Novel Hyperacute Gimbal Eye for Implementing Precise Hovering and Target Tracking on Board a Quadrotor

International audienceThis paper presents a new minimalist bio-inspired artificial eye of only 24 pixels, able to locate accurately a target placed in its small field of view (10°). The eye is mounted on a very light custom-made gimbal system which makes the eye able to track faithfully a moving target. We have shown here, that our gimbal eye can be embedded onboard a small quadrotor to achieve accurate hovering with respect to a target placed onto the ground. Our aiborne oculomotor system was enhanced with a bio-inspired reflexe in charge to lock efficiently the robot’s gaze onto a target and compensate for the robot’s rotations and disturbances. The use of very few pixels allowed to implement a visual processing algorithm at a refresh rate as high as such as 400 Hz. This high refresh rate coupled to a very fast control of the eye’s orientation allowed the robot to track efficiently a target moving at a speed up to 200°/s

Local Positioning System Using Flickering Infrared LEDs

International audienceA minimalistic optical sensing device for the indoor localization is proposed to estimate the relative position between the sensor and active markers using amplitude modulated infrared light. The innovative insect-based sensor can measure azimuth and elevation angles with respect to two small and cheap active infrared light emitting diodes (LEDs) flickering at two different frequencies. In comparison to a previous lensless visual sensor that we proposed for proximal localization (less than 30 cm), we implemented: (i) a minimalistic sensor in terms of small size (10 cm 3), light weight (6 g) and low power consumption (0.4 W); (ii) an Arduino-compatible demodulator for fast analog signal processing requiring low computational resources; and (iii) an indoor positioning system for a mobile robotic application. Our results confirmed that the proposed sensor was able to estimate the position at a distance of 2 m with an accuracy as small as 2-cm at a sampling frequency of 100 Hz. Our sensor can be also suitable to be implemented in a position feedback loop for indoor robotic applications in GPS-denied environment

Conduites à tenir devant les complications post-extractionnelles en chirurgie buccale

NICE-Antenne de St Jean d'Angely (060882105) / SudocNICE-BU Médecine Odontologie (060882102) / SudocSudocFranceF

A bio-inspired celestial compass for a hexapod walking robot in outdoor environment

International audiencePoster de la 13ème Journée de l'Ecole Doctorale 463 du 02/06/2017

A bio-inspired celestial compass applied to an ant-inspired robot for autonomous navigation

International audienceCommon compass sensors used in outdoor environments are highly disturbed by unpredictable magnetic fields. This paper proposes to get inspiration from the insect navigational strategies to design a celestial compass based on the linear polarization of ultraviolet (UV) skylight. This bio-inspired compass uses only two pixels to determine the solar meridian direction angle. It consists of two UV-light photo-sensors topped with linear polarizers arranged orthogonally to each other as it was observed in insects' Dorsal Rim Area. The compass is embedded on our ant-inspired hexapod walking robot called Hexabot. The performances of the celestial compass under various weather and UV conditions have been investigated. Once embedded onto the robot, the sensor was first used to compensate for yaw random disturbances. We then used the compass to maintain Hexabot's heading direction constant in a straightforward walking task over a flat terrain while being perturbated in yaw by its walking behaviour. Experiments under various meteorological conditions provided steady state heading direction errors from 0.3 • (clear sky) to 1.9 • (overcast sky). These results suggest interesting precision and reliability to make this new optical compass suitable for autonomous field robotics navigation tasks

