Footballer autonomous mobile robot: control and vision system

This paper describes an Autonomous Mobile Robot which plays football. This project was developed by three senior students from the Industrial Electronics Engineering course during their probation period. The rules dictated the same structure for every team but then each team would solve, develop and use different electronics, sensory systems, play algorithms, etc. This robot uses one major sensor which is a vision system with the use of a colour camera. All the image processing algorithms used by the robot were developed and are hereby described. This robot uses also an innovative approach to see the whole football field (or most of it) at any time. A convex mirror was placed on the top of the robot looking downwards and the video camera looks at it. This way, the robot can see both goals, the ball and other robots, all the time. This idea proved to be very usefull for this type of application. This paper describes all the image processing and control software made specially for it

Image processing applied to a robotic football team

Autonomous mobile robots are ever increasing their number of different applications, even in ludic applications or in sports. In the last few years, several robotic football competitions have been organised with participating teams from all over the world. This paper describes a team of Autonomous Mobile Robots which play football, developed by the Group of Automation and Robotics at the Industrial Electronics department (School of Engineering) of the University of Minho, in Guimarães (Portugal). In these competitions each team is free to use and/or build all the different electronics, sensory systems, playing algorithms, etc. as far as they cope with the rules imposed by the organisation. From every team new ideas emerge, sometimes the most incredible ones, but proving in the end that they work. These competitions proved to be very fruitful scientifically as well as very mediatic

Effects of dual-task interventions on gait performance of patients with parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms that impair patients’ gait performance, especially while performing dual/concurrent tasks. These deficits impair patients’ daily function, because dual-tasking is a crucial ability in terms of everyday living. The aim of this study was to systematically review the effects of dual task interventions on gait performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease. METHOD: Studies were retrieved from MEDLINE/PubMed, LILACS and SciELO. We used the PICOS strategy to determine eligibility criteria. The search strategy included an advanced search on the included databases, using the following search query: “Parkinson’s Disease” AND “Double Task” OR “Concurrent Tasks” OR “Gait” AND “Walk”. Study selection was carried out by two independent researchers and a third one was called when consensus was needed. RESULTS: A total of 188 articles were identified: 169 articles from Medline/PubMed, 10 articles in SciELO, 8 articles in LILACS and 1 item from manual searches. A total of 56 articles were analyzed regarding the eligibility and exclusion criteria based on full text. A final total of 7 studies were included in the systematic review. CONCLUSION: The different types of dual-task interventions reported (dance, sound stimuli, visual and somatosensory) were associated to improvements in several gait performance indicators of Parkinson’s disease patients, including gait speed, stride time and length, cadence and step length. External stimuli seem to play a critical role on specific training effects on dual-task gait performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Terrestrial mammal responses to habitat structure and quality of remnant riparian forests in an Amazonian cattle-ranching landscape

Extensive 1970–2010 deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has generated a ~ 1.5 Mha fragmented region known as the ‘arc of deforestation’. Farmers and cattle ranchers throughout Brazil are legally required to set-aside riparian forest strips within their landholdings, but recent legislative changes have relaxed the minimum mandatory conditions of these riparian forests. In this context, we assessed the functional role of riparian forest remnants as landscape connectors for medium to large-bodied terrestrial mammals in a vast fragmented landscape of southern Amazonia. We selected 38 riparian forest strips and five riparian sites within continuous forest, installed four to five camera-traps along each riparian zone (199 camera-trap stations), and sampled the terrestrial mammal assemblage for 60 days per station during the dry seasons of 2013 and 2014. We compared mammal use of riparian forests within both continuous and highly fragmented forests, and examined the effects of corridor width, corridor habitat structure, and landscape context on mammal species richness, composition, and functional diversity, all of which were higher in continuous forests than in riparian remnants. Functional diversity differences between corridor type was trait-independent and mediated by differences in species richness. Forest habitat degradation was associated with overall lower species richness, whereas forest specialists were more species-rich in increasingly wider corridors. Compositional shifts indicate that deforestation and forest degradation favours matrix-tolerant species with lower levels of forest habitat specificity. We show the potential landscape connectivity role for forest mammals of riparian corridors, whose width and forest degradation status are key predictors of community-wide responses. We provide evidence on the importance of these relict riparian strips to forest vertebrates, strengthening the scientific arguments that help justify the recently embattled legal requirements to maintain effective riparian corridors in Brazil

