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About

About

PhD by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in February 2004, after presentation and discussion of the thesis "Dynamic Test of Analog / Digital Converters - New Methods of Calculation of Functional Characterization Parameters".

Assistant Professor of the Department of Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (DEEC-FEUP) where he teaches curricular units in the areas of Electronics and Microprocessors.

He is an INESC TEC researcher and coordinator at CRIIS (Center of Industrial Robotics and Intelligent Systems) where he participates in several scientific projects.

His skills and interests include Industrial Robotics, Automation and Control Systems, Industrial Networks, Embedded Systems, Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things.

Interest
Topics
Details

Details

  • Name

    Hélio Mendonça
  • Role

    Senior Researcher
  • Since

    01st January 1995
014
Publications

2025

A Review of Robotic Interfaces for Post-Stroke Upper-Limb Rehabilitation: Assistance Types, Actuation Methods, and Control Mechanisms

Authors
Gonçalves, A; Silva, MF; Mendonça, H; Rocha, CD;

Publication
ROBOTICS

Abstract
Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide, with survivors often facing significant challenges in regaining upper-limb functionality. In response, robotic rehabilitation systems have emerged as promising tools to enhance post-stroke recovery by delivering precise, adaptable, and patient-specific therapy. This paper presents a review of robotic interfaces developed specifically for upper-limb rehabilitation. It analyses existing exoskeleton- and end-effector-based systems, with respect to three core design pillars: assistance types, control philosophies, and actuation methods. The review highlights that most solutions favor electrically actuated exoskeletons, which use impedance- or electromyography-driven control, with active assistance being the predominant rehabilitation mode. Resistance-providing systems remain underutilized. Furthermore, no hybrid approaches featuring the combination of robotic manipulators with actuated interfaces were found. This paper also identifies a recent trend towards lightweight, modular, and portable solutions and discusses the challenges in bridging research prototypes with clinical adoption. By focusing exclusively on upper-limb applications, this work provides a targeted reference for researchers and engineers developing next-generation rehabilitation technologies.

2025

Integrated RFID System for Intralogistics Operations with Industrial Mobile Robots

Authors
Pacheco, FD; Rebelo, PM; Sousa, RB; Silva, MF; Mendonça, HS;

Publication
2025 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS ROBOT SYSTEMS AND COMPETITIONS, ICARSC

Abstract
Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) technologies automate the identification of objects and persons, having several applications in retail, manufacturing, and intralogistics sectors. Several works explore the application of RFID systems in robotics and intralogistics, focusing on locating robots, tags, and inventory management. This paper addresses the challenge of intralogistics cargo trolleys communicating their characteristics to an autonomous mobile robot through an RFID system. The robot must know the trolley's relative pose to avoid collisions with the surroundings. As a result, the passive tag on the cargo communicates information to the robot, including the base footprint of the trolley. The proposed RFID system includes the development of a controller board to interact with the frontend integrated circuit of an external antenna onboard the industrial mobile robot. Experimental results assess the system's readability distance in two distinct environments and with two different antenna modules. All the code and documentation are available in a public repository.

2025

Real Remote Laboratory for Cooperative and Online Learning of Digital Systems

Authors
Mendonça, HS; Alves, JC;

Publication
2025 7TH EXPERIMENT@ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, EXP.AT'25

Abstract
As digital design methodologies and tools are evolving to higher abstraction levels, teaching the low-level concepts of digital electronic system design is becoming increasingly challenging. The raise of the design abstraction level and, more recently, the ability of AI-assisted automated design is pushing the interest of students away from the lower-level details of the digital world. Nevertheless, digital electronic systems are (still) made of transistors, gates and flip-flops, and people do need to keep this basic knowledge to be able to build efficient circuits, understand them and develop the essential electronic design automation tools. For learning these subjects, hands-on experimentation, and learning by doing, is proven to be an effective tool, and when students finally see and feel the results of their designs, motivation raises rapidly. This paper presents the technical aspects of a platform created in the DECEL project to support an FPGA-based remote laboratory based on a commercial single-board computer that can be located somewhere in the Internet. This computer runs a Linux operating system and is based on an AMD/XILINX device that integrates in the same chip an ARM Cortex A9 CPU and a region of FPGA programmable logic. The user develops a digital circuit using standard hardware-description languages (Verilog or VHDL) and runs the implementation tools for the target FPGA using a very simple web interface running in a remote server.

2025

A MQTT-based infrastructure to support COIL activities through Real Remote Labs

Authors
Mendonça, HS; Alves, JC;

Publication
2025 7TH EXPERIMENT@ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, EXP.AT'25

Abstract
This demo shows an infrastructure that allows for easy implementation of real remote labs. In this infrastructure, several nodes are remotely interconnected by publishing/subscribing MQTT messages. There are physical nodes capable of connecting to real circuits and/or sensors/actuators, and virtual nodes that implement simulated versions of circuits that interact remotely with signals from other nodes. The latencies that occur are low enough for groups of students located in different physical locations to benefit from a near real-time experience in interacting with the circuits thus implemented.

2024

Integrating Internationalization and Online Collaborative Strategies in Digital Electronics Education: Exploring IaH, COIL, PBL, and RRL Approaches for Enhanced Learning

Authors
Cristian Zambelli; Michele Favalli; Piero Olivo; Ignacio Bravo; Alfredo Gardel; José Carlos Alves; Hélio Mendonça; Etienne Lemaire; Remi Busseuil; carlos cruz;

Publication

Abstract

This document is intended to present a benchmark of multiple good practices in the context of internationalization studies, particularly focused on digital electronics and programmable devices, yet is not limited to them. This paper will start with a comprehensive paper desk analysis together with an in-depth research process that should lead to the selection of innovative tools applied to digital systems. International initiatives are oriented towards increasing the quality of higher education by motivating teachers of STEM disciplines to use a multidisciplinary approach and teach with the massive support of technologies like Classroom, MS-Teams, Blackboard, etc. The central goal is to suggest and recommend a model for integrating intermediate and advanced digital electronics subjects (e.g., FPGA, microcontrollers, etc.) and ICT in international teaching approaches such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), Project-based Learning (PBL) and Real Remote Labs (RRL). This is the approach sought by the European Project DECEL.