The geometry, deformation mechanism and kinematics of the S&uuml / rg&uuml / Fault Zone is investigated by using remotely sensed data including Landsat TM and ASTER imagery combined with SRTM, and stereo-aerial photographs. They are used to extract information related to regional lineaments and tectono-morphological characteristics of the SFZ. Various image processing and enhancement techniques including contrast enhancement, PCA, DS and color composites are applied on the imagery and three different approaches including manual, semi automatic and automatic lineament extraction methods are followed. Then the lineaments obtained from ASTER and Landsat imagery using manual and automatic methods are overlaid to produce a final lineaments map. The results have indicated that, the total number and length of the lineaments obtained from automatic is more than other methods while the percentages of overlapping lineaments for the manual method is more than the automatic method which indicate that the lineaments from automatic method does not discriminate man made features which result more lineaments and less overlapping ratio with respect to final map. It is revealed from the detail analysis that, the SFZ displays characteristic deformation patterns of strike-slip faults, such as pressure ridges, linear fault controlled valleys, deflected stream courses, rotated blocks and juxtaposition of stratigraphical horizons in macroscopic scale. In addition to these, kinematic analyses carried out using fault slip data indicated that the S&uuml / rg&uuml / Fault Zone is dextral strike-slip fault zone with a reverse component of slip and cumulative displacement along the fault is more than 2 km.

The knee joint plays an essential role in the human musculoskeletal system. It has evolved to withstand extreme loading conditions, while providing almost frictionless joint movement. However, its performance may be disrupted by disease, anatomical deformities, soft tissue imbalance or injury. Knee disorders are often puzzling, and accurate diagnosis may be challenging. Current evaluation approach is usually limited to a detailed interview with the patient, careful physical examination and radiographic imaging. The X-ray screening may reveal bone degeneration, but does not carry sufficient information of the soft tissue conditions. More advanced imaging tools such as MRI or CT are available, but expensive, time consuming and can be used only under static conditions. Moreover, due to limited resolution the radiographic techniques cannot reveal early stage arthritis. The arthroscopy is often the only reliable option, however due to its semi-invasive nature, it cannot be considered as a practical diagnostic tool. Therefore, the motivation for this work was to combine three scientific methods to provide a comprehensive, non-invasive evaluation tool bringing insight into the in vivo, dynamic conditions of the knee joint and articular cartilage degeneration. Electromyography and inverse dynamics were employed to independently determine the forces present in several muscles spanning the knee joint. Though both methods have certain limitations, the current work demonstrates how the use of these two methods concurrently enhances the biomechanical analysis of the knee joint conditions, especially the performance of the extensor mechanism. The kinetic analysis was performed for 12 TKA, 4 healthy individuals in advanced age and 4 young subjects. Several differences in the knee biomechanics were found between the three groups, identifying age-related and post-operative decrease in the extensor mechanism efficiency, explaining the increased effort of performing everyday activities experienced by the elderly and TKA subjects. The concept of using accelerometers to assess the cartilage degeneration has been proven based on a group of 23 subjects with non-symptomatic knees and 52 patients suffering from knee arthritis. Very high success (96.2%) of pattern classification obtained in this work clearly demonstrates that vibroarthrography is a promising, non-invasive and low-cost technique offering screening capabilities.

