3. SELECTED R&D DOMAINS
3. SELECTED R&D DOMAINS
The following sections cover the four domains selected for a detailed presentation at the JCF.
Important, and we believe highly interesting, material was provided by leading researchers in the corresponding fields. We have chosen as often as possible to keep some of the material that they provided in spite of noticeable differences in format and in some cases in technical detail level.
As an annex, we provide a copy of the material used for the oral presentation which enlightens some aspects, in particular with photographs.
3.1. Nuclear Robotics
The Teleoperation and Robotics Department (STR) belongs to the Advanced Technologies Division (DTA) of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The department is in charge of the Research and Development in the field of Teleoperation and Robotics, with the aim to mobilize the corresponding CEA resources towards industrial application sectors which concern computer-assisted teleoperation, advanced manipulators, mobile robots and associated systems (man-machine interface, environment modeling, on-board electronics...). The department is mainly involved in nuclear applications : decommissioning, reprocessing, inspection... Technology developments are also used for other " hostile " applications (as underwater, military) and services (medical). The STR has a staff of 62 persons (engineers and technicians). A team is specially in charge of testing robotic systems in conditions representative of real tasks to validate the applicability of the developments.
Nuclear field
Main developments
A Redundant (7 axes) Dextrous Manipulator for maintenance in refuelling installations. The payload of this robot is 25 kg for a of 75 kg weight. The robot is force feedback controlled for teleoperation ; efficient and robust algorithms have been developed and implemented for the redundancy management ;
PTM (Mobile Working Platform) is a two-arm teleoperation system suspended to a crane. Both manipulators are 7 d.o.f Dextrous Manipulators (presented above). The system is equipped with an onboard radiation hardened controller ;
MAESTRO, designed in collaboration with CYBERNETIX and IFREMER is a robust 6 axes hydraulic manipulator able to handle payloads of 800 N. It has been developed for dismantling tasks ;
PML (Light Modular Carrier) is an innovative long reach carrier concept of self constructed carrier allowing accessibility to a very large range of hot cells ;
PAC (Articulated Carrier for Cells) is a hyperredundant long reach carrier designed for cells inspection. It is 6 meter long with 12 d.o.f ; a " follow the leader " control algorithm has been developed in order to simplify the operator task ; in this mode, all the links follow the robot tip motion ;
A pipe inspection and maintenance robot (RTU Robot d'inspection des TUyaux) has been realised for the reprocessing industry ; pulled by a cable through the pipe, the carrier is able to cross the collectors ;
BORE-TOOLS is a robot designed for cutting and welding cooling pipes in the frame of ITER (Fusion) project ; moving through the pipes, it is able to correct the misalignments for the welding ;
CENTAURE is a watertight mobile robot fitted with a telemanipulator and designed for inspection in a nuclear plant in accidental conditions ; this robot is about to be equipped with a new onboard radiation hardened controller ;
TAO 2000 is a computer aided teleoperation control system, providing an extended set of manual, shared and automatic modes, including hybrid force-position and sensor-referenced controls. TAO 2000 has been connected to various kind of manipulators : MA23 (electric master-slave telemanipulator), RD500 (electric telerobot for dismantling applications), RX90, RX130 (Industrial manufacturing robot), Dextrous Manipulator, MAESTRO ; TAO 2000 is under industrialization ;
PYRAMIDE is a 3D interactive graphic system devoted to environment modeling. In order to improve the modelization of specific environments (for instance, including a lot of pipes), dedicated tools have been developed ;
Graphic man-machine interfaces are developed for the control and supervision of telerobotics systems. They are based on virtual reality techniques. OTARIE, a graphic interface dedicated to underwater robotics has been commercialized.
