No description available.

Abstract This thesis presents a novel control architecture, Samba, for reactive task execution. Reactive task execution implies goal-oriented and reactive properties from a robot and the ability to execute several tasks at the same time, also in a dynamic environment. These requirements are fullfilled in Samba by the rrepresentation of goals, intermediate results, and robots actions. The key idea in Samba is to produce continously reactions for all the important objects in the environment. These reactions are represented as action maps, which are a novel representation for robot actions. An action map specifies for each possible action how preferable the action is from the perspective of the producer of the map. the preferences are shown by assigning a weight to each action. Tasks are executed by modifying and combining action maps. The tasks can be either reasoned by a higher layer or triggered by sensor data. Action maps, and the methods for modifying and combining them, enable executing tasks inparallel and considering the dynamics of the environment. further, as the action maps are produced continously from sensor data, the robot actions are based on the current state of the environment. Markers describe goals and intermediate results. They facilitate managing the complexity of the system. Markers describing intermediate results decompose the system vertically, into producers and consumers of data. Markers describing goals decompose the control system horizontally, into a Samba layer and a higher layer of reasoning tasks. Tasks flow via markers from the higher layer to the Samba layer. Markers are tested on a real robot equipment with stereo gaze platform. Further, the samba architecture is applied to playing soccer. Experiments were carried out in the 1997 and 1998 RoboCup competitions. These experiments show that the Samba architecture is a potential alternative for controlling a mobile robot in a dynamic environment.

Thesis (PhD)-Open University. BLDSC no.DX185081.

This thesis addresses the problem of how to control an autonomous mobile robot navigation in indoor environments, in the face of sensor noise, imprecise information, uncertainty and limited response time. The thesis argues that the effective control of autonomous mobile robots can be achieved by organising low level and higher level control activities into a layered architecture. The low level reactive control allows the robot to respond to contingencies quickly. The higher level control allows the robot to make longer term decisions and arranges appropriate sequences for a task execution. The thesis describes the design and implementation of a two layer control architecture, a task template based sequencing layer and a fuzzy behaviour based low level control layer. The sequencing layer works at the pace of the higher level of abstraction, interprets a task plan, mediates and monitors the controlling activities. While the low level performs fast computation in response to dynamic changes in the real world and carries out robust control under uncertainty. The organisation and fusion of fuzzy behaviours are described extensively for the construction of a low level control system. A learning methodology is also developed to systematically learn fuzzy behaviours and the behaviour selection network and therefore solve the difficulties in configuring the low level control layer. A two layer control system has been implemented and used to control a simulated mobile robot performing two tasks in simulated indoor environments. The effectiveness of the layered control and learning methodology is demonstrated through the traces of controlling activities at the two different levels. The results also show a general design methodology that the high level should be used to guide the robot's actions while the low level takes care of detailed control in the face of sensor noise and environment uncertainty in real time.

No description available.

Due to close coupling to hardware and lack of software engineering technologies, the control software in digitally controlled power conversion systems is difficult to design and maintain. This is a natural consequence of a topology- or application-driven design approach. This research work proposes a distributed, modular, open control architecture for power conversion systems to reduce control design complexity, encapsulate and localize design dependencies, reduce unnecessary redesign effort and improve software quality. Dataflow style is chosen as the architectural style for the proposed control architecture based on comparative analysis. The detailed implementation of the dataflow architecture is presented. The resulting dataflow control software is evaluated in comparison to the legacy approach to control design used in industry and academia. The dataflow control software for a 3-phase voltage source inverter is also tested on a real PEBB-based converter system. To further explore the flexibility of control composition that is brought by the dataflow approach, the feasibility of dynamic control reconfiguration is also presented as an important future research direction. / Ph. D.

