Trajectory planning of a quadrotor to monitor dependent people

This article introduces a framework for assisting dependent people at home through a vision-based autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Such an aircraft equipped with onboard cameras can be useful for monitoring and recognizing a dependent's activity. This work is focused on the problem of planning the flight path of a quadrotor to perform monitoring tasks. The objective is to design a trajectory planning algorithm that allows the UAV to position itself for the sake of capturing images of the dependent person's face. These images will be later treated by a base station to evaluate the persons emotional state, together with his/her behavior, this way determining the assistance needed in each situation. Numerical simulations have been carried out to validate the proposed algorithms. The results show the effectiveness of the trajectory planner to generate smooth references to our previously designed GPI (generalized proportional integral) controller. This demonstrates that a quadrotor is able to perform monitoring flights with a high motion precision.- This work has been partially supported by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI)/European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE) under DPI2016-80894-R grant. Lidia M. Belmonte holds FPU014/05283 scholarship from Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Formacion Profesional

Advanced trajectory generator for two carts with RGB-D sensor on circular rail

This paper presents a motorised circular rail that generates the motion of two carts with an RGB-D sensor each. The objective of both carts' trajectory generation is to track a person's physical rehabilitation exercises from two points of view and his/her emotional state from one of these viewpoints. The person is moving freely his/her position and posture within the circle drawn by the motorised rail. More specifically, this paper describes the calculation of trajectories for safe motion of the two carts on the motorised circular rail in detail. Lastly, a study case is offered to show the performance of the described control algorithms for trajectory generation.- This work was partially supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) / European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE) under DPI2016-80894-R grant

Robust Linear Longitudinal Feedback Control of a Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle

This paper falls under the idea of introducing biomimetic miniature air vehicles in ambient assisted living and home health applications. The concepts of active disturbance rejection control and flatness based control are used in this paper for the trajectory tracking tasks in the flapping-wing miniature air vehicle (FWMAV) time-averaged model. The generalized proportional integral (GPI) observers are used to obtain accurate estimations of the flat output associated phase variables and of the time-varying disturbance signals. This information is used in the proposed feedback controller in (a) approximate, yet close, cancelations, as lumped unstructured time-varying terms, of the influence of the highly coupled nonlinearities and (b) the devising of proper linear output feedback control laws based on the approximate estimates of the string of phase variables associated with the flat outputs simultaneously provided by the disturbance observers. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Ultrashort pulse propagation through depressed-cladding channel waveguides in YAG crystal: Spatio-temporal characterization

[EN]Inscription of optical waveguides by direct femtosecond laser irradiation has become a very versatile tool for the development of integrated photonic devices, such as waveguide lasers, frequency converters or photonic lanterns, among many others. The potential application of such devices for the control and manipulation of ultrashort pulses requires the precise knowledge of the temporal distortions that may be induced in the pulse propagation. Currently, research in this topic is scarce, and to our knowledge there is no previous experimental study on the spatio-temporal characterization at the output of waveguides inscribed inside crystals. Here, we have firstly fabricated depressed-cladding waveguides with different modal behavior in YAG crystal by direct femtosecond laser irradiation. Then, we implemented an experimental method based on the fiber coupler assisted spectral interferometry technique, that allows obtaining: (1) the temporal dispersion of a pulse at the output of an inscribed waveguide and, (2) full spatio-spectral and spatio-temporal characterization of the output of single-mode and multi-mode waveguides. Our results suggest that the main contribution to the pulse dispersion is due to the material dispersion. Moreover, we found that multimodal waveguides may induce an appreciable inhomogeneity in the temporal features of the pulses that needs to be taken into account in the design of complex devices.This work was supported by Junta de Castilla y León (Project SA046U16 and SA287P18) and MINECO (Projects FIS2017-87970-R, EQC2018-004117-P). M.M.-V. acknowledges support from Junta de Castilla y León grant (No. SA046U16) and from Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, under project CDEIGENT/2018/024

Assisting dependent people at home through autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles

This work describes a proposal of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs) for home assistance of dependent people. AUAVs will monitor and recognize human activities during flight to improve their quality of life. However, before bringing such AUAV assistance to real homes, several challenges must be faced to make them viable and practical. Some challenges are technical and some others are related to human factors. In particular, several technical aspects are described for AUAV assistance: (1) flight control, based on our active disturbance rejection control algorithm, (2) flight planning (navigation in obstacle environments), and, (3) processing signals, acquired both from flight-control and monitoring sensors. From the assisted person’s viewpoint, our research focuses on three cues: (1) the user’s perception about AUAV assistance, (2) the influence on human acceptance of AUAV appearance and behavior at home, and (3) the human-robot interaction between assistant AUAV and assisted person. Finally, virtual reality environments are proposed to carry out preliminary tests and user acceptance evaluations.This work has been partially supported by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigaci´on (AEI) / European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE) under DPI2016-80894-R grant, and by CIBERSAM of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Lidia M. Belmonte holds FPU014/05283 scholarship from Spanish Ministerio de Educaci´on y Formación Profesional

Peer tutoring: Wiki as a tool for learning in the pedagogues training

Esta comunicación presenta los resultados de un trabajo de investigación desarrollado en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación (US) por un equipo de profesores y alumnos adscritos al departamento de Didáctica y Organización Educativa, dentro de las asignatura Prácticum I y II de la Licenciatura de Pedagogía. Bajo el objetivo principal de detectar las necesidades formativas de los/as alumnos/as de Pedagogía sobre las condiciones académicas requeridas en las asignaturas Practicum I y II, se elaboró en cursos anteriores, un Programa de Acción Tutorial entre Iguales (PATI) en el que quedaron plasmadas las principales carencias formativas que los alumnos encontraron en sus prácticas externas. Para ello se administró un Cuestionario sobre detección de necesidades formativas del alumnado del prácticum de Pedagogía a una muestra de 104 estudiantes. Una vez recogidos los datos y analizados los resultados, se construyó de manera colaborativa un wiki (http://proyectopati.wikispaces.com). Durante el curso académico 2010-2011, continuando con la segunda fase del proyecto, los alumnos de quinto de Pedagogía han elaborado el wiki, bajo la supervisión de sus tutores, y se ha establecido un sistema de tutoría entre iguales con los alumnos de tercero de Pedagogía. Nuestro espacio wiki puede ser considerado como una biblioteca dónde compartir información, recoger, añadir notas o responder a preguntas de sus compañeros.This paper presents the results of a research work developed at the Faculty of Educational Sciences (U.S.) developed by a team of teachers and students assigned to the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, within the subject Practicum I and II of the Degree of Education. Under the main objective to identify the training needs of the pupil of Pedagogy on the academic conditions required subjects Practicum I and II, was developed in previous courses, a Program of Action Tutorial Peer (PATI ), which were embodied the main training gaps were students when developing their placement. This questionnaire was administered on identification of training needs of students of pedagogy practicum in a sample of 104 students. Once data are collected and analyzed the results, the program was developed and built a wiki to collaboratively (http://proyectopati.wikispaces.com). During the 2010-2011 academic year, continuing the second phase of the project, students in grades 5 of Education have developed the wiki, under the supervision of their tutors, and has established a system of peer tutoring with students in 3 of pedagogy. Our wiki space has been like a library where we have shared information and consequently the students of 3 rd have used it to obtain information and gather ideas and students in grades 5 have been able to add notes or answer questions from their peers