Humans perform complex sensorimotor tasks, such as walking on uneven terrain, in a seemingly effortless manner. However, even simple voluntary tasks, like lifting the arm to shake hands, require intricate adjustments to maintain balance. With experience, humans learn to produce the appropriate patterns of muscle activity necessary to maintain balance during everyday activities, as well as highly specialized motor tasks. Here, I investigated the neural feedback mechanisms controlling the formation of the muscle activity used during balance tasks. I hypothesized that humans use feedback from on-going balance perturbations to establish their muscular responses. Specifically, I investigated center-of-mass (CoM) kinematics as a control signal for the formation of these muscle activation patterns. Using an inverted pendulum model under delayed feedback control, I both reconstructed the temporal EMG patterns measured during experimental perturbations and predicted the optimal EMG patterns for responding to the same perturbations. By modulating four feedback parameters, this feedback law accounted for 91% of the variability in all experimentally-recorded EMG patterns - regardless of the mechanical action of the muscle or the response strategy chosen by the subject. To investigate the changes in postural control during motor learning, I used this feedback model to characterize responses while naïve subjects adapted to repetitive unidirectional and reversing perturbations. By adjusting feedback gains related to CoM velocity and displacement, subjects adapted their muscle activity to improve control over the CoM for both perturbation types. Though subjects were unable to use anticipatory strategies to reduce muscle onset latency or to mute inappropriate responses to reversing perturbations, more subtle feedforward adjustments to feedback-mediated postural responses were evident. With experience, subjects adapted their postural responses toward the optimal solution. The results of this work, when combined with on-going studies of muscle synergies, will provide a powerful tool for investigating the consequences that result from the changes in spatiotemporal muscle activity associated with aging, neurological dysfunction, musculoskeletal injury, and specialized training programs. This quantitative knowledge is critical to the development of diagnostic tools for balance and movement disorders, as well as for the design of effective interventional therapies, bipedal robots, and neural prostheses.

KISS (Kinematic Support System) is a locally developed gait analysis system at Middle East Technical University (METU), and the performance of the system was evaluated before as a whole. However, such evaluations do not differentiate between the efficacy of the data acquisition system and the model-based gait analysis methodology. In this thesis, kinematic results of the KISS system will be compared with those of the Ankara University based commercial VICON (Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK) system, in view of evaluating the performance of data acquisition system and the gait analysis methodology separately. This study is expected to provide guidelines for future developments on the KISS system.

Introdução: A amputação transtibial é uma das amputações de membros inferiores mais frequentemente realizada. Objetivo: Este trabalho teve por objetivo comparar, através da análise tridimensional da marcha, as alterações de marcha de pacientes com amputação transtibial, previamente treinados, que utilizavam próteses com encaixe Kondylen Bettung Münster (KBM) e a vácuo. Metodologia: Foram avaliados voluntários com amputação transtibial que utilizavam encaixe KBM ou a vácuo disponibilizados pelos Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). A amostra final foi de 12 participantes no grupo “KBM” e 5 no grupo “vácuo”. Todos eles passaram por um exame físico, que constou de goniometria, teste de força muscular e coleta de dados antropométricos. Eles também realizaram análise tridimensional (3D) da marcha. Para tal, eles foram paramentados com marcadores reflexivos em pontos anatômicos e os correspondentes da prótese, de acordo com o modelo Helen Hayes e caminharam por uma pista de 10 metros com uma velocidade auto selecionada. O sistema de captura consistiu em 6 câmeras Hawk e software Cortex versão 1.1.4.368, de captura e edição das caminhadas, ambos da Motion Analysis Corporation. A comparação entre os dois grupos foi realizada através da Pontuação do Perfil da Marcha (GPS), das Pontuações das Variáveis da Marcha (GVS) e dos parâmetros de tempo e espaço da marcha. Além disso, foi testada a correlação entre a GPS e as GVS e entre a GPS e os parâmetros de tempo e espaço da marcha. Resultados: Os dois grupos obtiveram velocidade da marcha significativamente menores, período de apoio significativamente