La problématique étudiée dans cette thèse concerne le guidage en formation d’une flotte de robots mobiles en environnement naturel. L’objectif poursuivi par les robots est de suivre une trajectoire connue (totalement ou partiellement) en se coordonnant avec les autres robots pour maintenir une formation décrite comme un ensemble de distances désirées entre les véhicules. Le contexte d’évolution en environnement naturel doit être pris en compte par les effets qu’il induit sur le déplacement des robots. En effet, les conditions d’adhérence sont variables et créent des glissements significatifs des roues sur le sol. Ces glissements n’étant pas directement mesurables, un observateur est mis en place, permettant d’obtenir une estimation de leur valeur. Les glissements sont alors intégrés au modèle d’évolution, décrivant ainsi un modèle cinématique étendu. En s’appuyant sur ce modèle, des lois de commande adaptatives sur l’angle de braquage et la vitesse d’avance d’un robot sont alors conçues indépendamment, asservissant respectivement son écart latéral à la trajectoire et l’interdistance curviligne de ce robot à une cible. Dans un second temps, ces lois de commande sont enrichies par un algorithme prédictif, permettant de prendre en compte le comportement de réponse des actionneurs et ainsi d’éviter les erreurs conséquentes aux retards de la réponse du système aux commandes. À partir de la loi de commande élémentaire en vitesse permettant d’assurer un asservissement précis d’un robot par rapport à une cible, une stratégie de commande globale au niveau de la flotte est établie. Celle-ci décline l’objectif de maintien de la formation en consigne d’asservissement désiré pour chaque robot. La stratégie de commande bidirectionnelle conçue stipule que chaque robot définit deux cibles que sont le robot immédiatement précédent et le robot immédiatement suivant dans la formation. La commande de vitesse de chaque robot de la formation est obtenue par une combinaison linéaire des vitesses calculées par la commande élémentaire par rapport à chacune des cibles. L’utilisation de coefficients de combinaison constants au sein de la flotte permet de prouver la stabilité de la commande en formation, puis la définition de coefficients variables est envisagée pour adapter en temps réel le comportement de la flotte. La formation peut en effet être amenée à évoluer, notamment en fonction des impératifs de sécurisation des véhicules. Pour répondre à ce besoin, chaque robot estime en temps réel une distance d’arrêt minimale en cas d’urgence et des trajectoires d’urgence pour l’évitement du robot précédent. D’après la configuration de la formation et les comportements d’urgence calculés, les distances désirées au sein de la flotte peuvent alors être modifiées en ligne afin de décrire une configuration sûre de la formation. / This thesis focuses on the issue of the control of a formation of wheeled mobile robots travelling in off-road conditions. The goal of the application is to follow a reference trajectory (entirely or partially) known beforehand. Each robot of the fleet has to track this trajectory while coordinating its motion with the other robots in order to maintain a formation described as a set of desired distances between vehicles. The off-road context has to be considered thoroughly as it creates perturbations in the motion of the robots. The contact of the tire on an irregular and slippery ground induces significant slipping and skidding. These phenomena are hardly measurable with direct sensors, therefore an observer is set up in order to get an estimation of their value. The skidding effect is included in the evolution of each robot as a side-slip angle, thus creating an extended kinematic model of evolution. From this model, adaptive control laws on steering angle and velocity for each robot are designed independently. These permit to control respectively the lateral distance to the trajectory and the curvilinear interdistance of the robot to a target. Predictive control techniques lead then to extend these control laws in order to account for the actuators behavior so that positioning errors due to the delay of the robot response to the commands are cancelled. The elementary control law on the velocity control ensures an accurate longitudinal positioning of a robot with respect to a target. It serves as a base for a global fleet control strategy which declines the overall formation maintaining goal in local positioning objective for each robot. A bidirectionnal control strategy is designed, in which each robot defines 2 targets, the immediate preceding and following robot in the fleet. The velocity control of a robot is finally defined as a linear combination of the two velocity commands obtained by the elementary control law for each target. The linear combination parameters are investigated, first defining constant parameters for which the stability of the formation is proved through Lyapunov techniques, then considering the effect of variable coefficients in order to adapt in real time the overall behavior of the formation. The formation configuration can indeed be prone to evolve, for application purposes and to guarantee the security of the robots. To fulfill this latter requirement, each robot of the fleet estimates in real time a minimal stopping distance in case of emergency and two avoidance trajectories to get around the preceding vehicle if this one suddenly stops. Given the initial configuration of the formation and the emergency behaviors calculated, the desired distances between the robots can be adapted so that the new configuration thus described ensures the security of each and every robot of the formation against potential collisions.

