainers are prescribed in rehabilitative exercise but difficult to implement in populations with significant functional gait deficits. Typical elliptical machines do not mimic normal gait and therefore require modifications for clinical rehabilitation. This research builds on previous modifications of an elliptical trainer designed to simulate level-surface walking. This design differed from a commercial version. It included articulated footplates and an electromechanically-driven virtual-cam to control footplate position. Ankle dorsiflexion elicited lower-extremity muscle spasticity which produced an unwanted gait variant during stroke patient testing. Spasticity is a hyperexcitable stretch reflex causing inefficient gait. This project’s purpose was to develop an autonomous cam-profile adjustment to optimize the device’s rehabilitation potential. Foot-to-footplate forces were measured in stroke patients and compared to normative data. Greater than normal forces were considered spastic. An embedded controller was designed to reduce footplate forces via real-time cam-profile attenuation. A simulated spastic dorsiflexion load successfully proved the algorithm’s efficacy.

This master’s thesis concerns development of embedded control systems.Development process for embedded control systems involves several steps, such as control design, rapid prototyping, fixedpoint implementation and hardware-in-the-loop-simulations. Another step, which Volvo is not currently (September 2009) using within climate control is on-line tuning. One reason for not using this technique today is that the available tools for this task (ATI Vision, INCA from ETAS or CalDesk from dSPACE) do not handle parameter dependencies in a atisfactory way. With these constraints of today, it is not possible to use online tuning and controller development process is more laborious and time consuming.The main task of this thesis is to solve the problem with parameter dependencies and to make online tuning possible.

Today, many embedded or cyber-physical systems, e.g., in the automotive domain, comprise several control applications, sharing the same platform. It is well known that such resource sharing leads to complex temporal behaviors that degrades the quality of control, and more importantly, may even jeopardize stability in the worst case, if not properly taken into account. In this thesis, we consider embedded control or cyber-physical systems, where several control applications share the same processing unit. The focus is on the control-scheduling co-design problem, where the controller and scheduling parameters are jointly optimized. The fundamental difference between control applications and traditional embedded applications motivates the need for novel methodologies for the design and optimization of embedded control systems. This thesis is one more step towards correct design and optimization of embedded control systems. Offline and online methodologies for embedded control systems are covered in this thesis. The importance of considering both the expected control performance and stability is discussed and a control-scheduling co-design methodology is proposed to optimize control performance while guaranteeing stability. Orthogonal to this, bandwidth-efficient stabilizing control servers are proposed, which support compositionality, isolation, and resource-efficiency in design and co-design. Finally, we extend the scope of the proposed approach to non-periodic control schemes and address the challenges in sharing the platform with self-triggered controllers. In addition to offline methodologies, a novel online scheduling policy to stabilize control applications is proposed.

This thesis addresses several synthesis and optimization issues for embedded control systems. Examples of such systems are automotive and avionics systems in which physical processes are controlled by embedded computers through sensor and actuator interfaces. The execution of multiple control applications, spanning several computation and communication components, leads to a complex temporal behavior that affects control quality. The relationship between system timing and control quality is a key issue to consider across the control design and computer implementation phases in an integrated manner. We present such an integrated framework for scheduling, controller synthesis, and quality optimization for distributed embedded control systems. At runtime, an embedded control system may need to adapt to environmental changes that affect its workload and computational capacity. Examples of such changes, which inherently increase the design complexity, are mode changes, component failures, and resource usages of the running control applications. For these three cases, we present trade-offs among control quality, resource usage, and the time complexity of design and runtime algorithms for embedded control systems. The solutions proposed in this thesis have been validated by extensive experiments. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and importance of the presented techniques.

