The following study focuses on the design and validation of an underactuated robotic gripper built for the Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot (THOR). THOR is a humanoid robot designed for use in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) and the Shipboard Autonomous Fire Fighting Robot (SAFFiR) project, both of which pertain to completing tasks associated with disaster response. The gripper was designed to accomplish a list of specific tasks outlined by the DRC and SAFFiR project. Underactuation was utilized in the design of the gripper to keep its complexity low while acquiring the level of dexterity needed to complete the required tasks. The final gripper contains two actuators, two underactuated fingers and a fixed finger resulting in four total degrees of freedom (DOF). The gripper weighs 0.68 kg and is capable of producing up to 38 N and 62 N on its proximal and distal phalanges, respectively. The gripper was put through a series of tests to validate its performance pertaining to the specific list of tasks it was designed to complete. The results of these tests show the gripper is in fact capable of completing all the necessary actions but does so within some limitations. / Master of Science

Embedded systems for humanoid robots are required to be reliable, low in cost, scalable and robust. Most of the applications related to humanoid robots require efficient force control of Series Elastic Actuators (SEA). These control loops often introduce precise timing requirements due to the safety critical nature of the underlying hardware. Also the motor controller needs to run fast and interface with several sensors. The commercially available motor controllers generally do not satisfy all the requirements of speed, reliability, ease of use and small size. This work presents a custom motor controller, which can be used for real time force control of SEA on humanoid robots and exoskeletons. Emphasis has been laid on designing a system which is scalable, easy to use and robust. The hardware and software architecture for control has been presented along with the results obtained on a novel Series Elastic Actuator based humanoid robot THOR. / Master of Science

This thesis proposes and experimentally demonstrates an approach enabling a humanoid robot to adapt its behaviour to match a human’s behaviour in real-time human-humanoid interaction. The approach uses the information distance synchrony detection method, which is a novel method to measure the behaviour synchrony between two agents, as the core part of the behaviour adaptation mechanism to guide the humanoid robot to change its behaviour in the interaction. The feedback of the participants indicated that the application of this behaviour adaptation mechanism could facilitate human-humanoid interaction. The investigation of motor interference, which may be adopted as a possible metric to quantify the social competence of a robot, is also presented in this thesis. The results from two experiments indicated that both human participants’ beliefs about the engagement of the robot and the usage of rhythmic music might affect the elicitation of the motor interference effects. Based on these findings and recent research supporting the importance of other features in eliciting the interference effects, it can be hypothesized that the overall perception of a humanoid robot as a social entity instead of any individual feature of the robot is critical to elicit motor interference in a human observer’s behaviour. In this thesis, the term ‘overall perception’ refers to the human observer’s overall perception of the robot in terms of appearance, behaviour, the observer’s belief and environmental features that may affect the perception. Moreover, it was found in the motor coordination investigation that humans tended to synchronize themselves with a humanoid robot without being instructed to do so. This finding, together with the behaviour adaptation mechanism, may support the feasibility of bi-directional motor coordination in human-humanoid interaction.

Cette thèse traite du problème de la locomotion des robots humanoïdes dans le contexte du projet européen KoroiBot. En s'inspirant de l'être humain, l'objectif de ce projet est l'amélioration des capacités des robots humanoïdes à se mouvoir de façon dynamique et polyvalente. Le coeur de l'approche scientifique repose sur l'utilisation du controle optimal, à la fois pour l'identification des couts optimisés par l'être humain et pour leur mise en oeuvre sur les robots des partenaires roboticiens. Cette thèse s'illustre donc par une collaboration à la fois avec des mathématiciens du contrôle et des spécialistes de la modélisation des primitives motrices. Les contributions majeures de cette thèse reposent donc sur la conception de nouveaux algorithmes temps-réel de contrôle pour la locomotion des robots humanoïdes avec nos collégues de l'université d'Heidelberg et leur intégration sur le robot HRP-2. Deux contrôleurs seront présentés, le premier permettant la locomotion multi-contacts avec une connaissance a priori des futures positions des contacts. Le deuxième étant une extension d'un travail réalisé sur de la marche sur sol plat améliorant les performances et ajoutant des fonctionnalitées au précédent algorithme. En collaborant avec des spécialistes du mouvement humain nous avons implementé un contrôleur innovant permettant de suivre des trajectoires cycliques du centre de masse. Nous présenterons aussi un contrôleur corps-complet utilisant, pour le haut du corps, des primitives de mouvements extraites du mouvement humain et pour le bas du corps, un générateur de marche. Les résultats de cette thèse ont été intégrés dans la suite logicielle "Stack-of-Tasks" du LAAS-CNRS. / This thesis covers the topic of humanoid robot locomotion in the frame of the European project KoroiBot. The goal of this project is to enhance the ability of humanoid robots to walk in a dynamic and versatile fashion as humans do. Research and innovation studies in KoroiBot rely on optimal control methods both for the identification of cost functions used by human being and for their implementations on robots owned by roboticist partners. Hence, this thesis includes fruitful collaborations with both control mathematicians and experts in motion primitive modeling. The main contributions of this PhD thesis lies in the design of new real time controllers for humanoid robot locomotion with our partners from the University of Heidelberg and their integration on the HRP-2 robot. Two controllers will be shown, one allowing multi-contact locomotion with a prior knowledge of the future contacts. And the second is an extension of a previous work improving performance and providing additional functionalities. In a collaboration with experts in human motion we designed an innovating controller for tracking cyclic trajectories of the center of mass. We also show a whole body controller using upper body movement primitives extracted from human behavior and lower body movement computed by a walking pattern generator. The results of this thesis have been integrated into the LAAS-CNRS "Stack-of-Tasks" software suit.

