The purpose of this work is to providing a general set of base classes for building simulators, for example a robot system. Instead of every time building a new simulator from the beginning, you get the already completed components from a library. The library should in that way act as a springboard for development. To do this work, there’s a lot of knowledge required in how a general robot system could look like. Therefore it was necessary to gather some information about robotics. On the basis of what the information gave, two different user cases were built. From these user cases, the components were fetched, which was supposed to be included in the library. The result of this work leads to a number of classes, which describes the components. A simple test program is also done, which handles the components. To get the classes more useful, the com-ponents must be broken down in much smaller parts. The operations on the classes should also be more realistic than what has been achieved in this work.

Robots have become increasingly adept at performing a wide variety of tasks in the world. However, many of these tasks can benefit tremendously from having more than a single robot simultaneously working on the problem. Multiple robots can aid in a search and rescue mission each scouting a subsection of the entire area in order to cover it quicker than a single robot can. Alternatively, robots with different abilities can collaborate in order to achieve goals that individually would be more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In these cases, multi-robot collaboration can provide benefits in terms of shortening search times, providing a larger mix of sensing, computing, and manipulation capabilities, or providing redundancy to the system for communications or mission accomplishment. One principle drawback of multi-robot systems is how to efficiently and effectively generate plans that use each of the team members to their fullest extent, particularly with a heterogeneous mix of capabilities. Towards this goal, I have developed a series of planning algorithms that incorporate this collaboration into the planning process. Starting with systems that use collaboration in an exploration task I show teams of homogeneous ground robots planning to efficiently explore an initially unknown space. These robots share map information and in a centralized fashion determine the best goal location for each taking into account the information gained by other robots as they move. This work is followed up with a similar exploration scheme but this time expanded to a heterogeneous air-ground robot team operating in a full 3-dimensional environment. The extra dimension adds the requirement for the robots to reason about what portions of the environment they can sense during the planning process. With an air-ground team, there are portions of the environment that can only be sensed by one of the two robots and that information informs the algorithm during the planning process. Finally, I extend the air-ground robot team to moving beyond merely collaboratively constructing the map to actually using the other robots to provide pose information for the sensor and computationally limited team members. By explicitly reasoning about when and where the robots must collaborate during the planning process, this approach can generate trajectories that are not feasible to execute if planning occurred on an individual robot basis. An additional contribution of this thesis is the development of the State Lattice Planning with Controller-based Motion Primitives (SLC) framework. While SLC was developed to support the collaborative localization of multiple robots, it can also be used by a single robot to provide a more robust means of planning. For example, using the SLC algorithm to plan using a combination of vision-based and metric-based motion primitives allows a robot to traverse a GPS-denied region.

Utvecklingen av robotar inom äldreomsorg går fort framåt. Det finns ett brett utbud av robotar för olika sammanhang. År 2050 förväntas en global fördubbling av andelen äldre människor. Robotar som kan hjälpa till i äldrevården har fått ökat politiskt intresse då den demografiska utvecklingen pekar på att andelen äldre kommer öka i omfattning. Denna rapport kommer att undersöka vilka faktorer som gör att äldre människor accepterar användandet av robotar samt hur experter inom robotik arbetar för att utveckla dessa. Studien kommer baseras på insamlad data från både äldre människor, 65 år och över, samt experter inom robotik. Till grund för uppsatsen har en mängd vetenskapliga artiklar använts. Resultatet av studien visar att faktorer som är viktiga för äldres acceptans av robotar går in under utformning, kunskap, säkerhet, integritet, lätt att använda samt uppfattad användbarhet. Studien visar att experter i nuläget arbetat väl med hänsyn till de äldre. / The development of robotics within the elderly care is moving fast forward. There is a wide range of robots for different occasions. By year 2050 it is expected that the worlds older population will be doubled. Robots that can help in the elderly care has thus gotten a political interest hence the demographic development that point to an increase in the proportion of elderly people. This essay will investigate which factors make elderly people accept the usage of robots and how experts in robotics work to develop these robots. The study will be based on data from both elderly people over 65 and experts in robotics and a number of scientific articles have been used for the essay. The results of the study show that factors that are important for older people's acceptance of robots fall under; configuration, knowledge, safety, integrity, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The study shows that experts are currently working well with regard to the elderly.

