Commande d'un robot collaboratif redondant en interaction avec des humains dans un contexte de manipulation et d'assemblage

Cette thèse présente deux nouvelles architectures de commande pour les interactions physiques humain-robot (pHRIs). Ces architectures sont spéciquement développées dans une vision d'implantation en industrie pour les manipulations d'assemblage. En effet, deux types de robots collaboratifs adaptés à dfférentes contraintes de l'industrie et ayant des interfaces d'interactions physiques différentes sont étudiés en utilisant chacun leur propre architecture de commande. Le premier robot collaboratif développé est un manipulateur entièrement actionné permettant des pHRIs dans son espace libre, c.-à-d., des interactions unilatérales, et des pHRIs lorsque ses mouvements sont contraints par un environnement quelconque, c.-à-d., des interactions bilatérales. Les interactions de l'humain peuvent s'effectuer sur n'importe quelles parties du robot grâce aux capteurs de couples dans les articulations. Cependant, si une amplication des forces de l'humain sur l'environnement est désirée, alors il est nécessaire d'utiliser le capteur d'efforts supplémentaire attaché au robot. Ceci permet à la commande, en combinant les lectures du capteur d'efforts à l'effecteur, d'utiliser le ratio des forces appliquées indépendamment par l'opérateur et par l'environnement an de générer l'amplication désirée. Cette loi de commande est basée sur l'admittance variable qui a déjà démontré ses bénéces pour les interactions unilatérales. Ici, l'admittance variable est adaptée aux interactions bilatérales an d'obtenir un seul algorithme de commande pour tous les états. Une loi de transition continue peut alors être dénie an d'atteindre les performances optimales pour chaque mode d'interaction qui, en fait, nécessitent chacun des valeurs de paramètres spéciques. Le cheminement et les résultats pour arriver à cette première architecture de commande sont présentés en trois étapes. Premièrement, la loi de commande est implémentée sur un prototype à un degré de liberté (ddl) an de tester le potentiel d'amplication et de transition, ainsi que la stabilité de l'interaction. Deuxièmement, un algorithme d'optimisation du régulateur pour les interactions bilatérales avec un robot à plusieurs ddls est développé. Cet algorithme vérie la stabilité robuste du système en utilisant l'approche des valeurs singulières structurées (- analysis), pour ensuite faire une optimisation des régulateurs stables en fonction d'une variable liée à la conguration du manipulateur. Ceci permet d'obtenir une loi de commande variable qui rend le système stable de façon robuste en atteignant des performances optimales peu iii importe la conguration des articulations du robot. La loi de commande trouvée utilise un séquencement de gain pour les paramètres du régulateur par admittance durant les interactions bilatérales. La stabilité et la performance du système sont validées avec des tests d'impact sur différents environnements. Finalement, la loi de commande en admittance variable optimale est implémentée et validée sur un robot manipulateur à plusieurs ddls (Kuka LWR 4) à l'aide de suivis de trajectoire pour des interactions unilatérales et bilatérales. Le deuxième robot collaboratif développé est un manipulateur partiellement actif et partiellement passif. L'architecture mécanique du robot est appelée macro-mini. Tous les degrés de liberté actionnés faisant partie du macro manipulateur sont doublés par les articulations passives du mini manipulateur. Le robot est alors sous-actionné. L'opérateur humain interagit uniquement avec le mini manipulateur, et donc, avec les articulations passives ce qui élimine tous délais dans la dynamique d'interaction. Ce robot collaboratif permet de dénir une loi de commande qui génère une très faible impédance lors des interactions de l'opérateur, et ce, même pour des charges utiles élevées. Malgré que des amplications de force ne peuvent être produites, les interactions bilatérales ont une stabilité assurée peu importe la situation. Aussi, les modes coopératif et autonome du robot utilisent les mêmes valeurs de paramètres de commande ce qui permet une transition imperceptible d'un à l'autre. La nouvelle loi de commande est comparée sur plusieurs aspects avec la commande en admittance variable précé- demment développée. Les résultats démontrent que cette nouvelle loi de commande combinée à l'architecture active-passive du macro-mini manipulateur, appelé uMan, permet des interactions intuitives et sécuritaires bien supérieures à ce qu'un système entièrement