Desenvolvimento de um simulador de bombeio por cavidades progressivas

The method of artificial lift of progressing cavity pump is very efficient in the production of oils with high viscosity and oils that carry a great amount of sand. This characteristic converted this lift method into the second most useful one in oil fields production. As it grows the number of its applications it also increases the necessity to dominate its work in a way to define it the best operational set point. To contribute to the knowledge of the operational method of artificial lift of progressing cavity pump, this work intends to develop a computational simulator for oil wells equipped with an artificial lift system. The computational simulator of the system will be able to represent its dynamic behavior when submitted to the various operational conditions. The system was divided into five subsystems: induction motor, multiphase flows into production tubing, rod string, progressing cavity pump and annular tubing-casing. The modeling and simulation of each subsystem permitted to evaluate the dynamic characteristics that defined the criteria connections. With the connections of the subsystems it was possible to obtain the dynamic characteristics of the most important arrays belonging to the system, such as: pressure discharge, pressure intake, pumping rate, rod string rotation and torque applied to polish string. The shown results added to a friendly graphical interface converted the PCP simulator in a great potential tool with a didactic characteristic in serving the technical capability for the system operators and also permitting the production engineering to achieve a more detail analysis of the dynamic operational oil wells equipped with the progressing cavity pump

Localização de um robô móvel usando odometria e marcos naturais

Several methods of mobile robot navigation request the mensuration of robot position and orientation in its workspace. In the wheeled mobile robot case, techniques based on odometry allow to determine the robot localization by the integration of incremental displacements of its wheels. However, this technique is subject to errors that accumulate with the distance traveled by the robot, making unfeasible its exclusive use. Other methods are based on the detection of natural or artificial landmarks present in the environment and whose location is known. This technique doesnt generate cumulative errors, but it can request a larger processing time than the methods based on odometry. Thus, many methods make use of both techniques, in such a way that the odometry errors are periodically corrected through mensurations obtained from landmarks. Accordding to this approach, this work proposes a hybrid localization system for wheeled mobile robots in indoor environments based on odometry and natural landmarks. The landmarks are straight lines de.ned by the junctions in environments floor, forming a bi-dimensional grid. The landmark detection from digital images is perfomed through the Hough transform. Heuristics are associated with that transform to allow its application in real time. To reduce the search time of landmarks, we propose to map odometry errors in an area of the captured image that possesses high probability of containing the sought mark

Aplicação de técnicas de aprendizado de máquina no reconhecimento de classes estruturais de proteínas

Nowadays, classifying proteins in structural classes, which concerns the inference of patterns in their 3D conformation, is one of the most important open problems in Molecular Biology. The main reason for this is that the function of a protein is intrinsically related to its spatial conformation. However, such conformations are very difficult to be obtained experimentally in laboratory. Thus, this problem has drawn the attention of many researchers in Bioinformatics. Considering the great difference between the number of protein sequences already known and the number of three-dimensional structures determined experimentally, the demand of automated techniques for structural classification of proteins is very high. In this context, computational tools, especially Machine Learning (ML) techniques, have become essential to deal with this problem. In this work, ML techniques are used in the recognition of protein structural classes: Decision Trees, k-Nearest Neighbor, Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machine and Neural Networks. These methods have been chosen because they represent different paradigms of learning and have been widely used in the Bioinfornmatics literature. Aiming to obtain an improvment in the performance of these techniques (individual classifiers), homogeneous (Bagging and Boosting) and heterogeneous (Voting, Stacking and StackingC) multiclassification systems are used. Moreover, since the protein database used in this work presents the problem of imbalanced classes, artificial techniques for class balance (Undersampling Random, Tomek Links, CNN, NCL and OSS) are used to minimize such a problem. In order to evaluate the ML methods, a cross-validation procedure is applied, where the accuracy of the classifiers is measured using the mean of classification error rate, on independent test sets. These means are compared, two by two, by the hypothesis test aiming to evaluate if there is, statistically, a significant difference between them. With respect to the results obtained with the individual classifiers, Support Vector Machine presented the best accuracy. In terms of the multi-classification systems (homogeneous and heterogeneous), they showed, in general, a superior or similar performance when compared to the one achieved by the individual classifiers used - especially Boosting with Decision Tree and the StackingC with Linear Regression as meta classifier. The Voting method, despite of its simplicity, has shown to be adequate for solving the problem presented in this work. The techniques for class balance, on the other hand, have not produced a significant improvement in the global classification error. Nevertheless, the use of such techniques did improve the classification error for the minority class. In this context, the NCL technique has shown to be more appropriated