Eye tracking has many comprehensive achievements in the field of human computer interaction. Uses of human eyes as an alternative of hands are an innovative way in the human computer interaction perspective. Many application of autonomous robot control has already been developed, but we developed two different interfaces to control the articulated robot manually. The first of these interfaces is controlled by mouse and the second is controlled by eye tracking. Main focus of our thesis is to facilitate the people with motor disabilities by using their eye as an input instead of a mouse. Eye gaze tracking technique is used to send commands to perform different tasks. Interfaces are divided into different active and inactive regions. Dwell time is a well known technique which is used to execute commands through eye gaze instead of using a mouse. When a user gazes in an active region for a specific dwell time, the command is executed and the robot performs a specific task. When inactive regions are gazed at, there no command execution and no function are performed. The difference between time of performing the task by mouse and Eyetracking is shown to be 40 ms, the mouse being faster. However, a mouse cannot be used for people with motor disabilities, so the Eyetracker in this case has a decisive advantage. Keywords: Eyetracking, Interface, Articulated robot

La estimación de la pose es un elemento de gran importancia para sistemas robóticos móviles que se desenvuelven en ambientes dinámicos. Existen diversas metodologías utilizadas para estimar esta pose, siendo esencial para el desempeño de todas ellas la calidad y abundancia de las observaciones obtenidas desde el ambiente. El objetivo del presente trabajo es aumentar la cantidad y mejorar la calidad de las observaciones de un robot humanoide antropomorfo. Para esto se implementó un sistema de visión activa, el cual permite discernir qué objeto o grupo de objetos resulta más conveniente observar para reducir la incerteza en la estimación de la pose del robot, desarrollando con tal propósito la capacidad para observar simultáneamente más de un objeto. Durante el período de trabajo se realizaron cuatro tareas principales para posibilitar el funcionamiento del sistema desarrollado. Estas consistieron en: (i) implementación de un detector de faros basado en el análisis de los puntos característicos de las regiones de color,(ii) habilitación en el simulador HL-Sim de la posibilidad de observar gráficamente las poses de los objetos presentes en el mapa local del robot, (iii) implementación de la funcionalidad de realizar seguimiento por posición, la que además contó con la capacidad de planificar trayectorias para la cabeza que consideren objetos extras durante el desplazamiento y de realizar seguimiento basado en la función de distribución de probabilidad de la ubicación del objeto, (iv) implementación de un algoritmo para discernir qué elementos observar, junto con la capacidad para observarlos. Los resultados obtenidos muestran en el perceptor de faros una alta tasa detecciones correctas (92,76%) y a la vez una baja tasa de falsos positivos (1,1%), lo cual corresponde a un resultado satisfactorio. En la rutina de seguimiento, se observó coherencia entre el seguimiento por posición y el seguimiento visual (diferencia angular del orden de 1 a 3 grados), además de evidenciar el correcto funcionamiento de las capacidades implementadas. Por último, en la rutina de visión activa los resultados y el comportamiento observado, revelan un correcto funcionamiento bajo un espacio de acciones en el que se consideran posibles la observación de objetos individualmente o en forma grupal. En conclusión, los resultados obtenidos revelan el buen funcionamiento de los métodos y algoritmos propuestos. Particularmente, el sistema implementado para la selección de los objetos a observar, a pesar de no mostrar una tendencia clara respecto a la reducción de la incerteza, permitió generar observaciones de diferentes objetos o grupos de estos, lo que resulta positivo para el sistema pues genera un mayor flujo de información que ingresa a éste.

The surgical robot experienced rapid uptake throughout hospitals in the US despite lack of clinical evidence that it is superior to existing methods and undeterred by its high cost. This type of technology may be a “weapon” in the medical arms race hypothesis which asserts that competition among hospitals may be welfare reducing wherein it encourages resource use that is not commensurate with beneficial health outcomes. This paper is a case-study of the diffusion of the surgical robot among hospitals in Florida. We address the medical arms race hypothesis directly by investigating whether a hospital’s decision to adopt a robot is a function of the neighboring, competing hospitals’ decisions to do so. Using a spatial autoregressive probit model, we find that the spatial coefficient is significant and negative. That is, when neighboring hospitals operate a robot, a given hospital is less likely to operate one. Indeed, hospitals appear to consider the behavior of rival hospitals, but not in a way that would be consistent with a medical arms race. Support is lent to the hypothesis that as more hospitals become providers of robotic-assisted surgery, the less profitable it becomes to enter the market.