Les architectures logicielles de contrôles sont le centre névralgique des robots. Malheureusement les robots et leurs architectures souffrent de nombreuses imperfections qui perturbent et/ou compromettent la réalisation des missions qui leurs sont affectés. Nous proposons donc une méthodologie de conception d'architecture de contrôle adaptative pour la mise en œuvre de la tolérance aux fautes.La première partie de ce manuscrit propose un état de l'art de la sureté de fonctionnement, d'abord générique avant d'être spécifié au contexte des architectures de contrôle. La seconde partie nous permet de détailler la méthodologie proposée permettant d'identifier les fautes potentielles d'un robot et d'y répondre à l'aide des moyens de tolérance aux fautes. La troisième partie présente le contexte expérimental et applicatif dans lequel la méthodologie proposée sera mise en œuvre et qui constitue la quatrième partie de ce manuscrit. Une expérimentation spécifique mettant en lumière les aspects de la méthodologie est détaillée dans la dernière partie. / The software control architectures are the decisional center of robots. Unfortunately, the robots and their architectures suffer from numerous flaws that disrupt and / or compromise the achievement of missions they are assigned. We therefore propose a methodology for designing adaptive control architecture for the implementation of fault tolerance.The first part of this thesis proposes a state of the art of dependability, at first in a generic way before being specified in the context of control architectures. The second part allows us to detail the proposed methodology to identify potential errors of a robot and respond using the means of fault tolerance. The third part presents the experimental context and application in which the proposed methodology will be implemented and described in the fourth part of this manuscript. An experiment highlighting specific aspects of the methodology is detailed in the last part.

Pour des tâches simples ou dans un environnement contrôlé, la coordination des différents processus internes d’un robot est un problème relativement trivial, souvent implémenté de manière ad-hoc. Toutefois, avec le développement de robots plus complexes travaillant dans des environnements non contrôlés et dynamiques, le robot doit en permanence se reconfigurer afin de s’adapter aux conditions extérieures et à ses objectifs. La définition d’une architecture de contrôle efficace permettant de gérer ces reconfigurations devient alors primordiale pour l’autonomie de tels robots. Dans ces travaux, nous avons d’abord étudié les différentes architectures proposées dans la littérature, dont l’analyse a permis d’identifier les grandes problématiques qu’une architecture de contrôle doit résoudre. Cette analyse nous a mené à proposer une nouvelle architecture de contrôle décentralisée, générique et réutilisable, selon une démarche qui intègre une approche "intelligence artificielle" (utilisation de raisonneur logique, propagation dynamique de contraintes) et une approche "génie logiciel" (programmation par contrats, agents). Après une présentation des concepts qui sous-tendent cette architecture et une description approfondie de son fonctionnement, nous en décrivons une implémentation, qui est exploitée pour assurer le contrôle d’un robot terrestre d’extérieur dans le cadre de tâches de navigation, d’exploration ou de suivi. Des résultats sont présentés et analysés. Dans une seconde partie, nous nous sommes penchés sur la modélisation et la vérifiabilité d’une telle architecture de contrôle. Après avoir analysé différentes solutions, nous décrivons un modèle complet de l’architecture qui utilise la logique linéaire. Nous discutons ensuite des différentes approches possibles pour montrer des propriétés d’atteignabilité et de sûreté de fonctionnement en exploitant ce modèle. Enfin nous abordons différentes voies d’enrichissement de ces travaux. En particulier, nous discutons des extensions possibles pour le contrôle d’un ensemble de robots coopérants entre eux, mais aussi de la nécessité d’avoir des liens plus forts entre cette couche de contrôle, et les approches de modélisation des fonctionnalités sous-jacentes. / For simple tasks in a controlled environment, the coordination of the internal processes of a robot is a relatively trivial task, often implemented in an ad-hoc basis. However, with the development of more complex robots that must operate in uncontrolled and dynamic environments, the robot must constantly reconfigure itself to adapt to the external conditions and its own goals. The definition of a control architecture to manage these reconfigurations becomes of paramount importance for the autonomy of such robots. In this work, we first study the different architectures proposed in the literature, and analyse the major issues that a control architecture must address. This analysis led us to propose a new architecture, decentralized, generic and reusable, integrating an artificial intelligence approach (use of logical reasoning, dynamic propagation of constraints) and a software engineering approach (programming by contract, agents). After a presentation of the concepts underlying this architecture and an in-depth description of its operation, we describe an implementation which is used to control of a ground robot for navigation, exploration and monitoring tasks. Results are presented and analyzed. In a second part, we focus on the modeling and verifiability of such a control architecture. After analyzing different solutions, we present a comprehensive model of the proposed architecture that uses linear logic. We then discuss the different possible approaches to assess the properties of reachability and safety within this model. Finally we discuss different ways to enrich this work. In particular, we discuss possible extensions to the control of a multiple cooperating robots, but also the need for stronger links between the control layer and the modeling.

