Ce travail de thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une Convention Industrielle de Formation par la REcherche (CIFRE) ayant pour objectif la mise en place de solutions innovantes pour le diagnostic de défaillances. Il s’agit de répondre au besoin de la société Zodiac Actuation Systems afin de diagnostiquer les défaillances pouvant survenir sur leurs systèmes d’actionnement de sièges d’avion. Premièrement, le cadre ainsi que les motivations de l’étude sont exposés. Ensuite un état de l’art sur les méthodes de diagnostic de défaillances est donné. Puis la problématique de l’hybridation de ces méthodes est abordée. Ceci a permis d’adopter la méthode de classification supervisée pour le diagnostic. Ensuite, les campagnes de mesures, le processus de construction des bases de données ainsi que les différents algorithmes nécessaires pour la classification sont présentés. Une expérimentation sur la partie du dossier d’un siège d’avion est exposée et les résultats sont donnés. Afin d’améliorer les résultats obtenus, une approche de classification renforcée par des observateurs d’état est proposée et appliquée sur le dossier du siège. Ce renforcement est réalisé à l’aide des données estimées par les observateurs tout en construisant des bases de données augmentées. Trois types d’observateurs, linéaire, Takagi-Sugeno (TS) et TS à entrées inconnues (TSEI) sont employés. L’observateur TSEI apparait comme le mieux adapté à notre application. Finalement, une extension de l'approche proposée sur l’ensemble du siège d’avion est proposée. Celle-ci consiste en la mise en œuvre d’observateurs décentralisés TSEI pour chaque sous-ensemble du siège en tenant compte de leurs interconnexions. Ces derniers ont permis d’améliorer les résultats de détection de défaillances sur l’ensemble du siège d’avion. / This study was supported by Zodiac Actuation Systems within the framework of a ``CIFRE'' project which aims to design a Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) approach for actuation systems of passengers seats in commercial aircrafts. First of all, the industrial context as well as the motivations of our project have been explained. Then, a state of the art on FDD methods is presented. Among them, hybridization of FDD methods can be found and seems interesting to our application. In a first step, the supervised classification method for the FDD has been considered. To do this, the process measurements and the concept of databases construction are presented. Then, different types of classification algorithms are explained. From experimental measurements, the classification results for FDD purpose on the recline of the seat are given. In a second step, an enhanced classification approach is proposed. It consists in estimating non-measurable variables by the state observers. These variables are then added, as estimated attributes, to the measured database. The aim is to enrich the knowledge used by the classifier and thus to improve the rate of FDD. Three types of state observers are considered: linear, then Takagi-Sugeno (TS) and Unknown Input Takagi-Sugeno (UITS) observers. It appears that the UITS observer-based results are more accurate for our application. Finally, the proposed FDD approach is extended to the hole of the seat by considering a decentralized approach. In this context, decentralized UITS are proposed for each segment of the seat by taking into account their interconnexions. It is shown that these decentralized observers improve the FDD results of the considered aircraft seat.

