Generating timed trajectories foran autonomous robot

Tese de Doutoramento Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Electrónica e Computadores

Ashbya gossypii beyond industrial riboflavin production: a historical perspective and emerging biotechnological applications

The filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii has been safely and successfully used for more than two decades in the commercial production of riboflavin (vitamin B2). Its industrial relevance combined with its high genetic similarity with Saccharomyces cerevisiae together promoted the accumulation of fundamental knowledge that has been efficiently converted into a significant molecular and in silico toolbox for its genetic engineering. This synergy has enabled a directed and sustained exploitation of A. gossypii as an industrial riboflavin producer. Although there is still room for optimizing riboflavin production, the recent years have seen an abundant advance in the exploration of A. gossypii for other biotechnological applications, such as the production of recombinant proteins, single cell oil and flavour compounds. Here, we will address the biotechnological potential of A. gossypii beyond riboflavin production by presenting (a) a physiological and metabolic perspective over this fungus; (b) the molecular toolbox available for its manipulation; and (c) commercial and emerging biotechnological applications for this industrially important fungus, together with the approaches adopted for its engineering.

Off-line simulation inspires insight: a neurodynamics approach to efficient robot task learning

There is currently an increasing demand for robots able to acquire the sequential organization of tasks from social learning interactions with ordinary people. Interactive learning-by-demonstration and communication is a promising research topic in current robotics research. However, the efficient acquisition of generalized task representations that allow the robot to adapt to different users and contexts is a major challenge. In this paper, we present a dynamic neural field (DNF) model that is inspired by the hypothesis that the nervous system uses the off-line re-activation of initial memory traces to incrementally incorporate new information into structured knowledge. To achieve this, the model combines fast activation-based learning to robustly represent sequential information from single task demonstrations with slower, weight-based learning during internal simulations to establish longer-term associations between neural populations representing individual subtasks. The efficiency of the learning process is tested in an assembly paradigm in which the humanoid robot ARoS learns to construct a toy vehicle from its parts. User demonstrations with different serial orders together with the correction of initial prediction errors allow the robot to acquire generalized task knowledge about possible serial orders and the longer term dependencies between subgoals in very few social learning interactions. This success is shown in a joint action scenario in which ARoS uses the newly acquired assembly plan to construct the toy together with a human partner.

Global vs. local nonlinear optimization techniques for human-like movement of an anthropomorphic robot

In this paper a comparison between using global and local optimization techniques for solving the problem of generating human-like arm and hand movements for an anthropomorphic dual arm robot is made. Although the objective function involved in each optimization problem is convex, there is no evidence that the admissible regions of these problems are convex sets. For the sequence of movements for which the numerical tests were done there were no significant differences between the optimal solutions obtained using the global and the local techniques. This suggests that the optimal solution obtained using the local solver is indeed a global solution.

Indústria Transformadora em Timor-Leste: uma proposta para um setor industrial

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Industrial

Numerical modeling and assessment of the thermal environment in an industrial premise of automotive components

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Industrial

Implementação de um sistema de gestão e monitorização de embalagens retornáveis em ambiente industrial

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia de Sistemas

Melhoria na gestão de compras em uma indústria do Pólo Industrial de Manaus (PIM)

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Sistema de visão robótico baseado no sensor kinect para orientação no espaço e contorno de obstáculos

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica Industrial e Computadores (área de especialização em Robótica)

Estudo, conceção e desenvolvimento de um equipamento industrial para colocação automática de produtos alimentares em cuvetes

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Mecânica

Materiais compósitos com incorporação de cânhamo industrial

Projeto de Investigação integrado de mestrado Internacional em Sustentabilidade do Ambiente Construído

Development of a model for occupational risk acceptance criteria definition in industrial settings

Doctoral Dissertation for PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Upgrade of an industrial building: BIM model of the as-built situation and evaluation of modifications

Dissertação de mestrado integrado in Civil Engineering

A proteção cumulativa do design pelo Direito de Autor e pelo Direito da Propriedade Industrial: o caso especial do contrato de trabalho

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito dos Contratos e das Empresas

Feasibility of internally stiffened thin-walled beams for industrial applications

Several types of internally reinforced thin-walled beams are subjected to a feasibility evaluation of its mechanical behavior for industrial applications. The adapting of already existing efficient sandwich geometries to hollow-box beams of larger dimensions may reveal promising results. Novel types of sandwich beams under bending and torsion uncoupled loadings are studied in terms of stiffness behavior in static analysis. For the analysis of the solutions, the models are built using the Finite Element Method (FEM) software ANSYS Mechanical APDL. The feasibility of the novel beams was determined by the comparison of the stiffness behavior of the novel hollow-box beams with conventional hollow-box beams. An efficiency parameter was defined in order to determine the feasibility. It is found that the novel geometries represent an excellent improvement under bending loadings, better than under torsion loadings. Nevertheless, for bending and torsion combined loadings, if bending loads are predominant, the beams can still be interesting for some applications, in particular those with mobile parts.