Optimization of fast moving robots and implementation of I2C protocol to control electronic devices

This paper briefly describes the main changes in the robots from Minho Team since the last RoboCup. Work has been carried out on the robots in order to constantly improve their capabilities, based on the experiences from previous participations. The main topics to deal in this paper are related with the I2C new communications protocol recently implemented in the robots, a description of the whole electronics system based on a new diagram which contains all the devices used in the robots, the inclusion of new faster motors, a description of the robot game play strategy, some operating system remarks which are related to some requirements of our actual system, and the main conclusions related to the work carried out so far. The use of the I2C protocol forced the team to change all the electronic boards and these were completely redesigned in-house, tested and implemented on the robots.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - POSI/ROBO/43892/200

Desenvolvimento e implantação de um ambiente de inteligência de negócios para gestão, parametrização e projeção de materiais

The Business Intelligence (BI) environment, when developed and implemented, allows, in a simple way, to gather, organize, store, analyze and facilitate the discovery of relationships and information with data from different sources, gathered by companies throughout their history. Decision making becomes challenging and complex, regardless of level or scale. In most companies there is a large volume of operational level data, especially in the areas of planning and control of production and inventories covering various systems and spreadsheets. This dissertation aims to know methods for the development of a data warehouse (DW), the process of extracting, transforming and loading data (ETL) and graphical dashboards (BI) and researching the challenges and results obtained by the new work published. In addition, develop and implement the BI environment following an action research methodology to apply the knowledge obtained for the projection and control of stocks in a multinational company of advanced energy solutions. With the implementation of this BI environment, a positive evolution for inventory management was proven through the updating of purchase parameters, the increase went from 8% to 82% in one year, resulting in significant savings in terms of inventory reduction and increase turnover and cash flow. First, it is expected to increase the amount of data by expanding to other production lines in the company to have the same BI environment, optimizing the time to obtain information for decision-making in inventory management with a focus on reducing high levels and having the availability of information in an increasingly simple way, through graphical panels on dashboards. Finally, share the tool with other company plants in Brazil and around the world.Agência 1O ambiente de Business Intelligence (BI) quando desenvolvido e implementado, permite de forma simples, reunir, organizar, armazenar, analisar e facilitar a descoberta de relações e informações com dados oriundos de diversas fontes, reunidos pelas empresas ao longo de sua história. Tomar decisões se torna desafiador e complexo, independentemente do nível ou escala. Na maioria das empresas há um grande volume de dados de nível operacional, especialmente nas áreas de planejamento e controle de produção e estoques abrangendo diversos sistemas e planilhas. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo conhecer métodos para o desenvolvimento de um data warehouse (DW), o processo de extração, transformação e carregamento de dados (ETL) e os dashboards gráficos (BI) e pesquisar sobre quais os desafios e resultados obtidos pelos trabalhos recém publicados. Por fim, desenvolver e implementar o ambiente BI seguindo uma metodologia de pesquisa-ação para aplicar o conhecimento obtido para projeção e controle de estoques em uma empresa multinacional de soluções avançadas de energia. Com a implantação deste ambiente BI, foi comprovada uma evolução positiva para gestão de estoques através da atualização dos parâmetros de compra, o aumento foi de 8% para 82% em um ano, resultando em um saving expressivo de redução do valor de estoque e aumento do giro e fluxo de caixa. Espera-se primeiramente aumentar a quantidade de dados expandindo para outras linhas de produção na empresa terem o mesmo ambiente BI, otimizando o tempo para obtenção de informações para tomada de decisões na gestão de estoques com foco na redução dos níveis elevados e ter a disponibilidade das informações de forma cada vez mais simples, através de painéis gráficos em dashboards. Por fim, compartilhar a ferramenta com outras plantas da empresa no Brasil e no mundo

New improvements of MINHO Team for RoboCup middle size league in 2003

Although this research group has started a robotic football team in 1998, MINHO team has been participating in RoboCup only since 1999. The robots were completely developed by the undergraduate team members (mechanics, hardware and software), due to budget reasons, and every year new improvements had been made. The team came to a point where new improvements would mean complete changes in the robot design, hardware and mechanics. Therefore, this year major changes have been implemented. Being all member of an Industrial Electronics department, our main research areas consist of general electronics, computer vision/image processing, and control. In this paper, the major changes implemented are described and some results assessed