Nous étudions le rôle du progiciel de gestion intégré (l’ERP), comme outil de gestion des firmes multinationales, dans le suivi de la performance de la filiale par le siège. Nous avons opté pour un raisonnement hypothético-déductif exploitant les constats théoriques pour sortir des hypothèses que nous avons testées auprès de filiales installées au Maroc et dotées de solutions ERP. Nous avons observé les apports des ERP pour le suivi des types de performances des filiales dans le cadre d’une posture positiviste. Afin de mieux contextualiser et opérationnaliser les concepts de notre étude, nous nous sommes basés sur la complémentarité des approches qualitative/quantitative. Les résultats qualitatifs, générés de six entretiens semi-directifs auprès de responsables des filiales, nous ont permis de confirmer les items composant le questionnaire d’enquête, que nous avons soumis à 104 filiales, dans le cadre d’une étude quantitative. Bien que les filiales peuvent bénéficier d’une autonomie de gestion, les sièges appliquent leur pouvoir et imposent leur vision stratégique en intervenant dans l’exploitation de l’ERP. L’ERP agit sur la gestion de la relation siège-filiale en unifiant les données, en fluidifiant la coordination et la collaboration, en facilitant le contrôle du budget et le suivi des objectifs. Gain de temps, facilité d’utilisation, traçabilité, disponibilité et échange facile de données sont des qualités de l’ERP mises en avant. La qualité technique de l’ERP n’est pas totalement exploitée, vu l’adaptation difficile aux fonctionnalités de l’outil. Pour autant, afin de suivre la performance de leurs filiales, les sièges utilisent de manière assez importante les indicateurs financiers provenant de leur ERP pour le reporting concernant les fonctions vente, gestion des stocks et achat. En revanche, le suivi de la performance non financière est assez peu présent. / This study seeks to shed the light on the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as a management tool adopted by multinational corporations in their monitoring of the headquarters/ subsidiary performance. We have opted for a deductive approach, focusing on multinational corporations whose subsidiaries are based in Morocco and which are endowed with the ERP tool. To meet this end, we have carried out both a qualitative and a quantitative study. Qualitatively, the six semi directive interviews conducted with the subsidiaries management fit in harmoniously with the items that figure in our questionnaire, submitted to 104 subsidiaries in the framework of a quantitative study. We have found out that even if subsidiaries benefit from autonomy as far as management is concerned, the headquarters still impose the strategic vision and intervene at how ERP must be implemented. Indeed, ERP acts positively on the headquarters/subsidiary relationship by rendering data even, making coordination fluid and facilitating budget control and goals follow- up. Other merits that the ERP tool offers include: time saving, ease of use, tracking, availability and easy data exchange. Nevertheless, ERP has not been fully utilized due to the difficulty of matching its features. Basically, head offices make use of ERP in evaluating financial performance, namely reporting sales and inventory management. Otherwise, it remains less operational.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze legal framework of companies in private international law with focus on cross-border mobility of companies in the EU. The work consists of an introduction, five chapters and a conclusion. In the first chapter, the basic terminology used in the work and terms of private international law, collision standards, legal entities (persons) and companies are presented and defined. The second chapter is devoted to the personal statute of company and analyzes main theories of determining a personal statute - the incorporation theory and the real seat theory, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed and their comparison is mentioned at the end of the chapter. Incorporation theory enables cross-border transfer of company seats and defines law applicable to company forever, real seat theory has a protective function. Whereas incorporation theory uses the foundation of a company to determine applicable law, real seat theory uses the real seat of a company, the actual place where the company centers its activity. The third chapter discusses the subject from the point of view of the EU law. The freedom of establishment as legal basis for the movement of companies within EU is analyzed as well as basic articles of primary law regarding right of establishment....

Is the choice of the arbitral seat still an important decision in international arbitration? Should arbitral awards be subject to greater judicial scrutiny? Should the appeal be in international arbitration? Is it possible that an annulled arbitral award is recognized under the New York Convention? Should the New York Convention be amended to achieve CNY 2.0? Is investment arbitration a system that works? Are the criticisms of investment arbitration valid? In this interview, Gary Born responds to each of these questions by addressing many controversial current issues in international arbitration. / ¿Es la elección de la sede del arbitraje todavía una decisión importante en el arbitraje internacional? ¿Deberían los laudos estar sometidos a un mayor escrutinio judicial? ¿Debería existir la apelación en el arbitraje internacional? ¿Es posible que en virtud de la Convención de Nueva York se reconozca un laudo anulado? ¿Debería enmendarse la Convención de Nueva York para lograr una CNY 2.0? ¿Es el arbitraje de inversiones un sistema que funciona? ¿Son las críticas al arbitraje de inversiones válidas? En la presente entrevista, Gary Born responde cada una de estas interrogantes tratando muchos temas polémicos de actualidad en el arbitraje internacional.

In this master thesis is structural design modular roller conveyor which is part of the flexible assembly line automotive seats. The work includes design and functional solution for driven roller track. Present structural design of roller conveyors is summarized in the first part work.