maior e o tempo de apoio simples menor que o normal. Nos dois grupos ainda, os valores de GPS e GVS foram maiores que o normal, porém o “KBM” apresentou maiores desvios que o “vácuo”. Os maiores desvios do grupo do encaixe KBM foram nas GVS flexão/extensão dos quadris, flexão/extensão dos joelhos e dorsi/plantiflexão do tornozelo MIP, podendo assim caracterizar este como o padrão de desvio do Perfil de Análise do Movimento (MAP) deste grupo. O grupo “vácuo” teve os principais desvios nas GVS dorsi/plantiflexão dos tornozelos, flexão/extensão do joelho MIP e rotação pélvica, sendo este o padrão de desvio do MAP deste grupo. Encontraram-se, portanto, padrões diferentes de desvio nos dois grupos. Os dois grupos apresentaram desvios no MICL, os quais representam as compensações realizadas neste membro para possibilitar uma marcha mais funcional com a prótese. Os participantes que utilizaram o encaixe a vácuo apresentaram marcha mais simétrica que os participantes que utilizavam encaixe KBM. O grupo que utilizava o encaixe a vácuo obteve menores valores de GPS e de algumas GVS que o grupo “KBM”, entre elas estão a flexão/extensão do quadril MIP e MICL, flexão/extensão do joelho MIP e a flexão/extensão do joelho MICL, que foi a única diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos de encaixe. O mesmo grupo teve velocidade da macha maior que o grupo “KBM” e, apesar desta diferença não ter sido significativa, sugere uma maior funcionalidade da marcha com o encaixe a vácuo. Conclusão: Pode-se concluir que os indivíduos que utilizaram encaixe a vácuo apresentaram um padrão de marcha mais funcional e com menores desvios que aqueles que utilizaram encaixe KBM, quando comparados através da GPS, das GVS e dos parâmetros de tempo e espaço. / Introduction: Transtibial amputation is one of the lower limb amputations more often performed. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare, using 3D gait analysis, gait deviations of patients with transtibial amputation, previously trained, using KBM and vacum prosthetic fittings. Methodology: Transtibial amputees that used Kondylen Bettung Münster (KBM) and vacuum prosthetic fitting waived by the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) were evaluated. The final sample consisted of 12 participants in the "KBM" group and 5 in the "vacuum" group. They all underwent a physical examination, which consisted of goniometry, muscle strength testing and anthropometric data. They also performed three-dimensional (3D) gait analysis. For this, they were vested with reflexive markers on anatomical and prosthetic corresponding landmarkers according to the Helen Hayes and walked across a 10-m walk-way at their self-selected speed. The capture system consisted of 6 cameras Hawk and the Cortex software version 1.1.4.368 for capturing and editing the trials, both from Motion Analysis Corporation. The Gait Profile Scores (GPS), Gait Variable Score (GVS) and temporal-spatial parameters performed the comparison between the two groups. In addition, we tested the correlation between GPS and GVS and between GPS and temporal-spatial parameters. Results: The two groups had significantly lower gait speed, significantly longer period of support and shorter time of single support than normal. In both groups, GPS and GVS values were higher than normal, but the "KBM" showed greater deviations than the "vacuum". The largest deviations from the KBM group was in the GVS hips flexion / extension, knees flexion / extension and ankle dorsi / plantarflexion MIP and can thus characterize this as the deviation pattern of the Movement Analysis Profile (MAP) for this group. The "vacuum" group had major deviations of the GVS ankles dorsi / platarflexion, knee flexion / extension MIP and pelvic rotation, the deviation pattern of MAP in this group. There were, therefore, different deviation patterns I the two groups. Both groups showed deviations in MICL, which represent the compensation made by this limb to enable a more functional gait with prosthesis. Participants who used vacuum prosthetic fitting showed more a symmetrical gait than participants that used KBM prosthetic fitting. The group that used vacuum prosthetic fitting had lower values of GPS and some GVS than "KBM" group; these include hips flexion / extension, MIP knee flexion / extension and MICL knee flexion / extension, which was the only statistically significant difference between the groups. The same group had greater walking speed than the "KBM" group and, although this difference was not significant, it suggests more functionality of gait with vacuum prosthetic fitting. Conclusion: It can be concluded that individuals who used the vacuum prosthetic fitting showed more functional gait pattern and smaller deviations than those that used KBM prosthetic fitting, compared by GPS, GVS and temporal-spatial parameters.