Three omni-directional wheels control on a mobile robot

Traditional two wheels differential drive normally used on mobile robots have manoeuvrability limitations and take time to sort out. Most teams use two driving wheels (with one or two cast wheels), four driving wheels and even three driving wheels. A three wheel drive with omni-directional wheel has been tried with success, and was implemented on fast moving autonomous mobile robots. This paper deals with the mathematical kinematics description of such mobile platform, it describes the advantages and also the type of control used

Controlling omni-directional Wheels of a MSL RoboCup autonomous mobile robot

Autonomous Mobile Locomotion is of extreme importance in RoboCup robots. Even though in 2050 the robotic team will very likely use legs rather than wheels, at the moment all teams on middle size league use wheels to overcome other problems first. Most teams are using two driving wheels (with one or two cast wheels), four driving wheels and even three driving wheels. The Minho team has been using two driving wheels for the last 5 years (with two caster wheels), but for reaction speed optimization purposes a new approach of three wheels is being developed. This paper deals with the description of such platform, it describes the advantages and also the type of control used

Mobile robot construction for edutainment application

As time goes on, there are more and more robotics applications. The limit is almost the imagination of each person. A great deal of industrial work can yet be done by robots and new ideas are blossoming. The entertainment industry is arriving and there are already many ideas as well as real robots on the field. It is important to point out that the entertainment applications not just entertain people as it also brings new research which will then be used in industrial work applications. This paper describes a team of robot football players which compete in a worldwide scientific challenge – the RoboCup.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Vision, kinematics and game strategy in multi-robot systems like MSL RoboCup

In Multi-Robot systems like the RoboCup football challenge, there are a small number of key issues which are of extreme relevance for the successfulness of the final application. In MSL RoboCup these main issues are three: a) The vision system, which has to be as reliable and fast as possible in order to perceive the necessary entities to carry out the game actions; b) Correct kinematics of the robot, that makes the robots move towards the desired goal in the fastest, shortest and optimized away; c) Game strategy, which needs collaboration and communication between all the agents in the field. Other issues are also important but these three consist of the fundamental ones towards the next step in this challenge which is ball pass between the robots in a controlled way. A team of robots will only be able to pass the ball to another robot only when these three issues are sorted out. This paper describes how these three issues were tackled by the MINHO team and shows their next directions

Reversed-phase chromatographic separation and downstream precipitation of lupane- and oleanane-type triterpenoids: experiments and modeling based on the method of moments

The reversed-phase chromatographic separation of two triterpenic acids (TTAs), betulinic and oleanolic acids, using a triacontyl (C30) stationary phase was addressed in this work. Methanol, water, acetonitrile, ethanol, isopropanol, ethyl acetate, acetone and mixtures thereof were tested, and the best mobile phase to conduct the separation was found to be methanol/acetonitrile 50/50 (%, v/v) at 23 °C, taking into account parameters like selectivity, resolution and TTAs solubility. The method of moments was used to determine the equilibrium constants of isotherms, the axial dispersion coefficients and the global linear driving force coefficients of pure betulinic and pure oleanolic acids. These parameters were then successfully validated by modeling unary and binary breakthrough curves. Simulated moving bed calculations showed that betulinic and oleanolic acids can be both obtained with purity of 99.2 % and productivity of 56.2 kg/(m3adsorbent day) using the packing material of an Acclaim C30 column with a 1-1-1-1 configuration with columns of 7.5 cm long. Finally, in order to recover the two TTAs from the SMB extract and raffinate streams, water was envisioned as a precipitation agent. Accordingly, the solubility of each TTA was measured in methanol/acetonitrile 70/30, 50/50, and 30/70 (%, v/v) modified with water. The obtained results showed that adding 65 % (%, v/v) of water it is possible to precipitate 98 % of the dissolved TTAs in all the tested methanol/acetonitrile mixtures.publishe