Orientador: Joao Mauricio Rosario / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T02:27:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Melo_LeonimerFlaviode_D.pdf: 6867936 bytes, checksum: 344026f77cc24610774519b704ddccfa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta a proposta de implementação de um ambiente virtual de simulação para projeto e concepção de sistema de supervisão e controle para robôs móveis, que sejam capazes de operar e de se adaptar a diferentes ambientes e condições. Este sistema virtual tem como finalidade facilitar o desenvolvimento de protótipos de sistemas embarcados, enfatizando a implementação de ferramentas que permitam a simulação das condições cinemáticas, dinâmicas e de controle, com monitoração em tempo real de todos pontos lmportantes do sistema. Para isso, é proposta uma arquitetura aberta de controle, integrando as duas principais técnicas de implementação de controle robótico a nível de hardware: sistemas microprocessadores e dispositivos de hardware reconfiguráveis. O sistema simulador implementado é composto de um módulo gerador de trajetória, de um módulo simulador cinemático e dinâmico e de um módulo de análise de resultados e erros. O módulo gerador de trajetória tem a finalidade de, uma vez conhecendo-se o ambiente em que o robô irá atuar, com seus obstáculos e particularidades, gerar uma trajetória cartesiána ótima, respeitando os limites e características do robô móvel. Todos os resultados cinemáticos e dinâmicos colhidos durante a simulação podem ser avaliados e visualizados em formatos de gráficos e tabelas, no módulo de análise de resultados, permitindo que seja feito um aperfeiçoamento no sistema, no sentido de minimizar os erros com a otimização dos ajustes necessários. Para a implementação do controlador no sistema embarcado utiliza-se a prototipagem rápida, que é a tecnologia que permite, em conjunto com o ambiente virtual de simulação, o desenvolvimento de um projeto de um controlador para robôs móveis. A validação e testes foram realizados com modelos de robôs móveis não holonômicos de transmissão diferencial / Abstract: This work presents the proposal of virtual environment implementation for project simulation and conception of supervision aild control systems for mobile robots, that are capable to operate and adapting in different environments and conditions. This virtual system has as purpose to facilitate the development of embedded architecture systems, emphasizing the implementation of tools that alIow the simulation of the kinematic conditions, dynamic and control, with real time monitoring of alI important system points. For this, an open control architecture is proposal, integrating the two main techniques of robotic control implementation in the hardware level: systems microprocessors and reconfigurable hardware devices. The implemented simulator system is composed of a trajectory generating module, a kinematic and dynamic simulator module and of a analysis module of results and errors. The kinematic and dynamic simulator module makes alI simulation of the mobile robot folIowing the pre-determined trajectory of the trajectory generator. All the kinematic and dynamic results shown during the simulation can be evaluated and visualized in graphs and tables formats, in the results analysis module, allowing an improvement in the system, minimizing the errors with the necessary adjustments optimization. For controlIer implementation in the embedded system, it uses the rapid prototyping, that is the technology that allows, in set with the virtual simulation environment, the development of a controlIer project for mobile robots. The validation and tests had been accomplish with nonholonomics mobile robots models with diferencial transmission / Doutorado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica

Sistemas de levitação magnética são inerentemente não-lineares e, quando con- trolados digitalmente, normalmente, esbarram em limitações do hardware empregado. O objetivo desta tese é apresentar aspectos teóricos e práticos durante a aplicação da teoria de controle H1 não-linear em sistemas de levitação magnética. A primeira con- tribuição desta tese é apresentar um procedimento de projeto de um controlador H1 não-linear que utiliza funções de ponderação com dinâmica, obtidas a partir do projeto de um controlador H1 linear. Assim como no caso linear, essas funções de ponderação possibilitam a rejeição de perturbações, ruídos de sensor, aumento da robustez, den- tre outras especificações. A segunda contribuição é apresentar um procedimento de conversão de uma rotina implementada em ponto-flutuante para ponto-fixo, utilizando minimização de norma l1, que foi implementada em um DSP de 32 bits em ponto- fixo. Resultados experimentais também são apresentados, nos quais a performance do controlador não-linear é especificamente avaliada na fase inicial de levitação. / Electromagnetic suspension systems are inherently nonlinear and often face hard- ware limitation when digitally controlled. The goal of this thesis is to present theoretical and practical aspects during the nonlinear H1 control applied on an electromagnetic suspension system. The first contribution is the design of a nonlinear H1 controller, including dynamic weighting functions, obtained from a linear H1 controller. Just as in the linear case, this dynamic weighting functions provide the disturbance and noise sensor rejection, robustness improvement, among other specifications. The second con- tribution is to present a procedure able to translate a floating-point algorithm into a fixed-point algorithm by using l1 norm minimization due to conversion error, which was then implemented into a 32-bit fixed-point DSP. Experimental results are also pre-sented, in which the performance of the nonlinear controller is evaluated specifically in the initial suspension phase.

