Virtual Reality is a powerful tool for training, simulation, and computer aided design. The sensation of being in a real environment, while interacting with VR simulation is usually referred as sense of presence or sense of immersion. In most of the current applications the focus has been in providing a good visual and sound feedback to the user. However, the lack of mechanoreception/touch and proprioception/force feedback, or in other words, the impossibility of really touching the virtual objects makes the interaction unreal and more difficult. The rapid advances in VR and the development of techniques such as virtual medicine, virtual training and virtual prototyping have highlighted the lack of an effective input/feedback interface in these technologies and this led to research activity in all aspects of input and feedback technology related to touch/force sensation and reflection. This work presents the development of a generic integrated haptic (touch/force) feedback interface for use in VR and telepresence applications. The interface presented here consists of a 7 DOF input control/force feedback exoskeleton and a multi-functional input control/touch feedback glove interface. The arm exoskeleton monitors the motions of the human arm and feed back force sensations using ultra light weight pneumatic Muscle Actuators (pMA) to obtain high power weight outputs in a light comfortable and inherently safe structure. The glove interface monitors the motions of the hand and feed back touch sensations such as contact pressure, surface texture and temperature. These hardware systems have been integrated together and have been interfaced with a virtual reality system to permit exploration and testing of interactions with virtual environments. It is believed that the use of the system in VR, particularly, in all design and rapid prototyping applications will provide enhanced performance and will augment the design-production process.

Currently, games with rich environments allowing a wide range of possible interactions and supporting a large number of physical simulations make use of a large number of scripts and bespoke physical simulations, adapted to fit the needs of the game. This thesis proposes a methodology that can be used to tie together various different physical simulations, both off-the-shelf and bespoke, such as rigid body physics, electrical and magnetic simulations to give something greater than the sum of the individual parts. We present a notation for designing the overall physical simulation and a means for the different parts to interact. Experiments using an implementation of the methodology containing electricity, rigid body simulation, magnetics (including electro-magnetics), buoyancy and sound show that it is possible to model everyday objects such an electric motor or a doorbell. These object work ‘as expected’, without the need for special scripts and new, originally unexpected, interactions are possible without further modification of the experiment setup.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In nursing education, it is common for students to collaborate and make decisions as a group in simulations. One of the vital nursing competencies is students’ ability to make sound clinical judgments and decision-making in simulation. Teamwork among students in simulation significantly affects their critical thinking and clinical reasoning. However, how students collaborate and make decisions in simulation is a complex phenomenon and not well studied and understood. In addition, most existing decision-making frameworks, such as Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, focus solely on individual decision-making. Alternatively, teamwork and collaboration frameworks, such as TeamSTEPPS®, emphasize interprofessional collaboration rather than intraprofessional or peer-to-peer collaboration. Furthermore, peer collaboration and decision-making cannot be accurately measured without a theoretical framework. Because clinical decision-making in nursing practice is a complex process that involves peer collaboration, more research is needed to explore how nursing students collaborate and make decisions in simulation. This qualitative study comprises of a hybrid concept analysis and Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory to explore prelicensure nursing student’s peer collaborative clinical decision-making (PCCDM). The concept analysis develops a comprehensive definition of PCCDM based on theoretical and empirical data. The grounded theory develops the theoretical framework that captures the process of PCCDM, which consists of the three major domains of group cognition, behavior, and emotion. These domains undergo the peer regulatory process of awareness, communication, and regulation within the individual and collaborative space at various simulation phases. Additionally, a thematic analysis further explores group emotion in PCCDM as the domain is the least studied in nursing simulation. This study provides the framework to support healthcare and nursing simulation involving peer collaboration and decision-making.

