ESTiG - Publicações em Proceedings Indexadas à WoS/Scopus
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- Advance Reconnaissance of UGV Path Planning Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Carry Our Mission in Unknown EnvironmentPublication . Nowakowski, Marek; Berger, Guido S.; Braun, João A.; Mendes, João; Bonzatto Junior, Luciano; Lima, JoséThe utilization of unmanned vehicles for specialized tasks has gained significant attention in both military and civilian domains. This article explores the application of commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance purposes, specifically to verify autonomous driving missions assigned to the developed TAERO manned-unmanned vehicle in field operations. The paper introduces the TAERO vehicle, highlighting its functionality and capabilities for unmanned missions. The architecture of the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) system is discussed taking into consideration the autonomy subsystem and used location data. The limitations associated with terrain and potential obstacles are addressed as well as importance of acquiring accurate terrain information for successful autonomous operation. The solution proposed in our study involves the use of a commercially available UAV applied to the visual tracking of potential targets in an engagement scenario. Details related to flight route planning system, geolocation, target tracking, and data transmission between robotic platforms are discussed and presented in this work. The acquired real-time data plays a crucial role in confirming the mission, making necessary adjustments, or altering the planned route. The UAV platform, known for its maneuverability and operational capabilities, can operate ahead as a reconnaissance element, improving the overall reconnaissance capabilities of the system. Upon completion of the mission, the UAV can return to the base or land on a moving vehicle platform. The authors proposed integration of a UAV that significantly enhances the autonomous mode capabilities of unmanned ground platform, improving operation in unknown environment during special mission.
- Laser Engraving for 3D Surfaces: A Robotized Application Case StudyPublication . Alvarez, Mariano José; Brancalião, Laiany Suganuma; Carneiro, Jorge; Costa, Paulo; Coelho, João Paulo; Gonçalves, JoséOne of the industry’s most common applications of lasers is engraving, which is generally performed on flat surfaces. However, there are many situations where the object to be engraved has an unevenly curved geometry. In those cases, the light power density will be different along the surface for a fixed head, leading to a poor engraving result. This work deals with this problem by designing a robotic application capable of detecting variations on the object surface and automatically creating a trajectory to engrave on it correctly. This was made possible through a robotic manipulator, a time-of-flight distance sensor, and a data processing algorithm over the measured data. Obtained results were acquired using a custom-made test rig and validated by delivering consistent engraving results on irregular surface shapes.
- Fuzzy c-Means as a Decision Support Tool for Liver Disease Diagnosis Based on Data AnalysisPublication . Leite, Gabriel A.; Azevedo, Beatriz Flamia; Ferreira, Sofia Ribeiro; Pacheco, Maria F.; Fernandes, Florbela P.; Pereira, Ana I.The liver is a vital organ responsible for numerous essential functions in the body. Thus, liver disorders can have severe consequences on overall health and well-being. Early diagnosis and treatment of liver disorders are crucial to prevent complications such as cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. In this work, a data analysis system aims to identify the most important features in defining liver disease and categorize sick patients according to the severity of the disease. The Indian Liver Patient Dataset was evaluated using a pre-processing data analysis method that considered the Z-score, the correlation, and the Recursive Feature Elimination. After identifying the most important characteristics of the patients, the Fuzzy c-means algorithm was used to classify them based on the severity of the disease. The results of the proposed methodology proved to be effective in creating a decision support system, since it was possible to identify four levels of severity among the patients.