Composites are materials which cater to the present and future needs of many demanding industries, such as aerospace, as they are weight-sensitive for a given requirement of strength and stiff ness, corrosion resistant, potentially multi-functional and can be tailored according to the application. However, they are in particular difficult to join as they cannot be easily machined, without introducing damages which can eventually grow. Any structure is as strong as its weakest joint. Most of the joints belong to the category of mechanically-fastened joints and they pose enormous challenges in modeling due to contact phenomena, nonlinearity and stress concentration factors. It is therefore a necessity to construct an efficient model that would include all the relevant contact phenomena in the joints, as it has been pointed out in literature that damage typically initiates near the joint holes. The focus of this work is to describe the construction of an asymptotically-correct model using the Variational Asymptotic Method (VAM). Amongst its many potential applications, VAM is a well-established analytical tool for obtaining the stress and strain fields for beams and shells. The methodology takes advantage of the small parameter that is inherent in the problem, such as the ratio of certain characteristic dimensions of the structure. In shells and beams, VAM takes advantage of the dimension-based small parameter(s), thereby splitting the problem into 2-D + 1-D (for beams) and 1-D + 2-D (for shells), in turn offering very high computational efficiency with very little loss of accuracy compared to dimensionally unreduced 3-D models. In this work, the applicability of VAM is extended to two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) frictionless contact problems. Since a generalised VAM model for contact has not been pursued before, the `phantom0 step is adopted for both 2-D and 3-D models. The development of the present work starts with the construction of a 2-D model involving a large rectangular plate being pressed against a rigid frictionless pin. The differential equations governing the problem and the associated boundary conditions are obtained by minimizing the reduced strain energy, augmented with the appropriate gap function, by using a penalty method. The model is developed for both isotropic and orthotropic cases. The boundary value problem is solved numerically and the displacement field obtained is compared with the one obtained using commercial software (ABAQUSr) for validation at critical regions such as the contact surfaces. Banking on the validation of the 2-D model, a 3-D model with a pin and a finite annular cylinder was constructed. The strain energy for the finite cylinder was derived using geometrically exact 3-D kinematics and VAM was applied leading to the reduction in the strain energy for isotropic and orthotropic materials in rectangular and cylindrical co-ordinates. As in the 2-D case, the reduced strain energy, subject to the inequality constraint of the gap function, is minimized with respect to the displacement field and the corresponding boundary value problem is solved numerically. The displacements of the contact surface and the top surface of the annular cylinder are compared with those from ABAQUS and thus validated. The displacement fields obtained using the current 2-D and 3-D models show very good agreement with those from commercial finite element software packages. The model could be re ned further by using the gap function derived in this work and applying it to a plate model based on VAM, which could be explored in the future.

Il semble maintenant établi que la majorité des étoiles se forment dans des amas (Carpenter 2000; Porras et al. 2003; Lada & Lada 2003). Comprendre l'origine et l'évolution des populations stellaires est donc l'un des plus grands défis de l'astrophysique moderne. Malheureusement, moins d'un dixième de ces amas restent gravitationellement liés au delà de quelques centaines de millions d'années (Lada & Lada 2003). L’étude des amas stellaires doit donc se faire avant leur dissolution dans la galaxie.Le projet Dynamical Analysis of Nearby Clusters (DANCe, Bouy et al. 2013), dont le travail fait partie, fournit le cadre scientifique pour l'analyse des amas proches et jeunes (NYC) dans le voisinage solaire. Les observations de l'amas ouvert des Pléiades par le projet DANCe offrent une opportunité parfaite pour le développement d'outils statistiques visant à analyser les premières phases de l'évolution des amas.L'outil statistique développé ici est un système intelligent probabiliste qui effectue une inférence bayésienne des paramètres régissant les fonctions de densité de probabilité (PDF) de la population de l'amas (PDFCP). Il a été testé avec les données photométriques et astrométriques des Pléiades du relevé DANCe. Pour éviter la subjectivité de ces choix des priors, le système intelligent les établit en utilisant l'approche hiérarchique bayésienne (BHM). Dans ce cas, les paramètres de ces distributions, qui sont également déduits des données, proviennent d'autres distributions de manière hiérarchique.Dans ce système intelligent BHM, les vraies valeurs du PDFCP sont spécifiées par des relations stochastiques et déterministes représentatives de notre connaissance des paramètres physiques