O REGISTRO COMO INSTRUMENTO DE REFLEXÃO DA PRÁTICA DOCENTE NO CICLO DE ALFABETIZAÇÃO

The record of teaching practice is something relevant and presupposes, to a certain extent, a record that can be used. Thus, returning to it with its particularities becomes opportune, as this action often persists in identifying itself only as bureaucratic documentation lacking pedagogical meaning. In view of this, we consider it appropriate to investigate how the registration carried out by the teacher of the literacy cycle has contributed to their practice. Therefore, the study aims to understand the view of teachers on the record as an instrument of reflection on teaching practice in the literacy cycle, understand the purpose and use of the record by the teacher and verify the information contained in the record and its relationship with practice. Data collection was carried out in a municipal public school in the Greater ABC Paulista region, with (5) five teachers who teach at the same school for the literacy cycle. For this purpose, we used a qualitative approach and collaborative research, aimed at the participants' joint discussion and reflection on (7) seven established themes of objectives and theoretical foundation, in meetings called collaborative workshops. As a result of this process, we infer that the registration carried out by the teachers of the literacy cycle needs to be taken up for discussion, reflection, aiming at its qualification, even though it is an action practiced for a long time. This process was noted by the teachers as essential for the redefinition of their records and reorganization of practice, reflection, change in the way of seeing and recording the record and as a space for training.El registro de la práctica docente es algo relevante y presupone, en cierta medida, un registro utilizable. Así, se vuelve oportuno volver a él con sus particularidades, pues esta acción a menudo persiste en identificarse solo como documentación burocrática carente de sentido pedagógico. Ante esto, consideramos oportuno investigar cómo ha contribuido a su práctica el registro realizado por el docente del ciclo de alfabetización. Por tanto, el estudio tiene como objetivo comprender la visión de los docentes sobre el registro como instrumento de reflexión sobre la práctica docente en el ciclo de alfabetización, comprender el propósito y uso del registro por parte del docente y verificar la información contenida en el registro y su relación con práctica. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo en una escuela pública municipal de la región Gran ABC Paulista, con (5) cinco maestros que imparten clases en la misma escuela para el ciclo de alfabetización. Para ello, se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo e investigación colaborativa, orientada a la discusión y reflexión conjunta de los participantes sobre (7) siete temas establecidos de objetivos y fundamentación teórica, en encuentros denominados talleres colaborativos. Como resultado de este proceso, inferimos que el registro que realizan los docentes del ciclo de alfabetización debe ser retomado para la discusión, la reflexión, con miras a su calificación, aunque es una acción practicada desde hace mucho tiempo. Este proceso fue señalado por los docentes como fundamental para la redefinición de sus registros y reorganización de la práctica, la reflexión, el cambio en la forma de ver y hacer el registro y como espacio de formación.O registro da prática docente é algo relevante e pressupõe em certa medida um registro que possa ser utilizado. Assim, retomá-lo com suas particularidades se torna oportuno, pois essa ação, muitas vezes, persiste em se identificar somente como uma documentação burocrática ausente de significado pedagógico. Diante disso, consideramos cabível investigar de que forma o registro realizado pelo professor do ciclo de alfabetização vem contribuindo para a sua prática. Para tanto, o estudo tem por objetivo compreender a visão dos professores sobre o registro como instrumento de reflexão da prática docente no ciclo de alfabetização, compreender a finalidade e utilização do registro pelo professor e verificar as informações contidas no registro e sua relação com a prática. A coleta de dados foi efetivada em uma escola pública municipal na região do Grande ABC Paulista, com (5) cinco professoras que lecionam na mesma escola para o ciclo de alfabetização. Para esse propósito, utilizamos a abordagem qualitativa e a pesquisa colaborativa, destinada a discussão e reflexão conjunta das participantes sobre (7) sete temas estabelecidos dos objetivos e fundamentação teórica, em encontros denominados de oficinas colaborativas. Como resultados desse processo inferimos que o registro realizado pelas professoras do ciclo de alfabetização necessita ser retomado para discussão, reflexão visando sua qualificação, mesmo sendo uma ação praticada a muito tempo. Esse processo foi notabilizado pelas professoras como indispensável para a ressignificação de seus registros e reorganização da prática, reflexão, mudança na forma ver e fazer o registro e como espaço de formação