Proposta de metodologia para diagnóstico técnico da iluminação pública.

A Iluminação Pública (IP) está num momento de profundas mudanças, principalmente com a popularização da tecnologia LED e dos sistemas de controle a distância. O gestor de serviços públicos precisa conhecer a complexidade do uso final da IP para que possa gerir esse ativo direcionado às necessidades dos usuários, tendo em vista o dinamismo de evolução diária dos centros urbanos. Este estudo tem por objetivo desenvolver uma metodologia que permite levantar, cadastrar, diagnosticar e avaliar, o parque de IP existente em ambientes urbanos. Tem como questão de pesquisa: Como prover os gestores de serviços públicos de conhecimento da situação dos ativos de IP? Trata-se de uma pesquisa observacional e descritiva, desenvolvida em uma região que compreende uma área de 26,5 km², com uma população de 344.632 habitantes, localizada em uma região metropolitana brasileira. A metodologia aplicada divide-se em dois momentos: pesquisa documental e de campo. Inicia-se com um levantamento de documentações a respeito da vida pregressa do acervo, disponíveis nos escritórios da Concessionária de Energia local e da Prefeitura Municipal. Posteriormente procede-se uma identificação do perfil da cidade, onde o sistema de iluminação está inserido, buscando compreender como o sistema de IP instalado está integrado às necessidades da população. Essas primeiras ações visam recolher subsídios para a etapa seguinte, de levantamento técnico em campo, que buscou identificar não só os atributos de IP existentes para atualização cadastral, como também identificou anomalias que estavam atrapalhando o desempenho do sistema e a influência provocada pelo meio onde está inserido. A metodologia pode ser uma ferramenta que contribui para a gestão do serviço de IP inserida dentro dos centros urbanos, possibilitando a adoção de medidas de ajustes que visem dotar o acervo de IP de uma estrutura de manutenção direcionada para cada região da cidade, considerando sua especificidade e perfil dos usuários. Antes de qualquer adoção de novas tecnologias, como por exemplo lâmpadas LED, telecomando, etc., é imprescindível que se tenha um diagnóstico do acervo existente e a identificação do uso final da IP no meio em que se encontra.

Going beyond traditional QA systems: challenges and keys in opinion question answering

The treatment of factual data has been widely studied in different areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP). However, processing subjective information still poses important challenges. This paper presents research aimed at assessing techniques that have been suggested as appropriate in the context of subjective - Opinion Question Answering (OQA). We evaluate the performance of an OQA with these new components and propose methods to optimally tackle the issues encountered. We assess the impact of including additional resources and processes with the purpose of improving the system performance on two distinct blog datasets. The improvements obtained for the different combination of tools are statistically significant. We thus conclude that the proposed approach is adequate for the OQA task, offering a good strategy to deal with opinionated questions.

Guidance of robot arms using depth data from RGB-D camera

Image Based Visual Servoing (IBVS) is a robotic control scheme based on vision. This scheme uses only the visual information obtained from a camera to guide a robot from any robot pose to a desired one. However, IBVS requires the estimation of different parameters that cannot be obtained directly from the image. These parameters range from the intrinsic camera parameters (which can be obtained from a previous camera calibration), to the measured distance on the optical axis between the camera and visual features, it is the depth. This paper presents a comparative study of the performance of D-IBVS estimating the depth from three different ways using a low cost RGB-D sensor like Kinect. The visual servoing system has been developed over ROS (Robot Operating System), which is a meta-operating system for robots. The experiments prove that the computation of the depth value for each visual feature improves the system performance.

Question answering and multi-search engines in geo-temporal information retrieval

In this paper we present a complete system for the treatment of both geographical and temporal dimensions in text and its application to information retrieval. This system has been evaluated in both the GeoTime task of the 8th and 9th NTCIR workshop in the years 2010 and 2011 respectively, making it possible to compare the system to contemporary approaches to the topic. In order to participate in this task we have added the temporal dimension to our GIR system. The system proposed here has a modular architecture in order to add or modify features. In the development of this system, we have followed a QA-based approach as well as multi-search engines to improve the system performance.

Forest-based supply chain modelling using the SimPy simulation framework

Proper management of supply chains is fundamental in the overall system performance of forestbased activities. Usually, efficient management techniques rely on a decision support software, which needs to be able to generate fast and effective outputs from the set of possibilities. In order to do this, it is necessary to provide accurate models representative of the dynamic interactions of systems. Due to forest-based supply chains’ nature, event-based models are more suited to describe their behaviours. This work proposes the modelling and simulation of a forestbased supply chain, in particular the biomass supply chain, through the SimPy framework. This Python based tool allows the modelling of discrete-event systems using operations such as events, processes and resources. The developed model was used to access the impact of changes in the daily working plan in three situations. First, as a control case, the deterministic behaviour was simulated. As a second approach, a machine delay was introduced and its implications in the plan accomplishment were analysed. Finally, to better address real operating conditions, stochastic behaviours of processing and driving times were simulated. The obtained results validate the SimPy simulation environment as a framework for modelling supply chains in general and for the biomass problem in particular.

Optimização de um sistema híbrido off-grid PV, Gerador Diesel e Baterias

Tese de mestrado integrado, Engenharia da Energia e do Ambiente, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2016

Field test plan for evaluating the cooperative breath analyzer. Technical report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

The effect of vehicle structure characteristics on occupant restraint parameters. A parametric study. Technical report.

Mode of access: Internet.

PROMETHEUS 2 - a user oriented program for human crash dynamics. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Passive restraint development of light trucks and vans. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Composite rib development. Final report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Evaluation of a K. J. Law Model 8300 Ultrasonic Roughness Testing Device. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

International technical conference on experimental safety vehicles. Thirteenth. Proceedings. Volume II.

Mode of access: Internet.

A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels

The authors measured perceptions of safety climate, motivation, and behavior at 2 time points and linked them to prior and subsequent levels of accidents over a 5-year period. A series of analyses examined the effects of top-down and bottom-up processes operating simultaneously over time. In terms of top-down effects, average levels of safety climate within groups at I point in time predicted subsequent changes in individual safety motivation. Individual safety motivation, in turn, was associated with subsequent changes in self-reported safety behavior. In terms of bottom-up effects, improvements in the average level of safety behavior within groups were associated with a subsequent reduction in accidents at the group level. The results contribute to an understanding of the factors influencing workplace safety and the levels and lags at which these effects operate.

Optimal design of a regenerative dynamic dynamometer using genetic algorithms

This paper presents an approach for optimal design of a fully regenerative dynamic dynamometer using genetic algorithms. The proposed dynamometer system includes an energy storage mechanism to adaptively absorb the energy variations following the dynamometer transients. This allows the minimum power electronics requirement at the mains power supply grid to compensate for the losses. The overall dynamometer system is a dynamic complex system and design of the system is a multi-objective problem, which requires advanced optimisation techniques such as genetic algorithms. The case study of designing and simulation of the dynamometer system indicates that the genetic algorithm based approach is able to locate a best available solution in view of system performance and computational costs.