Partners
In the nuclear field, our main partners are:
Inside CEA Group:
DGD (waste management direction) ;
UDIN (nuclear plants dismantling unit) ;
INTRA
COGEMA (fuel reprocessing, waste conditioning) ;
CYBERNETIX (company involved in robotics and telerobotics systems) ;
- Outside CEA Group:
EDF (Electricité de France) ;
NET (ITER project)
CEA Robotics and Teleoperation Department is now part of a Teleoperation and Virtual Reality Laboratory which is a new entity involving different universities and organizations in Ile de France (Evry, Versailles Saint Quentin, Paris 6 Universities, CNRS and CEA). This new Laboratory gathers the Research and Development capabilities of different teams in the field of Teleoperation and Virtual Reality. More specifically, its main role consists in assessing new innovative ways related to:
teleoperation systems tuning and control ;
new tools for mechanical design of manipulators (atteignability and manipulability) ;
new principles of man-machine communication (Virtual and Augmented Reality, Computer-Supported Collaborative Working).
EDF keeps a Research & Development activity in Robotics and remote control operations, in order to design and integrate up to date remote technologies for maintenance and control operations, in various environments which could be encountered in EDF's installations. Main concern is to remove human operators from hazardous environments. Applications are concerning mainly operations in Nuclear Power Plants, but also interventions on energized electric lines, and robotized repair of hydraulic turbine blades.
Various research themes are studied in the Research and Development center, including Robotics CAD systems, Off Line Programming, Automatic Path Planning, Control Command, sensor based control, Vision based and force based control, force feedback remote control, Oriented Object manipulator task programming. Among technological components, the following are specially worth to mentioned: Laser Mapping System for large industrial systems As Build CAD models acquisitions (SOISIC® laser scanning system and 3Dipsos© CAD reconstruction software, stereovision system for human feedback, field buses for umbilical size reduction (NEUROBOT® system), long distance communication between supervision and operations (ATM network), manipulator technologies.
Various applications of robotics and remote control for maintenance application are being studied: remote robotized nozzle dam installation in PWR NPP steam generators, robotized reparation of bottom penetrations of PWR pressurized vessel, robotized control and reparation of valves, robotized reparations of hydraulic turbines blades, robotized high voltage lines junction lines exchange, using an helicopter transported system, remote control of mobile vehicles for nuclear accidental situations. This last subject is done in conjunction with the GIE-Intra organization, which has developed 15 remote controlled vehicles, including one excavator, a bulldozer, several transmission relay and control vehicles, 4 indoors platforms. A remote control helicopter is being studied within this organization.
Two of the major projects which have been accomplished within last two years at EDF Research center are the following:
Pressurized vessel bottom penetration robotized repair:
This task is representative of a complex task which can be encountered in a nuclear environment, and of the effectiveness of the START controller. About 30 penetration tubes are located under the nuclear vessel, for nuclear reaction monitoring purpose. The operation requires to weld some tubes under the bottom of the vessel, which is a half sphere. For doing this operation, a 7 DOF portable (32kg) robot is used, for carrying all the tools needed for the operation. The redundancy of the robot is useful for turning around the selected tube, avoiding the other tubes. Ten tools have been designed, for brushing, cleaning, TIG welding, dye penetrant weld control, and laser scanning weld final measurement. All control modes are used for this application: force control for brushing, vision based control for tool grasping, mixed (partly computerized / partly joystick) mode for trajectory adjustment. A collision avoidance algorithm is also being used for trajectories computation. The whole task is remotely monitored, through an ATM link, reducing the umbilical size needed for the operation. Some more developments are being done to improve the effectiveness of the system.
Steam exchanger Robotized Nozzle Dam installation, using advanced control mode.
One of the challenge which faces Nuclear Plants is to remotely install nozzle dam in boxes of steam generators (which is the heat exchanger in a nuclear Pressurized Water Plant). This installation is done manually everywhere in the word. The problem is to install a robot into this steam generator box, then to manipulate several tools, and the different parts of the nozzle dam, in a narrow environment. The whole remote process of installation was developed and tested into EDF's lab. The manipulator which is used is the hydraulic 6DOF Titan II, which is a good manipulator, but a poor robot, i.e. having bad absolute precision (several centimeters), and bad relative precision (several millimeters). Also, joints have lot of friction, due to sealings, and low speed control is hard to achieved.