Detta arbete undersöker om en Evolutionär Algoritm (EA) kan användas fördelaktigt för vägplanering i datorspel genom att utvärdera den mot industristandarden A*. Den valda algoritmen är utvecklad med syftet att planera vägar för robotar. Ett område som anses snarlikt till vägplanering för virtuella karaktärer i datorspel. Genomförandet av arbetet har visat att flera av de algoritmer som övervägdes innehåller brister som gör implementation av dem problematisk. Därför har flera avvikelser från algoritmens specifikation gjorts. Trots detta så har arbetet givit intressanta resultat. Endast i extremfall av mycket stora nivåer med få hinder så kan EA:n prestera bättre än A*. Däremot producerar EA:n vägar som är intressanta från ett utseendemässigt perspektiv. Den icke-deterministiska naturen hos EA:n resulterar även i olika vägar vid varje exekvering. Slutsatsen för arbetet är därmed att intresset för fortsatt forskning sannolikt finns i utseendet på de vägar som EA:n beräknar snarare än dess prestanda.

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Le chapitre 1 est pour l'essentiel une brève introduction générale qui donne le contexte générale de la planification et présente l'organisation du document dans son ensemble et quelques uns des points clés retenus : robot humanoïde, environnement non statique, perception par vision artificielle, et représentation de cet environnement par grilles d'occupation. Dans le chapitre 2, après une revue de littérature bien menée, l'auteur propose de considérer les points de repère de l'environnement dès la phase de planification de chemin afin de rendre plus robuste l'exécution des déplacements en cas d'évolution de l'environnement entre le moment où la planification est menée et celui où le robot se déplace ( évolution étant entendu comme liée à une amélioration de la connaissance par mise à jour, ou due à un changement de l'environnement lui-même). Le concept est décrit et une formalisation proposée. Le chapitre 3 s'intéresse en détail à la planification dans le cas d'environnements dynamiques. Les méthodes existantes, nombreuses, sont tout d'abord analysées et bien présentées. Le choix est fait ici de décrire l'environnement comme étant décomposé en cellules, regroupant elles-mêmes des voxels, éléments atomiques de la représentation. L'environnement étant changeant, l'auteur propose de réévaluer le plan préétabli à partir d'une bonne détection de la zone qui a pu se trouver modifiée dans l'environnement. L'approche est validée expérimentalement en utilisant une des plateformes robotiques du LAAS qui dispose de bonnes capacités de localisation : le manipulateur mobile Jido étant à ce jour plus performant sur ce plan que l'humanoïde HRP2, c'est lui qui a été utilisé. Ces expérimentations donnent des indications concordantes sur l'efficacité de l'approche retenue. Notons également que la planification s'appuie sur une boite englobante de l'humanoïde, et non pas sur une représentation plus riche (multi-degré-deliberté). En revanche, c'est bien de planification pour l'humanoïde considéré dans toute sa complexité qu'il s'agit au chapitre 4 : on s'intéresse ici à tous les degrés de liberté du robot. L'auteur propose des évolutions de méthodes existantes et en particulier sur la manière de tirer profit de la redondance cinématique. L'approche est bien décrite et permet d'inclure une phase d'optimisation de la posture globale du robot. Des exemples illustrent le propos et sont l'occasion de comparaison avec d'autres méthodes. Le chapitre 5 s'intéresse à la manière de modéliser l'environnement, sachant qu'on s'intéresse ici au cas d'une perception par vision artificielle, et précisément au cas de l'humanoïde, robot d'assurer lui-même cette perception au fur et à mesure de son avancée dans l'environnement. On est donc dans le cadre de la recherche de la meilleure vue suivante qui doit permettre d'enrichir au mieux la connaissance qu'a le robot de son environnement. L'approche retenue fait à nouveau appel à la boite englobante de l'humanoïde et non à sa représentation complète ; il sera intéressant de voir dans le futur ce que pourrait apporter la prise en compte des degrés de liberté de la tête ou du torse à la résolution de ce problème. Le chapitre 6 décrit la phase d'intégration de tous ces travaux sur la plateforme HRP2 du LAAS-CNRS, partie importante de tout travail de roboticien. / This thesis starts by proposing a new framework for motion planning using stochastic maps, such as occupancy-grid maps. In autonomous robotics applications, the robot's map of the environment is typically constructed online, using techniques from SLAM. These methods can construct a dense map of the environment, or a sparse map that contains a set of identifiable landmarks. In this situation, path planning would be performed using the dense map, and the path would be