Sistemas de levitação magnética são inerentemente não-lineares e, quando con- trolados digitalmente, normalmente, esbarram em limitações do hardware empregado. O objetivo desta tese é apresentar aspectos teóricos e práticos durante a aplicação da teoria de controle H1 não-linear em sistemas de levitação magnética. A primeira con- tribuição desta tese é apresentar um procedimento de projeto de um controlador H1 não-linear que utiliza funções de ponderação com dinâmica, obtidas a partir do projeto de um controlador H1 linear. Assim como no caso linear, essas funções de ponderação possibilitam a rejeição de perturbações, ruídos de sensor, aumento da robustez, den- tre outras especificações. A segunda contribuição é apresentar um procedimento de conversão de uma rotina implementada em ponto-flutuante para ponto-fixo, utilizando minimização de norma l1, que foi implementada em um DSP de 32 bits em ponto- fixo. Resultados experimentais também são apresentados, nos quais a performance do controlador não-linear é especificamente avaliada na fase inicial de levitação. / Electromagnetic suspension systems are inherently nonlinear and often face hard- ware limitation when digitally controlled. The goal of this thesis is to present theoretical and practical aspects during the nonlinear H1 control applied on an electromagnetic suspension system. The first contribution is the design of a nonlinear H1 controller, including dynamic weighting functions, obtained from a linear H1 controller. Just as in the linear case, this dynamic weighting functions provide the disturbance and noise sensor rejection, robustness improvement, among other specifications. The second con- tribution is to present a procedure able to translate a floating-point algorithm into a fixed-point algorithm by using l1 norm minimization due to conversion error, which was then implemented into a 32-bit fixed-point DSP. Experimental results are also pre-sented, in which the performance of the nonlinear controller is evaluated specifically in the initial suspension phase.

Les Systèmes de Contrôle Embarqués Distribués (SCED) utilisent les réseaux de communication dans les boucles de rétroaction. Étant donné que les systèmes SCED ont une puissance de batterie, une bande passante de communication et une puissance de calcul limitée, les débits des données ou des informations transmises sont bornées et ils peuvent affecter leur stabilité. Ceci nous amène à élargir le spectre de notre étude et y intégrer une étude sur la relation entre la théorie du contrôle d’un coté et celle de l’information de l’autre. La contrainte de débit de données induit la quantification des signaux tandis que les aspects de calcul temps réel et de communication induit des événements asynchrones qui ne sont plus réguliers ou périodiques. Ces deux phénomènes donnent au SCED une double nature, continue et discrète, et en font des cas d’étude spécifiques. Dans cette thèse, nous analysons la stabilité et la performance de SCED du point de vue de la théorie de l’information et du contrôle. Pour les systèmes linéaires, nous montrons l’importance du compromis entre la quantité d’information communiquée et les objectifs de contrôle, telles que la stabilité, la contrôlabilité/observabilité et les performances. Une approche de conception conjointe de contrôle et de communication (en termes de débit d’information au sens de Shannon) des SCED est étudiée. Les principaux résultats de ces travaux sont les suivants : nous avons prouvé que la réduction d’entropie (ce qui correspond à la réduction d’incertitude) dépend du Grammien de contrôlabilité. Cette réduction est également liée à l’information mutuelle de Shannon. Nous avons démontré que le Grammien de contrôlabilité constitue une métrique de l’entropie théorique de l’information en ce qui concerne les bruits induits par la quantification. La réduction de l’influence de ces bruits est équivalente à la réduction de la norme du Grammien de contrôlabilité. Nous avons établi une nouvelle relation entre la matrice d’information de Fisher (FIM) et le Grammien de Contrôlabilité (CG) basé sur la théorie de l’estimation et la théorie de l’information. Nous proposons un algorithme qui distribue de manière optimale les capacités de communication du réseau entre un nombre "n" d’actionneurs et/ou systèmes concurrents se basant sur la réduction de la norme du Grammien de Contrôlabilité / The Networked Embedded Control System (NECS) uses communication networks in the feedback loops. Since the embedded systems have the limited battery power along with limited bandwidth and computing power, the feedback data rates are limited. The rate of communications can drastically affect system stability. Hence, there is a strong need for understanding and merging the Control Theory with Communication or Information Theory. The data rate constraint introduces quantization into the feedback loop whereas the communication or computational model induces discrete events which are no more periodic. These two phenomena give the NECS a twofold nature : continuous and discrete, and render them specific. In this thesis we analyze the stability and performance of NECS from Informationtheoretic point of view. For linear systems, we show how fundamental are the tradeoffs between the communication-rate and control goals, such as stability, controllability / observability and performances. An integrated approach of control and communication (in terms of Shannon Information Rate) of NECS or distributed embedded control systems is studied. The main results are as follows : We showed that the entropy reduction which is same as uncertainty reduction is dependent on Controllability Gramian only. It is also related to Shannon Mutual-Information. We demonstrated that the gramian of controllability constitutes a metric of information theoretic entropy with respect to the noises induced by quantization. Reduction of these noises is equivalent to the design methods proposing a reduction of the controllability gramian norm. We established a new relation of Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) and Controllability Gramian (CG) based on estimation-theoretic and information-theoretic explanations. We propose an algorithm which optimally distributes the network capacity between a number "n" of competing actuators. The metric of this distribution is the Controllability Gramian