Qualisys Stories

Marine, Amphibious and Land Mobile Robotics

Université de Toulon is home to a group of roboticists and computer vision researchers that use Qualisys motion capture as ground truth and for real time feature tracking within the Conception de Systèmes Mécaniques et Robotiques – Mechanical and Robotic Systems or COSMER laboratory.

The unit is associated with the new Engineering School, named Seatech of the University. It brings together teacher/research scientists formerly working at Supmeca-Toulon, and teacher/research scientists from the Institute of Technology of the University of Toulon – departments : GMP (Mechanical and Production Automation Engineering), GIM (Industrial Engineering and Maintenance) and MMI (multimedia and Internet Technologies).

The COSMER laboratory is attached to the INP – Information, Digital, Prevention – and MEDD – Sea, Environment and Sustainable Development – two ​​poles of the University of Toulon, which aim to promote the University in the region and to promote projects inter-laboratories at national and European levels. The unit also holds a seat on the board of the University’s Doctoral School 548 Sea and Sciences.

The COSMER Lab develops two main research topics:

The first topic deals with marine, amphibious and terrestrial robots (RMMAT), and especially with the mobility and the autonomy of robotic systems in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

The second topic is centered on eco-design and optimization of sustainable mechanical systems (EOSMD), which focuses on complex systems optimization methods.

Marine, Amphibious and Land Mobile Robotics (RMMAT)

The scientific objectives of the RMMAT axis concern the development of the mobility and autonomy of robotic systems in aquatic and terrestrial environments. The design of amphibious robots, capable of a certain autonomy of movement and capable of interacting with the person constitutes is a major development theme. Furthermore, the design of sailing vehicles and land vehicles with increased mobility corresponds to research activities that can contribute to the convergence towards innovations in amphibious robotics.

The RMMAT performs measurements on mobility that is categorized into four different types:

  1. Bimodal/multimodal mobility
  2. Interactive Marine Mobility
  3. Surface Marine Mobility
  4. Increased Land Mobility

These activities concretely involve innovative work in terms of:

  • mechatronic design of marine and land mobile robots (hull, skin, kinematics, mechanical/mechatronic architecture, motorization, propulsion/stabilization/steering components),
  • adequacy of control-command techniques for marine and amphibious robots (maintenance of stability, dynamic movements, control of centers of mass and thrust, behavioral transitions, obstacles, traversability, etc.).
  • perception systems, sensor-referenced control, human-machine interfaces adapted to the environment (sensor instrumentation, sensory envelope, metrology, data fusion, localization, robust state estimation, control, security).

The targeted applications for these robots are exploration, surveillance, intervention and rescue applications in marine and coastal environments.

The RMMAT performs measurements on mobility that is categorized into four different types:

  • Bimodal/multimodal mobility
  • Interactive Marine Mobility
  • Surface Marine Mobility
  • Increased Land Mobility

These activities concretely involve innovative work in terms of:

  • mechatronic design of marine and land mobile robots (hull, skin, kinematics, mechanical/mechatronic architecture, motorization, propulsion/stabilization/steering components),
  • adequacy of control-command techniques for marine and amphibious robots (maintenance of stability, dynamic movements, control of centers of mass and thrust, behavioral transitions, obstacles, traversability, etc.).
  • perception systems, sensor-referenced control, human-machine interfaces adapted to the environment (sensor instrumentation, sensory envelope, metrology, data fusion, localization, robust state estimation, control, security).

The targeted applications for these robots are exploration, surveillance, intervention and rescue applications in marine and coastal environments.

Eco-design and optimization of sustainable mechanical systems (EOSMD)

The scientific objectives of the EOSMD axis consist in developing methods for the design and optimization of mechanical systems compatible with sustainable development, taking into account the wide variety of environmental, social and economic objectives involved as well as the nature increasingly complex of the systems considered (interconnected energy production systems, sustainable mobility, sustainable housing, etc.).

Ecodesign of Mechanical Systems raises scientific questions relating to the improvement of each of the main stages of a system’s life cycle (extraction + manufacturing + distribution, use, end of life).

Optimization of Sustainable Complex Systems, which engages the awareness that systems designed by engineers are becoming increasingly complex and, therefore, their technical, economic and environmental optimization cannot be based on a simple design iteration approach.

Mechanical and Robotic Systems at Université de Toulon - feature photo

 

Diving into the capabilities of motion capture

Mechanical and Robotic Systems at Université de Toulon - feature photo

A seminar hosted by Claire Dune and Bilal Ghader dove into the capabilities of the Qualisys system with specific focus on the interactions between a drone and a diver. This involved several lines of research: the state estimation of the robot and the diver, the detection and tracking of a diver by fusion of vision/acoustic data, the recognition of gesture/signals and the control of an AUV in a diver’s dive. The motion capture system was submerged underwater to focus on the autonomous monitoring of a diver and reveal the state of the motion relating to this problem and its first results.

Mechanical and Robotic Systems at Université de Toulon - feature photo

Another experiment using motion capture at the COSMER laboratory was a collaborative venture with the Centre d’Investigació en Robòtica Submarina (CIRS) of the University of Girona. The objective was to use the robots and infrastructures of CIRS to test the algorithms developed at COSMER with a dynamic motion tracking based on the ground truth defined by the Qualisys motion tracking system.

The researchers acquired nearly 300 sequences in one week and carried out 6 different groups of experiments:

  1. Estimation of the hydrodynamic parameters of underwater robots (Mathieu Richier)
  2. Development of an intelligent reel (Ornella Tortorici and Cédrice Anthierens)
  3. Visual estimation of the shape of an umbilical for the control of a robot rope (Juliette Drupt and Claire Dune)
  4. Acoustic estimation of a diver’s position (Bilal Ghader and Claire Dune)
  5. Recognition of a diver’s gestures (Bilal Ghader and Claire Dune)
  6. Creation of a database for underwater SLAM (Clémentin Boittiaux and Claire Dune)

Read more about the experiment here

We thank the CIRS team for their welcome and help in setting up the experiments!

 

Mechanical and Robotic Systems at Université de Toulon - feature photo

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