Some advanced control modes have been developed and adapted to the tasks. Major improvements are related to:
Centralized object-oriented tasks supervision. It means that only one operator is able to control every devices, and every control's mode needed by the task, in a very easy way, and operator oriented. An expert system take care of all the coherence of the process.
Force control loops superposed with teleoperation. There are several task-oriented force control modes which are used, depending on the kind of task which is accomplished: screwing, insertion, handling and setting, …, each of this mode controlling forces of the powerful Titan II arm, without breaking or damaging anything. This mode controls fine movements. It is superposed with a teleoperated joystick mode, controlling large displacements. Advantage of this approach is a cheap way to achieve precise tasks, without needing a force reflecting master arm. It is a lot more efficient than teleoperation without force control.
Vision control loops is also used to grasp tools, or to set the robot in a precise position.
The whole task can be accomplished in 2 hours, which is the time needed to do the same task with an operator.
3.2. Underwater Robotics
VICTOR: first operational tests of the new IFREMER VICTOR 6000 meters depth scientific Remotely Operated Vehicle.
The vehicle rated for 6000m depth is now operational . After several trials on the THALASSA Research Vessel the vehicle has been used in collaboration with the German Alfred Wegner Institute on the Polar Stern Research vessel in August 1999 for an operational scientific mission. The mission has been a real success. During the technological trials and during the first operational mission VICTOR 1ere, the vehicle has reached 6000m depth several times and has been used continuously during more than 70hours on a same dive. Let us recall the active collaboration between IFREMER and the MBARI Institute engaged during the development of VICTOR on the French side and the TIBURON 4000m depth scientific ROV in the USA.
GESMA: achievement of the French navy GESMA group of the mockup vehicle REDERMOR for mine research with dog on the lynch (with several kind of lynch) and free swimming version.
This vehicle build in collaboration with the UK's Navy and the DRA, is a re-configurable prototype build to validated concepts on mine search. This group is also engaged in collaboration with the US on Non conventional navigation study and project in sonar image processing are also existing between GESMA and NUWC in the US.
Completion of several European projects:
The DESIBEL project linking IFREMER with IST in Portugal and two German partners, Geomar GmBh and VWS in Berlin. This project already described in the last report was ended with the achievement and test at sea of the deep (4000m rated) free swimming vehicle tele-supervised trough acoustics, named SIRENE mainly developed and fully operated by Ifremer with the participation of IST. SIRENE has reached a predefined target autonomously with a metric accuracy by2400m depth, in tele supervised mode with a maximum;
The MAUVE project coordinated by the Thomson Marconi Sonar society in Nice Sophia Antipolis with the CNIM French company. This project dedicated to the exploitation of small AUV for monitoring of coastal environment has demonstrated the capabilities of the CALAS military submarine target (Sippican like vehicle) extrapolation AUV to be use for civil purposes.
AUVs projects:
New involvement of the French CNRS-LIRMM in relation with the CNIM company and the IFREMER on the research for small AUV dedicated to environmental survey.
This association leads to the development of the TAIPAN AUV for technical study on the basis of a CALAS sub-sea training target developed by the CNIM company.
New European projects:
ARAMIS between Technomare in Italy, Herriot Watt university in Scotland, IAN-CNR in Genoa and ENEA in Italy and IFREMER in France, for the robotics part.
The ARAMIS objective is to build a set of scientific tools to be integrate and operate from the IFREMER's deep sea ROV VICTOR and / or from the middle class ROV ROMEO build and operated by the CNR-IAN group in Genoa Italy. These tools are specialized for the investigation of the sediment. It concerns coring, visual and acoustic inspection and deployment of specific probes and scientific instrumentation. From a robotic point of view automation of tele-manipulation tasks, dynamic positioning of ROVs, precise navigation and automatic image and sonar mosaïquing are under development. Supervisory control and integrated navigation system are the core deliverables to be set up during the project. The developed systems will be test in Mediterranean sea.