Robots are constantly evolving, from Da Vinci's first robot to humanoids that exist today and are used in various industries. This study examines how a humanoid is perceived as service staff in a car dealership and this was done through a qualitative case study where semi-structured interviews and on-site observations were combined. These were carried out at Riddermark Bil, which is one of Sweden's largest car dealers for used cars. The theory part is based on the concept of anthropomorphism and the uncanny valley theory which are related and important to customers' acceptance of the robot. Anthropomorphism is about giving non-human objects, such as robots, human properties to make it easier to interact with them. Uncanny valley comes into the picture when these human qualities create an expectation in man that is not achieved by the robot and a feeling of discomfort arises in man. This feeling of discomfort is what characterizes the uncanny valley. The analysis showed that uncanny valley exists in the car dealership with the humanoid and customers, and how the degree of anthropomorphism affects the viewer and the interaction. What turned out overall was that most people, customers and staff, are positive about interacting with a humanoid, but present it does not really meet the expectations placed on it. Finally, it is discussed how uncanny valley affects customers in a car dealership and what the reasons for this are.

The works reported in this thesis focus upon synthesising neural controllers for anthropomorphic robots that are able to manipulate objects through an automatic design process based on artificial evolution. The use of Evolutionary Robotics makes it possible to reduce the characteristics and parameters specified by the designer to a minimum, and the robot’s skills evolve as it interacts with the environment. The primary objective of these experiments is to investigate whether neural controllers that are regulating the state of the motors on the basis of the current and previously experienced sensors (i.e. without relying on an inverse model) can enable the robots to solve such complex tasks. Another objective of these experiments is to investigate whether the Evolutionary Robotics approach can be successfully applied to scenarios that are significantly more complex than those to which it is typically applied (in terms of the complexity of the robot’s morphology, the size of the neural controller, and the complexity of the task). The obtained results indicate that skills such as reaching, grasping, and discriminating among objects can be accomplished without the need to learn precise inverse internal models of the arm/hand structure. This would also support the hypothesis that the human central nervous system (cns) does necessarily have internal models of the limbs (not excluding the fact that it might possess such models for other purposes), but can act by shifting the equilibrium points/cycles of the underlying musculoskeletal system. Consequently, the resulting controllers of such fundamental skills would be less complex. Thus, the learning of more complex behaviours will be easier to design because the underlying controller of the arm/hand structure is less complex. Moreover, the obtained results also show how evolved robots exploit sensory-motor coordination in order to accomplish their tasks.