Conception et étude d’une boussole céleste bio-inspirée

National audienceCette étude concerne le développement d’une boussole optique inspirée de la boussole céleste de la fourmi du désert Cataglyphis. Cette activité pédagogique vise à comprendre différents phénomènes physiques impliqués dans la détection optique de cap : la diffusion de Rayleigh de la lumière du soleil dans le ciel, la polarisation de la lumière et la mesure du cap à partir de photocapteurs. Nous décrivons ici, de manière successive, la conception puis la réalisation d'un dispositif expérimental d'enseignement utilisé au niveau Master 2 pour permettre aux étudiants de se familiariser avec l'ingénierie bio-inspirée appliquée à la détection optique de cap au moyen d'un capteur non conventionnel. Ce dispositif expérimental a été introduit pour la première fois cette année à des étudiants du Master Ingénierie des Systèmes complexes de l'Université de Toulon et à des étudiants du Master de « Mechanical Engineering » (option Fluide et Structure) de Aix-Marseille université. Nous avons ensuite mis l'accent sur l'utilisation de carte Arduino pour aborder les problématiques liées au traitement temps réel des cibles du type microcontrôleur ayant des capacités calculatoires limitées. Enfin, des exemples de production et de mesures faites par les étudiants sont présentés pour démontrer l'exploitation pédagogique qui peut être faite d'un tel dispositif expérimental. Mots clés : ingénierie bio-inspirée, pédagogie du biomimétisme, dispositif optique, robotique, vision des insectes

Design of a Bio-inspired Optical Compass for Education Purposes

International audienceThis study concerns the development of an optical compass inspired by the celestial compass of the desert ant Cataglyphis. This bioinspired navigational instrument opens up new opportunities for navigation in the absence of GNSS or GSM coverage for locating outdoors. This pedagogical activity, through the design of the instrument, aims at understand different physical phenomena involved in optical heading detection: Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the sky, polarization of light and measurement of heading from photosensors. The design and the fabrication of an experimental teaching device are both described. Experiments were performed to allow students (2nd year of master in robotics & IoT) to become familiar with bio-inspired engineering applied to optical heading detection. Students used an Arduino board (8-bit architecture) to address issues related to the real-time processing of microcontroller with limited computational capabilities. Finally, examples of measurements made by students are presented to demonstrate the pedagogical use of such an experimental device for heading measurement in robotics. Our prototype works in the blue visible light and has only 4 photosensors, each one covered with a different orientation of its polarizing filter

A novel insect-inspired optical compass sensor for a hexapod walking robot

International audienceIn an outdoor autonomous navigational context, classic compass sensors such as magnetometers have to deal with unpredictable magnetic disturbances. In this paper, we propose to get inspiration from the insect navigational abilities to design a celestial compass based on linear polarization of ultraviolet (UV) skylight. To compute the solar meridian relative orientation, our 3D-printed celestial compass uses only two pixels created by two UV-light photo-sensors topped with linear polarizers arranged orthogonally to each other, in the same manner that was observed in insects' Dorsal Rim Area ommatidia. The compass was then embedded on our hexapod walking robot called Hexabot. We first tested the UV-polarized light compass to compensate for yaw random disturbances. We then used the compass to maintain Hexabot's heading direction constant in a straightforward task, knowing the robot has important yaw drifts. Experiments under various meteorological conditions provided steady state heading direction errors from 0.3° under clear sky conditions to 1.9° under overcast sky, which suggests interesting precision and reliability to make this optical compass suitable for robotics

A bio-inspired celestial compass for a hexapod walking robot in outdoor environment

International audienc

Design of a Bio-Inspired Optical Compass for Education Purposes

International Conference on Robotics in Education (RIE), ELECTR NETWORK, APR 27-28, 2022International audienceThis study concerns the development of an optical compass inspired by the celestial compass of the desert ant Cataglyphis. This bioinspired navigational instrument opens up new opportunities for navigation in the absence of GNSS or GSM coverage for locating outdoors. This pedagogical activity, through the design of the instrument, aims at understand different physical phenomena involved in optical heading detection: Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the sky, polarization of light and measurement of heading from photosensors. The design and the fabrication of an experimental teaching device are both described. Experiments were performed to allow students (2nd year of master in robotics & IoT) to become familiar with bio-inspired engineering applied to optical heading detection. Students used an Arduino board (8-bit architecture) to address issues related to the real-time processing of microcontroller with limited computational capabilities. Finally, examples of measurements made by students are presented to demonstrate the pedagogical use of such an experimental device for heading measurement in robotics. Our prototype works in the blue visible light and has only 4 photosensors, each one covered with a different orientation of its polarizing filter