La représentation des connaissances et le raisonnement sont au cœur du grand défi de l'Intelligence Artificielle. Plus précisément, dans le contexte des applications robotiques, la représentation des connaissances et les approches de raisonnement sont nécessaires pour résoudre les problèmes de décision auxquels sont confrontés les robots autonomes lorsqu'ils évoluent dans des environnements incertains, dynamiques et complexes ou pour assurer une interaction naturelle dans l'environnement humain. Dans un système d'interaction robotique, l'information doit être représentée et traitée à différents niveaux d'abstraction: du capteur aux actions et plans. Ainsi, la représentation des connaissances fournit les moyens de décrire l'environnement avec différents niveaux d'abstraction qui permettent d'effectuer des décisions appropriées. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une méthodologie pour résoudre le problème de l'interaction multimodale en décrivant une architecture d'interaction sémantique basée sur un cadre qui démontre une approche de représentation et de raisonnement avec le langage (EKRL environment knowledge representation language), afin d'améliorer l'interaction entre les robots et leur environnement. Ce cadre est utilisé pour gérer le processus d'interaction en représentant les connaissances impliquées dans l'interaction avec EKRL et en raisonnant pour faire une inférence. Le processus d'interaction comprend la fusion des valeurs des différents capteurs pour interpréter et comprendre ce qui se passe dans l'environnement, et la fission qui suggère un ensemble détaillé d'actions qui sont mises en œuvre. Avant que ces actions ne soient mises en œuvre par les actionneurs, ces actions sont d'abord évaluées dans un environnement virtuel qui reproduit l'environnement réel pour évaluer la faisabilité de la mise en œuvre de l'action dans le monde réel. Au cours de ces processus, des capacités de raisonnement sont nécessaires pour garantir une exécution globale d'un scénario d'interaction. Ainsi, nous avons fourni un ensemble de techniques de raisonnement pour effectuer de l’inférence déterministe grâce à des algorithmes d'unification et des inférences probabilistes pour gérer des connaissances incertaines en combinant des modèles relationnels statistiques à l'aide des réseaux logiques de Markov (MLN) avec EKRL. Le travail proposé est validé à travers des scénarios qui démontrent l’applicabilité et la performance de notre travail dans les applications du monde réel. / Knowledge Representation and Reasoning is at the heart of the great challenge of Artificial Intelligence. More specifically, in the context of robotic applications, knowledge representation and reasoning approaches are necessary to solve decision problems that autonomous robots face when it comes to evolve in uncertain, dynamic and complex environments or to ensure a natural interaction in human environment. In a robotic interaction system, information has to be represented and processed at various levels of abstraction: From sensor up to actions and plans. Thus, knowledge representation provides the means to describe the environment with different abstraction levels which allow performing appropriate decisions. In this thesis we propose a methodology to solve the problem of multimodal interaction by describing a semantic interaction architecture based on a framework that demonstrates an approach for representing and reasoning with environment knowledge representation language (EKRL), to enhance interaction between robots and their environment. This framework is used to manage the interaction process by representing the knowledge involved in the interaction with EKRL and reasoning on it to make inference. The interaction process includes fusion of values from different sensors to interpret and understand what is happening in the environment, and the fission which suggests a detailed set of actions that are for implementation. Before such actions are implemented by actuators, these actions are first evaluated in a virtual environment which mimics the real-world environment to assess the feasibility of the action implementation in the real world. During these processes, reasoning abilities are necessary to guarantee a global execution of a given interaction scenario. Thus, we provided EKRL framework with reasoning techniques to draw deterministic inferences thanks to unification algorithms and probabilistic inferences to manage uncertain knowledge by combining statistical relational models using Markov logic Networks(MLN) framework with EKRL. The proposed work is validated through scenarios that demonstrate the usability and the performance of our framework in real world applications.