Architecture for real-time coordination of multiple autonomous mobile units

Interest on using teams of mobile robots has been growing, due to their potential to cooperate for diverse purposes, such as rescue, de-mining, surveillance or even games such as robotic soccer. These applications require a real-time middleware and wireless communication protocol that can support an efficient and timely fusion of the perception data from different robots as well as the development of coordinated behaviours. Coordinating several autonomous robots towards achieving a common goal is currently a topic of high interest, which can be found in many application domains. Despite these different application domains, the technical problem of building an infrastructure to support the integration of the distributed perception and subsequent coordinated action is similar. This problem becomes tougher with stronger system dynamics, e.g., when the robots move faster or interact with fast objects, leading to tighter real-time constraints. This thesis work addressed computing architectures and wireless communication protocols to support efficient information sharing and coordination strategies taking into account the real-time nature of robot activities. The thesis makes two main claims. Firstly, we claim that despite the use of a wireless communication protocol that includes arbitration mechanisms, the self-organization of the team communications in a dynamic round that also accounts for variable team membership, effectively reduces collisions within the team, independently of its current composition, significantly improving the quality of the communications. We will validate this claim in terms of packet losses and communication latency. We show how such self-organization of the communications can be achieved in an efficient way with the Reconfigurable and Adaptive TDMA protocol. Secondly, we claim that the development of distributed perception, cooperation and coordinated action for teams of mobile robots can be simplified by using a shared memory middleware that replicates in each cooperating robot all necessary remote data, the Real-Time Database (RTDB) middleware. These remote data copies, which are updated in the background by the selforganizing communications protocol, are extended with age information automatically computed by the middleware and are locally accessible through fast primitives. We validate our claim showing a parsimonious use of the communication medium, improved timing information with respect to the shared data and the simplicity of use and effectiveness of the proposed middleware shown in several use cases, reinforced with a reasonable impact in the Middle Size League of RoboCup.

Determinação dos genótipos de Listeria Monocytogenes por PCR em tempo real e avaliação da sua citopatogenicidade

Dissertação mest., Qualidade em Análises, Universidade do Algarve, 2007

A paisagem de Vila Real de Santo António dos areais da orla às vertentes da Serra

A desembocadura do Guadiana alargada ao estuário constitui, pela sua diversidade, uma paisagem muito particular na região do Algarve, marcada pela aproximação à orla marítima dos montículos serranos do maciço Hespérico. O barrocal de solos calcários, subunidade intermédia entre a serra do Caldeirão e a faixa litoral, estreita-se a partir do termo de Faro aos campos e almargens de Tavira, dando lugar pelas alturas de São Bartolomeu, na aproximação ao rio, à paisagem dos sapais. Castro Marim, quase na foz, ocupa já, em parte, os outeiros da serra, encerrando a nascente um alinhamento de aglomerados de pequena ou média dimensão que, de Barlavento a Sotavento, marcam a proximidade ao vale do triássico na transição entre o maciço Antigo e o Baixo Algarve.

Preface to the special section on algorithms and architectures for real-time control

Rapid developments in microelectronics and computer science continue to fuel new opportunities for real-time control engineers. The ever-increasing system complexity and sophistication, environmental legislation, economic competition, safety and reliability constitute some of the driving forces for the research themes presented at the IFAC Workshop on Algorithms and Architectures for Real-Time Control (AARTC'2000). The Spanish Society for Automatic Control hosted AARTC'2000, which was held at Palma de Maiorca, Spain, from 15 to 17 May. This workshop was the sixth in the series.

Design and implementation of a real-time data acquisition system for the identification of dynamic temperature models in a hydroponic greenhouse

This text describes a real data acquisition and identification system implemented in a soilless greenhouse located at the University of Algarve (south of Portugal). Using the Real Time Workshop, Simulink, Matlab and the C programming language a system was developed to perform real-time data acquisition from a set of sensors.

Neural networks PID autotuning with real-time adaptation

Despite the developments in more sophisticated controllers, still the Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) controller is by far the controller most widely used in industry automation.

Real-time data acquisition system for the Identification of dynamic temperature models in a hydroponic greenhouse

A real-time data acquisition and identification system implemented in a soil-less greenhouse located in the south of Portugal is described. The system performs real-time data acquisition from a set of sensors connected to a data logger.

Algorithms and architectures for real-time control

Algorithm and Architectures for Real-Time Control Workshop had the objective to investigate the state of the art and to present new research and application results in software and hardware for real-timecontrol, as well as to bring together engeneers and computer scientists who are researchers, developers and practitioners, both from the academic and the industrial world.

