An assisted navigation method for telepresence robots

Telepresence robots have emerged as a new means of interaction in remote environments. However, the use of such robots is still limited due to safety and usability issues when operating in human-like environments. This work addresses these issues by enhancing the robot navigation through a collaborative control method that assists the user to negotiate obstacles. The method has been implemented in a commercial telepresence robot and a user study has been conducted in order to test the suitability of our approach.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Spanish regions and sustainable development: measurement of advances from rio to johannesburg through multidimensional synthetic indexes

In the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the bases for a world sustainable development were set. Ten years later it took place in Johannesburg the World Summit on Sustainable Development, where it was discussed about the fulfilled advances and it favoured actions for century XXI. This document analyses the concern on sustainability in the Spanish regions by means of the creation of a global synthetic index of sustainable development that fulfils three conditions: it is adapted to Pressure-State-Answer principles, it adopts the Local Agenda 21 mandates and it fits in the four basic dimensions of sustainability: institutional, environmental, economic and social. Over the calculation of the changes taken place in the aforementioned decade in a set of selected variables – grouped in indicators and sub-indicators and classified according to the four dimensions aforementioned in the sustainable development – it is proceeded to the estimation of the synthetic index for the Spanish Autonomous Regions, what is useful as an instrument of analysis to make those regions hierarchical according to their degree of adaptation to the sustainability commitment developed in the Summit in Rio. JEL Classification: Q2, R1 Key Words: Sustainable development, regional analysis, Spain

Physical activity and spatial use during school break times in children aged four

Poster de CongresoAnalyze quantity of physical activity and use of space during school break times according to gender, in four-year-old pupils.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Solving Large-Scale Markov Decision Processes on Low-Power Heterogeneous Platforms

Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) provide a framework for a machine to act autonomously and intelligently in environments where the effects of its actions are not deterministic. MDPs have numerous applications. We focus on practical applications for decision making, such as autonomous driving and service robotics, that have to run on mobile platforms with scarce computing and power resources. In our study, we use Value Iteration to solve MDPs, a core method of the paradigm to find optimal sequences of actions, which is well known for its high computational cost. In order to solve these computationally complex problems efficiently in platforms with stringent power consumption constraints, high-performance accelerator hardware and parallelised software come to the rescue. We introduce a generalisable approach to implement practical applications for decision making, such as autonomous driving on mobile and embedded low-power heterogeneous SoC platforms that integrate an accelerator (GPU) with a multicore. We evaluate three scheduling strategies that enable concurrent execution and efficient use of resources on a variety of SoCs embedding a multicore CPU and integrated GPU, namely Oracle, Dynamic, and LogFit. We compare these strategies for solving an MDP modelling the use-case of autonomous robot navigation in indoor environments on four representative platforms for mobile decision-making applications with a power use ranging from 4 to 65 Watts. We provide a rigorous analysis of the results to better understand their behaviour depending on the MDP size and the computing platform. Our experimental results show that by using CPU-GPU heterogeneous strategies, the computation time and energy required are considerably reduced with respect to multicore implementation, regardless of the computational platform.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This work was partially supported by the Spanish project TIN 2016-80920-R

Consolidation of an EV Project Based Learning program integrated within a complete Bachelor Engineering Degree

Proyecto docente para el aprendizaje de competencias fundamentales de la ingeniería a través del aprendizaje basado en un proyecto multianual y multidisciplinar coordinado sobre las asignaturas troncales de este tipo de grados. Los resultados obtenidos son del tipo docente, funcionales y científicos que han permitido fabricar varios modelos de vehículos eléctricos ligeros con los que se ha acudido a competiciones internacionales.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Conceptualization and finite element groundwater flow modeling of a flooded underground mine reservoir in the Asturian Coal Basin, Spain

This work has been conducted as part of the MERIDA project (Management of Environmental Risks During and After mine closure) supported by the RFCS under Contract No. RFCR-CT-2015-00004. The authors thank the support of Alicja Krzemień (Central Mining Institute, Katowice, Poland), Ana Suárez Sánchez and Pedro Riesgo Fernández (University of Oviedo, Spain) and the Hulleras del Norte, S.A. (HUNOSA) coal mining company. We also gratefully acknowledge the suggestions and comments of Russell Adams, Christian Wolkersdorfer and Geoff Parkin in the review process.Peer reviewedPostprin

Raising the Efficiency Limit of the GaAs-based Intermediate Band Solar Cell Through the Implementation of a Mololithic Tandem with an AlGaAs top Cell.

