A multimedia environment for supporting the teaching of robotics systems

This paper aims at describing an educational system for teaching and learning robotic systems. Multimedia resources were used to construct a virtual laboratory where users are able to use functionalities of a virtual robotic arm, by moving and clicking the mouse without caring about the detailed internal robot operation. Moreover through the multimedia system the user can interact with a real robot arm. The engineering students are the target public of the developed system. With its contents and interactive capabilities, it has been used as a support to the traditional face-to-face classes on the subject of robotics.. In the paper it is first introduced the metaphor of Virtual Laboratory used in the system. Next, it is described the Graphical and Multimedia Environment approach: an interactive graphic user interface with a 3D environment for simulation. Design and implementation issues of the real-time interactive multimedia learning system, which supports the W3C SMIL standard for presenting the real-time multimedia teaching material, are described. Finally, some preliminary conclusions and possible future works from this research are presented.

Teaching robotics systems in a multimedia environment

This paper describes the development of a multimedia educational system to teach and learn robotic systems. Multimedia resources have been used to build a virtual laboratory where users are able to utilize functions of a robotic arm, by moving and clicking the mouse without worrying about the detailed robot internal operation. The multimedia system is integrated with a real robotic arm, which was also developed at the university. Through robotic topic presentations and interactive capabilities provided by this system and its tools, students can devote themselves on the learning process just as they do in the traditional face-to-face classes. and the target public of this system are the engineering students themselves.

Industrial Robotics Applied to Education

This work describes a ludic proposal for programming learning of industrial robots to be developed by groups of engineering students. Two projects are presented: Tic-tac-toe Opponent Robot and Environmentalist Robot. The first project use competitive search techniques of the Artificial Intelligence, computational vision, electronic and pneumatic concepts for ability decision making for a robotic agent on the tic-tae-toe game. The second project consists of a game that contains a questions and answers database about environmental themes. An algorithm selects the group of questions to be answered by the player, analyses the answers and sends the result to a industrial robot through serial port. According with the player performance, the robot makes congratulation movements and giving a gift to the winner player. Otherwise, the robot makes movements, disapproving the player performance.

Educational robotics as a learning aid for disabled children

Severe disabled children have little chance of environmental and social exploration and discovery, and due this lack of interaction and independency, it may lead to an idea that they are unable to do anything by themselves. This idea is called learned helplessness and is very negative for the child cognitive development and social development as well. With this entire situation it is very likely that the self-steam and mood of this child. Trying to help these children on this situation, educational robotics can offer and aid, once it can give them a certain degree of independency in exploration of environment. The system developed in this work allows the child to transmit the commands to a robot. Sensors placed on the child's body can obtain information from head movement or muscle pulses to command the robot to carry the tasks. Also, this system can be used with a variety of robots, being necessary just a previous configuration. It is expected that, with the usage of this system, the disabled children have a better cognitive development and social interaction, balancing in a certain way, the negative effects of their disabilities. © 2011 IEEE.

How does tourist monitoring alter fish behavior in underwater trails?

Nature based tourism is becoming more popular because it is perceived as a solution to the conflict between conservation and economic exploitation. Nevertheless, it is known to cause several effects. This paper reports findings whereby monitored tourism avoids triggering adverse effects for social cichlid fish species, Crenicichla lepidota. Measures used included aggression toward territorial intruders and the number of nests built in pristine reference areas for monitored and in non-monitored tourist areas. We observed suppressed aggressive behavior and suppressed nesting only in the non-monitored area. We conclude that by monitoring visits, and using techniques including avoiding stepping on the river bed, reducing the number of visitors, prohibiting fish feeding and protecting riparian vegetation, it is possible to avoid the enduring damage caused by nature tourism. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new species of hylodes (Anura, Hylodidae) and its secretive underwater breeding behavior

