Teleoperation systems have been used in the operating rooms for more than a decade. However, the lack of force feedback in commercially available systems still raises safety issues and forbids surgical gestures like palpation. Although force feedback has already been implemented in experimental setups, a systematic methodology is still lacking to design the control laws. The approach developed in this thesis is a contribution towards such a systematic methodology: it combines the use of disturbance observers with the use of a structured fixed-order controller. This approach is validated by experiments performed on a one degree of freedom teleoperation system. A physical model of this system is proposed and validated experimentally. Disturbance observers allow to compensate friction, which is responsible for performance degradation in teleoperation. Contrary to alternative approaches,they are based on a model of the frictionless mechanical system. This allows to compensate friction with a time varying behavior, which occurs in laparoscopy. Parametric uncertainties in this model may lead to an unstable closed-loop. A kind of "separation principle" is provided to decouple the design of the closed-loop system from the design of the observer. It relies on a modified problem statement and on the use of available robust design and analysis tools. A new metric is proposed to evaluate the performance of friction compensation systems experimentally. This metric evaluates the ability of a compensation system to linearize a motion system, irrespective of the task and as a function of frequency. The observer-based friction compensation is evaluated with respect to this new metric and to a task-based metric. It correctly attenuates the friction in the bandwidth of interest and significantly improves position and force tracking during a palpation task. Structured fixed-order controllers are optimized numerically to achieve robust closed-loop performance despite modeling uncertainty. The structure is chosen among classical teleoperation structures. An efficient algorithm is selected and implemented to design such a controller, which is evaluated for a palpation task. It is compared to a full-order unstructured controller, representative of the design approach that has been used in the teleoperation literature up to now. The comparison highlights the advantages of our new approach: order-reduction steps and counter-intuitive behaviors are avoided. A structured fixed-order controller combined with a disturbance observer is implemented during a needle insertion experiment and allowed to obtain excellent performance.

Teleoperation systems have been used in the operating rooms for more than a decade. However, the lack of force feedback in commercially available systems still raises safety issues and forbids surgical gestures like palpation. Although force feedback has already been implemented in experimental setups, a systematic methodology is still lacking to design the control laws.<p><p>The approach developed in this thesis is a contribution towards such a systematic<p>methodology: it combines the use of disturbance observers with the use of a structured fixed-order controller. This approach is validated by experiments performed on a one degree of freedom teleoperation system. A physical model of this system is proposed and validated experimentally.<p><p>Disturbance observers allow to compensate friction, which is responsible for performance degradation in teleoperation. Contrary to alternative approaches,they are based on a model of the frictionless mechanical system. This allows to compensate friction with a time varying behavior, which occurs in laparoscopy.<p><p>Parametric uncertainties in this model may lead to an unstable closed-loop. A kind of "separation principle" is provided to decouple the design of the closed-loop system from the design of the observer. It relies on a modified problem statement and on the use of available robust design and analysis tools.<p><p>A new metric is proposed to evaluate the performance of friction compensation systems experimentally. This metric evaluates the ability of a compensation system to linearize a motion system, irrespective of the task and as a function of frequency. The observer-based friction compensation is evaluated with respect to this new metric and to a task-based metric. It correctly attenuates the friction in the bandwidth of interest and significantly improves position and force tracking during a palpation task.<p><p>Structured fixed-order controllers are optimized numerically to achieve robust closed-loop performance despite modeling uncertainty. The structure is chosen among classical teleoperation structures. An efficient algorithm is selected and implemented to design such a controller, which is evaluated for a palpation task. It is compared to a full-order unstructured controller, representative of the design approach that has been used in the teleoperation literature up to now. The comparison highlights the advantages of our new approach: order-reduction steps and counter-intuitive behaviors are avoided. <p><p>A structured fixed-order controller combined with a disturbance observer is implemented during a needle insertion experiment and allowed to obtain excellent performance. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Malgré le progrès de l'automatisation industrielle, les solutions robotiques ne sont pas encore couramment utilisées dans le secteur du génie civil. Plus spécifiquement, les tâches de ponçage, telles que le désamiantage, sont toujours effectuées par des opérateurs humains utilisant des outils électriques et hydrauliques classiques. Cependant, avec la diminution du coût relatif des machines par rapport au travail humain et les réglementations sanitaires strictes applicables à des travaux aussi risqués, les robots deviennent progressivement des alternatives crédibles pour automatiser ces tâches et remplacer les humains.Dans cette thèse, des nouvelles approches de contrôle de ponçage de surface sont élaborées. Le premier contrôleur est un contrôleur hybride position-force avec poignet conforme. Il est composé de 3 boucles de commande, force, position et admittance. La commutation entre les commandes pourrait créer des discontinuités, ce qui a été résolu en proposant une commande de transition. Dans ce contrôleur, la force de choc est réduite par la commande de transition proposée entre les modes espace libre et contact. Le second contrôleur est basé sur un modèle de ponçage développé et un contrôleur hybride adaptatif position-vitesse-force. Les contrôleurs sont validés expérimentalement sur un bras robotique à 7 degrés de liberté équipé d'une caméra et d'un capteur de force-couple. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent de bonnes performances et les contrôleurs sont prometteurs. De plus, une nouvelle approche pour contrôler la stabilité des manipulateurs mobiles en temps réel est présentée. Le contrôleur est basé sur le « zero moment point », il a été testé dans des simulations et il a été capable de maintenir activement la stabilité de basculement du manipulateur mobile tout en se déplaçant. En outre, les incertitudes liées à la modélisation et aux capteurs sont prises en compte dans les contrôleurs mentionnés où des observateurs sont proposés.Les détails du développement et de l'évaluation des différents contrôleurs proposés sont présentés, leurs mérites et leurs limites sont discutés et des travaux futurs sont suggérés. / Despite the advancements in industrial automation, robotic solutions are not yet commonly used in the civil engineering sector. More specifically, grinding tasks such as asbestos removal, are still performed by human operators using conventional electrical and hydraulic tools. However, with the decrease in the relative cost of machinery with respect to human labor and with the strict health regulations on such risky jobs, robots are progressively becoming credible alternatives to automate these tasks and replace humans.In this thesis, novel surface grinding control approaches are elaborated. The first controller is based on hybrid position-force controller with compliant wrist and a smooth switching strategy. In this controller, the impact force is reduced by the proposed smooth switching between free space and contact modes. The second controller is based on a developed grinding model and an adaptive hybrid position-velocity-force controller. The controllers are validated experimentally on a 7-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm equipped with a camera and a force-torque sensor. The experimental results show good performances and the controllers are promising. Additionally, a new approach for controlling the stability of mobile manipulators in real time is presented. The controller is based on zero moment point, it is tested in simulations and it was able to actively maintain the tip-over stability of the mobile manipulator while moving. Moreover, the modeling and sensors uncertainties are taken into account in the mentioned controllers where observers are proposed. The details of the development and evaluation of the several proposed controllers are presented, their merits and limitations are discussed and future works are suggested.