- How Wine Information Seeking and Event Participation Impact Knowledge and Determines the Purchasing Behavior?Publication . Vieira, Elvira Pacheco; Borges, Ana Pinto; Rodrigues, Paula; Ostapenko, Svitlana; Almeida, António Lopes deHow knowledge impacts purchasing behavior is a matter of extensive investigation, but the research on the interplay between the self-reported wine knowledge and information seeking is scarce. Present research contributes to filling the gap within the understanding how self-reported wine knowledge and information seeking impacts wine purchase behavior. Based on the analysis of 1314 valid questionnaires administered to the participant of wine event “Essência do Vinho” held in Porto, Portugal between 23 and 26 of February 2023, partial least squares (PLS) path analytical technique was employed. We confirm that more knowledgeable consumers are less price sensitive and rely more on their knowledge and subsequent appreciation of place of origin of the wine at the moment of purchase. Meanwhile limited wine knowledge is a constraint in wine consumption, as it makes consumers more insecure in making their own choices and relying more on value for money appreciation, price and recommendation factors. We conclude that stimulation of information seeking and participation in the wine events is key in increasing wine expertise that impacts appreciation of the place of origin and subsequent willingness to pay. Thus, promoting awareness and expertise among consumers is the key to increasing competitiveness of the wine sector.
- Industrial Metaverse Digital Twin: ISO 23247 Compliant Architecture for AI-Driven SimulationPublication . Oliveira Júnior, Alexandre de; Calvo-Rolle, José Luis; Pires, Rui; Leitão, PauloThe Industrial Metaverse marks a new stage in Industry 4.0, raising the representation level of Digital Twins (DT) from discrete elements to an interconnected network of assets covering the entire production ecosystem. This paradigm changing reflects advances in enabling technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and complex what-if simulations. As complexity increases, adopting established industrial standards for implementing DT functionalities becomes imperative to specify guidelines for companies and researchers. This paper proposes a functional architecture for DT implementation in compliance with ISO 23247 standard, aiming to support the development of interoperable and standardized solutions combined within the Industrial Metaverse. The architecture was employed to develop a DT framework for an automotive assembly line, covering the quality inspection process and embedding AI-based mechanisms to leverage the what-if simulation of deviations in structural parameters of the vehicle's body. Experimental results demonstrate the tool's ability to accurately predict outputs for critical quality parameters according to hypothetical measurement scenarios, leveraging the production stakeholders' understanding regarding the correlated impact of deviations at different structural points, and demonstrating the versatility and potential of combining AI strategies for what-if simulations.
- UAV-assisted navigation for insect traps in olive grovesPublication . Berger, Guido S.; Bonzatto Junior, Luciano; Pinto, Milena F.; Oliveira Júnior, Alexandre de; Mendes, João; Pereira, Ana I.; Silva, Yago M. R. da; Valente, António; Lima, JoséUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as valuable tools in precision agriculture due to their ability to provide timely and detailed information over large agricultural areas. In this sense, this work aims to evaluate the semi-autonomous navigation capacity of a multirotor UAV when applied in the field of precision agriculture. For this, a small aircraft is used to identify and track a set of fiducial markers (Ar Track Alvar) in an environment that simulates inspections of insect traps in olive groves. The purpose of this marker is to provide a visual reference point for the drone’s navigation system. Once the Ar Track Alvar marker is detected, the robot will receive navigation information based on the marker’s position to approach the specific trap. The experimental setup evaluated the computer vision algorithm applied to the UAV to make it recognize the Ar Track Alvar marker and then reach the trap efficiently. Experimental tests were conducted in a indoor and outdoor environment using DJI Tello. The results demonstrated the feasibility of applying these fiducial markers as a solution for the UAV’s navigation in this proposed scenario.