NARVAL within the Esprit program linking Thomson Marconi sonar and the I3S CNRS laboratory as subcontractor in Nice, on the topic of intelligent control for future autonomous underwater systems.
SWIMMER(Subsea Works Inspection and Maintenance with Minimum Environment ROV) is the continuation of the IFREMER's DESIBEL-SIRENE project within the THERMIE European program. This projects aims to build a ROV carrier shuttle tele-supervised trough acoust and which navigates and docks on a sub-sea docking station in a free swimming mode. This project links all together IFREMER, CYBERNETICS and TOTAL in France associated to University of Liverpool in UK, and NORDHOEK in Holland
The constant increase of water depth of deep offshore field development is permanently taking the ROV technology to its limits. In particular, the handling of ROV umbilicals in water depth of 1500 m and more is a real technical challenge and implies the mobilization of heavier and heavier surface support vessels.
The basic idea of the SWIMMER concept is to utilize the existing production umbilical to supply the ROV with power and signal transmission.
SWIMMER aims to demonstrate that standard ROVs can be used in an AUV mode for delivery from surface to the worksite and hence overcome the need for very long/heavy umbilicals, special support vessels and their associated costs.
The major outlines of the system are:
* Equip a standard work ROV with a tool skid (BAT- skid) which houses both power (batteries) and a telecoms/hydraulic power interface and a short working leash to the ROV.
* " Fly " the ROV in an autonomous mode to the seabed using " through the water " ultrasonic data transmission.
* Mate the ROV and tool skid to a pre-installed docking station on the seabed using " through water " ultrasonic image processing and RF metrology techniques to ensure docking and mating of connectors.
* Use of ROV in normal mode via production umbilical - docking station - tool skid - leash.
The ADVOCATE project is an ESPRIT basic research European program project linking Ingenia Company, IFREMER in France University of Madrid in Spain and mainly STN ATLAS in Germany on fault tolerance and diagnosis for the piloting of underwater vehicle. The project is based on CORBA architecture and the use of hybrid systems based on AI techniques and neural networks.
French GRSM (Sub-sea Robotics association)
Within the GRSM (Sub-sea Robotics association) a new concept of intelligent acoustic buoys for sub-sea positioning has been successfully funded by the Provence Alpes côte d'Azur council. This project named Mobile Base of Positioning use systems patented by the French SME named ACSA which developed the GIB (GPS Intelligent Buoys) concept. The system is like an inverted acoustic long base-line comprising surface acoustic buoys fitted with GPS and radio communication. An autonomous pinger is placed on-board on the sub-sea robot or vehicle to be positioned (up to 8 mobiles tracked simultaneous with a specific coding).
The CNRS Intelligent Machine strategic action launched 3 years ago includes a special working group in subsea robotics which is very active. This program link all together several labs : INRIA Sophia Antipolis on advanced control and three D visual reconstruction, INRIA Rennes in sensor base control and in the field of video Mosaiquing, LASMEA CNRS in Clermont Ferrand in the field of video sonar sensor fusion, LIRMM-CNRS in Montpellier on underwater vision, terrain based navigation, control navigation and design of small AUV, I3S CNRS in the field of control architectures for sub-sea vehicle. IFREMER which is a non CNRS Laboratory participates in this group and is leading the mosaiquing and navigation activities.
3.3. Medical Robotics
Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) attempts primarily to optimize the performance of medical tasks . The optimization consists of :
planning optimal strategies from multi-modal data acquisition and fusion, as defined by application-oriented criteria (e.g. geometric, bio-mechanical, measures),
accurately transferring and executing these plans in intra-operative conditions,
minimizing the invasiveness of these tasks by increasing the selectivity of anatomical target localization and reducing the aggressiveness of the target access (through minimal incisions or natural openings),
increasing safety for delicate interventions.
