Multi-UAV Coordination and Control Interface

Let’s imagine a fire control mission performed by multiple robots and commanded by a single operator. This scenario poses two challenges related to human factors: workload - the operator has to receive data, discover information, make decisions and send commands - and situational awareness - he/she has to know what is happening at any time of the mission. This work aims for the selection of the information that is shown by the interface to the operator. This information should be outlined according to the mission’s state and evolution together with the operator class, state and preferences. The expected result is an intelligent adaptive interface that provides the most relevant information for each task

The Merit-Order Effect of Load-Shifting: An Estimate for the Spanish Market

Renewable producers can offer selling bids with very low marginal cost since they are not obliged to include on any cost related to the use of energy from the wind or sun. Accordingly, when the Market Operator integrates a renewable bid in the merit-order generation curve, all the generators based on conventional technologies, with higher marginal cost due to the cost of fuels, are displaced to the right. The right-shifting of the merit-order generation curve leads to a lower clearing price, a small increment of the traded energy (almost inelastic demand curve), and a reduction of the total cost of the energy traded in the wholesale market. This is the key mechanism of the well-known merit-order effect of renewables. Load-shifting (demand-side management) plans are expected to yield a reduction of the cost of the traded energy for the customers, since the cost-saving due to the energy eschewed at peak hours would be greater than the extra cost due to the increased demand at off-peak hours. This work will show that the main effects of load-shifting on the market are qualitatively similar to that of renewables, which exemplify the existence a “merit-order effect of load-shifting”. To analyse the characteristics of the merit-order effect of load-shifting, a simplified model has been developed, based on the displacement of the generation and demand curves. A set of scenarios has been generated in order to quantify the main effects on the Spanish/Iberian market for 2015.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, España (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain) grant ENE2016-77650-

A survey on robotic technologies for forest firefighting: Applying drone swarms to improve firefighters’ efficiency and safety

Forest firefighting missions encompass multiple tasks related to prevention, surveillance, and extinguishing. This work presents a complete survey of firefighters on the current problems in their work and the potential technological solutions. Additionally, it reviews the efforts performed by the academy and industry to apply different types of robots in the context of firefighting missions. Finally, all this information is used to propose a concept of operation for the comprehensive application of drone swarms in firefighting. The proposed system is a fleet of quadcopters that individually are only able to visit waypoints and use payloads, but collectively can perform tasks of surveillance, mapping, monitoring, etc. Three operator roles are defined, each one with different access to information and functions in the mission: Mission commander, team leaders, and team members. These operators take advantage of virtual and augmented reality interfaces to intuitively get the information of the scenario and, in the case of the mission commander, control the drone swarmThis research received no external fundin

Definition of specifications for robotic prototype for strip-cropping systems

The SUREVEG project proposes the development and application of new organic cropping systems using strip-cropping and fertility strategies to improve resilience, system sustainability, local nutrient recycling and soil carbon storage. This document, entitled D4.1 Definition of specifications for robotic prototype, corresponds to the first deliverable of WP4 in the SUREVEG project. It describes the technical specifications for the prototype, in order to automate the management of strip-cropping systems

Multi-UAV Coordination and Control Interface

The interest in missions with multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has increased significantly in last years. These missions take advantage of the use of fleets instead of single UAVs to ensure the success, reduce the duration or increase the goals of the mission. In addition, they allow performing tasks that require multiple agents and certain coordination (e.g. surveillance of large areas or transport of heavy loads). Nevertheless, these missions suppose a challenge in terms of control and monitoring. In fact, the workload of the operators rises with the utilization of multiple UAVs and payloads, since they have to analyze more information, make more decisions and generate more commands during the mission. This work addresses the operator workload problem in multi-UAV missions by reducing and selecting the information. Two approaches are considered: a first one that selects the information according to the mission state, and a second one that selects it according to the operator preferences. The result is an interface that is able to control the amount of information and show what is relevant for mission and operator at the time

Estándares certificables para la organización y gestión de las empresas de servicios profesionales de igeniería

El proceso de CERTIFICACIÓN tiene como objetivo declarar públicamente que un producto, proceso o servicio es conforme con requisitos establecidos. Las áreas de actuación de un ingeniero se pueden clasificar según el tipo de empresa en la que trabaja o en función del servicio a desarrollar. En función del tipo de empresa destacan la empresa industrial o de servicios (dirección: técnica, comercial, producción,…; proyectos: productos, instalaciones,…; organización: calidad, stocks, producción,…), la administración o empresa pública (evaluación técnica, valoraciones, proyectos, gestión,...), y el ejercicio libre (proyectos, informes técnicos, valoraciones,…). En función del trabajo a desarrollar: Dirección y gestión, Control de procesos, Comercialización de producto, I+D, Técnica (Oficina Técnica), Asesoramiento, etc. En general, una empresa de servicios profesionales de ingeniería satisface necesidades de la sociedad de la época resolviendo problemas de carácter técnico, aportando soluciones admisibles desde un punto de vista económico, ambiental y social, con el propósito de proveer una solución sostenible

