Towards Integrating Hybrid DAEs with a High-Index DAE Solver

J.D. Pryce and N.S. Nedialkov have developed a Taylor series method and a C++ package, DaeTs, for solving numerically an initial-value problem differential-algebraic equation (DAE) that can be of high index, high order, nonlinear, and fully implicit. Numerical results have shown this method to be efficient and very accurate, and particularly suitable for problems that are of too high an index for present DAE solvers. However, DaeTs cannot be applied to systems of DAEs that change at points it time, also called hybrid or multi-mode DAEs. This paper presents methods for extending Daets with the capability to integrate hybrid DAEs. Methods for event location and consistent initializations are given. Daets is applied to simulate a model of a parallel robot: a hybrid system of index-3 DAEs with closed-loop control

Safe Motion Planning Computation for Databasing Balanced Movement of Humanoid Robots

International audienceMotion databasing is an important topic in robotics research. Humanoid robots have a large number of degrees of freedom and their motions have to satisfy a set of constraints (balance, maximal joint torque velocity and angle values). Thus motion planning cannot efficiently be done on-line. The computation of optimal motions is performed off-line to create databases that transform the problem of large computation time into a problem of large memory space. Motion planning can be seen as a Semi-Infinite Programming problem (SIP) since it involves a finite number of variables over an infinite set of constraints. Most methods solve the SIP problem by transforming it into a finite programming one using a discretization over a prescribed grid. We show that this approach is risky because it can lead to motions which may violate one or several constraints. Then we introduce our new method for planning safe motions. It uses Interval Analysis techniques in order to achieve a safe discretization of the constraints. We show how to implement this method and use it with state-of-the-art constrained optimization packages. Then, we illustrate its capabilities for planning safe motions dedicated to the HOAP-3 humanoid robot

A New Method for Generating Safe Motions for Humanoid Robots

International audienceThis paper introduces a new method for planning safe motions for complex systems such as humanoid robots. Motion planning can be seen as a Semi-Infinite Programming problem (SIP) since it involves a finite number of variables over an infinite set of constraints. Most methods solve the SIP problem by transforming it into a finite programming one by using a discretization over a prescribed grid. We show that this approach is risky because it can lead to motions which violate one or several constraints. Then we introduce our new method for planning safe motions. It uses Interval Analysis techniques in order to achieve a safe discretization of the constraints. We show how to implement this method and use it with state-of-the-art constrained optimization packages. Then, we illustrate its capabilities for planning safe motions for the HOAP-3 humanoid robot

Towards Integrating Hybrid DAEs with a High-Index DAE Solver

J.D. Pryce and N.S. Nedialkov have developed a Taylor series method and a C++ package, DaeTs, for solving numerically an initial-value problem differential-algebraic equation (DAE) that can be of high index, high order, nonlinear, and fully implicit. Numerical results have shown this method to be efficient and very accurate, and particularly suitable for problems that are of too high an index for present DAE solvers. However, DaeTs cannot be applied to systems of DAEs that change at points it time, also called hybrid or multi-mode DAEs. This paper presents methods for extending Daets with the capability to integrate hybrid DAEs. Methods for event location and consistent initializations are given. Daets is applied to simulate a model of a parallel robot: a hybrid system of index-3 DAEs with closed-loop control

Improved dynamic object detection within evidential grids framework

International audienceThe deployment of autonomous robots/vehicles is increasing in several domains. To perform tasks properly, a robot must have a good perception about its environment while detecting dynamic obstacles. Recently, evidential grids have attracted more interest for environment perception since they permit more effective uncertainty handling. The latest studies on evidential grids relied on the use of thresholds for information management e.g. the use of a threshold, for the conflict characterized by the mass of empty set, in order to detect dynamic objects. Nevertheless, the mass of empty set alone is not consistent in some cases. Also, the thresholds used were chosen either arbitrary or tuned manually without any computational method. In this paper, first the conflict is composed of two parameters instead of mass of empty set alone, and dynamic objects detection is performed using a threshold on the evolution of this conflict pair. Secondly, the paper introduces a general threshold along with a mathematical demonstration to compute it which can be used in different dynamic object detection cases. A real-time experiment is performed using the RB1-BASE robot equipped with a RGB-D camera and a laser scanner

Towards Robust Methods for Indoor Localization using Interval Data

International audienceIndoor localization has gained an increase in interest recently because of the wide range of services it may provide by using data from the Internet of Things. Notwithstanding the large variety of techniques available, indoor localization methods usually show insufficient accuracy and robustness performance because of the noisy nature of the raw data used. In this paper, we investigate ways to work explicitly with range of data, i.e., interval data, instead of point data in the localization algorithms, thus providing a set-theoretic method that needs no probabilistic assumption. We will review state-of-the-art infrastructure-based localization methods that work with interval data. Then, we will show how to extend the existing infrastructure-less localization techniques to allow explicit computation with interval data. The preliminary evaluation of our new method shows that it provides smoother and more consistent localization estimates than state-of-the-art methods

Towards optimal sensor deployment for location tracking in smart home

International audienceAmbient Assisted Living (AAL) aims to ease the daily living and working environmentfor disabled/elderly peopleat home. AAL use information and communication technology based on sensors data. These sensors are generally placed randomly without taking into account the layout of buildings and rooms. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model foroptimal sensor placement in order (i) to optimize the sensor number with regard to room features, (ii) to ensure a reliability level in sensor networkconsidering a sensor failure rate. This placement ensures the targettracking in smart home sinceoptimizing sensorplacement allow us to distinguish different zonesand consequently, to identify the target location, according to the activated sensors

Posture and Movement Estimation Based on Reduced Information. Application to the Context of FES-based Control of Lower-Limbs

International audienc

Estimation of the Centre of Mass from Motion Capture and Force Plate Recordings: A Study on the Elderly

The estimation of the centre of mass position in humans is usually based on biomechanical models developed from anthropometric tables. This method can potentially introduce errors in studies involving elderly people, since the ageing process is typically associated with a modification of the distribution of the body mass. In this paper, an alternative technique is proposed, and evaluated with an experimental study on 9 elderly volunteers. The technique is based on a virtual chain, identified from experimental data and locating the subject\u27s centre of mass. Its configuration defines the location of the centre of mass, and is a function of the anatomical joint angles measured on the subject. This method is a valuable investigation tool in the field of geronto-technology, since it overcomes some of the problems encountered with other CoM estimation methods

Identification of Pharmacokinetics Models in the presence of Timing Noise

International audienceThe problem addressed in this paper deals with the parameter estimation of in vitro uptake kinetics of drugs into living cells in presence of timing noise. Effects of the timing noise on the bias and variance of the output error are explicitly determined. A bounded-error parameter estimation approach is proposed as a suited solution to handle this problem. Application results are presented which emphasize the effectiveness of the methodology in such an experimental framework