Intelligent cutting-off of pipes and bars

Traditionally, automatic cutting-off machines, of metallic pipes or bars, use a constant cutting velocity mode. This mode of operation, constant cutting velocity combined with different profiles of materials to be cut, exposes the cutting saw to variable cutting forces. Therefore, the cutting off machine is usually set for the worst expected conditions, otherwise excessive wear of the saw and machine will occur. Further, traditional cutting-off machines require the adjustment of the position of a limit switch in order to automatically detect when the cut of a piece has been completed. The aim of this paper is to study the application of control algorithms to the process of cutting-off metallic pipes or bars, with variable profiles, implemented in an industrial cutting-off machine, commercially available. The presented algorithms concern realtime cutting control and automatic detection of the cutting end. The algorithms are implemented in a low cost Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), allowing its use in industrial applications without significant increase on machine cost. All algorithms were developed having in mind safety issues relative to the operation of the cutting machine in order to prevent catastrophic failure. Also, all process related relevant parameters are monitored on a Personal Computer using OPC (Object Linking and Embedding – for Process Control)

Patriarcas/Minho football team

Autonomous mobile robots are ever increasing their num ber of di erent applications even in ludic application or in sports In the last few years several competitions of football have been organised with lots of teams participating This paper describes an Autonomous Mobile Robot which plays football and it was developed at the Industrial Electronics Engi neering department of the University of Minho in Guimares Portugal Each team is free to solve on his own way all the di erent electronics sensory systems playing algorithms etc as far as they cope with the rules imposed by the organisation Instead of using several di erent sensors increasing electronics complexity it was decided to use only one major sensor namely a vision system with the use of a colour camera All the image processing algorithms were developed from scratch and are hereby described . This vi sion system uses an innovative approach In order to see the whole field a convex mirror was placed on the top of the robot looking downwards with the video camera looking upwards towards the mirror This way the robot can see both goals the ball and other robots almost all the time as well as having a top view

Dynamical behaviour of the autonomous

This paper describes an Autonomous Mobile Robot project, developed by three senior students from the Industrial Electronics Engineering course during their probation period. A large robot was built in order to participate on the Festival International de Science et Technology 1998 in Bourges, France. In this contest, besides other tasks, the robot was supposed to follow a track painted on the floor. A dynamical approach was used for that purpose and this paper refers to the trajectory control module responsible to keep the robot centered and properly oriented as it travels through the track

CAMÕES autonomous mobile robot: image processing description

This paper describes an Autonomous Mobile Robot project, developed by three senior students from the Industrial Electronics Engineering course during their probation period. A large robot was built in order to participate on the Festival International de Science et Technology 1998 in Bourges, France. The robot was supposed to fulfil a certain number of rules stated by the organisation committee of this event. This paper describes the robot solution adopted by this team and the image processing software made specially for it

Robot Football Team from Minho University

This paper describes an Autonomous Mobile Robot team which plays football, developed by the Group of Automation and Robotics at the Industrial Electronics department of the University of Minho, in Guimarães (Portugal). In this competition each team is free to use and/or build all the different electronics, sensory systems, playing algorithms, etc. as far as they cope with the rules imposed by the organisation. Instead of using several different sensors increasing electronics complexity, this team decided to use only one major sensor: a vision system with a small colour camera. All the image processing algorithms were developed from scratch and they consist on the heart of the whole project. This vision system uses an innovative approach: in order to see the whole field, a convex mirror was placed at the top of the robot looking downwards with the video camera looking upwards towards the mirror. This way, the robot can see all around itself with a top view, which means continuous vision of the ball, goals and other robots.(undefined