Modelado de un sistema de Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)

Modelado de un sistema de FCC, visor e implementación en el programa de simulación ECOSIMPRO.Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y AutomáticaMáster en Investigación en Ingeniería de Procesos y Sistemas Industriale

Evaluating a human-robot interface for exploration missions

The research reported in this paper concerns the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of a Human-Robot Interface for stationary remote operators, implemented for a PC computer. The GUI design and functionality is described. An Autonomy Management Model has been implemented and explained. We have conducted user evaluation, making two set of experiments, that will be described and the resulting data analyzed. The conclusions give an insight on the most important usability concerns, regarding the operator situational awareness. The scalability of the interface is also experimentally studied

Computation of the optimal relative pose between overlapping grid maps through discrepancy minimization

Grid maps are a common environment representation in mobile robotics. Many Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) solutions divide the global map into submaps, forming some kind of graph or tree to represent the structure of the environment, while the metric details are captured in the submaps. This work presents a novel algorithm that is able to compute a physically feasible relative pose between two overlapping grid maps. Our algorithm can be used for correspondence search (data association), but also for integrating negative information in a unified way. This paper proposes a discrepancy measure between two overlapping grid maps and its application in a quasi Newton optimization algorithm, with the hypothesis that minimizing such discrepancy could provide useful information for SLAM. Experimental evidence is provided showing the high potential of the algorithm

Fast processing of grid maps using graphical multiprocessors

Grid mapping is a very common technique used in mobile robotics to build a continuous 2D representation of the environment useful for navigation purposes. Although its computation is quite simple and fast, this algorithm uses the hypothesis of a known robot pose. In practice, this can require the re-computation of the map when the estimated robot poses change, as when a loop closure is detected. This paper presents a parallelization of a reference implementation of the grid mapping algorithm, which is suitable to be fully run on a graphics card showing huge processing speedups (up to 50×) while fully releasing the main processor, which can be very useful for many Simultaneous Localization and Mapping algorithms

La prevención de drogodependencias mediante actividades cooperativas de riesgo y aventura

Dada la gran presencia social que tienen las drogas en la actualidad, se hace necesaria una intervención hacia la prevención de drogodependencias, especialmente en el medio escolar. Esta intervención debe hacerse desde la base de que es necesario acostumbrar a los jóvenes a vivir entre las drogas y encontrar otros medios para obtener la satisfacción y las sensaciones que éstas parecen prometer (y con considerable éxito) a toda la sociedad, y especialmente a los jóvenes. En este artículo se analizan en primer lugar, los posibles perfiles de personalidad de las personas que practican actividades de riesgo, comparándolos con algunos rasgos de la personalidad de drogodependientes, encontrando que la búsqueda de sensaciones aparece como algo distintivo en ambos colectivos, por lo que se plantea la posibilidad de sustituir las drogas por otras emociones similares aportadas por las actividades de riesgo. Se estudian además los beneficios que se pueden obtener con las actividades físicas cooperativas, y se hace un análisis de la posible contribución de las actividades de riesgo cooperativas a la consecución de los objetivos que se plantea el PIPES (Plan Integral de Prevención Escolar). Por último, se propone un plan de intervención en la prevención basado en las cualidades formativas de las actividades de riesgo cooperativas

familia o trabajo procesos de parentalizacion entre au pairs latinoamericanas en el sur de francia

Focusing on the case of au pairs, this article investigates how family care and assistance systems that have always been marked by "strong ties" react to processes of kin loss, typical of the second demographic transition, and to the retreat of the Welfare state. Based on an ethnographic research on the relationships between Latin American au pairs and their host families in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Region of the South of France, the article addresses the question of how South-European societies, characterised by a familistic ideology of care and assistance, face the need to include external figures in the field of family care. It shows how, despite the use of a fictive kinship language, the vague definition of the au pair figure leaves open multiple possibilities, ranging from effective inclusion and kinning to professionalization and labor exploitation

CO2 capture by adsorption with nitrogen enriched carbons

9 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables.-- Printed version published Sep 2007.-- Issue title: The 6th European Conference on Coal Research and its Applications.The success of CO2 capture with solid sorbents is dependent on the development of a low cost sorbent with high CO2 selectivity and adsorption capacity. Immobilised amines are expected to offer the benefits of liquid amines in the typical absorption process, with the added advantages that solids are easy to handle and that they do not give rise to corrosion problems. In this work, different alkylamines were evaluated as a potential source of basic sites for CO2 capture, and a commercial activated carbon was used as a preliminary support in order to study the effect of the impregnation. The amine coating increased the basicity and nitrogen content of the carbon. However, it drastically reduced the microporous volume of the activated carbon, which is chiefly responsible for CO2 physisorption, thus decreasing the capacity of raw carbon at room temperature.This work was carried out with financial support from the Spanish MEC (Project CTM2005-03075/TECNO). M.G.P. and C.P. acknowledge the support from the CSIC I3P Program co-financed by the European Social Fund.Peer reviewe

Extraction of Geometrical Features in 3D Environments for Service Robotic Applications

Modeling environments with 3D feature based representations is a challenging issue in current mobile robotics. Fast and robust algorithms are required for applicability to navigation. We present an original and effective segmentation method that uses computer vision techniques and the residuals from plane fitting as measurements to generate a range image from 3D data acquired by a laser scanner. The extracted points of each region are converted into plane patches, spheres and cylinders by means of least-squares fitting

Robot Goes Back Home Despite All the People

We have developed a navigation system for a mobile robot that enables it to autonomously return to a start point after completing a route. It works efficiently even in complex, low structured and populated indoor environments. A point-based map of the environment is built as the robot explores new areas; it is employed for localization and obstacle avoidance. Points corresponding to dynamical objects are removed from the map so that they do not affect navigation in a wrong way. The algorithms and results we deem more relevant are explained in the paper

Comparison between the reactivity of coal and synthetic coal models

A mixture of carbon compounds was pyrolysed under an inert atmosphere at different temperatures in a fixed bed reactor. The resultant chars were characterised in terms of texture and thermal behaviour. Textural characterisation of the chars was carried out by N2 and CO2 adsorption isotherms at −196 and 0 °C, respectively. Char isothermal reactivity in air at 500 °C, and in CO2 at 1000 °C, was performed in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). Temperature-programmed combustion tests under 20% oxygen in argon were also performed in the TGA linked to a mass spectrometer (TGA/MS). The results showed that char textural properties do not always relate well to their reactivity. Not only do physical properties (e.g. surface area, porosity) but also chemical properties (e.g. active sites concentration and distribution) play an important role in the reaction of carbonaceous material and oxidant. On the other hand, in terms of chemical composition the chars obtained from the mixture of carbon compounds were very similar to the chars produced under the same experimental conditions by a high volatile bituminous coal. The fact that carbon compounds are well known makes it easier to obtain knowledge about the functional groups present in synthetic char, and to study the mechanisms of heterogeneous reactions such as the reduction of NO with carbon.Peer reviewe