Análise de desempenho da rede neural artificial do tipo multilayer perceptron na era multicore

Artificial neural networks are usually applied to solve complex problems. In problems with more complexity, by increasing the number of layers and neurons, it is possible to achieve greater functional efficiency. Nevertheless, this leads to a greater computational effort. The response time is an important factor in the decision to use neural networks in some systems. Many argue that the computational cost is higher in the training period. However, this phase is held only once. Once the network trained, it is necessary to use the existing computational resources efficiently. In the multicore era, the problem boils down to efficient use of all available processing cores. However, it is necessary to consider the overhead of parallel computing. In this sense, this paper proposes a modular structure that proved to be more suitable for parallel implementations. It is proposed to parallelize the feedforward process of an RNA-type MLP, implemented with OpenMP on a shared memory computer architecture. The research consistes on testing and analizing execution times. Speedup, efficiency and parallel scalability are analyzed. In the proposed approach, by reducing the number of connections between remote neurons, the response time of the network decreases and, consequently, so does the total execution time. The time required for communication and synchronization is directly linked to the number of remote neurons in the network, and so it is necessary to investigate which one is the best distribution of remote connections

Contribuições a técnicas de agrupamento e visualização de dados multivariados utilizando mapas auto-organizáveis

Self-organizing maps (SOM) are artificial neural networks widely used in the data mining field, mainly because they constitute a dimensionality reduction technique given the fixed grid of neurons associated with the network. In order to properly the partition and visualize the SOM network, the various methods available in the literature must be applied in a post-processing stage, that consists of inferring, through its neurons, relevant characteristics of the data set. In general, such processing applied to the network neurons, instead of the entire database, reduces the computational costs due to vector quantization. This work proposes a post-processing of the SOM neurons in the input and output spaces, combining visualization techniques with algorithms based on gravitational forces and the search for the shortest path with the greatest reward. Such methods take into account the connection strength between neighbouring neurons and characteristics of pattern density and distances among neurons, both associated with the position that the neurons occupy in the data space after training the network. Thus, the goal consists of defining more clearly the arrangement of the clusters present in the data. Experiments were carried out so as to evaluate the proposed methods using various artificially generated data sets, as well as real world data sets. The results obtained were compared with those from a number of well-known methods existent in the literature

Controle de posição com restrição à orientação de um Veículo Aéreo Não-Tripulado tipo Quadrirrotor

Quadrotors aircraft are composed by four propellers mounted on four engines on a cross or x disposition, and, in this structure, the engines on the same arm spin in the same direction and the other arm in the opposite direction. By rotating each helix generates vertical upward thrust. The control is done by varying the rotational speed of each motor. Among the advantages of this type of vehicle can cite the mechanical simplicity of construction, the high degree of maneuverability and the ability to have vertical takeoffs and landings. The modeling and control of quadrirrotores have been a challenge due to problems such as nonlinearity and coupling between variables. Several strategies have been developed to control this type of vehicle, from the classical control to modern. There are air surveillance applications where a camera is fixed on the vehicle to point forward, where it is desired that the quadrotor moves at a fixed altitude toward the target also pointing forward, which imposes an artificial constraint motion, because it is not desired that it moves laterally, but only forwards or backwards and around its axes . This restriction is similar to the naturally existing on robots powered by wheels with differential drive, which also can not move laterally, due to the friction of the wheels. Therefore, a position control strategy similar to that used in this type of robot could be adapted for aerial robots like quadrotor. This dissertation presents and discusses some strategies for the control of position and orientation of quadrotors found in the literature and proposes a strategy based on dynamic control of mobile robots with differential drive, called the variable reference control. The validity of the proposed strategy is demonstrated through computer simulations