Minimizing invasiveness generally results in a lack of perception (vision, tactile feeling) and dexterity. It may also raise accessibility problems and may require a higher positional and force accuracy.
An interface device of some sort is needed in order to connect the "information world" of images, plans, and computers, to the physical world of surgeons, patients, and tools. This device should supplement the surgeon's perception and dexterity, increase his accuracy, and allow him to access to distant anatomical areas through complex trajectories. Such an interface device is called a guiding system.
CAS systems generally include three main components: (1) multi-modal data acquisition, processing and fusion, (2) surgical planning capabilities and (3) such a guiding system.
The development of CAS systems requires a very strong partnership of scientists, clinicians and industrial actors. Specifications, tests and clinical validation rely on the clinical team. Clinical validation consists in the experimental demonstration of the advantage of a new medical technique over the previous one (best therapeutic effect, reduction of post-operative problems, reduction of global cost, etc.). Such a validation generally involves a long term evaluation in multi-centric trials and requires systems in a pre-industrial state of development which is far from research objectives. Moreover, regulation has to be considered in these early stages. Industrial partnership is therefore mandatory.
The "Medical robotics" CNRS action aims at coordinating this very rapidly expanding domain. It gathers scientific, clinical and industrial partners In the following, we will focus on one component of the action activities : the robotic component in the limited sense of the development of specific electromechanical systems for surgical assistance. Of course, image processing and data fusion are key components of all these systems. A more complete description of the partners activity can be found on the web at http://www-cami.imag.fr.
Guiding systems are used to guarantee the correct execution of planned strategies. This requires the connection of a world of numerical data including patient files (mostly medical images), a priori knowledge, and the surgical plan to the physical world including the real patient, the surgeon, the sensors and instruments. This assistance may integrate different capabilities such as:
Localization : as we already explained most of the systems primarily connect the numeric world to the real one. This requires to know where is a surgical instrument relatively to the anatomy and especially relatively to targeted structures.
Complex geometrical tasks : in the case where the surgeon has to position a prosthesis, he must firstly prepare a cavity which will receive the prosthesis. The quality of the fit is tightly correlated to the therapeutic result of the surgery. The purpose of the system is therefore to machine very precisely a bone with respect to a surgical plan. Surgical or radiotherapic destruction of tumors raise the same problems of limiting the tool action to a very precise and sometimes complex 3D volume.
Third hand : several surgical procedures, for instance laparoscopic one, require a perfect coordination between an operator holding and moving the surgical instruments inside the abdominal cavity and another operator who holds and moves a sensor (a laparoscope in this case). This sensor allows to localize anatomical structures that cannot be seen directly and to know the position of the instruments relatively to them. This hand-eye coordination is a difficult, stress generating and tedious task for both operators.
Precision improvement and motion filtering : some microsurgical procedures (neurosurgery, ophtalmology for instance) confront the human operator to his physical limits. Motion accuracy and quality can be improved by several orders of magnitude through the use of electromechanical systems
Force control : some strategies require a very fine control of force at the instrument tip. This is for example the case for ENT surgery of the internal ear or for external pressure measurements in the blood vessels.
Heavy "payload" management : for radiotherapy, the displacement of the radiation apparatus cannot be generated by a human operator. To execute a planned treatment, robotic systems may be used to position the radiation device relatively to the patient or conversely. In the same way, the use of surgical microscope can be made easier through electromechanical assistance devices.
Intra-body navigation : flexible endoscopy and catheterism face the difficult problem of driving from the outside a flexible instrument inside the body cavities - vessels, bronchi for instance. Systems that could anticipate the structure curvature may help a lot. Moreover, distant access for drug delivery, diagnosis or surgery has a tremendous clinical potential for miniaturized systems.
Synchronization to external events : some surgical actions require to synchronize the instrument action with some external event (motion of the patient, heart beating, breathing, etc.). A closed-loop system may guarantee such a synchronization.