Robots have been used in a variety of education, therapy or entertainment contexts. This thesis introduces the novel application of using humanoid robots for Robot-Mediated Interviews (RMIs). In the initial stages of this research it was necessary to first establish as a baseline if children would respond to a robot in an interview setting, therefore the first study compared how children responded to a robot and a human in an interview setting. Following this successful initial investigation, the second study expanded on this research by examining how children would respond to different types and difficulty of questions from a robot compared to a human interviewer. Building on these studies, the third study investigated how a RMI approach would work for children with special needs. Following the positive results from the three studies indicating that a RMI approach may have some potential, three separate user panel sessions were organised with user groups that have expertise in working with children and for whom the system would be potentially useful in their daily work. The panel sessions were designed to gather feedback on the previous studies and outline a set of requirements to make a RMI system feasible for real world users. The feedback and requirements from the user groups were considered and implemented in the system before conducting a final field trial of the system with a potential real world user. The results of the studies in this research reveal that the children generally interacted with KASPAR in a very similar to how they interacted with a human interviewer regardless of question type or difficulty. The feedback gathered from experts working with children suggested that the three most important and desirable features of a RMI system were: reliability, flexibility and ease of use. The feedback from the experts also indicated that a RMI system would most likely be used with children with special needs. The final field trial with 10 children and a potential real world user illustrated that a RMI system could potentially be used effectively outside of a research context, with all of the children in the trial responding to the robot. Feedback from the educational psychologist testing the system would suggest that a RMI approach could have real world implications if the system were developed further.

Le but de cette thèse est le transfert du mouvement humain vers un robot humanoïde en ligne. Dans une première partie, le mouvement humain, enregistré par un système de capture de mouvement, est analysé pour extraire des caractéristiques qui doivent être transférées vers le robot humanoïde. Dans un deuxième temps, le mouvement du robot qui comprend ces caractéristiques est calculé en utilisant la cinématique inverse avec priorité. L'ensemble des tâches avec leurs priorités est ainsi transféré. La méthode permet une reproduction du mouvement la plus fidèle possible, en ligne et pour le haut du corps. Finalement, nous étudions le problème du transfert mouvement des pieds. Pour cette étude, le mouvement des pieds est analysé pour extraire les trajectoires euclidiennes qui sont adaptées au robot. Les trajectoires du centre du masse qui garantit que le robot ne tombe pas sont calculées `a partir de la position des pieds et du modèle du pendule inverse. Il est ainsi possible réaliser une imitation complète incluant les mouvements du haut du corps ainsi que les mouvements des pieds. / The aim of this thesis is to transfer human motion to a humanoid robot online. In the first part of this work, the human motion recorded by a motion capture system is analyzed to extract salient features that are to be transferred on the humanoid robot. We introduce the humanoid normalized model as the set of motion properties. In the second part of this work, the robot motion that includes the human motion features is computed using the inverse kinematics with priority. In order to transfer the motion properties a stack of tasks is predefined. Each motion property in the humanoid normalized model corresponds to one target in the stack of tasks. We propose a framework to transfer human motion online as close as possible to a human motion performance for the upper body. Finally, we study the problem of transfering feet motion. In this study, the motion of feet is analyzed to extract the Euclidean trajectories adapted to the robot. Moreover, the trajectory of the center of mass which ensures that the robot does not fall is calculated from the feet positions and the inverse pendulum model of the robot. Using this result, it is possible to achieve complete imitation of upper body movements and including feet motion