The dynamics of our globalised world open the way for international trade and transactions between different countries; this may lead to conflicts in laws where transactions and trade may be subject to different legal systems. One of the biggest issues in international commercial law is disputes over the charging of interest, for example with regard to late payment, interest-based loans, or compensation for damages. Interest disputes are considered to be a complex area of law and even more complex in the international field. At the international level, interest claims may be connected to many areas of commerce and thus governed by various laws, which are different from one country to another; moreover, each country has its own interest rate and such rates are changeable according to the nature of law and economics under some jurisdictions. Furthermore, the concept of interest itself is affected by influences such as religious beliefs and economic, political and cultural trends. Interest can be treated as a substantive or a procedural matter. The settlement of these disputes therefore faces difficulties. Arbitration, as a method for settlement of disputes, is characterised by special features that assist in resolving these issues; but it faces some obstructions, especially in international commercial arbitration. The practices of arbitral tribunals and national courts in this regard are different. The results of different interpretations, approaches, and theories with regard to arbitration, at the pre-arbitration, during arbitration and post-arbitration stages, may also differ widely due to the diversity of financial and legal systems such as Common Law, Civil Law and the Islamic legal system – Sharia Law – across different countries. Each legal system has a different methodology and theories, even within an individual country under one legal system, and a state within a federal system has its own laws, which may have different interpretations in this respect. The New York Convention of 1958 on enforcing foreign arbitral awards was established in favour of arbitral awards and for the purpose of unifying international rules of arbitration. This Convention provides some procedural and substantive rules for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, but also provides some grounds for refusal. These rules have been affected by different interpretations under different jurisdictions and legal systems, which lead to different perspectives on the matter of charging interest and settlement by arbitration. The outcome of applying the NYC under these interpretations often has the opposite of its intended effect: the rejection of foreign arbitral awards. Due to such ambiguities, courts occasionally intervene in arbitration in all its stages. The interventions of national courts occur in three stages: enforcement of the arbitration agreement, enforcement of the contract under the applicable law to the agreement, and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award. The confusion between substantive and procedural laws also creates confusion with respect to public policy, non-arbitrability and enforceability. In addition, there may be a lack of clarity on the scope of arbitration with respect to the parties’ agreement, whether or not the parties have agreed to the interest rates and periods and whether or not they have agreed to the authority of the arbitrator. These issues affect the enforceability of an arbitration agreement, the law applicable to the disputed contract, the freedom of parties, the authority of the arbitrators and the enforceability of the awarded interest. The thesis studies how arbitral awards containing interest have been interpreted across the three aforementioned legal systems under the NYC 1958 in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, England, France, and the US and the enforceability of such awards.

Present thesis will concentrate on the attention to reduce the input of whole-body vibrations transmitted to test drivers in durability tests. On behalf of Volvo Cars, the purpose has been to develop a concept solution on the driver's seat. Solving this problem is significant due to test driver’s safety and theirs ergonomically conditions. This project is conducted as a Bachelor of Science thesis for the Innovation & design engineer program at Karlstad University.    The assignment is in collaboration with the research and development department Proving Ground Testing Group located outside Borås on their test facility, Hällered Proving Ground (HPG). Where they perform endurance tests on rough roads with complete vehicles. The main goal of this project is to increase the time drivers can actively drive the test cars each day, as well as reduce the exposure of whole-body vibration transmitted to test drivers.   The project has been carried out through the Engineering Design Process, which is a substantial model for working with creativity during product development. The report consists of a pre-study in areas like dynamic systems of vibration, ergonomics, previous research, benchmarking and seat structure. This was achieved by identifying the problem areas in an early stage. A number of concepts solutions were evaluated and compared according to implementability and realizability. The final decision was made on a concept, resulted in changing the current foam in the seat. Thereafter, it presents the evaluation of materials throughout the material database CES EduPack and through product research.     The last part of the report presents results from laboratory testings and a field test. The objective was to determine which arrangement provided the best isolation throughout different combinations of materials/products and material thicknesses. The result of the test showed that an increase of material thickness was the optimal solution. Polyurethane (PUR) foam is best suited for this and factors such as material properties and combination of materials has less or none impact on reducing whole-body vibrations. Therefore, the current foam can maybe be enough, but it needs to be evaluated further. This solution doesn't do any major changes to the cars specification and therefore the cars can be evaluated as before.   Further development is to build a prototype with thicker dimensions and implement it in a test vehicle. Subsequently verifying a decrease of exposure from whole-body vibrations, in the form of a real-life test. The solution is intended solely for test vehicles at Volvo’s endurance track facility at Hällered. The assignment was to facilitate working conditions for test drivers and make the work more efficient. The thesis purpose was to achieve a sustainable solution, according to Volvo Cars` requirements to reduce exposure from whole-body vibrations and this project is therefore fulfilled. It was important that the solution was easy to implement and can be applied on all platforms, correspondently be used on future test cars from Volvo.

