Application of a Natural Language Interface to the Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot

IFAC Intelligent Components for Vehicles, Seville, Spain, 1998This paper describes the application of a natural language interface to the teleoperation of a mobile robot. Natural language communication with robots is a major goal, since it allows for non expert people to communicate with robots in his or her own language. This communication has to be flexible enough to allow the user to control the robot with a minimum knowledge about its details. In order to do this, the user must be able to perform simple operations as well as high level tasks which involve multiple elements of the system. For this ones, an adequate representation of the knowledge about the robot and its environment will allow the creation of a plan of simple actions whose execution will result in the accomplishment of the requested tas

A set-membership state estimation algorithm based on DC programming

This paper presents a new approach to guaranteed state estimation for nonlinear discrete-time systems with a bounded description of noise and parameters. The sets of states that are consistent with the evolution of the system, the measured outputs and bounded noise and parameters are represented by zonotopes. DC programming and intersection operations are used to obtain a tight bound. An example is given to illustrate the proposed algorithm.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2006-15476-C02-01Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2007-66718-C04-01

Development and Experimental Validation of a Dynamic Model for a Fresnel Solar Collector

this paper presents a lumped parameter dynamic model of a Fresnel collector field of a solar refrigeration plant. The plant is located in the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros of the University of Seville. The dynamic model parameter model developed can be used as a control model or as a simulation tool to test controllers. The lumped parameters have been determined by using real data from the plant in different operating conditions. The model has been validated against a data validation set obtained from the plant. The model has shown to reproduce the system behavior with a good compromise in accuracy and model complexity

Torque distribution strategy for a four In-wheel fully electric car

Jornadas de Automática, 2 - 4 de septiembre de 2015. BilbaoElectromobility promises to have a strong impact in several aspects of our life: introducing new means of transport concepts, proposing new business models and allowing to create new vehicle configurations impossible with traditional combustion engines. Regarding the latter, this paper presents a novel torque distribution strategy for a 4 in-wheel electric vehicle which aims to reduce the total longitudinal slip. The control strategy is designed off-line supported by a simulator and tested both in simulation (with a different model from the used for designing) as well as on a real sized prototype. The results show that the total longitudinal slip is successfully reduced after applying the control strategy and additionally, the radius described by the vehicle while cornering is slightly closer to the theoretical Ackerman radius.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2013-46912-C2-

Distributed parameter tuning for genetic algorithms

Genetic Algorithms (GA) is a family of search algorithms based on the mechanics of natural selection and biological evolution. They are able to efficiently exploit historical information in the evolution process to look for optimal solutions or approximate them for a given problem, achieving excellent performance in optimization problems that involve a large set of dependent variables. Despite the excellent results of GAs, their use may generate new problems. One of them is how to provide a good fitting in the usually large number of parameters that must be tuned to allow a good performance. This paper describes a new platform that is able to extract the Regular Expression that matches a set of examples, using a supervised learning and agent-based framework. In order to do that, GA-based agents decompose the GA execution in a distributed sequence of operations performed by them. The platform has been applied to Language induction problem, for that reason the experiments are focused on the extraction of the regular expression that matches a set of examples. Finally, the paper shows the efficiency of the proposed platform (in terms of fitness value) applied to three case studies: emails, phone numbers and URLs. Moreover, it is described how the codification of the alphabet affects to the performance of the platform.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projects COMPUBIODIVE(TIN2007-65989), V-LeaF (TIN2008-02729-E/TIN), Castilla-La Mancha project PEII09-0266-6640 and HADA (TIN2007-64718)

Hybrid Nonlinear MPC of a Solar Cooling Plant

Solar energy for cooling systems has been widely used to fulfill the growing air conditioning demand. The advantage of this approach is based on the fact that the need of air conditioning is usually well correlated to solar radiation. These kinds of plants can work in different operation modes resulting on a hybrid system. The control approaches designed for this kind of plant have usually a twofold goal: (a) regulating the outlet temperature of the solar collector field and (b) choosing the operation mode. Since the operation mode is defined by a set of valve positions (discrete variables), the overall control problem is a nonlinear optimization problem which involves discrete and continuous variables. This problems are difficult to solve within the normal sampling times for control purposes (around 20–30 s). In this paper, a two layer control strategy is proposed. The first layer is a nonlinear model predictive controller for regulating the outlet temperature of the solar field. The second layer is a fuzzy algorithm which selects the adequate operation mode for the plant taken into account the operation conditions. The control strategy is tested on a model of the plant showing a proper performance.Unión Europea OCONTSOLAR ID 78905

A modified Nukiyama-Tanasawa distribution function and a Rosin-Rammler model for the particle-size-distribution analysis

Abstract No fundamental mechanism or model enables a theory on particle-size distribution to be built. Consequently, a wide variety of empirical models or equations have been proposed to characterize experimental particle-size distributions, such as the Rosin-Rammler model. Because the Nukiyama-Tanasawa equation uses four parameters to simulate differential distribution frequencies for particle-size diameters, the distribution function is not easy to apply in order to fit experimental data. In this paper, a modification of the Nukiyama-Tanasawa model with only two parameters has been proposed to fit the data on a particle-size distribution (PSD). The proposed normalized distribution function has been applied successfully to the PSD analysis (cork granulate and spray atomization droplets)

Interoperabilidad en Sistemas Domóticos Mediante Pasarela Infrarrojos-ZigBee

La domótica consiste en la aplicación de técnicas provenientes de la automática industrial al hogar con objeto de ofrecer servicios que aporten, entre otras cosas, confort, seguridad y eficiencia energética a los usuarios. Hasta el momento la penetración de dichas técnicas en los hogares ha sido reducida. Una de las razones fundamentales de esta lenta transposición de técnicas de control al hogar es la dificultad de integración entre los diferentes sistemas presentes en el hogar. En este artículo se presenta un desarrollo encaminado a mejorar la integración de los sistemas domóticos con aquellos dispositivos que sean controlables mediante infrarrojos. En concreto se ha desarrollado una pasarela inalámbrica que permite a una red domótica el envío de tramas de infrarrojos. De esta manera se posibilita un despliegue rápido y económico de los nodos que sean necesarios para integrar dispositivos tales como los sistemas de aire acondicionado en una red domótica.Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio MITC-09-TSI-020100-2009-359Ministerio de Educación DPI2008-05818Junta de Andalucía TEP0272

Infección por Theileria annae en un perro esplenectomizado

La babesiosis canina es una enfermedad infecciosa de distribución mundial debida a la proliferación en los hematíes del perro de unas babesias específicas transmitidas por garrapatas. Si bien ha sido tradicionalmente asumido que las únicas especies que causan enfermedad en la especie canina son Babesia canis y Babesia gibsoni, publicaciones recientes demuestran que una tercera especie (Theileria annae) también puede causar una enfermedad muy severa. Este trabajo presenta el segundo caso publicado de esta forma de Theileria annae en un perro de 14 años, de raza Basset Hound, esplenectomizado cinco meses antes, que se presentó en la clínica veterinaria con signos de hipertermia, hemoglobinuria, temblores y apatía. El estudio de laboratorio constató una acusada anemia hemolítica regenerativa y una intensa trombocitopenia como datos más característicos. En la extensión de sangre periférica se visualizaron múltiples merozoítos intra (22%) y extraeritrocitarios de pequeño tamaño (1-2 micras), forma anular y presentación única en la mayoría de hematíes. La prontitud del diagnóstico y del tratamiento específico con dipropionato de imidocarb hizo que el cuadro clínico evolucionase con rapidez hacia la curación, en contra de lo que es habitual en los animales esplenectomizados.