executed in a sensor-based fashion, using feedback control to track the reference path based on sensor information regarding landmark position. Maximum-likelihood estimation techniques are used to model the sensing process as well as to estimate the most likely nominal path that will be followed by the robot during execution of the plan. The proposed approach is potentially a practical way to plan under the specific sorts of uncertainty confronted by a humanoid robot. The next chapter, presents methods for constructing free paths in dynamic environments. The chapter begins with a comprehensive review of past methods, ranging from modifying sampling-based methods for the dynamic obstacle problem, to methods that were specifically designed for this problem. The thesis proposes to adapt a method reported originally by Leven et al.. so that it can be used to plan paths for humanoid robots in dynamic environments. The basic idea of this method is to construct a mapping from voxels in a discretized representation of the workspace to vertices and arcs in a configuration space network built using sampling-based planning methods. When an obstacle intersects a voxel in the workspace, the corresponding nodes and arcs in the configuration space roadmap are marked as invalid. The part of the network that remains comprises the set of valid candidate paths. The specific approach described here extends previous work by imposing a two-level hierarchical structure on the representation of the workspace. The methods described in Chapters 2 and 3 essentially deal with low-dimensional problems (e.g., moving a bounding box). The reduction in dimensionality is essential, since the path planning problem confronted in these chapters is complicated by uncertainty and dynamic obstacles, respectively. Chapter 4 addresses the problem of planning the full motion of a humanoid robot (whole-body task planning). The approach presented here is essentially a four-step approach. First, multiple viable goal configurations are generated using a local task solver, and these are used in a classical path planning approach with one initial condition and multiple goals. This classical problem is solved using an RRT-based method. Once a path is found, optimization methods are applied to the goal posture. Finally, classic path optimization algorithms are applied to the solution path and posture optimization. The fifth chapter describes algorithms for building a representation of the environment using stereo vision as the sensing modality. Such algorithms are necessary components of the autonomous system proposed in the first chapter of the thesis. A simple occupancy-grid based method is proposed, in which each voxel in the grid is assigned a number indicating the probability that it is occupied. The representation is updated during execution based on values received from the sensing system. The sensor model used is a simple Gaussian observation model in which measured distance is assumed to be true distance plus additive Gaussian noise. Sequential Bayes updating is then used to incrementally update occupancy values as new measurements are received. Finally, chapter 6 provides some details about the overall system architecture, and in particular, about those components of the architecture that have been taken from existing software (and therefore, do not themselves represent contributions of the thesis). Several software systems are described, including GIK, WorldModelGrid3D, HppDynamicObstacle, and GenoM.

The recent advent of consumer grade Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) provides a new revolutionary and accessible way to control computers. BCI translate cognitive electroencephalography (EEG) signals into computer or robotic commands using specially built headsets. Capable of enhancing traditional interfaces that require interaction with a keyboard, mouse or touchscreen, BCI systems present tremendous opportunities to benefit various fields. Movement restricted users can especially benefit from these interfaces. In this thesis, we present a new way to interface a consumer-grade BCI solution to a mobile robot. A Red-Green-Blue-Depth (RGBD) camera is used to enhance the navigation of the robot with cognitive thoughts as commands. We introduce an interface presenting 3 different methods of robot-control: 1) a fully manual mode, where a cognitive signal is interpreted as a command, 2) a control-flow manual mode, reducing the likelihood of false-positive commands and 3) an automatic mode assisted by a remote RGBD camera. We study the application of this work by navigating the mobile robot on a planar surface using the different control methods while measuring the accuracy and usability of the system. Finally, we assess the newly designed interface’s role in the design of future generation of BCI solutions.