Guillaume Trehard is pleased to invite you to his Ph.D. defense titled “Evidence theory applications for localization and mapping in an urban context”, on Friday  2016, 05th at 2h30 pm at Mines Paristech (60 bd St Michel, Paris VI, RER B – Luxembourg), amphitheater L 109.

The jury will be composed of :

• M. Christoph STILLER, Karlsruhe Institut of Technology (KIT), Examiner
• Mme Véronique CHERFAOUI, Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC), Examiner
• M. Raja CHATILA, CNRS, Examiner
• M. Christian LAUGIER, INRIA, Examiner
• M. Benazouz BRADAI, Valeo Driving Assistance Research, Examiner
• M. Fawzi NASHASHIBI, INRIA, Examiner
• Mme Evangéline POLLARD, INRIA, Examiner

Abstract:

Since its emergence in the beginning of the nineties, the evidence theory have gained a growing interest among the data fusion community. Its applications started to spread in the whole robotics field where its advantages complement the traditional Bayesian frameworks. In the area of environment mapping in particular, the quality of the description provided by evidences has already been appreciated and put forward in the literature. By pushing this application up to the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques, this document proposes a new version of the maximum likelihood SLAM in the evidential context before it proposes an original scheme for its integration in a global localization and mapping solution. A practical evaluation of these algorithms is performed in the context of autonomous driving and in urban environments using laser range data integrated on equipped vehicles. In addition, a solution to fuse this local mapping with a global semantic map is proposed as a way to overpass the classical limits of these techniques in restricted budget constraints and with an aim to address the public market. The solutions developed in this thesis are validated thanks to real data of three different experimental platforms from Inria, Valeo and the KITTI database. – See more at: http://www.mines-paristech.fr/Formation/Doctorat/Annuaire-docteurs/Detail/Guillaume-TREHARD-2016/51281#sthash.MpPnfFmr.dpuf

Etienne Servais is pleased to invite you to his Ph. D. defense entitled “Trajectory planning and control of collaborative systems: Application to trirotor UAVs” on Friday 18 septembre 2015 at 15:00 at Mines Paristech (60 bd St Michel, Paris VI, RER B – Luxembourg), in the amphitheater L 109.

Picture of the Tricoptere (courtesy of D. Kastelan)

Jury composition:

• Mme Brigitte d’ANDREA-NOVEL, Professor, Mines ParisTech (Examiner, directeur de thèse) ;
• M. Jean-Michel CORON, Professor, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Examiner) ;
• M. Tarek HAMEL, Professor, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis (Examiner) ;
• M. Miroslav KRSTIC, Professor, Université de Californie à San Diego (Examiner) ;
• M. Hugues MOUNIER, Professor, Université Paris-Sud (Examiner, directeur de thèse) ;
• M. Silviu-Iulian NICULESCU, Directeur de recherche, CNRS (Invited) ;
• M. Arnaud QUADRAT, Engineer, Sagem-DS (Invited) ;
• M. Joachim RUDOLPH, Professor, Université de la Sarre (Examiner) ;
• M. Claude SAMSON, Directeur de recherche, INRIA (Examiner).

Abstract:

This thesis is dedicated to the creation of a complete framework, from high-level to low-level, of trajectory generation for a group of independent dynamical systems. This framework, based for the trajectory generation, on the resolution of Burgers equation, is applied to a novel model of trirotor UAV and uses the flatness of the two levels of dynamical systems.

The first part of this thesis is dedicated to the generation of trajectories. Formal solutions to the heat equation are created using the differential flatness of this equation. These solutions are transformed into solutions to Burgers’ equation through Hopf-Cole transformation to match the desired formations. They are optimized to match specific requirements. Several examples of trajectories are given.

The second part is dedicated to the autonomous trajectory tracking by a trirotor UAV. This UAV is totally actuated and a nonlinear closed-loop controller is suggested. This controller is tested on the ground and in flight by tracking, rolling or flying, a trajectory. A model is presented and a control approach is suggested to transport a pendulum load.

Axel Barrau is pleased to invite you to his PhD. defense on Thursday, 15 September 2015 at 15:00 at MINES ParisTech 60 boulevard Saint-Michel 75006 Paris.

Non-linear state error based extended Kalman filters with applications to navigation

Jury composition:

Mme Brigitte d’ANDREA-NOVEL, Professeur, Mines ParisTech (Examinateur),

M. Xavier BISSUEL, Expert en navigation inertielle, Sagem (Examinateur),

M. Silvère BONNABEL, Professeur, Mines Paristech (Examinateur, directeur de thèse),

M. Jay FARRELL, Professeur, UC Riverside (Examinateur),

M. Pascal MORIN, Professeur, UPMC (Rapporteur),

M. Christophe PRIEUR, Directeur de recherche, Gipsa-lab (Rapporteur),

M. Pierre ROUCHON, Professeur, MINES ParisTech (Examinateur).

Abstract:

The present thesis explores the use of non-linear state errors to devise extended Kalman filters (EKFs). First we depart from the theory of invariant observers on Lie groups and propose a more general yet simpler framework allowing to obtain non-linear error variables having the novel unexpected property of being governed by a (partially) linear differential equation. This result is leveraged to ensure local stability of the invariant EKF (IEKF) under standard observability assumptions, when extended to this class of (non-invariant) systems. Real applications to some industrial problems in partnership with the company SAGEM illustrate the remarkable performance gap over the conventional EKF. A second route we investigate is to turn the noise on and consider the invariant errors as stochastic processes. Convergence in law of the error to a fixed probability distribution, independent of the initialization, is obtained if the error with noise turned off is globally convergent, which in turn allows to assess gains in advance that minimize the error’s asymptotic dispersion. The last route consists in stepping back a little and exploring general EKFs (beyond the Lie group case) relying on a non-linear state error. Novel mathematical (global) properties are derived.

