Special issue on the 6th Portuguese Conference on Automatic Control (Controlo 2004)

The Portuguese Association of Automatic Control (APCA) organizes, every two years, the Portuguese Conference on Automatic Control. Its 6th edition (Controlo 2004) was held from 7 to 9 June, 2004 at the University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal, by its Centre for Intelligent Systems (CSI). CONTROLO 2004 International Program Committee (IPC) has decided, from the very start, to ask for submission of full draft papers, to encourage special sessions with well-defined themes, and for student papers. All papers have been reviewed by three separate reviewers. From the 122 contributions submitted, the IPC selected 89 oral papers, 20 special session papers, and 5 student posters. CONTROLO 2004 Technical Programme consists of 33 oral sessions (5 being special sessions) and 1 poster session, covering a broad range of control topics, both from theory and applications. The programme also includes three plenary lectures, given by leading experts in the field, Professors Ricardo Sanz, João Miranda Lemos and Rolf Isermann.

Special section on intelligent control systems and signal processing

The IFAC International Conference on Intelligent Control Systems and Signal Processing (ICONS 2003) was organized under the auspices of the recently founded IFAC Technical Committee on Cognition and Control, and it was the first IFAC event specifically devoted to this theme. Recognizing the importance of soft-computing techniques for fields covered by other IFAC Technical Committees, ICONS 2003 was a multi-track Conference, co-sponsored by four additional Technical Committees: Computers for Control, Optimal Control, Control in Agriculture, and Modelling, Identification and Signal Processing. The Portuguese Society for Automatic Control (APCA) hosted ICONS 2003, which was held at the University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal.

Preface to the special section on algorithms and architectures for real-time control

Rapid developments in microelectronics and computer science continue to fuel new opportunities for real-time control engineers. The ever-increasing system complexity and sophistication, environmental legislation, economic competition, safety and reliability constitute some of the driving forces for the research themes presented at the IFAC Workshop on Algorithms and Architectures for Real-Time Control (AARTC'2000). The Spanish Society for Automatic Control hosted AARTC'2000, which was held at Palma de Maiorca, Spain, from 15 to 17 May. This workshop was the sixth in the series.

Measuring underwater noise with high endurance surface and underwater autonomous vehicles

This paper describes the results of AcousticRobot'13 - a noise measurement campaign that took place off the Portuguese Coast in May 2013, using two high endurance autonomous vehicles capable of silent operation (an underwater glider and an autonmomous sailing vessel) equipped with hydrophones, and a moored hydrophone that served as reference. We show that the autonomous vehicles used can provide useful measurements of underwater noise, and describe the main advantages and shortcomings that became evident during the campaign.