Experimental Modeling and Control Strategies on an Open Mobile Robot Platform PRIM

This research work deals with the problem of modeling and design of low level speed controller for the mobile robot PRIM. The main objective is to develop an effective educational tool. On one hand, the interests in using the open mobile platform PRIM consist in integrating several highly related subjects to the automatic control theory in an educational context, by embracing the subjects of communications, signal processing, sensor fusion and hardware design, amongst others. On the other hand, the idea is to implement useful navigation strategies such that the robot can be served as a mobile multimedia information point. It is in this context, when navigation strategies are oriented to goal achievement, that a local model predictive control is attained. Hence, such studies are presented as a very interesting control strategy in order to develop the future capabilities of the system

PRIM an Open Mobile Robot Platform. Motivation, Present and Future Trends

This paper is focused on the robot mobile platform PRIM (platform robot information multimedia). This robot has been made in order to cover two main needs of our group, on one hand the need for a full open mobile robotic platform that is very useful in fulfilling the teaching and research activity of our school community, and on the other hand with the idea of introducing an ethical product which would be useful as mobile multimedia information point as a service tool. This paper introduces exactly how the system is made up and explains just what the philosophy is behind this work. The navigation strategies and sensor fusion, where machine vision system is the most important one, are oriented towards goal achievement and are the key to the behaviour of the robot

Knowledge integration within an applied mobile robot summer course

This paper presents the use of a mobile robot platform as an innovative educational tool in order to promote and integrate different curriculum knowledge. Hence, it is presented the acquired experience within a summer course named ldquoapplied mobile roboticsrdquo. The main aim of the course is to integrate different subjects as electronics, programming, architecture, perception systems, communications, control and trajectory planning by using the educational open mobile robot platform PRIM. The summer course is addressed to a wide range of student profiles. However, it is of special interests to the students of electrical and computer engineering around their final academic year. The summer course consists of the theoretical and laboratory sessions, related to the following topics: design & programming of electronic devices, modelling and control systems, trajectory planning and control, and computer vision systems. Therefore, the clues for achieving a renewed path of progress in robotics are the integration of several knowledgeable fields, such as computing, communications, and control sciences, in order to perform a higher level reasoning and use decision tools with strong theoretical base

Neptune: a hil simulator for multiple UUVs

This paper overviews the field of graphical simulators used for AUV development, presents the taxonomy of these applications and proposes a classification. It also presents Neptune, a multivehicle, real-time, graphical simulator based on OpenGL that allows hardware in the loop simulations

A distributed environment for virtual and/or real experiments for underwater robots

This paper presents the distributed environment for virtual and/or real experiments for underwater robots (DEVRE). This environment is composed of a set of processes running on a local area network composed of three sites: 1) the onboard AUV computer; 2) a surface computer used as human-machine interface (HMI); and 3) a computer used for simulating the vehicle dynamics and representing the virtual world. The HMI can be transparently linked to the real sensors and actuators dealing with a real mission. It can also be linked with virtual sensors and virtual actuators, dealing with a virtual mission. The aim of DEVRE is to assist engineers during the software development and testing in the lab prior to real experiments

Estudi de l’expansió de carrers en ciutats al llarg del temps

El Projecte s’ha desenvolupat dintre del Grup de Geometria i Gràfics de la Udg on es treballa amb projectes de desenvolupament urbanístic 3D. L’objectiu del projecte consisteix en construir una aplicació per simular l’evolució de ciutats expandint els carrers al llarg del temps. L’aplicació es desenvoluparà dintre del projecte urbanEngine incorporant la possibilitat d’expandir ciutats com una extensió d’aquest. A més es vol dissenyat una interfície gràfica d’usuari que faciliti les tasques de configuració i supervisió del sistema

Creació del Videojoc: “El Mensajero De Pekín”

L’ objectiu és el desenvolupament d'un videojoc (senzill) des d’ una idea inicial fins a un producte acabat i funcional (disseny del joc (la historia, els nivells, els personatges, etc.) com a concepte, programació, disseny gràfic, i finalment el poliment del producte per a que sigui un joc complet) utilitzant un software lliure. S'anomena "El Mensajero de Pekín" l'objectiu com a jugadors és aconseguir repartir uns paquets a una sèrie de bústies seguint una lògica de colors (cada paquet haurà de ser introduït a la bústia del mateix color per sumar punts). Es pot fer tant a mode individual, en el qual haurem de superar uns reptes que ens posi la màquina, com en mode multijugador, de dos a quatre jugadors, en el qual a part de repartir els paquets, haurem d'impedir que els rivals reparteixin els seus

A Gain Scheduling Model Predictive Controller for Blood Glucose Control in Type 1 Diabetes