Raphaëlle Ducret is pleased to invite you to his Ph.D. defense on Friday 19th, December 2014 which take place in V107 at MINES ParisTech, 60 boulevard Saint-Michel 75006 Paris.

Structuring last-mile parcel delivery solutions for urban zones: an innovative spatial approach for urban goods distribution

Le jury est composé de :
Mme Laetitia DABLANC, Directrice de recherche, Laboratoire SPLOTT, IFSTTAR, Rapporteur
M. Bernard LEMARIE, Responsable Logistique urbaine, Branche SCC, La Poste, Invité
Mme Cathy MACHARIS, Professeur, BUTO, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rapporteur
M. Hugues MOLET, Professeur, CAOR, Ecole des Mines de Paris, Directeur
M. Alain ROSET, Responsable Prospective 2020, Branche numérique, La Poste, Examinateur
M. Michel SAVY, Professeur, Lab’Urba, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Co-Directeur
M. Philippe WIESER, Professeur, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Examinateur

Sylvain Thorel is pleased to invite you to his PhD. defense on Thursday, 11 December 2014 at MINES ParisTech 60 boulevard Saint-Michel 75006 Paris.

Jury composition

M. Raja CHATILA, ISIR, UPMC, Examiner

M. Jean-Louis VERCHER, ISM, Univ. Aix-Marseille, Examiner

M. Pascal GUITTON, INRIA-LaBRI, Univ. Bordeaux, Examiner

M. François MARSY, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Examiner

M. Claude ANDRIOT, CEA-LIST, Examiner

M. Philippe FUCHS, CAOR, MINES ParisTech, Director

M. Alexis PALJIC, CAOR, MINES ParisTech, Director

Abstract:

Either in the context of the industry or of the everyday life, robots are becoming more and more present in our environment and are nowadays able to interact with humans. In industrial environments, robots now assist operators on the assembly lines for difficult and dangerous tasks. Then, robots and operators need to share the same physical space (copresence) and to manage common tasks (collaboration). On the one side, the safety of humans working near robots has to be guaranteed at all time. On the other hand, it is necessary to determine if such a collaborative work is accepted by the operators, in terms of usability and utility.

The first problematic of the thesis consists in determining the important criteria that play a role in the acceptability, from the operators’ point of view. Different factors can influence this acceptability: robot appearance, robot movements, safety distance or interaction modes with the robot.

In order to study as many factors as possible, we intend to use virtual reality to perform user studies in virtual environments. We are using questionnaires to gather subjective impressions from operators and physiological measures to estimate their affective states (stress, effort). The second problematic of the thesis consists in determining if a methodology using virtual reality is relevant for this evaluation: can the results from studies in virtual environments be reproducible in equivalent physical situations?

In order to answer the problematics of the thesis, three use cases have been implemented and four studies have been performed. Two of those studies rely on a physical situation and its virtual reality counterpart in order to evaluate the relevance of the results of the virtual situation compared to the real situation.

Keywords: human-robot collaboration, virtual reality, acceptability, human factors, human-robot interac- tion, immersion, interaction

Localization and navigation of a humanoid robot in a domestic environment

Place:   Mines ParisTech 60 boulevard Saint-Michel 75006 Paris salle L109

Jury Composition 

Abstract:

 The lab is pleased to announce the Ph.D. defense of Jean Gregoire which take place on september, monday 29 at 3H30 PM, in room L109.

Title : Priority-based coordination of mobile robots

Jury:

Keywords : mobile robots, motion planning, coordination, multi robot systems, robustness, three-layer architecture

Abstract

Since the end of the 1980’s, the development of self-driven autonomous vehicles is an intensive research area in most major industrial countries. Positive socio-economic potential impacts include a decrease of crashes, a reduction of travel times, energy efficiency improvements, and a reduced need of costly physical infrastructure. Some form of vehicle-to-vehicle and/or vehicle-to-infrastructure cooperation is required to ensure a safe and efficient global transportation system. This thesis deals with a particular form of cooperation by studying the problem of coordinating multiple mobile robots at an intersection area. Most of coordination systems proposed in previous work consist of planning a trajectory and to control the robots along the planned trajectory: that is the plan-as-program paradigm where planning is considered as a generative mechanism of action. The approach of the thesis is to plan priorities – the relative order of robots to go through the intersection – which is much weaker as many trajectories respect the same priorities. Then, priorities are merely used as a coordination resource to guide robots through the intersection. Once priorities are assigned, robots are controlled through a control law preserving the assigned priorities. It results in a more robust coordination system – able to handle a large class of unexpected events in a reactive manner – particularly well adapted for an application to the coordination of autonomous vehicles at intersections where cars, public transport and pedestrians share the road.

This entry is only available in french…

This entry is only available in french…