European company is a supranational form of public limited company. The aim of European Union was to make unified legal form for enterprises. The aim was not very successful because of disagreement of member states on employee participation. Also the fragmentation of legal frame of European company is too deep. The thesis analyse legal basis of European company and ways of its establishment. Examples from practice of Court of Justice of the European Union show difficulties in seat transfer before European company existed. Statistics and charts demonstrate unique position of Czech Republic. It is because of the absolutely highest number of established European companies, which is caused by trading trend with ready-made companies.

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are adaptive devices whose properties can be adjusted through the application of a controlled voltage signal. A semi-active suspension system incorporating MR dampers combines the advantages of both active and passive suspensions. For this reason, there has been a continuous effort to develop control algorithms for MR-damped vehicle suspension systems to meet the requirements of the automotive industry. The overall aims of this thesis are twofold: (i) The investigation of non-parametric techniques for the identification of the nonlinear dynamics of an MR damper. (ii) The implementation of these techniques in the investigation of MR damper control of a vehicle suspension system that makes minimal use of sensors, thereby reducing the implementation cost and increasing system reliability. The novel contributions of this thesis can be listed as follows: 1- Nonparametric identification modelling of an MR damper using Chebyshev polynomials to identify the damping force from both simulated and experimental data. 2- The neural network identification of both the direct and inverse dynamics of an MR damper through an experimental procedure. 3- The experimental evaluation of a neural network MR damper controller relative to previously proposed controllers. 4- The application of the neural-based damper controller trained through experimental data to a semi-active vehicle suspension system. 5- The development and evaluation of an improved control strategy for a semi-active car seat suspension system using an MR damper. Simulated and experimental validation data tests show that Chebyshev polynomials can be used to identify the damper force as an approximate function of the displacement, velocity and input voltage. Feed-forward and recurrent neural networks are used to model both the direct and inverse dynamics of MR dampers. It is shown that these neural networks are superior to Chebyshev polynomials and can reliably represent both the direct and inverse dynamic behaviours of MR dampers. The neural network models are shown to be reasonably robust against significant temperature variation. Experimental tests show that an MR damper controller based a recurrent neural network (RNN) model of its inverse dynamics is superior to conventional controllers in achieving a desired damping force, apart from being more cost-effective. This is confirmed by introducing such a controller into a semi-active suspension, in conjunction with an overall system controller based on the sliding mode control algorithm. Control performance criteria are evaluated in the time and frequency domains in order to quantify the suspension effectiveness under bump and random road excitations. A study using the modified Bouc-Wen model for the MR damper, and another study using an actual damper fitted in a hardware-in-the-loop- simulation (HILS), both show that the inverse RNN damper controller potentially gives significantly superior ride comfort and vehicle stability. It is also shown that a similar control strategy is highly effective when used for a semi-active car seat suspension system incorporating an MR damper.

This master thesis deals with a structural design of the modular roller conveyor which is part of the flexible assembly line of automotive seats. The work includes design and functional solution for a driven roller track. Present structural design of roller conveyors is summarized in the first part of the work.