Este trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura de controle de movimento entre duas posturas distintas para um robô móvel sob rodas com acionamento diferencial em um ambiente estruturado e livre de obstáculos. O conceito clássico de eficiência foi utilizado para a definição das estratégias de controle: um robô se movimenta de forma eficiente quando realiza a tarefa determinada no menor tempo e utilizando menor quantidade energética. A arquitetura proposta é um recorte do modelo de Controle Hierárquico Aninhado (NHC), composto por três níveis de abstração: (i) Planejamento de Caminho, (ii) Planejamento de Trajetória e (iii) Rastreamento de Trajetória. O Planejamento de Caminho proposto suaviza uma geodésica Dubins - o caminho mais eficiente - por uma Spline Grampeada para que este caminho seja definido por uma curva duplamente diferenciável. Uma transformação do espaço de configuração do robô é realizada. O Planejamento de Trajetória é um problema de otimização convexa na forma de Programação Cônica de Segunda Ordem, cujo objetivo é uma função ponderada entre tempo e energia. Como o tempo de percurso e a energia total consumida pelo robô possui uma relação hiperbólica, um algoritmo de sintonia do coeficiente de ponderação entre estas grandezas é proposta. Por fim, um Rastreador de Trajetória de dupla malha baseado em linearização entrada-saída e controle PID é proposto, e obteve resultados satisfatórios no rastreamento do caminho pelo robô. / This work presents a motion control architecture between two different positions for a differential driven wheeled mobile robot in a obstacles free structured environment. The classic concept of efficiency was used to define the control strategies: a robot moves efficiently when it accomplishes the determined task in the shortest time and using less amount of energy. The proposed architecture is a clipping of the Nested Hierarchical Controller (NHC) model, composed of three levels of abstraction: (i) Path Planning, (ii) Trajectory Planning and (iii) Trajectory Tracking. The proposed Path Planning smoothes a geodesic Dubins - the most efficient path - by a Clamped Spline as this path is defined by a twice differentiable curve. A transformation of the robot configuration space is performed. The Trajectory Planning is a convex optimization problem in the form of Second Order Cone Programming, whose objective is a weighted function between time and energy. As the travel time and the total energy consumed by the robot has a hyperbolic relation, a tuning algorithm to the weighting is proposed. Finnaly, a dual-loop Trajectory Tracker based on input-output feedback linearization and PID control is proposed, which obtained satisfactory results in tracking the path by the robot.

Os veículos submarinos não tripulados tem uma importância crescente devido à sua flexibilidade e baixo custo. Devido à sua complexidade intrínseca, eles requerem diversas competências diferentes para serem desenvolvidos e permitem realizar pesquisas em vários campos do conhecimento. No contexto de uma universidade, que possui pessoal heterogêneo e de alta rotatividade, faz-se mister adotar uma organização que permita que os esforços de cada aluno possam ser reusados pelos outros, de modo as atividades de pesquisa possam avançar com pouca perda de tempo e retrabalho. Tal necessidade pode ser respondida pela aplicação de conceitos da engenharia de sistemas, tais como modularidade, separação formal entre soluções tecnológicas e necessidades, classificação funcional, critérios para escolha do método de desenvolvimento, uso de referencial normativo técnico, plano tecnológico, integração, verificação e validação e gerenciamento de configurações. Este trabalho se limita a desenvolver uma arquitetura de controle, observando os conceitos de engenharia de sistemas, aplicada a um AUV. É feita uma comparação com outras arquiteturas similares do estado da arte e mostram-se resultados de testes em piscina para esta arquitetura. É mostrado também que foi possível estabelecer a continuidade do desenvolvimento por outros alunos, validando a utilidade da metodologia. Conclui-se que, para aumentar a eficiência da pesquisa universitária, é necessário observar aspectos gerenciais e institucionais além dos aspectos técnicos ao conceber soluções técnicas. / The unmanned underwater vehicles have a growing position due to their flexibility and low cost. Due to their inherent complexity, they require many different skills to be developed and they allow conducting research in various fields of knowledge. In the context of a university, which has heterogeneous staff and high turnover, there is the need of adopting an organization that allows the efforts of each student be reused by others, so research activities can proceed with little loss of time and rework. This need can be answered by the application of system engineering concepts such as modularity, formal separation between technology solutions and needs, functional classification, criteria for the choice of development method, use of technical reference standard, technological plan, integration, verification and validation and configuration management. This work is limited to development of a control architecture, observing the concepts of systems engineering, applied to an AUV. A comparison is made with other similar architectures in the state of the art and shows up test results in the pool for this architecture. It is also shown that it was possible to keep the development by other students, validating the utility of the methodology. It is concluded that in order to increase the efficiency of university research, it must be observed managerial and institutional aspects beyond the technical aspects when designing technical solutions.