Estudo e implementação de técnicas de sincronismo de dispositivos para o georreferenciamento de imagens digitais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Aplicando lógica fuzzy no controle de robôs móveis usando dispositivos lógicos programáveis e a linguagem VHDL

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Metodologia e diretrizes para desenvolvimento de um ambiente computacional para ensino a distância

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo preliminar da preferência de cor para rota e seta de manobra em mapas de sistemas de guia de rota

In-Car Navigation System and Route Guidance (RGNS), commercial or free, have adopted different graphic designs to maps which support the navigation task. This paper aims at evaluating the driver's subjective preference for colors to represent route and arrow direction in maps for these systems. A total of 54 drivers (27 males and 27 females) participated in an experiment which was performed in a parked vehicle. Two cartographic representations were produced to evaluate the route color and other two for the arrow color. The route was symbolized by black or blue color and the arrow direction by green or red hue. The cartographic representations were presented in a seven-inch navigation monitor. The results indicate that most drivers prefer the navigation route in black color. However, drivers who regularly use navigation systems have presented the tendency to prefer the route in blue hue. The direction arrow in green hue was the mostly preferred by the drivers and there was no significant correlation between different individual characteristics. This study concludes that drivers' preference was influenced by different factors, such as grouping by color, shape and proximity, subjective or conventional association, as well as by the level of contrast among the map features. Evaluating the performance of cartographic representations in route following task is recommended, in order to support the influence of graphic designs to maps in usability of route guidance systems.

Avaliação da usabilidade de representações cartográficas em diferentes escalas para sistema de navegação e guia de rota em automóvel

Pós-graduação em Ciências Cartográficas - FCT

Influência do gênero na demanda visual por mapas em escalas diferentes em sistema de navegação e guia de rota

This work investigates the gender effect on visual demand of drivers for dynamic maps at different cartographic scales presented In-Vehicle Route Guidance and Navigation System (RGNS). A group of 52 subjects (26 males and 26 females) took part in an experiment performed in a low-cost driving simulator. the driver's task consisted of navigating in an unknown route using a RGNS prototype which presents maps at two different cartographic scales. This paper replicates the known phenomenon of significant relationships between gender and performance at visual-spatial tasks issue. Our results show that drivers of different genders present distinct levels of visual demand both due to the cartographic scales and maneuver complexity variation. These discussed results are based upon individual differences in terms of spatial ability and spatial anxiety.

Orientação semi-automática de uma sequência de pares de imagens frontais por fototriangulação a partir de fotocoordenadas extraídas pelo SIFT

Pós-graduação em Ciências Cartográficas - FCT

Visão estéreo para auxílio à navegação autônoma em ambientes agrícolas

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Computação - IBILCE

Mapas de guia de rota em automóvel para motoristas com deficiência na visão de cores

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Montagem e avaliação de um sistema de varredura a LASER embarcado em VANT

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Montagem e avaliação de um sistema de varredura a LASER embarcado em VANT

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cortical mapping with navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation in low-grade glioma surgery

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a promising method for both investigation and therapeutic treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders and, more recently, for brain mapping. This study describes the application of navigated TMS for motor cortex mapping in patients with a brain tumor located close to the precentral gyrus. Materials and methods: In this prospective study, six patients with low-grade gliomas in or near the precentral gyrus underwent TMS, and their motor responses were correlated to locations in the cortex around the lesion, generating a functional map overlaid on three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain. To determine the accuracy of this new method, we compared TMS mapping with the gold standard mapping with direct cortical electrical stimulation in surgery. The same navigation system and TMS-generated map were used during the surgical resection procedure. Results: The motor cortex could be clearly mapped using both methods. The locations corresponding to the hand and forearm, found during intraoperative mapping, showed a close spatial relationship to the homotopic areas identified by TMS mapping. The mean distance between TMS and direct cortical electrical stimulation (DES) was 4.16 +/- 1.02 mm (range: 2.56-5.27 mm). Conclusion: Preoperative mapping of the motor cortex with navigated TMS prior to brain tumor resection is a useful presurgical planning tool with good accuracy.