La robotique humanoïde arrive a maturité avec des robots plus rapides et plus précis. Pour faire face à la complexité mécanique, la recherche a commencé à regarder au-delà du cadre habituel de la robotique, vers les sciences de la vie, afin de mieux organiser le contrôle du mouvement. Cette thèse explore le lien entre mouvement humain et le contrôle des systèmes anthropomorphes tels que les robots humanoïdes. Tout d’abord, en utilisant des méthodes classiques de la robotique, telles que l’optimisation, nous étudions les principes qui sont à la base de mouvements répétitifs humains, tels que ceux effectués lorsqu’on joue au yoyo. Nous nous concentrons ensuite sur la locomotion en nous inspirant de résultats en neurosciences qui mettent en évidence le rôle de la tête dans la marche humaine. En développant une interface permettant à un utilisateur de commander la tête du robot, nous proposons une méthode de contrôle du mouvement corps-complet d’un robot humanoïde, incluant la production de pas et permettant au corps de suivre le mouvement de la tête. Cette idée est poursuivie dans l’étude finale dans laquelle nous analysons la locomotion de sujets humains, dirigée vers une cible, afin d’extraire des caractéristiques du mouvement sous forme invariants. En faisant le lien entre la notion “d’invariant” en neurosciences et celle de “tâche cinématique” en robotique humanoïde, nous développons une méthode pour produire une locomotion réaliste pour d’autres systèmes anthropomorphes. Dans ce cas, les résultats sont illustrés sur le robot humanoïde HRP2 du LAAS-CNRS. La contribution générale de cette thèse est de montrer que, bien que la planification de mouvement pour les robots humanoïdes peut être traitée par des méthodes classiques de robotique, la production de mouvements réalistes nécessite de combiner ces méthodes à l’observation systématique et formelle du comportement humain. / Humanoid robotics is coming of age with faster and more agile robots. To compliment the physical complexity of humanoid robots, the robotics algorithms being developed to derive their motion have also become progressively complex. The work in this thesis spans across two research fields, human neuroscience and humanoid robotics, and brings some ideas from the former to aid the latter. By exploring the anthropological link between the structure of a human and that of a humanoid robot we aim to guide conventional robotics methods like local optimization and task-based inverse kinematics towards more realistic human-like solutions. First, we look at dynamic manipulation of human hand trajectories while playing with a yoyo. By recording human yoyo playing, we identify the control scheme used as well as a detailed dynamic model of the hand-yoyo system. Using optimization this model is then used to implement stable yoyo-playing within the kinematic and dynamic limits of the humanoid HRP-2. The thesis then extends its focus to human and humanoid locomotion. We take inspiration from human neuroscience research on the role of the head in human walking and implement a humanoid robotics analogy to this. By allowing a user to steer the head of a humanoid, we develop a control method to generate deliberative whole-body humanoid motion including stepping, purely as a consequence of the head movement. This idea of understanding locomotion as a consequence of reaching a goal is extended in the final study where we look at human motion in more detail. Here, we aim to draw to a link between “invariants” in neuroscience and “kinematic tasks” in humanoid robotics. We record and extract stereotypical characteristics of human movements during a walking and grasping task. These results are then normalized and generalized such that they can be regenerated for other anthropomorphic figures with different kinematic limits than that of humans. The final experiments show a generalized stack of tasks that can generate realistic walking and grasping motion for the humanoid HRP-2. The general contribution of this thesis is in showing that while motion planning for humanoid robots can be tackled by classical methods of robotics, the production of realistic movements necessitate the combination of these methods with the systematic and formal observation of human behavior.

L'objet de cette thèse est le développement et l'étude des algorithmes de planification de mouvement pour les systèmes hautement dimensionnés que sont les robots humanoïdes et les acteurs virtuels. Plusieurs adaptations des méthodes génériques de planification de mouvement randomisées sont proposées et discutées. Une première contribution concerne l'utilisation de techniques de réduction de dimension linéaire pour accélérer les algorithmes d'échantillonnage. Cette méthode permet d'identifier en ligne quand un processus de planification passe par un passage étroit de l'espace des configurations et adapte l'exploration en fonction. Cet algorithme convient particulièrement bien aux problèmes difficiles de la planification de mouvement pour l'animation graphique. La deuxième contribution est le développement d'algorithmes randomisés de planification sous contraintes. Il s'agit d'une intégration d'outils de cinématique inverse hiérarchisée aux algorithmes de planification de mouvement randomisés. On illustre cette méthode sur différents problèmes de manipulation pour robots humanoïdes. Cette contribution est généralisée à la planification de mouvements corps-complet nécessitant de la marche. La dernière contribution présentée dans cette thèse est l'utilisation des méthodes précédentes pour résoudre des tâches de manipulation complexes par un robot humanoïde. Nous présentons en particulier un formalisme destiné à représenter les informations propres à l'objet manipulé utilisables par un planificateur de mouvement. Ce formalisme est présenté sous le nom d'« objets documentés». / This thesis deals with the development and analysis of motion planning algorithms for high dimensional systems: humanoid robots and digital actors. Several adaptations of generic randomized motion planning methods are proposed and discussed. A first contribution concerns the use of linear dimensionality reduction techniques to speed up sampling algorithms. This method identifies on line when a planning process goes through a narrow passage of some configuration space, and adapts the exploration accordingly. This algorithm is particularly suited to difficult problems of motion planning for computer animation. The second contribution is the development of randomized algorithms for motion planning under constraints. It consists in the integration of prioritized inverse kinematics tools within randomized motion planning. We demonstrate the use of this method on different manipulation planning problems for humanoid robots. This contribution is generalized to whole-body motion planning with locomotion. The last contribution of this thesis is the use of previous methods to solve complex manipulation tasks by humanoid robots. More specifically, we present a formalism that represents information specific to a manipulated object usable by a motion planner. This formalism is presented under the name of "documented object".