Indoor Localization System based on Artificial Landmarks and Monocular Vision

 This paper presents a visual localization approach that is suitable for domestic and industrial environments as it enables accurate, reliable and robust pose estimation. The mobile robot is equipped with a single camera which update sits pose whenever a landmark is available on the field of view. The innovation presented by this research focuses on the artificial landmark system which has the ability to detect the presence of the robot, since both entities communicate with each other using an infrared signal protocol modulated in frequency. Besides this communication capability, each landmark has several high intensity light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that shine only for some instances according to the communication, which makes it possible for the camera shutter and the blinking of the LEDs to synchronize. This synchronization increases the system tolerance concerning changes in brightness in the ambient lights over time, independently of the landmarks location. Therefore, the environment’s ceiling is populated with several landmarks and an Extended Kalman Filter is used to combine the dead-reckoning and landmark information. This increases the flexibility of the system by reducing the number of landmarks required. The experimental evaluation was conducted in a real indoor environment with an autonomous wheelchair prototype

Improving incremental encoder measurement: variable acquisition window and quadrature phase compensation to minimize acquisition errors

Motion control is an important task in several areas, such as robotics where the angular position and speed should be acquired, usually with encoders. For slow angular speeds, an error is introduced spoiling the measurement. In this paper there will be proposed two new methodologies, that when combined allow to increase the precision whereas reducing the error, even on transient velocities. The two methodologies Variable Acquisition Window and a Quadrature Phase Compensation are addressed and combined simultaneously. A real implementation of the proposed algorithms is performed on a real hardware, with a DC motor and a low resolution encoder based on hall effect. The results validate the proposed approach since the errors are reduced compared with the standard Quadrature Encoder Reading.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundac¸ao˜ para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: ˆ UIDB/05757/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

VIRTUAL REALITY - SHOWS A NEW VISION FOR TOURISM AND HERITAGE

Observe the heritage, a monument, architecture or a sculpture and immediately receive useful additional information to interpret better. This is one of the promises of virtual reality technology. The concept of virtual reality is far from being a new concept. Many experiments on ways to overcome layers of information, in addition to the real world elements, in live observation, have been made over the past decade, exploring different types of use, in leisure and professional contexts. Improving the perception of reality, in contrast to virtual reality, offers other initiatives that replace the context of a simulated world, and the possibility of using an interactive way to manipulate it in a digitally way. Those are the latest achievements that have opened new evolution perspectives of virtual reality. The idea behind most computer applications is to improve the user interaction with the real world, adding information through the use of tools and techniques that were confined to the digital world. But those applications could be used on tourism orientation in cities and in the professional world, in diverse areas, as architecture in the BIM environment or interior design architecture, with the projection of elements like the furniture and could be visualized in the virtual space. The ability to draw, could verify and share new realities, that was already being exploited by companies, which add new layers of information to be used in their catalogs and products that literally transform the hybrid PC, tablets and smartphones customer in additional information sources, that lead to know better what is observed, but in tourism and heritage that virtual reality is being used more intensively. Virtual Reality could be a good way to travel and understand the touristic world

Contributo de um Sistema de Apoio à Decisão para a Inserção no Mercado de Trabalho de Pessoas com Deficiência: Estudo de Caso e Proposta de Intervenção na ARCIL.