Real-time parameter estimation of dynamic temperature and humidity models for greenhouse adaptive climate control

A real-time parameter estimator for the climate discrete-time dynamic models of a greenhouse located at the North of Portugal are presented. The experiments showed that the second order models identified for the air temperature and humidity achieve a close agreement between simulated and experimantal data.

Real-time parameter estimation of dynamic temperature models for greenhouse environmental control

For a greenhouse located at UTAD-University, the methods used to estimate in real-time the parameters of the inside air temperature model will be described. The structure and the parameters of the climate discrete-time dynamic model were previously identified using data acquired during two different periods of the year.

Influência de descargas de água subterrânea na concentração de nutrientes e comunidade planctónica do sapal de Castro Marim, Vila Real de Santo António (SE, Portugal)

Dissertação de mest., Biologia Marinha, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univ. do Algarve, 2011

Rede de percursos de natureza da Reserva Natural do Sapal de Castro Marim e Vila Real de Santo António

Dissertação de mest., Arquitetura Paisagista, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univ. do Algarve, 2012

Educação Social, entre a intervenção e a mediação. Um Estudo de Caso na Escola Secundária de Vila Real de Santo António

Esta dissertação resulta de uma investigação realizada na Escola Secundária de Vila Real de Santo António, no Algarve. O estudo de caso pretendeu apurar quais as questões que podem motivar uma intervenção ao nível da Educação Social na escola e definir as principais competências do/a Educador/a Social neste contexto. Dos resultados obtidos, destacam-se dois pontos essenciais. Assim, tendo em conta os conflitos que surgem na comunidade escolar, parece ser fundamental que o/a Educador/a Social adquira competências em técnicas de Mediação. Por outro lado, os jovens, e até os adultos que frequentam os Centros de Reconhecimento e Validação de Competências, têm necessidade de definir o seu projecto de vida, o que torna evidente que o Educador Social domine metodologias de Aconselhamento Filosófico, a par dos conhecimentos que adquire ao longo da licenciatura e das competências que vai demonstrando ao longo das suas práticas.

O Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Vila Real de Santo António na base da aquisição de conhecimentos e experiência profissional na área de arquivo

Neste relatório descreve-se a atividade profissional de um Assistente Técnico de Arquivo desenvolvida ao longo de seis anos no Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Vila Real de Santo António, no âmbito do plano curricular do Mestrado em Ciências Documentais - Área Arquivo, ministrado pela Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais da Universidade do Algarve. Tentarei trazer à memória de todos quantos lerem este relatório o enquadramento histórico e a evolução administrativa local da Câmara Municipal de Vila Real de Santo António que tutela o Arquivo Histórico Municipal. Darei a conhecer o surgimento e a razão de ser do Arquivo Histórico Municipal, assim como, as suas funções e atribuições. Caracterizarei o arquivo corrente, intermédio e histórico existente na Câmara Municipal de Vila Real de Santo António. Exemplificarei como são integrados os documentos neste Arquivo, qual o procedimento quando um documento é requisitado à instituição, e qual a sua tramitação até a documentação ser encaminhada para a eliminação ou para a conservação definitiva, fazendo uma reflexão crítica de alguns dos procedimentos adotados e tendo em conta os princípios arquivísticos aceites universalmente. Salientarei qual, o impacto dos agentes biológicos na conservação de um acervo documental, e a importância de manter periodicamente um controle e monitorização de pragas. Destacarei, finalmente, a importância da preservação digital na instituição arquivística e da relevância da função cultural de um arquivo municipal.

BIMP: A real-time biological model of multi-scale keypoint detection in V1

We present an improved, biologically inspired and multiscale keypoint operator. Models of single- and double-stopped hypercomplex cells in area V1 of the mammalian visual cortex are used to detect stable points of high complexity at multiple scales. Keypoints represent line and edge crossings, junctions and terminations at fine scales, and blobs at coarse scales. They are detected by applying first and second derivatives to responses of complex cells in combination with two inhibition schemes to suppress responses along lines and edges. A number of optimisations make our new algorithm much faster than previous biologically inspired models, achieving real-time performance on modern GPUs and competitive speeds on CPUs. In this paper we show that the keypoints exhibit state-of-the-art repeatability in standardised benchmarks, often yielding best-in-class performance. This makes them interesting both in biological models and as a useful detector in practice. We also show that keypoints can be used as a data selection step, significantly reducing the complexity in state-of-the-art object categorisation. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.