de l'amas. Pour effectuer l'inférence paramétrique, la vraisemblance (compte tenu de ces valeurs réelles), tient en compte des propriétés de l'ensemble de données, en particulier son hétéroscédasticité et des objects avec des valeurs manquantes.Le BHM obtient les PDF postérieures des paramètres dans les PDFCP, en particulier celles des distributions spatiales, de mouvements propres et de luminosité, qui sont les objectifs scientifiques finaux du projet DANCe. Dans le BHM, chaque étoile du catalogue contribue aux PDF des paramètres de l'amas proportionnellement à sa probabilité d'appartenance. Ainsi, les PDFCP sont exempts de biais d'échantillonnage résultant de sélections tronquées au-dessus d'un seuil de probabilité défini plus ou moins arbitrairement.Comme produit additionnel, le BHM fournit également les PDF de la probabilité d'appartenance à l'amas pour chaque étoile du catalogue d'entrée, qui permettent d'identifier les membres probables de l'amas, et les contaminants probables du champ. La méthode a été testée avec succès sur des ensembles de données synthétiques (avec une aire sous la courbe ROC de 0,99), ce qui a permis d'estimer un taux de contamination pour les PDFCP de seulement 5,8 %.Ces nouvelles méthodes permettent d'obtenir et/ou de confirmer des résultats importants sur les propriétés astrophysiques de l'amas des Pléiades. Tout d'abord, le BHM a découvert 200 nouveaux candidats membres, qui représentent 10% de la population totale de l'amas. Les résultats sont en excellent accord (99,6% des 100 000 objets dans l'ensemble de données) avec les résultats précédents trouvés dans la littérature, ce qui fournit une validation externe importante de la méthode. Enfin, la distribution de masse des systèmes actuelle (PDSMD) est en général en bon accord avec les résultats précédents de Bouy et al. 2015, mais présente l'avantage inestimable d'avoir des incertitudes beaucoup plus robustes que celles des méthodes précédentes.Ainsi, en améliorant la modélisation de l'ensemble de données et en éliminant les restrictions inutiles ou les hypothèses simplificatrices, le nouveau système intelligent, développé et testé dans le présent travail, représente l'état de l'art pour l'analyse statistique des populations de NYC. / The origin and evolution of stellar populations is one of the greatest challenges in modern astrophysics. It is known that the majority of the stars has its origin in stellar clusters (Carpenter 2000; Porras et al. 2003; Lada & Lada 2003). However, only less than one tenth of these clusters remains bounded after the first few hundred million years (Lada & Lada 2003). Ergo, the understanding of the origin and evolution of stars demands meticulous analyses of stellar clusters in these crucial ages.The project Dynamical Analysis of Nearby Clusters (DANCe, Bouy et al. 2013), from which the present work is part of, provides the scientific framework for the analysis of Nearby Young Clusters (NYC) in the solar neighbourhood (< 500 pc). The DANCe carefully designed observations of the well known Pleiades cluster provide the perfect case study for the development and testing of statistical tools aiming at the analysis of the early phases of cluster evolution.The statistical tool developed here is a probabilistic intelligent system that performs Bayesian inference for the parameters governing the probability density functions (PDFs) of the cluster population (PDFCP). It has been benchmarked with the Pleiades photometric and astrometric data of the DANCe survey. As any Bayesian framework, it requires the setting up of priors. To avoid the subjectivity of these, the intelligent system establish them using the Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) approach. In it, the parameters of prior distributions, which are also inferred from the data, are drawn from other distributions in a hierarchical way.In this BHM intelligent system, the true values of the PDFCP are specified by stochastic and deterministic relations representing the state of knowledge of the NYC. To perform the parametric inference, the likelihood of the data, given these true values, accounts for the properties of the data set, especially its heteroscedasticity and missing value objects. By properly accounting for these properties, the intelligent system: i) Increases the size of the data set, with respect to previous studies working exclusively on fully observed objects, and ii) Avoids biases associated to fully observed data sets, and restrictions to low-uncertainty objects (sigma-clipping procedures).The BHM returns the posterior PDFs of the parameters in the PDFCPs, particularly of the spatial, proper motions and luminosity distributions. In the BHM each object in the data set contributes to the PDFs of the parameters proportionally to its likelihood. Thus, the PDFCPs are free of biases resulting from typical high membership probability selections (sampling bias).As a by-product, the BHM also gives the PDFs of the cluster membership probability for each object in the data set. These PDFs together with an optimal probability classification threshold, which is obtained from synthetic data sets, allow the classification of objects into cluster and field populations. This by-product classifier shows excellent results when applied on synthetic data sets (with an area