Nos últimos anos, o conceito de inclusão de pessoas com deficiência ou incapacidade tem-se enraizado cada vez mais na sociedade, enquanto fator decisivo para a melhoria da qualidade de vida ao nível da independência económica e consecutiva valorização e concretização pessoal. Por outro lado, as empresas debatem-se cada vez mais com a necessidade de atrair e reter talentos capazes de se adaptar às rápidas mudanças dos mercados, avalizando a sobrevivência das mesmas. A necessidade da conceção de estratégias de recrutamento que fossem além do simples conjúgio entre o perfil do cargo e o perfil do candidato, levaram as empresas a adotar práticas associadas ao conceito de employer branding, cujo objetivo consiste na promoção da empresa como marca empregadora honesta e atrativa. Concomitantemente, a implementação de medidas socialmente responsáveis atenta às condições de trabalho dos seus colaboradores e, às transgressões dos direitos humanos e ambientais, associadas a ações de comunicação e marketing tornaram-se essenciais na construção de uma marca empregadora. A presente dissertação procurou compreender e identificar, os principais desafios que as organizações de cariz social se debatem aquando da inserção no mercado de trabalho de pessoas com deficiência. As respostas obtidas, a partir do estudo de caso realizado, foram de encontro à necessidade de implementação de um sistema que permita um aconselhamento adequado às necessidades específicas dos intervenientes no processo de inclusão na sociedade e, consecutivamente, no mercado de trabalho. A falta de programas de aconselhamento adequado às necessidades específicas de cada interveniente, bem como um adequado mapeamento das competências individuais que permita agilizar os processos de integração no mercado de trabalho e, facilitar o alinhamento com as necessidades de recrutamento das organizações, representam alguns dos fatores decisivos na escolha desta investigação. Por sua vez, a temática de sistemas de apoio à decisão em contexto das OSFL, não tem merecido a necessária atenção por parte dos investigadores. Mais do que preencher uma lacuna detetada na literatura, pretendemos com este estudo prestar uma contribuição prática para o desenvolvimento de metodologias de apoio à inserção no mercado normal de trabalho de pessoas com deficiência ou incapacidade. Para o efeito, procedemos a um estudo de caso conduzido no contexto do centro de recursos local da Associação para a Reabilitação de Cidadãos Inadaptados da Lousã, com recurso à metodologia de investigação-ação. A amostra foi constituída pelos elementos da equipa técnica (um responsável e dois técnicos) do respetivo departamento e, foi conduzida sob a forma de entrevista semiestruturada. Os resultados apontaram para a necessidade de um sistema informático capaz de armazenar informação e auxiliar em todas as fases do processo de inserção no mercado normal de trabalho. Assim sendo, a partir da referida metodologia de investigação-ação, partimos para a conceção de um sistema sob a forma de plataforma online que, juntamente com as empresas contratantes, permitisse auxiliar os técnicos responsáveis na seleção de pessoas com deficiência ou incapacidade que mais se adequam às necessidades específicas da empresa. Neste contexto, as conclusões sugerem que o desenvolvimento de um sistema de apoio à decisão pode ter um contributo significativo, no percurso da inserção de pessoas com deficiência e incapacidades no mercado de trabalho, bem como contribuir para uma maior visibilidade destas organizações. / In recent years, inclusion of people with disabilities has risen in importance within the civil society as a main vehicle for improving people’s lives at an economic and social level. At the same time, companies are more than ever willing to recruit flexible and skilled individuals, easily adaptable to the market pressures. The need to design new recruitment strategies, beyond the simple relation job role-candidate profile, contributed to the adoption of practices associated with the concept of employer branding, whose primary objective is the promotion of the company itself, as an honest and attractive brand. Simultaneously, the adoption of measures of social responsibility, focused on employees work conditions and human and environmental rights, have become vital, in conjunction with marketing communication actions, for the development of a strong employer brand. The present dissertation sought to understand and identify the main challenges that social organizations are struggling at the time of insertion in the labour market of people with disabilities. The answers were obtained against the need for implementation of a system that allows a suitable advice to the specific needs of stakeholders in the process of inclusion in society and, consecutively, in the labour market. The lack of appropriate counselling programs to the specific needs of each party, as well as an appropriate mapping of individual skills in order to facilitate their integration in the labor market and their alignment with company’s needs, represent some of the most prominent factors in the choice of this investigation. By its turn, decision support systems in context of OSFL is a topic only rarely seen in the literature. More than filling a gap in the literature, our objective is to provide a practical contribution to the development of methodologies to support a more smoother (market) integration of people with disabilities. For this end, our case study was conducted in the context of the local resource centre of the Association for the rehabilitation of Citizens Misfits da Lousã, using the so-called research-action methodology. The studied sample was constituted by elements of the coaching staff (an officer and two technicians) of the respective Department and was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews. Results have clearly demonstrated the need for a computer system capable of storing all the information and assist in all phases of the regular market integration work process. Therefore, an online platform was designed to assist the technicians responsible for selecting those people more qualified for the specific needs of the companies involved. In this context, our findings suggest that the development of a decision support system can have a significant impact in the course of PCDI insertion in the market labor, as well as contributing to a greater visibility of these organizations

Cable robot for non-standard architecture and construction: A dynamic positioning system

In the past few years, cable-driven robots have received some attention by the scientific community and the industry. They have special characteristics that made them very reliable to operate with the level of safeness that is required by different environments, such as, handling of hazardous materials in construction sites. This paper presents a cable-driven robot called SPIDERobot, that was developed for automated construction of architectural projects. This robot has a rotating claw and it is controlled by a set of 4 cables that allow 4 degrees of freedom. In addition to the robot, this paper introduces a Dynamic Control System (DCS) that controls the positioning of the robot and assures that the length of cables is always within a safe value. Results show that traditional force-feasible approaches are more influenced by the pulling forces or the geometric arrangement of all cables and their positioning is significantly less accurate than the DCS. Therefore, the architecture of the SPIDERobot is designed to enable an easily scaling up of the solution to higher dimensions for operating in realistic environments.This work is partly funded by the project PTDC/ATPAQI/ 5124/2012 - Robotic Technologies for Non-Standard Design and Construction in Architecture. This work is also financed by the ERDF European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within project ”FCOMP - 01-0124-FEDER-022701”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

State estimation of over-sensored systems applied to a low-cost robotic manipulator

There is an increasing demand for robotic manipulators to perform more complex and versatile tasks. In order to fulfill this need, expeditious calibration and estimation techniques are required as a first step for the correct usage of the manipulator. This article aims at finding a subset of these algorithms that could be used in a generic manipulator and should allow for its prompt use. Two models for the representation of the pose of the manipulator are described and used in the state estimation problem. The results of the implementation are tested, and some performance metrics are obtained.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Real-time tracking system for a moored oil tanker: a kalman filter approach

This paper presents a tracking system developed to study the behavior of an oil tanker moored at the Berth "A" of the Leixões oli terminal, Porto, Portugal

Influencers in social media and the problem of authenticity: a theoretical essay

Technological changes have, especially in the last few years, triggered changes in social, economic and cultural levels, including consumption based on digital platforms; this shift have contributed to the unveiling of new forms of consumption, production and digital advertising. Using a theoretical framework that relies on philosophy and cultural studies, this essay aims to discuss the role of an important actor in the current consumption dynamics: the influencers in social media. It is argued that such actors act as disseminators of inauthenticity - in general, lifestyles that are not sustained by individual experience. The essay also proposes a way to understand how the dynamics of marketing strategies that use influencers in social media to promote or endorse products or services occur. As contributions, we highlight the innovative approach to discuss an important contemporary social actor, as well as bring light to a diffuse and polysemic concept - authenticity - for the marketing literature. Finally, we sought to problematize the performance of a specific type of influencer, the micro-influencer, as a possible disseminator of inauthenticities in a more complex character and of relative current concern