Lucio del Valle y la solución urbana de la Puerta del Sol

Lucio del Valle y la solución urbana de la Puerta del Sol

El ingeniero y arquitecto Lucio del Valle

El ingeniero y arquitecto Lucio del Valle

Normativa y forma de la ciudad:la regulación de los tipos edificatorios de la ordenanza de Madrid

El doctorando analiza los cambios que se reflejan en la ciudad a través de la ordenanza. En las ultimas décadas se ha detectado un renovado interés hacia los instrumentos destinados a la construcción de la ciudad. Por ello, si se une a esto el creciente interés por la historia de la ciudad, no puede extrañar que la recuperación del trazado y la ordenanza se transformen en instrumentos de configuración primaria de reforma urbana

Espacio público e implantación comercial en la ciudad de Madrid : calles comerciales versus grandes superficies

El comercio ha sido históricamente un elemento constitutivo primordial del espacio público. Desde el ágora griega y el foro romano hasta la ciudad decimonónica y moderna la función comercial se asocia indisolublemente a los espacios públicos más representativos, los que concentran la mayor densidad de vida urbana, de funciones representativas y simbólicas de la colectividad. En los países de Europa meridional surgen las primeras grandes superficies -hipermercados primero, centros comerciales integrados después- a comienzos de los años setenta. Los conceptos de proximidad, fácil accesibilidad peatonal, óptima comunicación a través de los medios de transporte colectivo, carácter público y multifuncional del soporte urbano (calles, avenidas, etc.) se alteran entonces profundamente para dar prioridad absoluta al automóvil y a la gestión privada del espacio y la organización comercial. En este contexto se ha realizado un análisis empírico sobre la localización y características de la estructura comercial de la ciudad incluyendo tanto las formas tradicionales (centro clásico, subcentro interiores, ejes comerciales de distrito, ejes o zonas de barrio) como las nuevas formas comerciales (nuevos subcentros periféricos a nivel ciudad o distrito, existentes o proyectados). Asimismo se hace un resumen comparativo de siete implantaciones comerciales representativas junto a una evaluación de los riesgos de polarización de la estructura comercial conjunta hacia las nuevas modalidades comerciales.

Autonomous vehicle control systems for safe crossroads

This article presents a cooperative manoeuvre among three dual mode cars – vehicles equipped with sensors and actuators, and that can be driven either manually or autonomously. One vehicle is driven autonomously and the other two are driven manually. The main objective is to test two decision algorithms for priority conflict resolution at intersections so that a vehicle autonomously driven can take their own decision about crossing an intersection mingling with manually driven cars without the need for infrastructure modifications. To do this, the system needs the position, speeds, and turning intentions of the rest of the cars involved in the manoeuvre. This information is acquired via communications, but other methods are also viable, such as artificial vision. The idea of the experiments was to adjust the speed of the manually driven vehicles to force a situation where all three vehicles arrive at an intersection at the same time.

Cartography for cooperative manoeuvres with autonomous land vehicles

This article presents a cartographic system to facilitate cooperative manoeuvres among autonomous vehicles in a well-known environment. The main objective is to design an extended cartographic system to help in the navigation of autonomous vehicles. This system has to allow the vehicles not only to access the reference points needed for navigation, but also noticeable information such as the location and type of traffic signals, the proximity to a crossing, the streets en route, etc. To do this, a hierarchical representation of the information has been chosen, where the information has been stored in two levels. The lower level contains the archives with the Universal Traverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates of the points that define the reference segments to follow. The upper level contains a directed graph with the relational database in which streets, crossings, roundabouts and other points of interest are represented. Using this new system it is possible to know when the vehicle approaches a crossing, what other paths arrive at that crossing, and, should there be other vehicles circulating on those paths and arriving at the crossing, which one has the highest priority. The data obtained from the cartographic system is used by the autonomous vehicles for cooperative manoeuvres.

Making Transport Safer: V2V-Based Automated Emergency Braking System

An important goal in the field of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is to provide driving aids aimed at preventing accidents and reducing the number of traffic victims. The commonest traffic accidents in urban areas are due to sudden braking that demands a very fast response on the part of drivers. Attempts to solve this problem have motivated many ITS advances including the detection of the intention of surrounding cars using lasers, radars or cameras. However, this might not be enough to increase safety when there is a danger of collision. Vehicle to vehicle communications are needed to ensure that the other intentions of cars are also available. The article describes the development of a controller to perform an emergency stop via an electro-hydraulic braking system employed on dry asphalt. An original V2V communication scheme based on WiFi cards has been used for broadcasting positioning information to other vehicles. The reliability of the scheme has been theoretically analyzed to estimate its performance when the number of vehicles involved is much higher. This controller has been incorporated into the AUTOPIA program control for automatic cars. The system has been implemented in Citroën C3 Pluriel, and various tests were performed to evaluate its operation.

Ultrasonic sensors in urban traffic driving-aid systems

Currently, vehicles are often equipped with active safety systems to reduce the risk of accidents, most of which occur in urban environments. The most prominent include Antilock Braking Systems (ABS), Traction Control and Stability Control. All these systems use different kinds of sensors to constantly monitor the conditions of the vehicle, and act in an emergency. In this paper the use of ultrasonic sensors in active safety systems for urban traffic is proposed, and the advantages and disadvantages when compared to other sensors are discussed. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) for urban traffic based on ultrasounds is presented as an application example. The proposed system has been implemented in a fully-automated prototype vehicle and has been tested under real traffic conditions. The results confirm the good performance of ultrasonic sensors in these systems. ©2011 by the authors.