Intervention in some hostile environment: when medical care is dangerous for the staff (irradiation, bacteriological contamination for instance) or for very special cases (interventions in space, submarines), tele-operated systems may facilitate a safe and fast operation.
The domain of passive systems is the most mature of the domain. Navigation systems which allow the surgeon to localize the surgical instrument position with respect to anatomical structures were firstly developed in the context of neurosurgery and ENT surgery. In the last five years, this type of systems has invaded the orthopaedics domain. About fifteen different systems are sold all over the world by different companies. Several hundreds of such systems are now used worldwide in the clinical sites. French centers among which the Grenoble university and hospital and the Sophia Antipolis INRIA center have strongly contributed to the design and validation of such systems which major component relies on image registration capabilities.
Active systems
Active systems autonomously realize a part of the intervention. They are based on the use of generic or specialized robotic architectures. Such systems have been developed for radiotherapy. The purpose is to position very accurately the radiation source relatively to the patient in order to destroy a tumor according to a planned strategy developed a robotic system for patient positioning. The patient is sat onto a parallel structure (Stewart platform) which guarantees a very precise positioning. This system is used routinely in the Orsay prototherapy center.
Most of the active systems are position controlled. More recently force-controlled systems have been introduced to realize contact-based actions. This is the case of the HIPPOCRATE system developed at LIRMM. The clinical objective is to facilitate the modeling and quantification of atheromatous plaques on the carotid arterial walls from 3D echographic acquisitions. After a first prototype based on an existing architecture, for safety reasons, a light robot has been designed and developed in cooperation with the SINTERS group. It is used to position and to move the echographic probe on the patient skin safely and accurately. The echographic acquisition is synchronized to the cardiac cycle. Safety is of primary importance. The type of control and the architecture of the robot certainly contribute to safety.
Semi-active systems
As we already explained, these systems materialize the surgical strategy using mechanical guides. Accuracy and stability of the action is improved as compared to a passive assistance. As compared to active systems, safety is certainly greater than for active systems since the surgeon is directly in the loop.
This category includes the SPEEDY system. This system has been developed for stereotactic neurosurgery. It is used to assist linear actions (biopies, placement of electrodes). After image processing and registration, a six axes robot positions a mechanical guide which materializes the planned trajectory. This guide is used to execute the surgical action using the accuracy of the robot and the know-how and sensing of the surgeon. This system has been used in clinical routine since 1989 in the neurosurgical department of Professor Benabid, Grenoble Hospital. This worldwide known system has resulted in an industrial version, the NEUROMATE system, distributed by the French IMMI company.
Synergistic systems
Semi-active systems allow a direct and ergonomic transfer of the surgical planning to the operating site. Nevertheless they are specific to a special type of surgical task. In order to generalize their use, the notion of mechanical constraint must be implemented in a more general way. Instead of being defined by the hardware design, they should be made programmable. This led to the recent introduction of the appealing notion of synergistic devices also called cooperation robots. Such systems rely on a strong interaction between the robot and a human operator. This answers ergonomics and safety issues. The concrete objective consists in building general-purpose devices for which the surgical tool placed on the end-effector is moved by the operator. The movements proposed by the operator are filtered according to the planned strategy and the only motions that are transmitted to the articulated structure are those which are allowed by the task. For instance, in orthopaedics, such a system may constrain a saw to move within an osteotomy plane defined on the patient's data whilst the motions in the plane are directly controlled by the surgeon from his own sensing. Such a synergistic system should allow to define different types of constraints corresponding to different interaction modes : free mode (no constraint - tool position measurement), position mode (the tool must reach a planned position - e.g. placement of a bone fragment or of a prosthesis), trajectory mode (the tool must execute a planned trajectory - puncture trajectory for instance), region mode (the tool is constrained to move in a given region - machining of a bone cavity or tumor removal). Several such systems have been developed worldwide these last five years. Some of them are based on a totally passive technology. This is the case in particular of the PADYC (Passive Arm with Dynamic Constraints), developed in the TIMC laboratory. This system is based on the use of clutchable freewheels in the arm joints. It allows a continuous control of the instantaneous joint velocities. The computation of the allowed velocities is based on the definition of the task and takes into account the current configuration of the arm to determine next authorized displacements. This approach has been validated with a three axes laboratory prototype . A six axes robot for pericardial punctures is being developed.
