L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de concevoir un système impliquant un feedback tactile facilitant l’organisation du tour de parole dans le contexte de la communication verbale à distance et à plusieurs. Ces situations impliquant des technologies numériques sont actuellement décrites comme étant des "conferences call". Elles relèvent également du Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) lorsqu'elles impliquent une tâche collaborative. Curieusement, ces situations n'ont été l'objet que de très peu d'études en dépit des problèmes qu'elles suscitent et l'évolution de ces technologies s'est faite au profit d'un enrichissement par la vidéo. Cette thèse propose une autre forme d'enrichissement par un retour tactile permettant de dépasser l'une des principales difficultés de la communication verbale à distance à savoir le contrôle du tour de parole. Deux modalités de cet enrichissement ont été étudiés : la redondance et la substitution. Comme redondance avec le feedback visuel, nous avons fait l'hypothèse que la modalité tactile favorise l'alternance du tour de parole et augmente l'expression d'intentions non verbales à l'image des situations de face à face. Comme substitution au visuel, l'hypothèse a été de poser que le tactile produit un avantage en cela qu'il fluidifie le tour de parole. Le système conçu dans cette recherche montre, au moyen de trois expériences, que l'échange verbal à distance et sa distribution dans le cadre d'une tâche de prise de décision collective peut être efficient avec un enrichissement tactile et donner lieu à une auto-régulation du tour de parole. / Our thesis aim was to design a system based on tactile modality to organize a synchronous, multi-user remote verbal communication to facilitate better turn-taking. The remote communication we studied is actually called the ‘conference call’, and relies on computer technology. A conference call is a form of CSCW, and it is thus a collaborative task. As conference calls have rarely been studied in previous research, a system designed to optimize this kind of work is of great value. Tactile modality is the basic element of the design and its impact is also studied in our thesis. As a modality of redundancy, tactile feedback accelerates the alternation of turn-taking. Moreover, it augments the intention of non-verbal exchanges, which accounts for most of the communication in face-to-face situations. As a modality of substitution, tactile modality shows a distinct advantage in making the turn-taking transfer smoother compared to visual modality. Finally, a conference call for a decision-making task under a simple turn-taking allocation system based on tactile modality provides evidence that this designed system’s controlled conference call has good efficiency and good distribution of the talking length of turn-taking.

Carefree handling refers to the ability of a pilot to operate an aircraft without the need to continuously monitor aircraft operating limits. At the heart of all carefree handling or maneuvering systems, also referred to as envelope protection systems, are algorithms and methods for predicting future limit violations. Recently, envelope protection methods that have gained more acceptance, translate limit proximity information to its equivalent in the control channel. Envelope protection algorithms either use very small prediction horizon or are static methods with no capability to adapt to changes in system configurations. Adaptive approaches maximizing prediction horizon such as dynamic trim, are only applicable to steady-state-response critical limit parameters. In this thesis, a new adaptive envelope protection method is developed that is applicable to steady-state and transient response critical limit parameters. The approach is based upon devising the most aggressive optimal control profile to the limit boundary and using it to compute control limits. Pilot-in-the-loop evaluations of the proposed approach are conducted at the Georgia Tech Carefree Maneuver lab for transient longitudinal hub moment limit protection. Carefree maneuvering is the dual of carefree handling in the realm of autonomous Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Designing a flight control system to fully and effectively utilize the operational flight envelope is very difficult. With the increasing role and demands for extreme maneuverability there is a need for developing envelope protection methods for autonomous UAVs. In this thesis, a full-authority automatic envelope protection method is proposed for limit protection in UAVs. The approach uses adaptive estimate of limit parameter dynamics and finite-time horizon predictions to detect impending limit boundary violations. Limit violations are prevented by treating the limit boundary as an obstacle and by correcting nominal control/command inputs to track a limit parameter safe-response profile near the limit boundary. The method is evaluated using software-in-the-loop and flight evaluations on the Georgia Tech unmanned rotorcraft platform- GTMax. The thesis also develops and evaluates an extension for calculating control margins based on restricting limit parameter response aggressiveness near the limit boundary.