actionné peut générer. De plus, pour l'assistance autonome, une détection de collision avancée et une plani cation de trajectoire adaptée à l'architecture du robot sont développées. Des validations expérimentales sont présentées an d'évaluer la facilité à produire des manipulations nes, de démontrer la sécurité du système et d'établir la viabilité du concept en industrie.This thesis presents two novel control architectures for physical human-robot interactions (pHRIs) which are specically designed for the assembly industry. Indeed, two types of pHRI manipulators, each adapted to different industrial constraints and with different physical interaction interfaces, are studied each with their own control architecture. The rst pHRI manipulator designed is fully actuated and allows pHRIs in its free space, i.e., unilateral interactions, as well as pHRIs when its motion is constrained by the environment, i.e., bilateral interactions. The human force input can be applied on any of the manipulator's links because of the torque sensors in the robot joints. However, if a human force amplication is desired on the environment, then it is required to use the additional force sensor appended to the robot. Using this approach, combined with the signal of the force sensor at the end effector, it is then possible to use the ratio between the human and environment forces in order to generate the desired amplication. This control law is based on the concept of variable admittance control which has already demonstrated its great benets for unilateral interactions. Here, this concept is extended to bilateral interactions in order to obtain a single control algorithm for both states. A continuous transition can thus be implemented between both interaction modes which require different parameter values in order to achieve their optimal performance. The workow and results to achieve this rst control architecture are presented in three steps. Firstly, the control law is implemented on a single-degree-of-freedom (dof) prototype in order to test the amplication and transition potential, as well as the stability of the interaction. Secondly, a control optimisation algorithm is developed for bilateral interactions with a multidof robot. This algorithm assesses the system's robust stability using the structured singular value approach (-analysis), to afterwards, optimize the stable controllers in relation to a manipulator's conguration-dependent variable. This approach leads to a variable control law yielding a robustly stable system that can reach optimal performances for any robot conguration. In fact, the admittance regulator parameters follow a gain scheduling paradigm for bilateral interactions. The stability and performance of the system are assessed using impact tests on different environments. Finally, the optimal variable admittance control law is implemented and validated on a multi-dof robot (Kuka LWR 4) using different trajectory v tracking tasks for unilateral and bilateral interactions. The second pHRI manipulator designed is partially active and partially passive. The robot's mechanical architecture is known as a macro-mini. All actuated dofs which are part of the macro manipulator are doubled with passive joints which are part of the mini manipulator. This robot is therefore underactuated. The human operator interacts solely with the mini manipulator and, thereby, solely with the passive joints which leads to an interaction dynamics free of any delay. It is possible with this pHRI manipulator to dene a control law that yields an extremely low interaction impedance, even for heavy payloads. Despite the fact that force amplication is impractical with this kind of mechanism, bilateral interactions are stable for all sorts of contact. Moreover, the robot's cooperative and autonomous modes use similar control parameter values which enables an imperceptible transition from one mode to the other. The new control law is compared on different aspects with the previously-dened variable admittance control law. Results show that this new control law combined with the active-passive macro-mini manipulator, also known as uMan, leads to intuitive and safe interactions that are considerably superior to any interaction using a fully actuated manipulator. Furthermore, for the autonomous mode, an advanced collision detection and a specicallyadapted trajectory planning are developed. Experimental validations are presented in order to assess the ease of ne manipulation, to demonstrate the system's safety, and to establish the viability of the concept for the industry