under the ROC curve of 0.99). From the analysis of synthetic data sets, the expected value of the contamination rate for the PDFCPs is 5.8 ± 0.2%.The following are the most important astrophysical results of the BHM applied tothe Pleiades cluster. First, used as a classifier, it finds ∼ 200 new candidate members, representing 10% new discoveries. Nevertheless, it shows outstanding agreement (99.6% of the 105 objects in the data set) with previous results from the literature. Second, the derived present day system mass distribution (PDSMD) is in general agreement with the previous results of Bouy et al. (2015).Thus, by better modelling the data set and eliminating unnecessary restrictions to it, the new intelligent system, developed and tested in the present work, represents the state of the art for the statistical analysis of NYC populations.

Neste trabalho foi estudada a utilização de um sistema hipermídia como um instrumento de avaliação de conhecimento prévio e de medida educacional, dentro da perspectiva da teoria da carga cognitiva e da teoria da aprendizagem significativa, em ensino de cinemática. Para isso, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura em hipermídias adaptativas e a resolução de problemas. A parte experimental do trabalho foi fundamentada na literatura em hipermídias e os resultados foram analisados com o citado aporte teórico. Para tanto, foi desenvolvida uma aproximação teórica entre a aprendizagem significativa e a teoria da carga cognitiva, juntamente com os aspectos teóricos elaborados pela literatura em hipermídia adaptativa. Em um primeiro estudo, foi desenvolvida uma metodologia exploratória para a construção de uma hipermídia programada para registrar dados referentes às respostas dos alunos, e, também, a sua navegação dentro da hipermídia durante um teste sobre velocidade média, sendo aplicado a um grupo de alunos do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio do Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, no campus Ibirubá, RS, Brasil. O primeiro estudo revelou que a atribuição teórica da dificuldade das questões foi satisfatória e que os alunos possuem a tendência de se estabilizar em determinada dificuldade No segundo estudo, aplicado sobre alunos do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio do Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, no campus Bento Gonçalves, RS, Brasil, foi abordado um estudo de caso, onde o conteúdo produzido pelos alunos foi analisado a partir da sua interação com a hipermídia num contexto de ensino de cinemática, só que agora com uma carga de matéria superior ao primeiro estudo e não apenas sobre a velocidade média. Além de corroborar a atribuição da dificuldade das questões, percebeu-se que não é possível alinhar o estilo cognitivo do aluno com o seu estilo de navegação. Sob a luz do referencial teórico, tentou-se entender esses resultados e fez-se uma crítica à lógica da tentativa de utilizar o estilo cognitivo como método de adaptação da navegação. Por fim, sugere-se uma série de diretrizes que devem ser seguidas para futuros estudos em hipermídias adaptativas no ensino de cinemática. / In this research it was analyzed the use of a hypermedia system as a evaluating instrument of previous knowledge and learning assessment, within the perspective of the cognitive load theory and of the meaningful learning theory, in the teaching of kinematics. For this, initially a review of the literature on adaptative hypermedia and problem solving. The experimental part of research was based on the literature about hypermedia and the findings were interpreted in the light of these theories. It was also made a theoretical approximation between the meaningful learning theory and the cognitive load theory, together with the theoretical features of adaptative hypermedia found in the literature. In the first study an exploratory methodology was developed for the construction of a hypermedia programmed to make records of the answers given by the students as well as their browsing within the hypermedia during a test on average speed applied to students of high school first year of the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, Ibirubá campus, Brazil. Findings of the first study suggest that the theoretical distribution of the difficult level of the questions was satisfactory and that the students tend to stay in the certain difficult. The second study was carried out with high school first year students of the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, campus Bento Gonçalves, Brazil A case study was done, in which the content produced by students in their interaction with the hypermedia in the context of kinematics teaching was analyzed, but in this case with a context load higher than in the first study that was just about average speed. In addition of corroborating the level of difficult of the question it was found that it is not possible to align the students cognitive style and their browsing style, In the light of the theoretical framework an attempt was made to interpret these findings and a critical position was assumed regarding the logic of using cognitive style as adaptative method of browsing. At the end, a series guideline is proposed for future studies about the use of adaptative hypermedia in the teaching of kinematics.

