DETI

A method for systematically acquiring and analyzing images of Miocene bivalve borings (Gastrochaenolites lapidicus and Gastrochaenolites torpedo) is applied for analysis of spatial patterns in Foz da Fonte (Sesimbra, Portugal). Space point pattern analysis is used to describe patterns of locations of fossils and to test whether there is a significant occurrence of clustering in the study area. Emphasis is placed in close-range photogrammetry methods for data acquisition and spatial statistics for data analysis. Thresholds for the occurrence of clustering at various scales of observation were computed based on a series of Monte Carlo simulations of random spatial point patterns. Goals of the analysis are focused on the statistical description of the borers population, the investigation of some spatial relationship among G. lapidicus of different dimensions and, finally, the investigation of a preferential orientation of the G. torpedo in order to draw paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental conclusions. Both G. lapidicus and G. torpedo were significantly clustered during life of the borers. The preferential cluster location of different diameter classes of G. lapidicus indicates the relative location and orientation of the paleoshore. G. torpedo populations show preferential orientations interpreted as being perpendicular to the predominant swell moving direction during a Middle Burdigalian transgression, around 18 My ago.

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesEsta dissertação de Mestrado surgiu no âmbito da criação de um sistema de recepção de rádio, baseado numa topologia de Software Defined Radio, para recepção de sinais remotamente, que permita aos utilizadores não só a recepção online do espectro, mas também controlo e interacção, em tempo real, com os diversos parâmetros do sistema. Sob o ponto de vista teórico foi feita um estudo comparativo entre este tipo de receptores, baseados numa arquitectura definida por software, e os tradicionais receptores de rádio constituídos por blocos físicos de hardware, a fim de avaliar o comportamento prático destes sistemas. No plano prático foram testados três soluções para dar resposta ao problema inicial a que esta dissertação se propôs - a criação de um receptor rádio online. Foi ainda desenvolvida, uma aplicação gráfica onde é feito o controlo do receptor e a análise gráfica do espectro recebido.The objective of this master’s thesis was to ...

This paper discusses a range of problems in architectural and logic synthesis of digital devices and suggests practical approaches, methods, and tools for the automatic translation of a behavioural specification into a hardware implementation using a dynamically reconfigurable FPGA of the XC6200 family. The work described in this paper covers two basic areas. Firstly, new FPGA-oriented methods for behavioural synthesis

This paper describes the CAMBADA middle-size robotic soccer team for the purpose of qualification to RoboCup'2008 . Last year improvements have been made mostly in the vision system, in the high-level coordination and control and in the information int egration and localization. Previous experience of some elements of the team in the RoboCup Simulation League has been highly relevant particularly

The paper discusses the models, methods and software tools included in an Integrated Design Environment for Logic Synthesis (IDELS) that has been developed in Visual C++ and can be used for PC computers running under Windows 95/98. It is able to solve a range of problems related to the design of digital systems and their components based on dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs of the XC6200 family. The paper focuses primarily on the integrated features, the basic capabilities and the main packages of the environment itself, rather than the details of how it was implemented. However, the basic ideas behind the methods used, and some of the approaches to implementing the environment are considered, together with some of the problems that we had to address.

The coordination methodologies of CAMBADA, a robotic soccer team designed to participate in the RoboCup middle-size league (MSL), are presented. The approach, which relies on information sharing and integration within the team, is based on formations, flexible positionings and dynamic role and positioning assignment. Role/positioning assignment follows a new priority-based algorithm that maintains a competitive formation, covering the most important roles/positionings when malfunctions lead to a reduction of the team size. Coordinated procedures for passing and setplays have also been implemented. With this design, CAMBADA reached the 1st place in the RoboCup'2008 world championship. Competition results and performance measures computed from logs and videos of real competition games are presented and discussed.

The paper discusses dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs and their use for the physical implementation of digital controllers. The technique considered presents various ways of behavioral specification and logic synthesis, which can be applied to the practical design of virtual control circuits that have such properties as flexibility, extensibility and reusability. The authors have suggested the basic structure of a virtual digital

The use of single viewpoint catadioptric vision systems is a common approach in mobile robotics, despite the constraints imposed by those systems. A general solution to calculate the robot centered distances map on non-SVP catadioptric setups, exploring a back-propagation ray-tracing approach and the mathematical properties of the mirror surface is discussed in this paper. Results from this technique applied in the robots of the CAMBADA team (Cooperative Autonomous Mobile Robots with Advanced Distributed Architecture) are presented, showing the effectiveness of the solution.

The paper discusses some new hardware and software tools that can be used for the design of virtual circuits based on dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs. With the aid of these tools we can implement a system that requires some, hardware resources Rc, on available hardware that has resources Rh, where Rc>Rh. The main idea of the approach supported by these tools is the rational combination of FPGA capabilities with some proposed methods for producing a modifiable specification, together with a novel technique for architectural and logic synthesis, which has been incorporated into the new design environment