Intuitive, iterative and assisted virtual guides programming for human-robot comanipulation

Pendant très longtemps, l'automatisation a été assujettie à l'usage de robots industriels traditionnels placés dans des cages et programmés pour répéter des tâches plus ou moins complexes au maximum de leur vitesse et de leur précision. Cette automatisation, dite rigide, possède deux inconvénients majeurs : elle est chronophage dû aux contraintes contextuelles applicatives et proscrit la présence humaine. Il existe désormais une nouvelle génération de robots avec des systèmes moins encombrants, peu coûteux et plus flexibles. De par leur structure et leurs modes de fonctionnement ils sont intrinsèquement sûrs ce qui leurs permettent de travailler main dans la main avec les humains. Dans ces nouveaux espaces de travail collaboratifs, l'homme peut être inclus dans la boucle comme un agent décisionnel actif. En tant qu'instructeur ou collaborateur il peut influencer le processus décisionnel du robot : on parle de robots collaboratifs (ou cobots). Dans ce nouveau contexte, nous faisons usage de guides virtuels. Ils permettent aux cobots de soulager les efforts physiques et la charge cognitive des opérateurs. Cependant, la définition d'un guide virtuel nécessite souvent une expertise et une modélisation précise de la tâche. Cela restreint leur utilité aux scénarios à contraintes fixes. Pour palier ce problème et améliorer la flexibilité de la programmation du guide virtuel, cette thèse présente une nouvelle approche par démonstration : nous faisons usage de l'apprentissage kinesthésique de façon itérative et construisons le guide virtuel avec une spline 6D. Grâce à cette approche, l'opérateur peut modifier itérativement les guides tout en gardant leur assistance. Cela permet de rendre le processus plus intuitif et naturel ainsi que de réduire la pénibilité. La modification locale d'un guide virtuel en trajectoire est possible par interaction physique avec le robot. L'utilisateur peut déplacer un point clé cartésien ou modifier une portion entière du guide avec une nouvelle démonstration partielle. Nous avons également étendu notre approche aux guides virtuels 6D, où les splines en déplacement sont définies via une interpolation Akima (pour la translation) et une 'interpolation quadratique des quaternions (pour l'orientation). L'opérateur peut initialement définir un guide virtuel en trajectoire, puis utiliser l'assistance en translation pour ne se concentrer que sur la démonstration de l'orientation. Nous avons appliqué notre approche dans deux scénarios industriels utilisant un cobot. Nous avons ainsi démontré l'intérêt de notre méthode qui améliore le confort de l'opérateur lors de la comanipulation.For a very long time, automation was driven by the use of traditional industrial robots placed in cages, programmed to repeat more or less complex tasks at their highest speed and with maximum accuracy. This robot-oriented solution is heavily dependent on hard automation which requires pre-specified fixtures and time consuming programming, hindering robots from becoming flexible and versatile tools. These robots have evolved towards a new generation of small, inexpensive, inherently safe and flexible systems that work hand in hand with humans. In these new collaborative workspaces the human can be included in the loop as an active agent. As a teacher and as a co-worker he can influence the decision-making process of the robot. In this context, virtual guides are an important tool used to assist the human worker by reducing physical effort and cognitive overload during tasks accomplishment. However, the construction of virtual guides often requires expert knowledge and modeling of the task. These limitations restrict the usefulness of virtual guides to scenarios with unchanging constraints. To overcome these challenges and enhance the flexibility of virtual guides programming, this thesis presents a novel approach that allows the worker to create virtual guides by demonstration through an iterative method based on kinesthetic teaching and displacement splines. Thanks to this approach, the worker is able to iteratively modify the guides while being assisted by them, making the process more intuitive and natural while reducing its painfulness. Our approach allows local refinement of virtual guiding trajectories through physical interaction with the robots. We can modify a specific cartesian keypoint of the guide or re- demonstrate a portion. We also extended our approach to 6D virtual guides, where displacement splines are defined via Akima interpolation (for translation) and quadratic interpolation of quaternions (for orientation). The worker can initially define a virtual guiding trajectory and then use the assistance in translation to only concentrate on defining the orientation along the path. We demonstrated that these innovations provide a novel and intuitive solution to increase the human's comfort during human-robot comanipulation in two industrial scenarios with a collaborative robot (cobot)

Programmation intuitive, itérative et assistée de guides virtuels pour la comanipulation homme-robot

