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The quantum properties of nanosystems present a new opportunity to enhance the power of classical computers, both for the parallelism of the computation and the speed of the optical operations. In this paper we present the COPAC project aiming at development of a ground-breaking nonlinear coherent spectroscopy combining optical addressing and spatially macroscopically resolved optical readout. The discrete structure of transitions between quantum levels provides a basis for implementation of logic functions even at room temperature. Exploiting the superposition of quantum states gives rise to the possibility of parallel computation by encoding different input values into transition frequencies. As an example of parallel single instruction multiple data calculation by a device developed during the COPAC project, we present a n-bit adder, showing that due to the properties of the system, the delay of this fundamental circuit can be reduced.

The work presented in this paper is part of the BAMBI project, which aims at better understanding natural cognition by designing non Von Neumann machines with biologicaly plausible hardware. Probabilistic programming allows artificial systems to better operate with uncertainty, and stochastic arithmetic provides a way to carry out approximate computations with few resources. As such, both are plausible models for natural cognition. Our work on the automatic design of probabilistic machines computing soft inferences with an arithmetic based on stochastic bitstreams allowed us to develop the following compilation toolchain: given a high level description of some general problem (typically to infer some knowledge from a model given some observations), formalized as a Bayesian Program, our toolchain automatically builds a low level description of an electronic circuit computing the corresponding probabilistic inference. This circuit can then be implemented and tested on reconfigurable logic.We designed as a validating example a circuit description of a Bayesian filter solving the problem of Pseudo Noise sequence acquisition in telecommunications.

Evolve safely in an unchanged environment and possibly following an optimal trajectory is one big challenge presented by situated robotics research field. Collision avoidance is a basic security requirement and this paper proposes a solution based on a probabilistic approach called Bayesian Programming. This approach aims to deal with the uncertainty, imprecision and incompleteness of the information handled. Some examples illustrate the process of embodying the programmer preliminary knowledge into a Bayesian program and experimental results of these examples implementation in an electrical vehicle are described and commented. Some videos illustrating these experiments can be found at http://www-laplace.imag.fr.

International audience; A prerequisite to the design of future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems for cars is a sensing system providing all the information required for high-level driving assistance tasks. Carsense is a European project whose purpose is to develop such a new sensing system. It will combine different sensors (laser, radar and video) and will rely on the fusion of the information coming from these sensors in order to achieve better accuracy, robustness and an increase of the information content. This paper demonstrates the interest of using probabilistic reasoning techniques to address this challenging multi-sensor data fusion problem. The approach used is called Bayesian Programming. It is a general approach based on an implementation of the Bayesian theory. It was introduced first to design robot control programs but its scope of application is much broader and it can be used whenever one has to deal with problems involving uncertain or incomplete knowledge.

The authors address the problem of controlling a remote arm when a large communication delay exists between the control room and the remote workcell. To minimize the volume of information transiting through the communication link and to avoid the problems due to the delay of transmission, the system makes use of two identical world models of the remote workcell: one installed physically close to the operator and the other installed within the controller of the remote site. The communication link only transmits task level robot commands or goals to be achieved. Both sites are equipped with two sets of identical planners, one set is used to test if the generated task level commands can be processed by these planners and the other to plan and execute the actual commands on the remote workcell. After an overview of existing teleprogramming environments, the authors present a general description of the system. Finally they describe the experimental testbed and the results obtained with their method.

The repair of nuclear power plants often necessitates the development of special robots which should be operational readily. This requires a software architecture which quickly permits the design of a controller for an entire telerobotic system in a minimum period of time. We have developed such a software architecture to facilitate the design of applications dealing with nonstandard robot systems and complex industrial processes. In this paper we describe the requirements for this architecture and how we address them.