Assessing the decarbonisation effect of household photovoltaic self-consumption

Article number 128501The combination of falling renewable technology costs, with high and rising electricity prices and non-obstructive national regulations are making distributed generation increasingly attractive. In the case of photovoltaic (PV) systems, even domestic consumers find it profitable to self-produce part of their electricity demand, instead of purchasing all their energy from the grid, which is changing the current way of obtaining and consuming electricity. The purpose of this work is to estimate the decarbonisation effect in the Iberian/Spanish market, produced by domestic PV self-consumption, once the new regulation, passed in 2019, has removed the previous regulatory barriers in Spain. To achieve this goal, the nationwide, distributed, domestic PV self-production was turned into a reduction of the aggregate demand in the market, and the new clearing point and the corresponding dispatched generators list was established, by emulating the performance of the market operator. Based on 2016–2019 market data, the results suggest that self-consumption could decarbonise the Iberian electricity market, with an average rate of just over 300 tCO2-eq/year for each GWh/year of household PV self-consumed energy.Consejeria de Economia y Conocimiento 718RT0564Consejeria de Economia y Conocimiento US-1265887Centro de Desarrollo Industrial y Tecnológico de España CER-20191019Feder (UE) ENE2016-77650-

Medial deviation of the first metatarsal in incipient hallux valgus deformity

The intermetatarsal angle between metatarsals I and II (IMA 1-2) has been radiographicaly studied in 49 normal feet and in 49 feet with a mild hallux valgus (HV) deformity. The aim of the study is to know whether an excessive medial deviation of the first metatarsal with respect to II (IMA 1-2 over normal values reported by some authors) is present in the initial phase of HV. The results demonstrate that the difference in the mean intermetatarsal angle between the two groups is statistically significant (8.76º in normal feet; 9.98º in affected feet). However, the authors think it is not clinically significant. Other authors, comparing the IMA 1-2 in patients with more advanced HV and without HV, report greater differences than those obtained in this study,. The authors conclude that the excessive medial deviation of the first metatarsal is not a causal factor, but a consequence, in the HV deformity

Un nuevo enfoque del diseño desde la perspectiva de la Neurociencia

Ejemplar dedicado a : Ingeniería electrónica y automáticaLa evolución de la ciencia, en cualquiera de sus vertientes, ha dado lugar a diferentes campos del saber en los que se conjugan múltiples disciplinas. En el área del neurodiseño convergen la neurociencia y el diseño para explicar el comportamiento del usuario frente a diversos productos. Por su parte, la neurociencia se centra en el estudio de los procesos mentales para comprender la conducta en términos de actividades del encéfalo y cómo el medio ambiente influye en ésta, mientras que el diseño busca entender la manera en que este usuario percibe los diferentes estímulos cuando entra en contacto con los productos y las experiencias que le producen a efectos de ser consideradas en el diseño formal. En el presente trabajo se pretende da una visión introductoria al neurodiseño a través de su concepto, así como del estudio del sistema nervioso y de la percepción, la cual se entiende como un proceso sensorio-cognitivo desarrollado a través de los sentidos y el cerebro. Asimismo, durante el desarrollo del estudio, se presta especial atención a la importancia y utilidad que representa la neurociencia para el diseño

A Low-Cost Non-Intrusive Method for In-Field Motor Speed Measurement Based on a Smartphone

Induction motors are broadly used as drivers of a large variety of industrial equipment. A proper measurement of the motor rotation speed is essential to monitor the performance of most industrial drives. As an example, the measurement of rotor speed is a simple and broadly used industrial method to estimate the motor’s efficiency or mechanical load. In this work, a new low-cost non-intrusive method for in-field motor speed measurement, based on the spectral analysis of the motor audible noise, is proposed. The motor noise is acquired using a smartphone and processed by a MATLAB-based routine, which determines the rotation speed by identifying the rotor shaft mechanical frequency from the harmonic spectrum of the noise signal. This work intends to test the hypothesis that the emitted motor noise, like mechanical vibrations, contains a frequency component due to the rotation speed which, to the authors’ knowledge, has thus far been disregarded for the purpose of speed measurement. The experimental results of a variety of tests, from no load to full load, including the use of a frequency converter, found that relative errors on the speed estimation were always lower than 0.151%. These findings proved the versatility, robustness, and accuracy of the proposed method.Spanish MEC-Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), co-funded by the European Commission (ERDF-European Regional Development Fund) ENE2016-77650-RMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (España) CERVERA research program of CDTI (Industrial and Technological Development Centre of Spain) research Project HySGrid+ CER-2019101