Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: Family and Child Development.

La rencontre de l’intelligence ambiante et de la robotique d’assistance a donné naissance à ce que nous avons appelé robotique ambiante d’assistance car destinée à assister une personne en perte d’autonomie. Elle s’appuie sur l’existence de réseaux d’objets communicants présents dans l’environnement de la personne pour décliner un ensemble de services et de téléservices destinés à faciliter la vie quotidienne de cette personne et de son entourage. Un, voir plusieurs robots peuvent être présents dans cet environnement. Une communauté scientifique récente s’est construite autour de la robotique ubiquitaire. Tandis que les robots des générations précédentes ont été conçus pour réaliser des tâches spécifiques et construits en tant qu’unité indépendante, la nouvelle génération vise l’ubiquité. L’autonomie du robot est obtenue par une interaction étroite entre le robot et l’environnement ambiant communicant. Dans le contexte de l’intelligence ambiante, les objets communicants de l’environnement peuvent jouer un rôle "facilitateur" en aidant le robot à se localiser, naviguer, rechercher un objet. Inversement, le robot peut être vu comme un objet communicant qui est mis à contribution par des services autres que l’assistance à la personne en perte d’autonomie. Ainsi le premier objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une architecture informatique permettant la coopération entre le robot et les objets communicants présents dans l’environnement tels que les capteurs ou les actionneurs. Le deuxième objectif est de proposer une méthode de localisation par coopération robot-environnement communicant. Notre ambition est de localiser avec certitude le robot dans une zone de l’habitat. / The meeting of ambient intelligence and assistive robotics gave birth to ambient assistive robotics which aims at assisting a person in loss of autonomy. It relies on the existence network of communicating objects present in the environment of the person. The objective is to propose a set of services and teleservices for facilitating the person's daily life. One or more robots can be present in this environment. Previous generation of robots have been designed to perform tasks specific and built as an independent unit, while the new generation of robots tries to take advantage of ubiquity. In this framework, the robot autonomy is obtained by a close interaction between the robot and the ambient environment. Up to recent years the robot moved in a rather hostile environment which did not facilitate its task. In the context of ambient intelligence, the communicating objects of ambient environment can play a "facilitator" role in helping the assistive robot for locating itself, searching for a person … Conversely, the robot can be seen as a communicating object which is used by services to the person in loss of autonomy. The first objective of this thesis is to propose an architecture for cooperation between the robot and communicating objects and the second objective is to propose a localization method by cooperation of ambient environment and a mobile robot.

L'objectif principal de ce travail de thèse a été le développement et l'implantation d'une assistance active pour l'évitement des sorties involontaires de la voie de circulation. Les caractéristiques de cette assistance se déclinent en plusieurs sous-objectifs énumérés ci-dessous : intervention dans les moments d'inattention du conducteur alors que la sortie de voie devient imminente et rétablissement de la situation de maintien de voie. Action partagée avec le conducteur sur la direction du véhicule. Fonctionnement sur des routes à faible et à forte courbure. Efficacité quelle que soit la qualité de la route, à forte ou à faible adhérence. Dans la démarche adoptée le cahier des charges a été formalisé en utilisant les outils et les concepts offerts par les mathématiques, la géométrie et l'automatique. L'optimisation convexe linéaire et bilinéaire a permis de trouver une solution au problème posé. Par la suite, la commande ainsi synthétisée a été implantée sur un véhicule expérimental et on a vérifié que les objectifs étaient bien atteints. Les principales contributions de cette thèse peuvent être résumées comme suit : 1.Gestion de l'interaction avec le conducteur par des stratégies de commutation. 2.Gestion de la trajectoire du véhicule sur la voie et garanties a priori sur les limites des excursions latérales. 3.Validité de l'assistance pour une large plage de courbure de la route. 4.Une assistance pour le cas des forces de contact pneumatique-chaussée saturées. 5.Validation pratique des résultats théoriques obtenus. / The main objective of this PhD thesis is the design and the experimental validation of a steering assistance which avoids unintended road departure. The following aspects have been considered: the system intervenes in case of a driver’s lapse of attention when running off the road is imminent; the intervention consists in reestablishing the lane keeping situation. The driver shares the steering control with the assistance system. The steering assistance system avoids lane departure for both straight and curvy roads. The steering assistance system is efficient for high lateral acceleration as well as low grip. The above topics have been formalized using mathematics and control theory tools. The convex linear and non-convex bilinear optimization methods have been employed to design the steering assistance system. The resulted steering control law has been used to command a DC motor installed on the steering column of a prototype vehicle. The performance of the assistance system has been experimentally validated on a real test track. The fundamental contributions of this thesis can be summarized as follows: 1.The interactions driver - assistance system are governed by activation/deactivation strategies ensuring stability despite switching. 2.The car lateral overshoot on the lane during assistance intervention is known previous to assistance activation; maximum bounds are guaranteed. 3.The steering assistance system has been proved to be stable and efficient on low grip roads and for highly saturated tire forces, both in theory and in practice. 4.All theoretical results have been experimentally validated and very good robustness of the steering assistance has been shown.

It is estimated that 20% of American employees have some sort of a personal problem that substantially hinders their work performance. This can result in future consequences for both the employee and employer, such as loss of job by the employee and increased expenses for the employer. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) are one of the leading approaches used in an attempt to mitigate problems experienced by distressed workers. EAP' s are formal intervention systems that assist employees with a variety of personal problems. Studies have shown that EAP's are effective in treating employee problems, however, most employees do not take advantage of this service The goal of this study was to identify factors that predict increased likelihood of employee self referrals to an EAP and whether there were any significant differences in factors relating to self versus supervisory referrals to an EAP. Previous literature had not explored the latter issue. SeveJ1:ty-one subjects, 37 males and 34 females, from a government agency participated in the study. Of the 71 participants, 33 were supervisors and 38 were subordinate employees. Each subject completed a Likert-type survey that assessed their willingness to either self refer themselves or refer their subordinate employees to an EAP for a variety of problems. Supervisors assessed their willingness to refer subordinate employees to an EAP, while subordinates assessed their willingness to self refer to an EAP . Multiple regression analyses indicated that the variables of familiarity, embarrassment, attention, effectiveness, trust, control and referral by supervisor were significant in predicting an employees' willingness to self refer to an EAP for a variety of personal problems. Furthermore, analyses suggested that there was a difference between employees and supervisors in factors related to willingness to refer to an EAP. The primary difference was that supervisors mainly considered the overall effectiveness of the EAP program when deciding willingness to refer employees while employees mostly considered job security concerns, such as referral by supervisor or trust in confidentiality, when deciding willingness to self refer to an EAP. Future research should investigate this issue further to examine if this conclusion can be generalized to other organizations.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Margaret Wilder, School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 21, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-52). Online version of the print original.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 22, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-125). Online version of the print original.

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