Application of wearable sensors in actuation and control of powered ankle exoskeletons: a Comprehensive Review

Powered ankle exoskeletons (PAEs) are robotic devices developed for gait assistance, rehabilitation, and augmentation. To fulfil their purposes, PAEs vastly rely heavily on their sensor systems. Human–machine interface sensors collect the biomechanical signals from the human user to inform the higher level of the control hierarchy about the user’s locomotion intention and requirement, whereas machine–machine interface sensors monitor the output of the actuation unit to ensure precise tracking of the high-level control commands via the low-level control scheme. The current article aims to provide a comprehensive review of how wearable sensor technology has contributed to the actuation and control of the PAEs developed over the past two decades. The control schemes and actuation principles employed in the reviewed PAEs, as well as their interaction with the integrated sensor systems, are investigated in this review. Further, the role of wearable sensors in overcoming the main challenges in developing fully autonomous portable PAEs is discussed. Finally, a brief discussion on how the recent technology advancements in wearable sensors, including environment—machine interface sensors, could promote the future generation of fully autonomous portable PAEs is provided

Fractional order control in haptics

Fractional order (FO) calculus—a generalization of the traditional calculus to arbitrary order differointegration-is an effective mathematical tool that broadens the modeling boundaries of the familiar integer order calculus. The effectiveness of this remarkable mathematical tool has been observed in many practical applications. For instance, FO models enable faithful representation of viscoelastic materials that exhibit frequency dependent stiffness and damping characteristics within a single mechanical element. In this dissertation, we propose and analyze the use of FO controllers in haptic systems and provide a systematic analysis of this new control method in the light of the fundamental trade-off between the stability robustness and the transparency performance. FO controllers provide a promising generalization that allows one to better shape the frequency response of a system to achieve more favorable robustness and performance characteristics. In particular, the use of FO calculus in systems and control applications provides the user with an extra design variable, the order of differointegration, which can be tuned to improve the desired behavior of the overall system. We introduce a generalized FO nondimensionalized sampled-data model for the haptic system and study its frequency dependent behaviour. Then, we analyze the stability of this system with and without a human operator in the loop. Moreover, we experimentally verify the stability analysis and demonstrate that the experiments capture the essence of the stability behaviour between different differentiation orders. The passivity analysis is conducted for two cases: the first approach takes the environment model into account and ensures the passivity of the haptic system together with the virtual environment, while the second approach assumes the presence of a passive environment model in the control loop and introduces a controller to the closed-loop system that acts like a buffer between the haptic display and the virtual environment. The second approach is more suitable for complex environments as it investigates the passivity properties of the two-port haptic system together with a virtual coupler. After characterizing the stability boundaries for the FO haptic system, we analyse the performance of the system by studying the transparency performance of the haptic rendering with such controllers. In particular, we employ effective impedance analysis to decompose the closed-loop impedance of a haptic system into its parts and study the contribution of FO elements on the stiffness and damping rendering characteristics of the system. Finally, we apply the theoretical results to a novel haptic rendering scenario: haptic rendering of viscoelastic materials. A fractional order mathematical model for the human prostate tissue with history depended stress and deflection behavior, is chosen as the viscoelastic physical system to be rendered. The stress relaxation of the haptic rendering is verified against the experimental data, indicating a high fidelity rendering

Towards High-Frequency Tracking and Fast Edge-Aware Optimization

This dissertation advances the state of the art for AR/VR tracking systems by increasing the tracking frequency by orders of magnitude and proposes an efficient algorithm for the problem of edge-aware optimization. AR/VR is a natural way of interacting with computers, where the physical and digital worlds coexist. We are on the cusp of a radical change in how humans perform and interact with computing. Humans are sensitive to small misalignments between the real and the virtual world, and tracking at kilo-Hertz frequencies becomes essential. Current vision-based systems fall short, as their tracking frequency is implicitly limited by the frame-rate of the camera. This thesis presents a prototype system which can track at orders of magnitude higher than the state-of-the-art methods using multiple commodity cameras. The proposed system exploits characteristics of the camera traditionally considered as flaws, namely rolling shutter and radial distortion. The experimental evaluation shows the effectiveness of the method for various degrees of motion. Furthermore, edge-aware optimization is an indispensable tool in the computer vision arsenal for accurate filtering of depth-data and image-based rendering, which is increasingly being used for content creation and geometry processing for AR/VR. As applications increasingly demand higher resolution and speed, there exists a need to develop methods that scale accordingly. This dissertation proposes such an edge-aware optimization framework which is efficient, accurate, and algorithmically scales well, all of which are much desirable traits not found jointly in the state of the art. The experiments show the effectiveness of the framework in a multitude of computer vision tasks such as computational photography and stereo.Comment: PhD thesi

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 4

Papers presented at the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics are compiled. The theme of the conference was man-machine collaboration in space. The conference provided a forum for researchers and engineers to exchange ideas on the research and development required for the application of telerobotic technology to the space systems planned for the 1990's and beyond. Volume 4 contains papers related to the following subject areas: manipulator control; telemanipulation; flight experiments (systems and simulators); sensor-based planning; robot kinematics, dynamics, and control; robot task planning and assembly; and research activities at the NASA Langley Research Center

The 1st International Conference on Computational Engineering and Intelligent Systems

