The Consortium combines complementary skills with proven collaborative experience. The partners have already produced reliable preliminary results, worked together in collaborative projects (2013: LARYNX, 2015: FIBROSCILLE, 2018: ANIMAGLOTTE, VOCEM, 2018-22: MICROVOICE) and co-organised the multidisciplinary Summer School “Sciences and Voice” (EESV 2016, 55 participants, supported by the four institutes INS2I/INSIS/INSHS/INSB of CNRS) and the 12th International Conference on Voice Physiology and Biomechanics (ICVPB 2020, 180 participants). Moreover, most of the elected members of French Acoustical Society-Speech Acoustics Group (SFA – GAP) are within AVATARS: T. Hélie, F. Silva, T. Legou, A. Lagier, L. Bailly, N. Henrich Bernardoni. The complementary skills are illustrated by the various collaborations with several co-authored articles.
The Coordinator Thomas Hélie, is director of research (CNRS), head of the S3AM Team (Sound Signals and Systems: Audio/Acoustics, instruMents) at IRCAM – STMS. His publications in first rated journals and his teaching (at SU, Mines ParisTech, Ecole Polytechnique) cover acoustics, control and system theory, signal processing, applied physics and mathematics. He was involved in 4 ANR projects, supervised several one-year mechatronics projects with engineer-students (2 on robots playing instruments, 7 on simplified vocal robots), 1 post-doc. fellow, 8 (+2 ending + 4 ongoing with one on PH vocal tract) PhDs and 29 MSc. partly related to voice. He derived the first port-hamiltonian model of a simplified vocal apparatus with F. Silva , including a power-balanced description of the nonlinearity responsible for self-oscillation.
Paris : STMS IRCAM
The S3AM team at STMS-UMR9912 (IRCAM, CNRS, SU, French Ministry of Culture) focuses on theoretical, technological and experimental models and control of multiphysic systems and on the sounds they produce. It will be in charge of: the port-Hamiltonian modelling, simulation, robots conception and experiments, control design and software development.
Grenoble : GIPSA-lab et 3SR
GIPSA-lab (UMR5216, UGA, CNRS, Grenoble INP) is a major research laboratory working on signals and systems, with a focus on human voice production, speech sciences and linguistics. It collaborates with L. Bailly (3SR, UMR5521, UGA, CNRS, Grenoble INP) on the modelling, conception and realisation of fibrous biomaterials, and their testing in fluid-structure-acoustic interactive conditions. It will be in charge of voice and speech measurements, data analysis, testbeds coordination, design and experiments on biomimetic vocal folds and articulated vocal-tract. It will contribute to experiments using mechatronic avatars.
Aix-Marseille : LMA et LPL
The Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics (Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, Centrale Marseille) focuses – among other activities – on mechanical and acoustical nonlinear systems, including musical instruments and voice. It develops concepts, numerical methods (e.g., MANLAB) and experimental setups (artificial mouths for wind instruments, characterization of vocal tract and radiation directivity). In the scope of the AVATARS project, with the participation of Fabrice Silva, Christophe Vergez, Romain Caron and Bruno Cochelin, it will be in charge of :
- WP1: participating in data analysis;
- WP2.2: developing the ex vivo larynx testbed with the participation of Thierry Legou (LPL, UMR7309, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Univ) and the collaboration of Aude Lagier (CHU Liège, Belgium);
- WP3: participating in the PHS modelling and synthesis;
- WP5: conducting the regime and bifurcation analysis, both for numerical and experimental avatars, with the participation of Soizic Terrien (LAUM, UMR6613, Le Mans Univ. CNRS).
Liège, Belgique : CHU Liège
The ORL Department of the Liège University Hospital (Belgium) has one of the biggest clinical activities and expertise in voice care and surgery. It will be in charge of the acquisition of the ground-truth databases, and involved in the ex vivo larynx testbed.