The use of robotics has recently seen significant growth in various domains such as unmanned ground/underwater/aerial vehicles, smart manufacturing, and humanoid robots. However, one of the most important and essential capabilities required for long term autonomy, which is the ability to operate robustly and safely in real-world environments, in contrast to industrial and laboratory setup is largely missing. Designing robots that can operate reliably and efficiently in cluttered and changing environments is non-trivial, especially for high degree-of-freedom (DoF) systems, i.e. robots with multiple actuators. On one hand, the dexterity offered by the kinematic redundancy allows the robot to perform dexterous manipulation tasks in complex environments, whereas on the other hand, such complex system also makes controlling and planning very challenging. To address such two interrelated problems, we exploit robot motion synthesis from three perspectives that feed into each other: end-pose planning, motion planning and motion adaptation. We propose several novel ideas in each of the three phases, using which we can efficiently synthesise dexterous manipulation motion for fixed-base robotic arms, mobile manipulators, as well as humanoid robots in cluttered and potentially changing environments. Collision-free inverse kinematics (IK), or so-called end-pose planning, a key prerequisite for other modules such as motion planning, is an important and yet unsolved problem in robotics. Such information is often assumed given, or manually provided in practice, which significantly limiting high-level autonomy. In our research, by using novel data pre-processing and encoding techniques, we are able to efficiently search for collision-free end-poses in challenging scenarios in the presence of uneven terrains. After having found the end-poses, the motion planning module can proceed. Although motion planning has been claimed as well studied, we find that existing algorithms are still unreliable for robust and safe operations in real-world applications, especially when the environment is cluttered and changing. We propose a novel resolution complete motion planning algorithm, namely the Hierarchical Dynamic Roadmap, that is able to generate collision-free motion trajectories for redundant robotic arms in extremely complicated environments where other methods would fail. While planning for fixed-base robotic arms is relatively less challenging, we also investigate into efficient motion planning algorithms for high DoF (30 - 40) humanoid robots, where an extra balance constraint needs to be taken into account. The result shows that our method is able to efficiently generate collision-free whole-body trajectories for different humanoid robots in complex environments, where other methods would require a much longer planning time. Both end-pose and motion planning algorithms compute solutions in static environments, and assume the environments stay static during execution. While human and most animals are incredibly good at handling environmental changes, the state-of-the-art robotics technology is far from being able to achieve such an ability. To address this issue, we propose a novel state space representation, the Distance Mesh space, in which the robot is able to remap the pre-planned motion in real-time and adapt to environmental changes during execution. By utilizing the proposed end-pose planning, motion planning and motion adaptation techniques, we obtain a robotic framework that significantly improves the level of autonomy. The proposed methods have been validated on various state-of-the-art robot platforms, such as UR5 (6-DoF fixed-base robotic arm), KUKA LWR (7-DoF fixed-base robotic arm), Baxter (14-DoF fixed-base bi-manual manipulator), Husky with Dual UR5 (15-DoF mobile bi-manual manipulator), PR2 (20-DoF mobile bi-manual manipulator), NASA Valkyrie (38-DoF humanoid) and many others, showing that our methods are truly applicable to solve high dimensional motion planning for practical problems.