Michel Lauria

HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland · Faculty of Engineering and Architecture

Cadaveric joint simulators are commonly used to explore native and pathological joint function as well as to test medical devices. Recently, robotic manipulators have been proposed as a new gold standard for in vitro biomechanical testing as they offer higher possibilities than Universal Testing Machines in terms of degrees of freedom (DOF). Howeve...

In order to move safely and accurately, mobile platforms using steerable wheels require adequate coordination of their actuators. One possibility to achieve actuator coordination is to control the motion of the chassis’ instantaneous centre of rotation (ICR) and motion around it. Considering the chassis as a rigid body, the ICR is located at the in...

Wire EDM is a time consuming process which requires several, (cost significant), consumables like wire, filters or deionization resin. Based on machining history and sensor inputs a developed model, e.g. an intelligent software, allows to predict the status & future capacity of consumables and wear parts and thus avoid down-times of machine. The us...

In the health domain, the field of rehabilitation suffers from a lack specialized staff while hospital costs only increase. Worse, almost no tools are dedicated to motivate patients or help the personnel to carry out monitoring of therapeutic exercises. This paper demonstrates the high potential that can bring the virtual reality with a platform of...

Physical guidance is a natural interaction capability that would be beneficial for mobile robots. However, placing force sensors at specific locations on the robot limits where physical interaction can occur. This paper presents an approach that uses torque data from four compliant steerable wheels of an omnidirectional non-holonomic mobile platfor...

We have designed and manufactured an innovative spherical joint mechanism with three actuated degrees of freedom, aimed at mimicking a penguin shoulder and enabling a potential propulsion technology with high efficiency and maneuverability. In addition, the mechanism might also lead to propellers with directional thrusting capability. A parallel ar...

We have designed and manufactured an innovative spherical joint mechanism with three actuated degrees of freedom, aimed at re-examining sculling as a potential propulsion technology with high efficiency and maneuverability. In addition, the mechanism might also enable propellers with directional thrusting capability. A parallel architecture was cho...

Designing robots that interact naturally with people requires the integration of technologies and algorithms for communication modalities such as gestures, movement, facial expressions and user interfaces. To understand interdependence among these modalities, evaluating the integrated design in feasibility studies provides insights about key consid...

Mobile robots designed to enhance telepresence in the support of telehealth services are being considered for numerous applications. TELEROBOT is a teleoperated mobile robotic platform equipped with videoconferencingcapabilities and designed to be used in a home environment to. In this study, learnability of the system's teleoperation interface and...

Robots are usually built using stiff actuators that can provide impressive motion performances. However, they struggle to control the force, they do not handle collisions graciously and are generally bad at interacting significantly with partially unknown or kinematically constrained environments. One solution is to add a force sensor in the closed...

Omnidirectional mobile robots, i.e., robots that can move in any direction without changing their orientation, offer better manoeuvrability in natural environments. Modeling the kinematics of such robots is a challenging problem and different approaches have been investigated. One of the best approaches for a nonholonomic robot is to model the robo...

AZIMUT-3 is an omnidirectional non-holonomic (or pseudo-omnidirectional) robotic platform intended for safe human-robot interaction. In its wheeled configuration, shown in Fig. 1, AZIMUT-3 uses eight actuators for locomotion: four for propulsion and four for steering the wheels, which can rotate 180 degrees around their steering axis. Propulsion is...

In this paper, Dual Differential Rheological Actuator (DDRA) is discussed. DDRA is an actuator with high performance torque and position control characteristics, in addition to versatile, safe, robust and easily controllable robotic interactions. DDRA's design is based on the use of two magnetorheological (MR) brakes coupled to an EM motor and to t...

Telehealth assistive technologies for homes constitute a very promising avenue to decrease load on the health care system, to reduce hospitalization period and to improve quality of life. Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot can become a beneficial tool in health applications. However, design issues related to such systems are broad...

Today's robotic systems are mostly rigid and position-controlled machines designed to operate in structured environments. To extend their application domains to partially unknown, dynamic, or anthropic environments, improved physical-interaction capabilities are required. In this new context, to blend the requirements for safety, robustness, and ve...

Redundantly actuated mobile robots using conventional wheels need a precise coordination of their actuators in order to guarantee a safe and precise motion without generating high internal forces and slippage. Using the instantaneous centre of rotation (ICR) of the chassis to describe this motion is a well established method. But the ICR is a mathe...

Humans use direct physical interactions to move objects and guide people, and the same should be done with robots. However, most of today's mobile robots use non-backdrivable motors for locomotion, making them potentially dangerous in case of collision. This paper presents a robot, named AZIMUT-3, equipped with differential elastic actuators that a...

The field of robotics has made steady progress in the pursuit of bringing autonomous machines into real-life settings. Over the last 3 years, we have seen omnidirectional humanoid platforms that now bring compliance, robustness and adaptiveness to handle the unconstrained situations of the real world. However, today’s contributions mostly address o...

Robots fail to perform complex manipulation or locomotion tasks when using simple force or motion controllers applied to classic actuators. Stability and safety issues arise for reasons such as high output inertia and the non-collocation of sensing and actuating transducers. This paper presents a new actuation concept, integrating a DC motor and tw...

Integration of hardware, software and decisional components is fundamental in the design of advanced mobile robotic systems capable of performing challenging tasks in unstructured and unpredictable environments. We address such integration challenges following an iterative design strategy, centered on a decisional architecture based on the notion o...

The most common ground locomotion method to make a mobile robot move is to use two-wheel drive with differential steering and a rear balancing caster. Controlling the two motors independently makes the robot non-holonomic in its motion. Such robots can work well indoor on flat surfaces and in environments adapted for wheelchairs. But the benefit of...

Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot with some autonomous capabilities can become a beneficial tool in telerehabilitation applications. Safety being of prime concern in such settings, we took special care in coming up with the proper teleoperation interfaces that can provide pertinent information about the system states and conditio...

This video shows the functionalities of a 3 serial DOF robotic arm. Each DOF is actuated with a patent pending differential elastic actuator (DEA) [1,2]. Compared to the abundantly studied series elastic actuator [3,4], DEA uses a differential coupling between a high impedance mechanical speed source and a low impedance mechanical spring. Possible...

For complex robotic tasks (e.g., manipulation, locomotion), the lack of knowledge of precise interaction models, the difficulties to precisely measure the task associated physical quantities (e.g., position of contact points, interaction forces) in real-time, the finite sampling time of digital control loops and the non-collocation of sensors and t...

Assistive technologies for telementoring in homes constitute a very promising avenue to decrease load on the health care system, reduce hospitalization period and improve quality of life. Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot with some autonomous capabilities could become a beneficial tool in telehealth applications. However, design...

Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot with some autonomous capabilities can become a beneficial tool in telehealth applications. Assistive technologies for telementoring in homes constitute a very promising avenue to decrease load on the health care system, reduce hospitalization period and improve quality of life. However, design is...

For complex robotic tasks (manipulation, locomotion, haptics, ...), the lack of knowledge of precise interaction models, the difficulties to precisely measure the task associated physical quantities (force, speed, ...) in real time and the non-collocation of sensors and transducers have negative effects on performance and stability of robots when u...

Mobile robots are machines that can move and act in the real world, making it possible to generate a multitude of interplay situations, which can engage children and en- courage interaction in a variety of different ways. Mo- bility, appearance, interaction modalities (e.g., sound, light, moving parts) and behaviour (predetermined and adaptive) can...

This paper presents the kinematical analysis of AZIMUT-2, a four steered wheeled mobile robot. The utilization of a new wheel concept called the AZIMUT wheel allowed us to create an innovative omnidirectional non-holonomic robot. Novelty of this wheel concept resides in the non-conventional positioning of the steering axis and the wheel axis. We pr...

This paper presents the kinematical analysis of AZIMUT-2. The utilization of a new wheel concept called the AZIMUT wheel allowed us to create an innovative omnidirectional non-holonomic robot. Novelty of this wheel concept resides in the non-conventional positioning of the steering axis and the wheel axis. We propose a kinematical model based on th...

The design of interactive mobile robots is a multidisci- plinary endeavor that prots from putting robots with people and studying their effects and impacts. To do so, two main issues must be addressed: giving robots capabilities in order to interact in meaningful and ef- cient ways with people, and the ability to move in hu- man settings. This pape...

Navigating in rough terrain is a complex task that requires the robot to be considered as a holistic system. Algorithms, which don't consider the physical dimensions and capabilities of the mobile robot lead to inefficient motion and suffer from a lack of robustness. A physical model of the robot is necessary for trajectory control. In this paper,...

This paper presents a new robotic concept, called SWARM-BOT, based on a swarm of autonomous mobile robots with self-assembling capabilities. SWARM-BOT takes advantage from collective and distributed approaches to ensure robustness to failures and to hard environment conditions in tasks such as navigation, search and transportation in rough terrain....

Robotic ground vehicles are systems that use gravity and contact forces with the ground to perform motion. In this paper we will focus on n-wheeled vehicles able to perform motion with all the wheels maintaining contact at the same time. The main goal of this work is to establish the implication of the topological architecture of the vehicle mechan...

Robotic ground vehicles are mechanisms that use gravity and contact forces with the ground to perform motion. They can either be wheeled, tracked or legged. In this thesis we will focus on n-wheeled vehicles able to perform ground following motion with all the wheels maintaining contact at the same time. The main goal of this work is to establish t...

In our paper we present an innovative locomotion concept for rough terrain based on six motorized wheels. Using rhombus configuration, the rover named Shrimp has a steering wheel in the front and the rear, and two wheels arranged on a bogie on each side. The front wheel has a spring suspension to guarantee optimal ground contact of all wheels at an...

This paper presents an innovative off-road wheeled mobile robot, named Octopus, able to deal autonomously with obstacles in rough terrain without getting stuck. To achieve such a performance, the robot is equipped with tilt sensors and tactile wheels. The sophisticated locomotion mechanism of Octopus has 8 motorized wheels and a total of 15 degrees...

Autonomous mobile robots have become a key technology for unmanned planetary missions. To cope with the rough terrain encountered on most of the planets of interest, new locomotion concepts for rovers and micro-rovers have to be developed and investigated. The most advanced locomotion concepts are based on wheels or caterpillars (e.g. Sojourner (NA...

Mobile robots are of high interest for unmaned planetary exploration. The very successful Pathfinder mission to Mars has impressively demonstrated the potential of mobile platforms for planetary exploration [1]. The European Space Agency (ESA) also started to develop concepts for micro-rovers for Mars missions. Within an interdisciplinary group of...

During recent years the European Space Agency (ESA) has started to develop concepts for micro-rovers for planetary missions. An ESA Technology Research Program (TRP) activity "Micro-Robots for Scientific Applications" has been dedicated to this subject. Within an interdisciplinary group of space companies and research labs new designs of micro-rove...

Autonomous mobile robots have become a key technology for unmanned planetary missions. To cope with the rough terrain encountered on most of the planets of interest, new locomotion concepts for rovers and micro-rovers have to be developed and investigated. The most advanced locomotion concepts are based on wheels or caterpillars (e.g. Sojourner (NA...

The recent advances in micro-technology made it possible to realize very small autonomous robots. Such mobile micro-robots have many potential applications. Especially in space exploration, where weight and size is a very dominant issue, mobile micro-robots enable new mission concepts with multiple robots working in parallel. This makes the mission...