<p>Emission regulations and global policies to tackle climate change have forced industries and businesses to take measures to curb their impact on the environment. According to the United Nations Environment Program 2022 report on emissions [1], the transportation sector contributes to one-quarter of all energy-related CO2 emissions, and it is set to double by 2050. A recent report [2] suggests that off-road vehicles and equipment account for three-quarters of particulate matter and one-quarter of the nitrogen oxides emitted from mobile transportation sources in the US. The major challenge in decarbonizing or electrifying off-road machines is that they come in a wide range of sizes, weights, and functions, creating barriers to bringing down costs through economies of scale. Fluid power systems which are ubiquitous in these machines have been electrified in a compact and efficient manner to break even the costs of electrification. </p> <p>In off-road applications, where actuation systems heavily depend on hydraulics, there is a high demand for novel systems based on electric prime movers that can enable zero-carbon emission vehicles. An appropriate combination of electric prime movers and hydraulic machines commonly known as electrohydraulic units (EHUs) can help leverage the benefits of both these technologies. The integration of these two technologies in a single casing shaftless EHU can further maximize compactness and reduce cost. However, to achieve such an integrated EHU there is no standard procedure or recommended guidelines for equipment manufacturers owing to the interdisciplinary nature of the problem. </p> <p>This study proposes a generic design methodology to design electrohydraulic units (EHUs). As a starting point, a survey study was undertaken to compare different combinations of electric and hydraulic machines when designing an EHU. The different combinations were investigated for different operating drive cycles for their performance as well as other factors such as power-to-weight, cost, and the possibility of variable displacement. An axial piston machine (APM) was selected as a hydraulic machine (HM) to be integrated with a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) as the electric machine. </p> <p>The design methodology is demonstrated for an integrated electrohydraulic architecture with the APM housed inside the core of the PMSM. Such an architecture not only makes the overall integration much more compact but also allows for better thermal management of the EM. In such an architecture, the EM governs the overall power density of the integration and the total mass of the integration owing to inherent torque density differences. An EM design optimization is adopted for a predefined HM architecture to design the proposed EHU integration. The design optimization is used to quantify the effect of key EHU design specifications on the EM size and performance. EHU specifications such as sizing torque, operating voltage, aspect ratio, cooling efficacy, number of poles, and power-to-weight ratio have been studied to draw generic trends. These generic trends in the design specifications are used to outline clear guidelines on the impact of each of the EHU specifications for future EHU designers.</p> <p>Using the generic design trends, the design methodology is extended to size the EHU based on typical operating demands using the HM variable displacement, EM overload capability, and the EM flux weakening operation. These sizing studies allow the designers to size the EHU for the specific drive cycle operating demands and avoid oversizing the EHU. The EM flux weakening mode of operation allows the EM to be sized for a peak power level lower than the corner power of operation. The EM overload operation allows a reduction in the sustainable sizing torque lower than that of the maximum torque demand. The variable displacement in the HM can be used for improving overall EHU efficiency when selecting a low voltage or using a compact EM as well as to reduce the EM sizing torque. Two operation algorithms are proposed to define the EHU operation using variable displacement. Additionally, the sizing of a single EHU for multiple applications is also demonstrated. Such multi-utility EHU sizing can promote mass production and improve the rate of electrification in off-road machines.</p> <p>Finally, a prototype-tested EHU design based on the sizing study is demonstrated and the design considerations in such a design process are discussed. The prototype of the integrated EHU with a fixed displacement APM was able to reach the full capability of the reference APM. Thermal considerations are made on the EM sizing, to ensure the reliability of the designed EHU.  A novel self-sustained EHU architecture using the HM working fluid as a cooling fluid for the EM was designed. This was achieved by proposing a three-port valveplate design to divert part of the delivery stroke to cool the EM. A lumped parameter HM model was used to optimize this third port for an EHU prototype.</p>