- Unstructuring the sequentiality of commits into a semantic network with higher informational and functional qualityPublication . Patricio, Manuel; Sousa, Mario; Matos, Paulo; Oliveira, Pedro FilipeVersion control is an essential tool in software development, offering numerous well-known advantages, such as maintenance, traceability, collaborative work support, backup, and security. Commits provide the conceptual foundation of version control and contain helpful information for various stakeholders in the development and maintenance of applications, such as date, author, and a brief description of the changes made. Essentially, commits form a chronological sequence of data, but their utility is often underutilized and lacks efficiency in terms of accessibility. This paper presents an architectural solution that enables much greater utilization of commit history, providing more functional perspectives for accessing this rich source of knowledge—which often conveys experience, practical solutions, the rationale behind those solutions, and even reasons for discarding alternative options. The proposed architecture enhances developers’ comprehension of intricate commit histories by enabling them to examine local changes and extract significant keywords from commit messages and code snippets. Because commit data is presented in a chronological sequence, it can be challenging to track dependencies and contextualize changes (commits). Our method facilitates sophisticated querying and visualization by arranging commit history into a graph structure representing thematic relationships among commits. Components for extracting commit data, processing it via a large language model (ChatGPT) to identify relevant keywords, storing the outcomes in a graph database, and applying different algorithmic solutions to “redesign” the dependencies between commits are all part of the architecture. The system enables effective keywordbased searching within the integrated development environment by clustering related commits based on shared keywords through community detection algorithms. To better assist developers in managing intricate codebases and enhancing teamwork.
- The Role of Sociodemographic Characteristics on the Journey from Brand Experience to Brand Love and Loyalty—PortoPublication . Santos, Bárbara; Carvalho, Margarida; Emer, Paula; Borges, Ana Pinto; Vieira, Bruno; Brandão, Amélia; Vieira, Elvira PachecoDevelopment of an emotional attachment to the brand is a key issue in brand management, making constructs such as brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand love, and brand loyalty one of the most addressed topics in marketing research, specifically, the destinations brands, such as of city of Porto. Within this debate, special attention is given to sociodemographic characteristics and the role they have within this journey. Namely we address the impact of gender, age, educational qualifications, marital status, and residence on brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand love, and brand loyalty. Our findings indicate that these characteristics do play the role. Positive brand experience-affecting factors include being female relative to male, being older (the higher the impact), and being a tourist relative to not being a tourist. Non-tourists (those who reside in Portugal or Porto) have an advantage over tourists in terms of brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Age and gender have also shown importance. Marriage status and level of education were important components of brand loyalty. Gender had no effect on brand love, but age (which rises with maturity), education level (which rises with credentials), and marital status (being married or widowed) all had favorable impacts.
- Automated construction and semantic interoperability for digital twins: integrating heterogeneous data with large language modelsPublication . Pilarski, Leonardo; Luiz, Luiz Eduardo de Melo ; Gomes, Gonçalo S.; Pinto, Tiago; Filipe, Vitor M.; Barroso, João; Rijo, GonçaloDigital twins are increasingly used, as they allow the creation of detailed virtual representations of physical products and systems. They face, however, significant challenges such as heterogeneous data integration and high costs. This article presents an innovative methodology that uses Large Language Models to unify information and automate the generation of Digital Twin models. The proposal comprises several modules, covering the stages of data collection, semantic processing, modular construction and validation of the Digital Twin. In this way, the proposed model guarantees interoperability, efficiency and scalability for various domains.
- An augmented reality intelligent guide for the automotive industryPublication . Pereira, Francisco; Patrício, Manuel; Lopes, Rui Pedro; Leitão, PauloThroughout the 21st century, there has been a rise in interest of increasing inter-connectivity and smart automation in the realms of industrial production, often called the 4th Industrial Revolution. Thus, interest in areas such as virtual, mixed, and augmented reality has increased as new devices and technologies related to these areas are seen as a possible solution to increase Industrial efficiency, create safer work environments for employees, and more effective training. In this project, a HoloLens app was developed, capable of identifying and showing to the user various zones where a specific vehicle in a production line requires checking and in which users have full spatial perception. Each vehicle is composed of several zones and each of these zones is associated with specific stations in a sequential order, so the user will only be able to see the zones associated with the station that is being treated. Using a specific “gesture” users can change the zone’s status in the database to indicate that the zone has been checked. These changes will be visible and the vehicle, stations, and zones will be updated to reflect the modifications. Various scripts in C# and PHP were used to allow modifications to the behaviour of the objects and database in the augmented reality scene through the access to a RESTful service in Unity.