Fundamentos antropológicos de las tecnologías biomédicas no terapéuticas

The important developments in technology in all areas of human life have generated high expectations and hopes with regard to the health sector. Science and technology have favored the development of incredible therapeutic treatments to help resolve numerous problems relating to illness and disability. Nonetheless, many developments in the therapeutic realm have given rise to discussions over the possibility of whether this same scientific and technological progress could be beneficial even for those who may not be sick. One may ask: why not apply the same knowledge and technology used for treatment of illness for conditions where therapy is not necessary, but there is a desire to care for, improve and enhance human person? These new horizons offered by biomedical technologies undoubtedly express a deep desire of every person for health, happiness, and a long life. In order to offer a response to these questions, current biomedical technologies and those in development offer a wide range of possibilities. Therefore, in this investigation we attempt to identify and define four areas of non-therapeutic treatment: illness prevention, health promotion, improving human nature, and human enhancement. These four areas, which do not directly regard illness, give rise to a series of questions, which range from those regarding the meaning of health and illness to those concerning anthropological questions, such as situations and conditions that must be taken into account so human dignity is respected. The treatment, improvement and enhancement of the human being imply clarifying in scientific and technological terms the truth and meaning of the human person as such. This research identifies and looks at the relationship between the four anthropological cornerstones which non-therapeutic biomedical technologies should be based upon so as not to impact or violate the dignity of the human person. This research presents the anthropological boundaries which non-therapeutic biomedical technologies should take into consideration so as not to alter or violate the dignity of the human person. At the same time, the research proposes an anthropological foundation on which to build a code of ethics for non-therapeutic biomedical technologies. El gran desarrollo de las tecnologías en todos los ámbitos de la vida del hombre ha generado una gran expectativa y esperanza en lo que se refiere a la salud. Ciencia y técnica están aportando grandes beneficios en materia terapéutica, ayudando a resolver muchos problemas concernientes a la enfermedad y a la discapacidad. Pero este desarrollo que se ha producido en el ámbito terapéutico nos conduce a la formulación de preguntas sobre las posibilidades que esos avances técnico-científicos pueden aportar en beneficio del hombre, cuando no se encuentra enfermo: ¿por qué no pueden aplicarse los conocimientos y tecnologías usados en terapia a un ámbito diferente, no terapéutico, con el fin de mantener, mejorar o incluso potenciar al hombre? Ciertamente los nuevos horizontes que abren las Tecnologías Biomédicas encuentran repercusión en el deseo de bienestar, de felicidad e incluso de prolongación de la vida presente en todos los hombres. Para responder a esta pregunta las Tecnologías Biomédicas han desarrollado y están desarrollando una gama muy amplia de posibilidades. En este trabajo intentamos organizar en cuatro áreas los conceptos de los tratamientos no-terapéuticos: prevención de la enfermedad, promoción de la salud, mejoramiento de la naturaleza humana y potenciación del hombre. Estas cuatro áreas, que no se refieren directamente a la enfermedad, generan una serie de interrogantes que van desde las preguntas sobre el significado de salud y enfermedad, hasta las cuestiones antropológicas relativas a la posibilidad y las condiciones que se han de dar para que tales acciones respeten la dignidad humana. Cuidar, mejorar y potenciar al hombre implica que los objetivos de la ciencia y de la técnica mantengan siempre claros los valores y la realidad del hombre en cuanto tal. ... Este Trabajo de Investigación presenta los límites antropológicos dentro de los cuales deben moverse las Tecnologías Biomédicas no-terapéuticas para no alterar el ser ni menoscabar la dignidad del hombre. Y ofrece los fundamentos antropológicos sobre los cuales se pueda construir un código ético y deontológico para las Tecnologías Biomédicas no-terapéuticas.

Los urbanistas del ochocientos español

Uno de los aspectos menos difundidos y quizá más brillante de la actividad intelectual del siglo XIX español es, sin duda, el del urbanismo. Equivocadamente se ha señalado muchas veces la ausencia de los españoles de este género de actividad técnica de tan grande importancia, dado el creciente desarrollo y complejidad de nuestras ciudades. Sin embargo, debe combatirse tan injustificada idea. Los nombres y obras de Lucio del Valle, Castro, Cerdá, Soria, Fernández de los Ríos, etc., son ejemplos notables de la preocupación española por el urbanismo en la pasada centuria, cristalizada en obras, planes y proyectos que han marcado época indudablemente. El siglo XIX español ha aportado a la cultura universal dos ideas geniales: el enfoque científico de la ciudad y un brillante es que,a de planteamiento, gracias a dos colosos, Cerdá y Soria, cuya influencia sigue latente en las soluciones actuales.

Genetic fuzzy-based steering wheel controller using a mass-produced car

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) cover a broad range of methods and technologies that provide answers to many problems of transportation. Unmanned control of the steering wheel is one of the most important challenges facing researchers in this area. This paper presents a method to adjust automatically a fuzzy controller to manage the steering wheel of a mass-produced vehicle to reproduce the steering of a human driver. To this end, information is recorded about the car's state while being driven by human drivers and used to obtain, via genetic algorithms, appropriate fuzzy controllers that can drive the car in the way that humans do. These controllers have satisfy two main objectives: to reproduce the human behavior, and to provide smooth actions to ensure comfortable driving. Finally, the results of automated driving on a test circuit are presented, showing both good route tracking (similar to the performance obtained by persons in the same task) and smooth driving.