Smart Sensors For Interoperable Smart Environment

Smart Environments are currently considered a key factor to connect the physical world with the information world. A Smart Environment can be defined as the combination of a physical environment, an infrastructure for data management (called Smart Space), a collection of embedded systems gathering heterogeneous data from the environment and a connectivity solution to convey these data to the Smart Space. With this vision, any application which takes advantages from the environment could be devised, without the need to directly access to it, since all information are stored in the Smart Space in a interoperable format. Moreover, according to this vision, for each entity populating the physical environment, i.e. users, objects, devices, environments, the following questions can be arise: “Who?”, i.e. which are the entities that should be identified? “Where?” i.e. where are such entities located in physical space? and “What?” i.e. which attributes and properties of the entities should be stored in the Smart Space in machine understandable format, in the sense that its meaning has to be explicitly defined and all the data should be linked together in order to be automatically retrieved by interoperable applications. Starting from this the location detection is a necessary step in the creation of Smart Environments. If the addressed entity is a user and the environment a generic environment, a meaningful way to assign the position, is through a Pedestrian Tracking System. In this work two solution for these type of system are proposed and compared. One of the two solution has been studied and developed in all its aspects during the doctoral period. The work also investigates the problem to create and manage the Smart Environment. The proposed solution is to create, by means of natural interactions, links between objects and between objects and their environment, through the use of specific devices, i.e. Smart Objects

Coordination and Control of Autonomous Mobile Robots Swarms by using Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm and Consensus Theory

This thesis presents some different techniques designed to drive a swarm of robots in an a-priori unknown environment in order to move the group from a starting area to a final one avoiding obstacles. The presented techniques are based on two different theories used alone or in combination: Swarm Intelligence (SI) and Graph Theory. Both theories are based on the study of interactions between different entities (also called agents or units) in Multi- Agent Systems (MAS). The first one belongs to the Artificial Intelligence context and the second one to the Distributed Systems context. These theories, each one from its own point of view, exploit the emergent behaviour that comes from the interactive work of the entities, in order to achieve a common goal. The features of flexibility and adaptability of the swarm have been exploited with the aim to overcome and to minimize difficulties and problems that can affect one or more units of the group, having minimal impact to the whole group and to the common main target. Another aim of this work is to show the importance of the information shared between the units of the group, such as the communication topology, because it helps to maintain the environmental information, detected by each single agent, updated among the swarm. Swarm Intelligence has been applied to the presented technique, through the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO), taking advantage of its features as a navigation system. The Graph Theory has been applied by exploiting Consensus and the application of the agreement protocol with the aim to maintain the units in a desired and controlled formation. This approach has been followed in order to conserve the power of PSO and to control part of its random behaviour with a distributed control algorithm like Consensus.

Analisi clinica ed ex-vivo dei punti isometrici durante tecnica tightrope nella ricostruzione del legamento crociato craniale del cane

La rottura del Legamento Crociato Craniale (LCCr) rappresenta una delle patologie ortopediche di maggiore riscontro clinico nella specie canina. In seguito a rottura del LCCr si presenta un continuo slittamento craniale della tibia il quale esita in un processo osteoartrosico. La risoluzione chirurgica rappresenta la migliore soluzione terapeutica. Le tecniche chirurgiche extra-articolari con sfruttamento dei punti isometrici del ginocchio si presentano come delle procedure molto diffuse e utilizzate. Questa tesi propone di validare l’uso di un nuovo sistema di navigazione computerizzato-assistito per la valutazione cinematica durante la ricostruzione del LCCr nel cane, ma soprattutto di studiare e confrontare il comportamento e l’efficacia dopo ricostruzione TightRope (TR) in due diverse coppie di punti isometrici. Abbiamo effettuato due analisi in parallelo. La prima eseguendo interventi chirurgici con tecnica TR su 18 casi clinici e sfruttando il punto isometrico del femore (F2) e due diversi punti isometrici della tibia (T2 o T3). L’analisi prevedeva dei controlli postoperatori a 1, 3 e 6 mesi. Ad ogni controllo veniva effettuata una visita ortopedica, esami radiografici, un questionario di valutazione clinico e di soddisfazione del proprietario. Mentre nella ricerca Ex-Vivo abbiamo eseguito dei test su 14 preparati anatomici con l’utilizzo di un sistema di navigazione computerizzato per la rilevazione dei dati. L’analisi prevedeva la valutazione dell’articolazione in diversi stadi: LCCr intatto; LCCr rotto; dopo ricostruzione con TR in F2-T2 e tensionato a 22N, 44N e 99N; dopo ricostruzione con TR in F2-T3 e tensionato a 22N, 44N e 99N. Ad ogni stadio si eseguivano cinque test di valutazione, tra cui: Test del Cassetto, Test di compressione tibiale (TCT), Rotazione Interna/Esterna, Flesso/Estensione e Varo/Valgo. Lo scopo di tale studio è quello di confrontare tra loro i punti isometrici del ginocchio e di analizzare l’efficacia della tecnica TR nelle due differenti condizioni di isometria (F2-T2 e F2-T3).