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Aging modifies a number of characteristics associated with mobility in the elderly. These changes can make of usual tasks, such as stair locomotion, a challenge in the elderly. Regular physical exercise is a valid strategy for improving mobility and minimizing functional deficits in the elderly, especially those related to daily tasks. However, a few scientists have considered the acute effects of physical exercise in the elderly. Not saying exercise is bad for the elderly, it is important to consider that acute effect from exercise can change gait patterns and increase risks of tripping and/or falling. In addition, acute effects of walking are important, as we know walking is one of the favorite exercises for the elderly. In this study we analyzed the kinematics of locomotion in the elderly when ascending stairs before and after a session of prolonged walking. Male and female participants aged 60 years old or more have taken part in this study. They were organized in a group of physically active (n=15) and sedentary (n=15). They were evaluated concerning leg preference and gait kinematics in a 3-step stair before and after a treadmill walking trial lasting 30 minutes at comfortable speed. Our main findings suggest that prolonged walking increase the risk for tripping during stair ascendant locomotion in sedentary elderly. Such affirmation is based in the lower trail limb toe clearance and lower gait speed in sedentary compared to active elderly. Our results show that acute effects are more substantial in the sedentary elderly and therefore, strategies to deal with these acute deficits can be of importance to the elderly who starts routines of physical exercise. Although there is greater risk of tripping among sedentary elderly, the gait patterns observed were similar between groups. Future investigations should assess whether a pre-exercise intervention can help in minimizing such acute risks observed. / O envelhecimento altera diversas características relacionadas com a mobilidade em idosos. Tais alterações tornam situações cotidianas, como subir escadas, mais desafiadoras para idosos. O exercício físico regular é uma das estratégias para obter benefícios para manutenção de diversas funções corporais nos idosos, incluindo a capacidade de lidar com essas tarefas cotidianas. No entanto, poucos cientistas têm considerado os efeitos agudos do exercício físico. Longe de sugerir que o exercício possa ser perigoso ao idoso, o cuidado com os efeitos agudos de uma sessão de exercício é importante pois estes podem alterar momentaneamente a tarefa de andar, e aumentar risco de tropeços e quedas. Adicionalmente, os efeitos agudos da caminhada são pertinentes por este ser um dos principais tipos de exercícios que os idosos praticam. Neste trabalho, analisamos a cinemática da locomoção em idosos ativos e sedentários durante a subida em escadas, antes e depois de uma sessão de caminhada prolongada. Participaram do estudo idosos de ambos os sexos, ativos (n=15) e sedentários (n=15) com 60 anos ou mais. Eles foram avaliados quanto à preferência lateral e cinemática da marcha durante a locomoção em uma escada com três degraus, antes e depois de uma caminhada em esteira por 30 minutos, em velocidade confortável. Nossos principais resultados sugerem que a caminhada prolongada aumenta o risco de tropeço na subida de uma escada por idosos sedentários. Tal afirmação é fundamentada pela diminuição na elevação do segundo pé que transpõe os degraus e pela menor velocidade na marcha dos idosos sedentários comparados aos idosos ativos. Nossos resultados sugerem que efeitos agudos do exercício são mais substanciais em idosos sedentários e por isso estratégias para lidar com esses déficits agudos podem ser importantes quando idosos iniciam rotinas de exercício físico. Apesar do maior risco de tropeço em idosos sedentários, os padrões de marcha em escadas foram similares nos dois grupos de idosos. Investigações futuras devem procurar saber se alguma estratégia pré-exercício pode auxiliar na minimização destes déficits agudos.