Synergistic robots are still in a very exploratory phase. From the clinical point of view, they generate very enthusiastic reactions of the surgeons since they are kept "in the loop" whilst their action is made safer thanks to the existence of programmable constraints. On the scientific point of view, a lot has still to be done from technological improvement to control and task programming. Indeed, translating a surgical task in the constraint space is very close to the problem of configuration space modeling for path planning. This is still a difficult problem in the general case.
Tele-robotic systems
In this framework, the activity of French partners is mostly concerned with the clinical validation of industrial products. One may cite, the extensive use of the AESOP® from Computer Motion Inc in the IRCAD institute headed by Professor Marescaux in Strasbourg; this institute is specialized in laparoscopic procedures. One may cite also the first worldwide use of the Intuitive Surgical Devices tele-robotic system for cardiac surgery (coronary bypass in particular) in the Broussais Hospital, Department of Professor Carpentier.
AESOP is used as a third hand to move the endoscope under the surgeon's control. The system from Intuitive Surgical Devices, running an evaluation stage, allows a tele-operation of the surgical instruments through a suitable interaction device. This results in the increase of the surgeon's accuracy and dexterity (the tip of the instrument has 7 degrees of freedom whilst the ordinary procedure is executed using only 4 degrees of freedom), and shaking can be filtered. In the same spirit, a SME company of the Grenoble area developed some years ago a robot named Surgiscope® to facilitate or to automate the displacements of a surgical microscope. This system is now marketed by the European ELEKTA company.
Several research teams are also developing tele-operated robots for tele-echography. This is the case in particular of the CEA (Teleoperation and Robotics Department) with its European project MIDSTEP (Multimedia Interactive DemonStrator TElePresence) ; this project aims at developing tele-intervention techniques such as telediagnosis and telesurgery ; two demonstrators are now under development and both are dealing with the remote control of ultrasound scanners.
In the frame of this project, CEA partners are: ARMSTRONG, UMDS, UBHT, Telecom Italia and Finsiel.
EPIDAURE is an important INRIA project carried on at the Sophia-Antipolis Center with an extremely important national and international impact. The general objective of EPIDAURE is to design and to develop new tools to analyze multidimensional and multimodal medical images (CT, magnetic resonance, ultrasound, nuclear medicine images, etc...) in order to improve diagnosis and therapy, especially when therapy is guided by medical images (video-surgery, interventional radiology, radiotherapy, etc...).
The EPIDAURE project encompasses also the study of interaction with medical images, especially as part of surgical simulation.
Research themes
Extraction of quantitative parameters useful for diagnosis (shape, texture, motion), spatial registration of images acquired at different times, fusion of multimodal images, differential geometry, analysis of deformable motion, construction and use of digital anatomical atlases, morphometrical and functional brain analysis, building virtual patients and simulation of surgery, virtual and augmented reality in medicine, spatial localization of patients and surgical tools, coupling medical imagery with medical robotics.
Software and hardware integration.
International and industrial relations
Industrial collaboration with General Electric Medical Systems, Focus-Imaging, Noesis, Sanofi, Nycomed, Dosigray, Matra, Medtronic, Philips, Siemens, etc.
International collaboration with hospitals and universities in Baltimore, Boston, Leuven, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Zurich, etc. and the MIT.
Participation in European (Biomed, Telematics) research projects.
Further information on 3D imaging and registration can be found in the annex.
3.4. Field Robotics
Field robotics represents today a cutting-edge research stream in the domain of autonomous mobile robots, i.e. Intelligent Machines possessing decisional and operation al autonomy. There is a rich spectrum of application domains, most of them implying highly demanding technical advances in subjects such as automated locomotion, 3-D perception and modelling, on-board autonomy, and task -level teleprogramming.
France has been very active in three application fields implying natural terrain non-cooperative environments. This is the case of planet exploration, ground intervention in remote and highly hard places such as Antarctica and the field of dangerous waste and anti-personnel mines handling.
The following three sections report on the corresponding results and on-going work.
CNES, the French Space Agency, has considered various Lunar and Mars missions. Present efforts relate to the foreseen partcipation in rover vision and navigation in the Sample Return Mission 2003-2005, subject to evaluation (10/99).
GEROMS, the test facility , created in August 1992, by a joint decision of CNES/CST (Centre Spatial de Toulouse), the ONERA/CERT and the CNRS/LAAS, is maintained by CNES since April 1999 as stand-by resource after completion of the IARES project (cf. 1998 report).
LAAS (Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes)
Continuing basic efforts are led by LAAS in cooperation with several industrial partners (Aerospatiale, Alcatel,...) covering long-range navigation and motion control topics. The work is carried on, using the robot LAMA (see annex) in the EDEN site at LAAS.
Extremely important international science-oriented research efforts are conducted in Antarctica by several countries that include in many cases international cooperation. We will report on two major robotics projects, Concordia and the Polar exploration program led by CMU with LAAS as an international partner.
Concordia
France (IFTP) and Italy (ENEA) have programmed a major undertaking: the CONCORDIA project.
A scientific base, Dome C, is to be installed to carry on an ambitious scientific program in the heart of Antarctica. Dome C is situated at a similar distance (approximately one thousand kilometers) of the Italian coastal base and the French one (Dumont d'Urville). Research groups in both countries have started studies related to robotics in two possible directions :
Logistics uses : coastal base - Dome C traverses
Scientific experiments : around Dome C ; teleoperated experimentations, automatic monitoring,...
For the French side, the work in progress carried on by LAAS-CNRS has been two-folded:
Following the identification by international experts of the most interesting aspects relevant to Robotics assistance, meterorite search and collection, and local surface-snow parameters identification, to complete air-measurement
Sub-Program A: "Piloting Aids"
Sub-Program B: "Convoy"
Main functionality: A human drives a vehicle, and one or more automated vehicles follows it (for logistics and transportation). The objective of the sub-program is to make a feasibility demonstration in situ.
Sub-Program C: "Science robot"
The science robot is able to autonomously achieve long traverses and regions explorations, e.g. in order to analyze surface and snow characteristics to calibrate satellite data, in order to find out meteorites, or in order to measure the position evolution of a network of beacons (ice flow measurements).
The system is composed of two different segments: the robot itself, and a ground station that allows scientific mission programming and interaction with the robot.
Polar exploration
From November 1998 to December 1998, LAAS has taken part into the robotics experiments carried on by a group of laboratories led by CMU. This work has included in particular on-site experiments in Patriot Hill.
IARP has recognized Humanitarian Demining as a major field calling for its interest and its efforts to foster international cooperation in the field.
France activity in the domain has gained considerable momentum during the last two years. A major event and several important projects are especially worth to be mentioned in this report:
The first IARP WS on Robotics for Humanitarian Demining was held in Toulouse on September 14-16, 1998, and was attended by 53 registered participants (see the WS proceedings and report).
Main R&D projects
VIVALDI project: the main topics are Biological detectors (bacteria) and distributed image processing.
ESPRIT projects: several French-lead European projects are MINESEYE (Tomography Interrogation Neutron Activation), INFIELD, DREAM, GEODE, LOTUS.
Other European projects: MINEREC, ANGEL (EUREKA ; currently on hold in France).
Further information in particular regarding MINESEYE can be found in the annex.