A Multilevel Agent-Based Approach to model and simulate Systems of Systems

International audienceThis article proposes a generic modeling approach of systems of systems (SoS) using agent-based modeling (ABM). SoSs are large scale systems including numerous-possibly heterogeneous-interacting component systems (CS) evolving in a dynamic environment. The aim of this article is to provide generic formalism allowing to represent and control the whole complexity of a SoS using agent-based simulations. Models generated using this formalism encompass static and dynamic aspects of SoSs. They consider reorganization of SoSs caused by changes of goals or subsystem capacity. All these elements are illustrated in this article using a SoS case study of Intelligent Automated Vehicles (IAV) initiated by the InTraDE (Intelligent Transportation for Dynamic Environment) European project to automate the port container logistic

Learning-Based Control Strategies for Soft Robots: Theory, Achievements, and Future Challenges

In the last few decades, soft robotics technologies have challenged conventional approaches by introducing new, compliant bodies to the world of rigid robots. These technologies and systems may enable a wide range of applications, including human-robot interaction and dealing with complex environments. Soft bodies can adapt their shape to contact surfaces, distribute stress over a larger area, and increase the contact surface area, thus reducing impact forces

Control of a Hyper-Redundant Robot for Quality Inspection in Additive Manufacturing for Construction

International audienceAdditive manufacturing is an automated process for producing layer-by-layer material deposition. Recently this technology has been introduced in the industrial construction in order to print houses or smaller piece structures for on-site assembly, with complex geometry. In Additive manufacturing processes, the material deposition step is generally followed by a printing quality inspection step. However, the geometry of printed structures with minimal surfaces is sometimes complex, where rigid structure robots cannot reach certain zones to scan their surfaces. In this paper, a continuum-hyper-redundant manipulator equipped with a camera is attached to the end-effector of a mobile-manipulator robot for the quality inspection process. Indeed, Continuum manipulators can bend along structures with complex geometry; and this inherent flexibility makes them suitable for navigation and operation in congested environments. The number of controlled actuators being greater than the dimension of task space, this work is summarized in a trajectory tracking of hyper-redundant robots. This issue lies in the resolution of strongly nonlinear equations with a real-time computation. Thus, a hybrid methodology which combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative approaches is used for modeling and resolution of the hyper-redundant robot kinematics. A kinematic controller was designed and a set of experiments was carried out to evaluate the level of efficiency of the proposed approach

Finite element method-based kinematics and closed-loop control of soft, continuum manipulators

International audienceThis paper presents a modeling methodology and experimental validation for soft 1 manipulators to obtain forward and inverse kinematic models under quasistatic conditions. It offers a way to obtain the kinematic characteristics of this type of soft robots that is suitable for offline path planning and position control. The modeling methodology presented relies on continuum mechanics which does not provide analytic solutions in the general case. Our approach proposes a real-time numerical integration strategy based on Finite Element Method (FEM) with a numerical optimization based on Lagrangian Multipliers to obtain forward and inverse models. To reduce the dimension of the problem, at each step, a projection of the model to the constraint space (gathering actuators, sensors and end-effector) is performed to obtain the smallest number possible of mathematical equations to be solved. This methodology is applied to obtain the kinematics of two different manipulators with complex structural geometry. An experimental comparison is also performed in one of the robots, between two other geometric approaches and the approach that is showcased in this paper. A closed-loop controller based on a state estimator is proposed. The controller is experimentally validated and its robustness is evaluated using Lypunov stability method