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à l 'étude d'un micro-robot destiné à la mise en oeuvre d'une technique de chirurgie mini-invasive pour le traitement des anévrismes de l'artère aorte abdominale. Ce micro-robot placé à l'extrémité d'un cathéter, rendant ce dernier actif, permettra la navigation à l'intérieur de l'artère en évitant les contacts avec les parois de celle-ci. Le système sera destiné à l'apprentissage du geste chirurgical et à l'assistance du chirurgienpendant l'opération. De par sa structure et ses propriétés physiques, le micro-robot, pouvantêtre composé de plusieurs modules élémentaires, entre dans la catégorie des robots continuum. Dans notre étude, un module élémentaire est considéré comme étant un robot parallèle. Lesmodèles géométriques et cinématiques inverses ont alors été établis en utilisant les techniques dela robotique parallèle. L'approche de modélisation proposée permet de faire ressortir explicitement du modèle les paramètres géométriques du micro-robot. Une étude sur l'identificationde ces paramètres a été effectuée par le calibrage du modèle géométrique inverse. Des résultatsde simulation sont présentés validant d'une part les modèles développés et d'autre part la méthode de calibrage proposée. Afin de mettre nos modèles en situation, nous avons développé unsimulateur tridimensionnel intégrant le modèle d'un segment de l'artère, le modèle du micro-robotet un syntaxeur à retour de force. La mise en place d'une navigation active, planifiée etguidée dans ce simulateur permet de contraindre les gestes du chirurgien lors de la navigation du micro-robot à l'intérieur de l'artère / In this thesis, we are interested in a micro-robot study for the implementation of a mini-invasivesurgery technique. The medical application concerns the treatment of the artery abdominal aorta aneurysms. This micro-robot located at the extremity of the catheter permits thecatheter movements into the artery avoiding minimizing contacts with the artery walls. The system can be used for the surgical gesture learning and for the surgeon assistance during the medical operation. Because of its structure and its physical properties the micro-robot is considered as a continuum robot. It is composed of one or several elementary modules. In our study we consider each elementary module as a parallel robot. Then the inverse kinematics model has been established by using techniques of parallel robotics. The proposed modelling approach allows the expression of the model according to the micro-robot geometric parameters. A study on the identification of these parameters has been developed by an inverse geometric modelcalibration. The given simulation results validate the developed models on the one hand, the proposed calibration method on the other hand. We have developed a three-dimensional simulator integrating the model of an artery segment, the micro-robot model, and a joystick with force feedback. The implementation of active, planned and guided navigation on this simulator allows to constrain the surgeon gestures during the movements of the micro-robot inside the artery

This study seeks to answer the overarching question of how the use of a digitally delivered arts curriculum, including a virtual museum environment, affects teacher's perceptions of curriculum integration and whether they believe it is successful in the classroom. This study is based on the analysis of archival data collected during a pilot study that was conducted in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017. This pilot study used a qualitative, descriptive approach and included the use of surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations. The main focus of this study was on the experiences of a selection of educators who took part in the pilot study and summer training sessions to determine the successes and challenges they faced as they sought to the implement the experimental digitally delivered arts curriculum. The results of the study should improve the field's understanding of how virtual environments and technology can influence teacher experiences and perceptions of their potential value for learning as they continue to take hold in public schools worldwide.

<p>Analiza arhitektonskih objekata u pogledu ispitivanja performansi aktuelna je oblast istraživanja u domenu arhitekture i urbanizma. U kontekstu BIM tehnologije i tehnologije virtuelne realnlosti formiran je model koji predviđa njihovu upotrebu u cilju poboljšanja procesa donošenja odluka u arhitektonskom projektovanju. Modelom je predviđena automatizacija analiza koje se mogu sprovesti na idejnom arhitektonskom projektu uz pomoć podataka koji se mogu dobiti korišćenjem BIM tehnologije. U okviru konceptualnog modela zasnovanog na metodu centralnog modela predviđene su višesturke analize od koje se mogu klasifikovati u jednu od tri grupe: Analiza objekta sa ispitivanjem svih ili većeg broja .ifc klasa, analiza pojedinih .ifc klasa i analiza spoljašnjih gabarita objekta. Prema pod-modelima predstavljena je analiza cene koštanja objekta, analiza energetske efikasnosti i analiza godišnje osvetljenosti objekta.</p> / <p>Performance based analysis of architectural structures has become an important area of research in the field of architecture and urban planning. The conceptual model is presented in context of BIM and virtual reality technology usage for decision making processes in architecture. The model defines automation of several analysis that can be performed in early design stage of architectural project using data collected from BIM technology software. Multiple analysis are defined in central model framework and classified into three groups: Analysis of the object with the examination of all or a large number of .ifc class, analysis of individual .ifc class and analysis of the external properties of structures. According to these sub-models, analysis of the cost estimate, analysis of energy efficiency and analysis of daylight illumination are presented in dissertation.</p>