Computational engineering, artificial intelligence and smart systems constitute a hot multidisciplinary topic contrasting computer science, engineering and applied mathematics that created a variety of fascinating intelligent systems. Computational engineering encloses fundamental engineering and science blended with the advanced knowledge of mathematics, algorithms and computer languages. It is concerned with the modeling and simulation of complex systems and data processing methods. Computing and artificial intelligence lead to smart systems that are advanced machines designed to fulfill certain specifications. This proceedings book is a collection of papers presented at the first International Conference on Computational Engineering and Intelligent Systems (ICCEIS2021), held online in the period December 10-12, 2021. The collection offers a wide scope of engineering topics, including smart grids, intelligent control, artificial intelligence, optimization, microelectronics and telecommunication systems. The contributions included in this book are of high quality, present details concerning the topics in a succinct way, and can be used as excellent reference and support for readers regarding the field of computational engineering, artificial intelligence and smart system

Kinematics and Robot Design II (KaRD2019) and III (KaRD2020)

This volume collects papers published in two Special Issues “Kinematics and Robot Design II, KaRD2019” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KRD2019) and “Kinematics and Robot Design III, KaRD2020” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KaRD2020), which are the second and third issues of the KaRD Special Issue series hosted by the open access journal robotics.The KaRD series is an open environment where researchers present their works and discuss all topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. It aims at being an established reference for researchers in the field as other serial international conferences/publications are. Even though the KaRD series publishes one Special Issue per year, all the received papers are peer-reviewed as soon as they are submitted and, if accepted, they are immediately published in MDPI Robotics. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on “mechanisms and robotics”.KaRD2019 together with KaRD2020 received 22 papers and, after the peer-review process, accepted only 17 papers. The accepted papers cover problems related to theoretical/computational kinematics, to biomedical engineering and to other design/applicative aspects

Parallel Manipulators

In recent years, parallel kinematics mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the academic and industrial communities due to potential applications not only as robot manipulators but also as machine tools. Generally, the criteria used to compare the performance of traditional serial robots and parallel robots are the workspace, the ratio between the payload and the robot mass, accuracy, and dynamic behaviour. In addition to the reduced coupling effect between joints, parallel robots bring the benefits of much higher payload-robot mass ratios, superior accuracy and greater stiffness; qualities which lead to better dynamic performance. The main drawback with parallel robots is the relatively small workspace. A great deal of research on parallel robots has been carried out worldwide, and a large number of parallel mechanism systems have been built for various applications, such as remote handling, machine tools, medical robots, simulators, micro-robots, and humanoid robots. This book opens a window to exceptional research and development work on parallel mechanisms contributed by authors from around the world. Through this window the reader can get a good view of current parallel robot research and applications

Robotics 2010

Without a doubt, robotics has made an incredible progress over the last decades. The vision of developing, designing and creating technical systems that help humans to achieve hard and complex tasks, has intelligently led to an incredible variety of solutions. There are barely technical fields that could exhibit more interdisciplinary interconnections like robotics. This fact is generated by highly complex challenges imposed by robotic systems, especially the requirement on intelligent and autonomous operation. This book tries to give an insight into the evolutionary process that takes place in robotics. It provides articles covering a wide range of this exciting area. The progress of technical challenges and concepts may illuminate the relationship between developments that seem to be completely different at first sight. The robotics remains an exciting scientific and engineering field. The community looks optimistically ahead and also looks forward for the future challenges and new development

Contributions to shared control and coordination of single and multiple robots

L’ensemble des travaux présentés dans cette habilitation traite de l'interface entre un d'un opérateur humain avec un ou plusieurs robots semi-autonomes aussi connu comme le problème du « contrôle partagé ».Le premier chapitre traite de la possibilité de fournir des repères visuels / vestibulaires à un opérateur humain pour la commande à distance de robots mobiles.Le second chapitre aborde le problème, plus classique, de la mise à disposition à l’opérateur d’indices visuels ou de retour haptique pour la commande d’un ou plusieurs robots mobiles (en particulier pour les drones quadri-rotors).Le troisième chapitre se concentre sur certains des défis algorithmiques rencontrés lors de l'élaboration de techniques de coordination multi-robots.Le quatrième chapitre introduit une nouvelle conception mécanique pour un drone quadrirotor sur-actionné avec pour objectif de pouvoir, à terme, avoir 6 degrés de liberté sur une plateforme quadrirotor classique (mais sous-actionné).Enfin, le cinquième chapitre présente une cadre général pour la vision active permettant, en optimisant les mouvements de la caméra, l’optimisation en ligne des performances (en terme de vitesse de convergence et de précision finale) de processus d’estimation « basés vision »