The high efficiency limit of the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) corresponds to the case of using as intermediate band (IB) host material a semiconductor with gap in the range of 2 eV. Traditional photovoltaic materials, such as Si and GaAs, are not appropriate to produce IB devices because their gaps are too narrow. To overcome this problem, we propose the implementation of a multi-junction device consisting of an IBSC combined with a single gap cell. We calculate the efficiency limits using the detailed balance model and conclude that they are very high (> 60% under maximum concentration) for any fundamental bandgap from 0.7 to 3.6 eV in the IBSC inserted in the tandem. In particular, the two-terminal tandem of a GaAs-based IBSC current matched to an optimized AlGaAs top cell has an efficiency limit as high as 64%

Influencia de la relación tensión-deslizamiento en el comportamiento de la interfase FRP-Hormigón

En el presente trabajo se han analizado los modelos tensión-deslizamiento más divulgados para estudiar las tensiones en la interfase FRP-Hormigón y la carga máxima mediante su irapíementación en una de las principales técnicas de cálculo numérico fácilmente programable y aplicable para el caso en el que se tiene tracción en ambos extremos de la banda FRP. Los resultados se comparan con las soluciones analíticas encontradas en la literatura, las cuales están limitadas a los casos de una función tensión-deslizamiento lineal y bilineal. Finalmente, se contrasta la teoría con los resultados experimentales obtenidos de ensayos de tipología análoga al método beamtest empleado comúnmente para medir la adherencia de barras de acero

Bias corrections for probit and logit models with two-way fixed effects

In this article, we present the user-written commands probitfe and logitfe, which fit probit and logit panel-data models with individual and time unobserved effects. Fixed-effects panel-data methods that estimate the unobserved effects can be severely biased because of the incidental parameter problem (Neyman and Scott, 1948, Econometrica 16: –32). We tackle this problem using the analytical and jackknife bias corrections derived in Fernández-Val and Weidner (2016, Journal of Econometrics 192: 291–312) for panels where the two dimensions (N and T) are moderately large. We illustrate the commands with an empirical application to international trade and a Monte Carlo simulation calibrated to this application

How Debian GNU/Linux is translated into Spanish

La Debian GNU/Linux és un dels paquets de programari per a Linux que compta amb una major distribució. Inclou milers de paquets de programari lliure (free, open source) provinents de moltes fonts diferents. Una de les peculiaritats del projecte Debian rau en el fet que funciona gràcies a un grup de voluntaris seleccionats per ells mateixos. En concret, això vol dir que les tasques de localització (inclosa la traducció) a moltes de les llengües previstes es duen a terme a partir de l'esforç de voluntaris. Aquest article descriu com es localitza el Debian al castellà, com a exemple dels esforços que s'estan fent en el món del programari lliure.La Debian GNU/Linux es uno de los paquetes de software para Linux que cuenta con una mayor distribución. Incluye miles de paquetes de software libre (free, open source) que provienen de muchas Fuentes diferentes. Una de las peculiaridades del proyecto Debian radical en el hecho de que funciona gracias a un grupo de voluntarios seleccionados por ellos mismos. En concreto, esto quiere decir que las tareas de localización (incluida la traducción) a muchas de las lenguas previstas se llevan a cabo a partir del esfuerzo de voluntarios. Este artículo describe cómo se localiza el Debian al castellano como ejemplo de los esfuerzos que es están realizando en el mundo del software libre.Debian GNU/Linux is one of the largest Linux-based software distributions, including thousands of libre (free, open source) software packages coming from many different sources. One of the peculiarities of the Debian project is being run altogether by a self-selected group of volunteers. In particular, this means that all the localization tasks (including translation) to the many supported languages is run on volunteer effort. This paper describes how Debian is localized to the Spanish language, as a case example of translation efforts in the libre software world