Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

National Initiatives

ANR CONNECT

CONNECT (CONtrol of NEtworked Cooperative sysTems) is a project funded by the ANR (National Research agency). The project deals with the problem of controlling multi-agent systems, i.e. systems composed of several sub-systems interconnected between them by an heterogeneous wireless communication network. In particular the project target the control of a cluster of agents composed of autonomous underwater vehicles and marine surface vessels. The main challenge here is to learn how to design collaborative controllers accounting for marine communication constraint, but also on the possibility to share computational resources during the system operation. Questions on control architecture in terms of the level of control distribution and control coordination are addressed as well. A generic and open simulation tool able to integrate the various kinds of component's models found in such a networked multi-agents system are developed and used to assess the related theoretical studies. Potential missions that can be effectuated by this control approach include: 1) Undersea mapping and monitoring via fleets of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), 2) Relocate an aircraft’s black box after crashing into the sea, 3) Detection of industrial or military garbage or mines and 4) Source detection by gradient search (fresh water, chemical source, methane vent,…). The partners are the NeCS team, I fremer robotics lab. and the R OBOSOFT and P rolexia companies. It started in May 2007, for a duration of 3 and a half years. The project end was in March 2011. More information can be found on-line: http://www.gipsa-lab.inpg.fr/projet/connect/ .

ANR VOLHAND

VOLHAND (VOLant pour personne âgée et/ou HANDicapée) is a project funded by the ANR (National Research agency). This project, started in October 2009, is a result of collaboration between C. Canudas de Wit and Franck Quaine/Violaine Cahouët (from the biomechanical team of GIPSA-Lab). The project aims at developing a new generation of Electrical power-assisted steering specifically designed for disabled and aged people. Our contribution is to work out new assisted laws that accomodate to the specific mechanical characteristics of this particular driver population. The consortium is composed by: LAMIH, CHRU, Fondation Hopale, GIPSA-Lab, INRETS and JTEKT. More information can be found on-line: http://www.univ-valenciennes.fr/volhand/ .