This paper presents a control strategy for blood glucose(BG) level regulation in type 1 diabetic patients. To design the controller, model-based predictive control scheme has been applied to a newly developed diabetic patient model. The controller is provided with a feedforward loop to improve meal compensation, a gain-scheduling scheme to account for different BG levels, and an asymmetric cost function to reduce hypoglycemic risk. A simulation environment that has been approved for testing of artificial pancreas control algorithms has been used to test the controller. The simulation results show a good controller performance in fasting conditions and meal disturbance rejection, and robustness against model–patient mismatch and errors in meal estimation

Modeling of hybrid systems by piecewise decomposition

Piecewise linear models systems arise as mathematical models of systems in many practical applications, often from linearization for nonlinear systems. There are two main approaches of dealing with these systems according to their continuous or discrete-time aspects. We propose an approach which is based on the state transformation, more particularly the partition of the phase portrait in different regions where each subregion is modeled as a two-dimensional linear time invariant system. Then the Takagi-Sugeno model, which is a combination of local model is calculated. The simulation results show that the Alpha partition is well-suited for dealing with such a system

Curriculum sequencing for an e-learning system based on learning styles

This work shows the use of adaptation techniques involved in an e-learning system that considers students' learning styles and students' knowledge states. The mentioned e-learning system is built on a multiagent framework designed to examine opportunities to improve the teaching and to motivate the students to learn what they want in a user-friendly and assisted environment

Elaboración de software para la supervisión in situ de ejercicios prácticos de análisis de estructuras con enunciado personalizado

Se expone la experiencia de los autores en el desarrollo de las clases prácticas de análisis de estructuras, en la asignatura ESTRUCTURAS II de la ETS de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Granada, consistente en el desarrollo de ejercicios prácticos semanales con enunciados personalizados para cada alumno, previa elaboración de software que permite la supervisión y corrección in situ de los mismos. El objetivo de la metodología docente que se presenta, es la mejora de los tradicionalmente muy bajos índices de rendimiento académico, en las asignaturas de Análisis de Estructuras, en las escuelas de ingeniería y arquitectura, propiciando la participación activa del alumnado en el desarrollo de las clases mediante el planteamiento y resolución de ejercicios prácticos semanales de enunciado personalizado

Programas informáticos de simulación: un 3er entorno para el desarrollo de competencias profesionales. Análisis desde lo virtual y pedagógico

La problemática tiene como eje central el “deficiente perfil profesional” alcanzado por los egresados de las Escuelas Técnicas Industriales (en adelante ETIs) del Estado Bolívar. Este insipiente perfil alcanzado nos indica la ausencia de las necesarias competencias que hoy reclama el vivir un paso después de la postmodernidad. En un mundo que exige más y mejores experticias en lo tecnológico, las competencias virtuales se hacen imprescindibles y al momento de buscar trabajo nos encontramos un mundo formado por ecosistemas tecnológicos que todo lo abraza. Al ahondar en el problema del “perfil profesional” encontramos que para entender las causas que han incidido en esta situación discrepante que afecta a los Técnicos Medios (TM) se requeriría necesariamente abordar varios aspectos, todos los cuales guardan estrecha vinculación en sí, y con el tema de investigación

Herramientas multimedia en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras: un recurso motivador

A día de hoy, nadie puede poner en duda el extraordinario desarrollo que las tecnologías de la comunicación y la comunicación (TIC) han experimentado en nuestras vidas. Y, aunque especialmente explotadas por el mundo empresarial, donde se obtienen rendimientos observables a corto plazo, las nuevas tecnologías (NNTT) se han introducido de lleno en la enseñanza: programas interactivos desde Internet, ordenadores interconectados mediante redes inalámbricas, cañones de datos y pizarras digitales forman parte del entorno académico, y suponen un valioso apoyo para los docentes

A Monte Carlo method for accelerating the computation of animated radiosity sequences

Realistic rendering animation is known to be an expensive processing task when physically-based global illumination methods are used in order to improve illumination details. This paper presents an acceleration technique to compute animations in radiosity environments. The technique is based on an interpolated approach that exploits temporal coherence in radiosity. A fast global Monte Carlo pre-processing step is introduced to the whole computation of the animated sequence to select important frames. These are fully computed and used as a base for the interpolation of all the sequence. The approach is completely view-independent. Once the illumination is computed, it can be visualized by any animated camera. Results present significant high speed-ups showing that the technique could be an interesting alternative to deterministic methods for computing non-interactive radiosity animations for moderately complex scenarios

A teaching/learning support tool for introductory programming courses

In This work we present a Web-based tool developed with the aim of reinforcing teaching and learning of introductory programming courses. This tool provides support for teaching and learning. From the teacher's perspective the system introduces important gains with respect to the classical teaching methodology. It reinforces lecture and laboratory sessions, makes it possible to give personalized attention to the student, assesses the degree of participation of the students and most importantly, performs a continuous assessment of the student's progress. From the student's perspective it provides a learning framework, consisting in a help environment and a correction environment, which facilitates their personal work. With this tool students are more motivated to do programming