Towards safety in physically assistive robots: eating assistance

Safety is one of the base elements to build trust in robots. This paper studies remedies to unavoidable collisions using robotics assistive feeding as an example task. Firstly, we propose an attention mechanism so the user can control the robot using gestures and thus prevent collisions. Secondly, when unwanted contacts are unavoidable we compare two safety strategies: active safety, using a force sensor to monitor maximum allowed forces; and passive safety using compliant controllers. Experimental evaluation shows that the gesture mechanism is effective to control the robot. Also, the impact forces obtained with both methods are similar and thus can be used independently. Additionally, users experimenting on purpose impacts declared that the impact was not harmful.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Projecte per a un centre de visitants i un veterinari al Zoo del Pirineu

L'exercici proposat com a projecte final de carrera és la construcció d'un centre de visitants i un centre veterinari al Zoo del Pirineu, al Solsonès. El Zoo del Pirineu és un espai de recuperació d'animals autòctons del Pirineu on es realitzen exhibicions de vol i visites guiades pel recinte. En total el parc zoològic compta amb un total de 150 espècies. El projecte consta de dues peces separades que conformen una plaça de rebuda dels visitants. La raó de ser d'aquest projecte és complementar el zoo, amb la previsió de creixement, ja que està situat en una zona de turisme rural en creixement. Les dues peces s'incorporen al paisatge amb la voluntat de no deixar empremta sobre les preexistències, ni impacte visual des de la gran escala, però funcionalitat en la petita escala que conformen els dos edificis i la plaça de de rebuda. S'opta per un sistema constructiu de murs de contenció tipus mènsula, i una estructura mimetitzada amb la fusteria en façana per deixar pas a una gran vidriera a l'única façana de cada peça

Safe feeding strategies for a physically assistive robot

With aging societies and the increase of handicapped people the demand for robots that can help nursing humans on-site is increasing. Concretely, according to World Health Organization (WHO) by 2030 more than 2 billion people will need one or more assistive products. With this perspective it becomes vital to develop assistive technology products as they maintain or improve disabled people’s functioning and independence. One of the most important activities that a person needs to be able to perform in order to feel independent is self-feeding. The main objective of this thesis is to develop software that controls a robot in order to feed a disabled person autonomously. Special attention has been given to the safety and naturalness of the task performance. The resulting system has been tested in the Barrett WAM® robot. In order to fulfill this goal an RGB-D camera has been used to detect the head orientation and the state of the mouth. The first detection has been realized with the OpenFace library whereas the second one has been realized with the OpenPose library. Finally, the depth obtained by the camera has been used to identify and cope with wrong detections. Safety is an essential part of this thesis as it exists direct contact between the user and the robot. Therefore, the feeding task must be completely safe for the user. In order to achieve this safety two di˙erent types of security have been considered: passive safety and active safety. The passive safety is achieved with the compliance of the robot whereas active safety is achieved limiting the maximum force that is obtained with a force sensor. Some experiments have been carried out to determine which is the best setup for the robot to ensure a safe task performance. The designed system is capable of automatically detecting head orientation and mouth state and decide which action to take at any moment given this information. It is also capable of stopping the robot movement when certain forces are reached, return to the previous position and wait in this position until it is safe to perform that action again. A set of experiments with healthy users has been carried out to validate the proposed system and the results are presented here

Design of bioinformatic tools for integrative analysis of microRNA-mRNA interactome applied to digestive cancers

[spa] En esta tesis se han desarrollado e implementado distintas herramientas bioinformáticas que permiten el estudio de las interacciones miRNA-mRNA en contextos celulares específicos. oncretamente se ha creado un paquete de R (miRComb) que calcula las interacciones miRNA-mRNA partiendo de expresión de miRNAs y mRNAs, y predicciones bloinformáticas de bases de datos preexistentes. Las interacciones miRNA-mRNA finales son aquellas que muestran una correlación negativa y han estado predichas por al meno una base de datos. Como valor añadido, el paquete miRComb realiza un resumen en pdf con los resultados básicos del análisis (número de interacciones, número de mRNAs target por miRNA, análisis funcional, etc.), que permite comparar los datos de distintos estudios. Hemos aplicado esta metodología en el contexto de cánceres digestivos. En un primer estudio hemos utilizado datos públicos de 5 cánceres digestivos (colon, recto, esófago, stómago e hígado) y hemos determinado las interacciones miRNA-mRNA comunes entre ellos y específicas de cada uno. En un segundo estudio, hemos utilizado la misma metodología para analizar datos de IRNA-mRNA en biopsias de pacientes del Hospital Clínic de Barcelona con cáncer de páncreas. En este estudio hemos descrito interacciones miRNA-mRNA en el contexto de cáncer pancreático y hemos podido validar dos de ellas a nivel experimental. En resumen, podemos concluir que el paquete miRComb es una herramienta útil para el estudio del interactoma de miRNA-mRNA, y que ha servido para establecer hipótesis biológicas que luego se han podido comprobar en el laboratori

Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Social Eye Gaze

Social interactions are characterised by exchanges of a variety of social signals to communicate with other people. A key feature in real-life interactions is that we are in the presence of other people who can see us (audience), and we modulate our behaviour to send and receive signals (audience effect). Although social neuroscience research has traditionally examined how we respond to pictures and videos of humans, second-person neuroscience suggests that interactions with pre-recorded versus live people recruit distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. The aim of this thesis was to investigate which cognitive and neural mechanisms underlie changes in behaviour when being watched, particularly focusing on eye gaze, facial displays and prosocial behaviour as social signals. Using a novel ecologically valid paradigm, the first study showed that the opportunity to signal good reputation is a key modulator of eye gaze and prosocial behaviour. Using the same paradigm, the second study found no evidence to support the hypothesis that audience effects are mediated by an increase in self-referential processing. The third study focused on the time-course of eye gaze and facial displays patterns in relation to speech, both in typical and autistic individuals: contrary to what was expected both groups modulated eye gaze and facial displays according to the belief in being watched and speaker/listener role. Finally, the fourth study tested the role of reciprocity in live interactions: sharing information with a partner modulated eye gaze, facial displays, and brain activity in regions related to mentalising and decision-making. I discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and set out a cognitive model of gaze processing in live interactions. Finally, I outline directions for future research in social neuroscience

Linking biofilm spatial structure to real-time microscopic oxygen decay imaging

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Biofouling on 2018, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08927014.2017.1423474Two non-destructive techniques, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and planar optode (VisiSens imaging), were combined to relate the fine-scale spatial structure of biofilm components to real-time images of oxygen decay in aquatic biofilms. Both techniques were applied to biofilms grown for seven days at contrasting light and temperature (10/20°C) conditions. The geo-statistical analyses of CLSM images indicated that biofilm structures consisted of small (~100 µm) and middle sized (~101 µm) irregular aggregates. Cyanobacteria and EPS (extracellular polymeric substances) showed larger aggregate sizes in dark grown biofilms while, for algae, aggregates were larger in light-20°C conditions. Light-20°C biofilms were most dense while 10°C biofilms showed a sparser structure and lower respiration rates. There was a positive relationship between the number of pixels occupied and the oxygen decay rate. The combination of optodes and CLMS, taking advantage of geo-statistics, is a promising way to relate biofilm architecture and metabolism at the micrometric scale.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Classification of 2x2 fictitious play

Mestrado em Mathematical FinanceTeoria de jogos é uma teoria no ramo da matemática criada com o objectivo de modelar eventos onde duas ou mais pessoas interagem entre si. O objectivo desta teoria é perceber como fazer escolhas óptimas quando se está perante um conflito. Existem vários tipos de jogos, nós focamos-nos nos jogos evolucionários. É um jogo onde ao longo do tempo, as estratégias de cada jogador se adaptam e convergem para um equilíbrio. Um caso especial deste tipo de jogos são os jogos fictícios. O nosso objectivo foi mostrar que ao longo do tempo existe a convergência para um equilíbrio.Game Theory is a mathematical theory emerged with the aim of modeling events between two people. The goal of this theory is to understand how to make the best choice of strategy when we are facing a conflict. There are many types of games, we focused in evolutionary games. These are games that are repeatedly infinitely. Over time there is a dynamic adaptation of the strategies, the equilibrium comes naturally. Within these type of games there are a particular game known as fictitious play. Our goal was to show that, over time, the system will converge to the equilibrium.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Societat i Economia: Calella, 1737-1758

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"La classe és com un escenari...". Aprenentatge de les llengües estrangeres mitjançant la dramatització

L'article que presentem es divideix en dues parts. La primera, basada en els estudis teòrics, ofereix una visió de com la dramatització és present en la nostra vida quotidiana, en un context educatiu i també en la nostra classe de llengua. Aquesta part es fonamenta en el pensament i la recerca fets en aquest camp d'investigació. La segona part tracta de l'aplicació de les estratègies dramàtiques en l'ensenyament de les llengües estrangeres (jocs, role-playing, improvisacions, forum theatre, teacher-in-role i textos teatrals) i es donen exemples per posar-ho en pràctica.“The class is like a stage...” foreign language teaching through drama. The paper presented is divided into two parts. The first one, theory-based, offers an overview of how drama is present in everyday life, in any educational context and also in language classes. This part is founded on drama experts’ thoughts and findings in this field of research. The second part focuses on the application of drama strategies to foreign language teaching (drama games, role-playing, improvisation, forum theatre, teacher-in-role and theatrical texts), with practical examples of how it can be done