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

TORP: The Open Robot Project A Framework for Module-Based Robots

The development of robots has shown itself as a very complex interdisciplinary research field. The predominant procedure for these developments in the last decades is based on the assumption that each robot is a fully personalized project, with the direct embedding of hardware and software technologies in robot parts with no level of abstraction. Although this methodology has brought countless benefits to the robotics research, on the other hand, it has imposed major drawbacks: (i) the difficulty to reuse hardware and software parts in new robots or new versions; (ii) the difficulty to compare performance of different robots parts; and (iii) the difficulty to adapt development needs-in hardware and software levels-to local groups expertise. Large advances might be reached, for example, if physical parts of a robot could be reused in a different robot constructed with other technologies by other researcher or group. This paper proposes a framework for robots, TORP (The Open Robot Project), that aims to put forward a standardization in all dimensions (electrical, mechanical and computational) of a robot shared development model. This architecture is based on the dissociation between the robot and its parts, and between the robot parts and their technologies. In this paper, the first specification for a TORP family and the first humanoid robot constructed following the TORP specification set are presented, as well as the advances proposed for their improvement.

Aspectos clínicos e concentração sérica da creatina-quinase e lactato-desidrogenase em cães submetidos à fisioterapia após atrofia muscular induzida

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estresse hídrico em plantio de Eucalyptus grandis vs. Eucalyptus urophylla, em função do solo, substrato e manejo hídrico de viveiro

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Notes on vibration control of a micro/macromanipulator mounted on a flexible structure

The objective of this study is to describe the design and the implementation of an experimental set-up used to study the dynamics, the experimental identification, and the active vibration control of a flexible structure mounted manipulator system. The system consists of a three-degree-of-freedom cylindrical manipulator system with a flexible link on its tip. A two-degree-of-freedom polar rigid manipulator is mounted on the flexible macromanipulator. The dynamic modelling and experimental modal analysis identification in the frequency domain are being applied to design active digital control strategies for the micro-manipulator system to damp the mechanical vibrations of the flexible structure on the tip of the macro-manipulator system.

A planar flexible robotic manipulator

Presents the dynamic modelling of a flexible robotic manipulator with two flexible links and two revolute joints, which rotates in the horizontal plane. The dynamic equations are derived using the Newton-Euler formulation and the finite element method, based on elementary beam theory, which is used to discretize the displacements such that the small motion is represented in terms of nodal displacements. Computer simulation results are presented to illustrate this study. The dynamic model becomes necessary for use in future design and control applications.

Arraias em rios da região Sudeste do Brasil: locais de ocorrência e impactos sobre a população

INTRODUÇÃO: No presente trabalho objetivamos descrever o processo de colonização da Bacia do Alto Paraná, Sudeste do Brasil, por arraias, demonstrando sua atual situação e provável tendência, os impactos gerados e discutindo algumas ações de manejo e medidas mitigadoras. MÉTODOS: Foram realizadas entrevistas com ribeirinhos e profissionais de saúde para o levantamento de informações sobre a ocorrência de arraias e acidentes associados a estes animais, além de coletas e observações subaquáticas de potamotrigonídeos, entre 2004 e 2009, em localidades situadas nos Estados de São Paulo, Paraná e Mato Grosso do Sul, no Sudeste, Sul e parte do Centro-Oeste do Brasil. RESULTADOS: Três espécies de arraias foram identificadas na área de estudo, demonstrando utilizar os caminhos abertos pela Hidrovia Tietê-Paraná para se dispersarem. Dezesseis vítimas de acidentes envolvendo esses animais foram encontradas, notadamente banhistas e pescadores, chamando a atenção pelo fato dos casos não serem notificados e apresentarem elevada morbidade, com marcante incapacidade temporária para o trabalho. CONCLUSÕES: Este é o primeiro relato de invasão biológica envolvendo espécies de elasmobrânquios conhecido na literatura e, pelas arraias estarem colonizando áreas densamente povoadas e ampliando sua área de distribuição a cada ano, é de se esperar que sua interação negativa com humanos se intensifique, provocando alterações importantes no perfil epidemiológico dos acidentes por animais peçonhentos ocorridos no sudeste brasileiro.

Stirring, charging, and picking: hunting tactics of potamotrygonid rays in the upper Paraná River

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Species composition and spatial distribution of a stream fish assemblage in the east coast of Brazil: comparison of two field study methodologies

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Diet of the ichthyofauna associated with marginal vegetation of a mangrove forest in southeastern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)