For a very long time, automation was driven by the use of traditional industrial robots placed in cages, programmed to repeat more or less complex tasks at their highest speed and with maximum accuracy. This robot-oriented solution is heavily dependent on hard automation which requires pre-specified fixtures and time consuming programming, hindering robots from becoming flexible and versatile tools. These robots have evolved towards a new generation of small, inexpensive, inherently safe and flexible systems that work hand in hand with humans. In these new collaborative workspaces the human can be included in the loop as an active agent. As a teacher and as a co-worker he can influence the decision-making process of the robot. In this context, virtual guides are an important tool used to assist the human worker by reducing physical effort and cognitive overload during tasks accomplishment. However, the construction of virtual guides often requires expert knowledge and modeling of the task. These limitations restrict the usefulness of virtual guides to scenarios with unchanging constraints. To overcome these challenges and enhance the flexibility of virtual guides programming, this thesis presents a novel approach that allows the worker to create virtual guides by demonstration through an iterative method based on kinesthetic teaching and displacement splines. Thanks to this approach, the worker is able to iteratively modify the guides while being assisted by them, making the process more intuitive and natural while reducing its painfulness. Our approach allows local refinement of virtual guiding trajectories through physical interaction with the robots. We can modify a specific cartesian keypoint of the guide or re- demonstrate a portion. We also extended our approach to 6D virtual guides, where displacement splines are defined via Akima interpolation (for translation) and quadratic interpolation of quaternions (for orientation). The worker can initially define a virtual guiding trajectory and then use the assistance in translation to only concentrate on defining the orientation along the path. We demonstrated that these innovations provide a novel and intuitive solution to increase the human's comfort during human-robot comanipulation in two industrial scenarios with a collaborative robot (cobot).Pendant très longtemps, l'automatisation a été assujettie à l'usage de robots industriels traditionnels placés dans des cages et programmés pour répéter des tâches plus ou moins complexes au maximum de leur vitesse et de leur précision. Cette automatisation, dite rigide, possède deux inconvénients majeurs : elle est chronophage dû aux contraintes contextuelles applicatives et proscrit la présence humaine. Il existe désormais une nouvelle génération de robots avec des systèmes moins encombrants, peu coûteux et plus flexibles. De par leur structure et leurs modes de fonctionnement ils sont intrinsèquement sûrs ce qui leurs permettent de travailler main dans la main avec les humains. Dans ces nouveaux espaces de travail collaboratifs, l'homme peut être inclus dans la boucle comme un agent décisionnel actif. En tant qu'instructeur ou collaborateur il peut influencer le processus décisionnel du robot : on parle de robots collaboratifs (ou cobots). Dans ce nouveau contexte, nous faisons usage de guides virtuels. Ils permettent aux cobots de soulager les efforts physiques et la charge cognitive des opérateurs. Cependant, la définition d'un guide virtuel nécessite souvent une expertise et une modélisation précise de la tâche. Cela restreint leur utilité aux scénarios à contraintes fixes. Pour palier ce problème et améliorer la flexibilité de la programmation du guide virtuel, cette thèse présente une nouvelle approche par démonstration : nous faisons usage de l'apprentissage kinesthésique de façon itérative et construisons le guide virtuel avec une spline 6D. Grâce à cette approche, l'opérateur peut modifier itérativement les guides tout en gardant leur assistance. Cela permet de rendre le processus plus intuitif et naturel ainsi que de réduire la pénibilité. La modification locale d'un guide virtuel en trajectoire est possible par interaction physique avec le robot. L'utilisateur peut déplacer un point clé cartésien ou modifier une portion entière du guide avec une nouvelle démonstration partielle. Nous avons également étendu notre approche aux guides virtuels 6D, où les splines en déplacement sont définies via une interpolation Akima (pour la translation) et une 'interpolation quadratique des quaternions (pour l'orientation). L'opérateur peut initialement définir un guide virtuel en trajectoire, puis utiliser l'assistance en translation pour ne se concentrer que sur la démonstration de l'orientation. Nous avons appliqué notre approche dans deux scénarios industriels utilisant un cobot. Nous avons ainsi démontré l'intérêt de notre méthode qui améliore le confort de l'opérateur lors de la comanipulation

Iterative Virtual Guides Programming for Human-Robot Comanipulation

International audienceIn human-robot comanipulation, virtual guides are an important tool used to assist the human worker by reducing physical effort and cognitive overload during tasks accomplishment. However, virtual guide's construction often requires expert knowledge and modeling of the task which restricts the usefulness of virtual guides to scenarios with unchanging constraints. To overcome these challenges and enhance the flexibility of virtual guide's programming, we present a novel approach that allows the worker to create virtual guides by demonstration through an iterative method based on kinesthetic teaching and Akima splines. Thanks to this approach, the worker is able to locally modify the guides while being assisted by them, increasing the intuitiveness and naturalness of the process. Finally, we evaluate our approach in a simulated sanding task with a collaborative robot

Co-manipulation with a Library of Virtual Guiding Fixtures

International audienceVirtual guiding fixtures constrain the movements of a robot to task-relevant trajectories, and have been successfully applied to, for instance, surgical and manufacturing tasks. Whereas previous work has considered guiding fixtures for single tasks, in this paper we propose a library of guiding fixtures for multiple tasks, and propose methods for 1) Creating and adding guides based on machine learning; 2) Selecting guides on-line based on probabilistic implementation of guiding fixtures; 3) Refining existing guides based on an incremental learning method. We demonstrate in an industrial task that a library of guiding fixtures provides an intuitive haptic interface for joint human-robot completion of tasks, and improves performance in terms of task execution time, mental workload and errors

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially