Hugo DAGUERRE : "Position estimation based on electrical impedance for mobile microrobotics"

Abstract : This thesis focuses on the localization of moving subcentimetric objects. The growing interest in this topic comes with the development of the field of mobile microrobotics. Indeed, many untethered miniature robots are considered for in vivo medical applications. In parallel, microrobotic techniques are also being studied for various in vitro operations at the level of single biological cells. However, these precise operations imply to guarantee the positioning of the manipulated entities. Access to positional information is therefore essential for these applications of microrobotics in the biomedical domain. To address this need, this thesis proposes innovative localization methods exploiting the electrical impedance variations induced by the presence of the object of interest between several electrodes. Electrical impedance tomography is an emerging medical imaging method that was used to reconstruct a map of the entire workspace of a mobile small-scale robot. Magnetic microrobots moving in this space can be identified on this map and tracked during their motion. In a microfluidic environment, using a system with fewer electrodes, thus giving access to fewer impedance measurements, microparticles moving at high speed can also be localized over time. Without mapping the entire sensing volume, a state observation method (the extended Kalman filter) was used to estimate the position of the particles by combining a known model of their motion with the obtained impedance measurements. As a result, this thesis shows by various methods that the exploitation of impedance variations induced by the presence of a subcentimetric object between several electrodes can be used to determine its position.

Jury Composition :

M. Michaël GAUTHIER Directeur de recherche Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté PhD Director
Mme Christine PRELLE Professeure des universités  Université de Technologie de Compiègne Reporter
Mme Aude BOLOPION Chargée de recherche Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté PhD Co-director
M. Sinan HALIYO Maître de conférences Sorbonne Université Reporter
M. Sarthak MISRA Professor University of Twente Reviewer
M. Xavier BRUN Professeur des universités INSA Lyon Reviewer
M. Benoît ROSA Chargé de recherche CNRS Reviewer

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