Crescimento inicial da soja sob efeito de resíduos de sorgo

O presente trabalho foi desenvolvido em casa de vegetação na Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas UNESP, com o objetivo de determinar o efeito no crescimento inicial da soja e na formação do sistema radicular ao longo do tempo da presença de resíduos de sorgo-de-guiné e forrageiro. As unidades experimentais constituíram-se de tubos de PVC (rhizotron) com volume de terra de 16 dm-3. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi inteiramente casualizado num fatorial 2 x 3, sendo duas variedades de sorgo e três manejos dos resíduos de sorgo, com quatro repetições. A palha de sorgo-de-guiné na superfície do solo levou à diminuição na saturação do solo por bases. As palhas de sorgo de ambas as variedades, na superfície do solo, prejudicaram o crescimento da soja, o que também foi observado no caso das raízes do sorgo forrageiro. Resíduos culturais do sorgo-de-guiné, principalmente a palha, são os responsáveis por menores crescimentos das partes aérea e radicular da soja e, conseqüentemente, pelo menor acúmulo de nutrientes.

Air-assisted boom sprayer and spray deposition on bean plants

A possibilidade do desenvolvimento de técnicas de aplicação de produtos fitossanitários mais seguras, com menores volumes de calda, número de aplicações e deriva, aliados à necessidade de se obter melhores níveis de controle dos agentes nocivos às plantas cultivadas, justificam o uso da assistência de ar junto à barra de pulverização. Com o objetivo de avaliar a deposição da pulverização na cultura do feijoeiro (Phaseolus vulgaris), em presença e ausência da assistência de ar junto à barra de pulverização, com diferentes pontas de pulverização e volumes de calda, foi conduzido um experimento em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, utilizando-se como traçador o óxido cuproso. Alvos artificiais (papel filtro com 3 x 3 cm) foram afixados nas superfícies adaxial e abaxial de folíolos posicionados nos terços superior e inferior de plantas, selecionadas ao acaso, distribuídas perpendicularmente ao deslocamento do pulverizador. Após a aplicação do traçador os coletores foram lavados individualmente em solução extratora de ácido nítrico a 1,0 mol L-1. A determinação quantitativa dos depósitos foi realizada com o uso da espectrofotometria de absorção atômica. A assistência de ar junto à barra de pulverização não aumentou a deposição do traçador em folíolos de feijoeiro, aos 48 dias após a emergência da cultura.

Equalização neural aplicada a sistemas com modulação bidimensional em fibra óptica

Nowadays, optic fiber is one of the most used communication methods, mainly due to the fact that the data transmission rates of those systems exceed all of the other means of digital communication. Despite the great advantage, there are problems that prevent full utilization of the optical channel: by increasing the transmission speed and the distances involved, the data is subjected to non-linear inter symbolic interference caused by the dispersion phenomena in the fiber. Adaptive equalizers can be used to solve this problem, they compensate non-ideal responses of the channel in order to restore the signal that was transmitted. This work proposes an equalizer based on artificial neural networks and evaluates its performance in optical communication systems. The proposal is validated through a simulated optic channel and the comparison with other adaptive equalization techniques

Desenvolvimento de grãos e produção de fitomassa do girassol em função de adubações boratadas

Sunflower crop is a good option to no-tillage system; however, it is sensible to low B availability, what is common in tropical soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate the crop development, grain yield and grain size as affected by B fertilizer doses applied in the sowing and by leaf application. The experiment was conducted in controlled conditions, with four Borax doses (0; 1; 2 e 3 kg B ha(-1)) in the sowing interacting with four Boric Acid doses (0; 0,5; 1 e 2 kg B ha(-1)) by leaf application. The plants were managed until grain physiological maturity, when stems, leaves and capitula were sampled, besides the counting and weighing of two grain classes separated by size. The B fertilizer applied in the sowing lines increased total dry matter phytomass and grain yield. However, when interacting with high doses of B by leaf application, these values decreased. Grain size was increased with leaf fertilization, when B was not applied in the soil or with only 1 kg B ha(-1) in the sowing line. on the other hand, when B was applied from 2 to 3 kg ha(-1) in the crop sowing, high doses of leaf fertilizer affected grain filling.

Nitrogen washing from C3 and C4 cover grasses residues by rain

Crop species with the C-4 photosynthetic pathway are more efficient in assimilating N than C-3 plants, which results in different N amounts prone to be washed from its straw by rain water. Such differences may affect N recycling in agricultural systems where these species are grown as cover crops. In this experiment, phytomass production and N leaching from the straw of grasses with different photosynthetic pathways were studied in response to N application. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and congo grass (Brachiaria ruziziensis) with the C-4 photosynthetic pathway, and black oat (Arena Strigosa) and triticale (X Triticosecale), with the C-3 photosynthetic pathway, were grown for 47 days. After determining dry matter yields and N and C contents, a 30 mm rainfall was simulated over 8 t ha(-1) of dry matter of each plant residue and the leached amounts of ammonium and nitrate were determined. C-4 grasses responded to higher fertilizer rates, whereas N contents in plant tissue were lower. The amount of N leached from C-4 grass residues was lower, probably because the C/N ratio is higher and N is more tightly bound to organic compounds. When planning a crop rotation system it is important to take into account the difference in N release of different plant residues which may affect N nutrition of the subsequent crop.

Análise estatística das emissões de CO e HC produzidas por gases da exaustão veicular oriundos de gasolina, GNV e mistura álcool/gasolina

The vehicles are the main mobile sources of carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbons (HC) released into the atmosphere. In the last years the increment of the fleet of vehicles in the municipal district of Natal-RN it is contributing to the increase of the emissions of those pollutants. The study consisted of a statistical analysis of the emissions of CO and HC of a composed sample for 384 vehicles with mechanization Gasoline/CNG or Alcohol/Gasoline/CNG of the municipal district of Natal-RN. The tests were accomplished in vehicles submitted to Vehicular Safety's Inspection, in the facilities of INSPETRANS, Organism of Vehicular Inspection. An partial gases analyzer allowed to measure, for each vehicle, the levels of CO and HC in two conditions of rotation of the motor (900 and 2500 rpm). The statistical analysis accomplished through the STATISTICA software revealed a sensitive reduction in the efficiency of the converters catalytic after 6 years of use with emission average it is of 0,78% of CO and 156 (ppm) of HC, Which represents approximately 4 (four) times the amount of CO and the double of HC in comparison with the newest vehicles. The result of a Student s t-test, suggests strongly that the average of the emissions of HC (152 ppm), at 900 rpm, is 40% larger than at 2500 rpm, for the motor without load. This result reveals that the efficiency of the catalytic conversion is limited kinetically in low engine speeds. The Study also ends that when comparing the emissions of CO and HC considering the influence of the fuels, it was verified that although the emissions of CO starting from CNG are 62% smaller than arising from the gasoline, there are not significant differences among the emissions of HC originating from of CNG and of the gasoline. In synthesis, the results place the current criteria of vehicular inspection, for exhaust gases, in doubt, leading the creation of emission limits of pollutant more rigorous, because the efficiency of the converters catalytic is sensibly reduced starting from 6 years of use. It is also raised the possibility of modifications in the test conditions adopted by the current norms, specifically in the speed engine, have seen that in the condition without load the largest emission indexes were registered in slow march. That fact that allows to suggest the dismissal of the tests in high speed engine, reducing the time of inspection in half and generating economy of fuel

Soil water retention and s index after crop rotation and chiseling

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

Influência do estresse hídrico e salino na germinação de urochloa decumbens e urochloa ruziziensis

Studies of the germination response of seeds subjected to artificial stresses are provided tools for better understanding of the survivability and adaptation of these species in natural stress conditions such as drought or saline soils, common in agricultural and forest regions, contributing significantly to the development of management strategies. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible effects of water and salt stress on germination of Urochloa decumbens and Urochloa ruziziensis. The test was conducted at the Faculty of Technology of São Paulo, campus of Capon Bonito. The seeds were sown with four replicates of 50 seeds in paper soaked in solutions with the potentials of 0.0, -0.2, -0.4 and -0.8 MPa, induced with polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) and NaCl. The germination test was conducted at 25 degrees C in the presence of light, evaluating the first test score at seven days after sowing, and weekly germination (normal seedlings) until 35 days. We calculated the index of germination rate. The results allowed the conclusion that water stress causes a greater reduction in force, speed of germination and cumulative germination of seeds of U. decumbens and U. ruziziensis than salt stress. The species U. decumbens showed higher tolerance to water and salt stresses.

Least limiting water range in soil under crop rotations and chiseling

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