2025
Authors
Almeida, D; Simoes, AC; Fernandes, A;
Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
Abstract
Industrial companies operate in a context of dynamic technological innovation, in which new technologies are adopted with a high impact internally and externally, leveraging their competitive advantages. Usually, managers decide to adopt technologies, often without realising the impacts on the company, but mainly supported by a strategic vision and the pursuit of differentiation. This study aims to describe the impacts of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies in industrial companies, focusing on sustainability's economic, social, and environmental dimensions and explaining which Industry 4.0 technologies contribute to each impact. This study used qualitative methodology, collecting data through interviews, internal documents, and observation. The results of this study identified new impacts in the three dimensions of sustainability, as well as the relationships between impacts and respective technologies. This study contributes to the literature by enriching and validating the impacts of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainability dimensions and linking these impacts with the technologies. In practice, it provides important insights to managers and decision-makers of manufacturing companies in making more informed decisions on adopting i4.0 technologies.
2025
Authors
Pinto, A; Solovov, A; Simoes, AC; Menezes, P;
Publication
JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
Abstract
In pursuing Industry 5.0's vision, which emphasises human well-being and the seamless integration of robots into manufacturing processes, understanding the role of anthropomorphic design is crucial. Anthropomorphic design, where robots exhibit human-like, animal-like, or even entirely novel traits (e.g. a display scrolling text), aims to improve human-robot interaction (HRI) and enhance human acceptance within manufacturing contexts. Understanding the optimal degree of human-readable characteristics in robots is essential for further advancements in this domain. This systematic literature review aims to identify anthropomorphic mechanisms in HRI and their effect on human acceptance in manufacturing. Using the PRISMA methodology, a systematic literature review was conducted across the WOS, EBSCO, and SCOPUS databases, resulting in the selection of four articles for final analysis. A quality assessment of the articles was conducted. On a scale of 0 to 16, article scores ranged from 10 to 15, with an average score of 13. The findings indicate that while current research provides valuable insights, it has predominantly focused on conventional anthropomorphic mechanisms from social robotics, such as basic human-like features (e.g., facial expressions, gestures), without exploring more advanced or novel traits. This highlights significant room for further exploration and innovation in industrial settings to enhance user acceptance and interaction. The study underscores the necessity for continued research and development to leverage advanced anthropomorphic designs that can better fulfil the goals of Industry 5.0.
2025
Authors
Felicio, S; Hora, J; Ferreira, MC; Sobral, T; Camacho, R; Galvao, T;
Publication
JOURNAL OF TRANSPORT & HEALTH
Abstract
Introduction: Urban centers face increasing congestion and pollution due to population growth driven by jobs, education, and entertainment. Promoting active modes like walking and cycling offers healthier and less polluting alternatives. Understanding perceptions of comfort (green areas, commercial areas, crowd density, noise, thermal sensation, air quality, allergenics), safety and security (street illumination, traffic volume, surveillance, visual appearance, and speed limits) are crucial for encouraging active modes adoption. This study categorizes user groups based on these indicators, supporting policymakers in the development of targeted strategies. Methods: We developed a questionnaire to support our empirical study and collected 653 responses. We have analyzed the data using clustering methods such as Affinity Propagation, BIRCH, Bisecting K-means, HAC, K-means, Mini-Batch K-means, and Spectral clustering. The best performing method (K-means) was used to identify the user groups while a random forest model evaluated the relative importance of indicators for each group. Results: The study identified five user groups based on urban mobility indicators for safety and security, comfort, and distance and time. Conclusions: These groups, distinguished by sociodemographic features, include: Street Aesthetes (young men valuing visual appeal), Safety Seekers (employed men prioritizing speed limits), Working Guardians (employed men focused on surveillance and green spaces), Urban Explorers (young women valuing air quality and low traffic), and Comfort Connoisseurs (employed women prioritizing noise reduction and aesthetics).
2025
Authors
de Carvalho Paula, M; Carvalho, MS; Silva, E;
Publication
Procedia Computer Science
Abstract
This study focuses on improving the picking processes within a Picking-by-Line (PBL) warehouse through the development of a simulation model to assess different layouts and new operational rules. Utilizing a combination of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Agent-Based Modeling (ABS) in AnyLogic, the simulation model was validated against real-world Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure accuracy. The study identified three primary improvement opportunities. To address these opportunities, four scenarios were tested. The results showed varying impacts on productivity, with three of the four scenarios yielding improvements in picking productivity. Pilot testing confirmed the simulation model's predictions. The findings indicate that balancing travel distance reduction with congestion management is key to increasing picking productivity. This study reaffirms the value of simulation modeling in warehouse management, providing a robust framework for free-risk testing. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
2025
Authors
Ferreira, L; Maciel, MVM; de Carvalho, JV; Silva, E; Alvelos, FP;
Publication
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH
Abstract
The Prisoner Transportation Problem is an NP-hard combinatorial problem and a complex variant of the Dial-a- Ride Problem. Given a set of requests for pick-up and delivery and a homogeneous fleet, it consists of assigning requests to vehicles to serve all requests, respecting the problem constraints such as route duration, capacity, ride time, time windows, multi-compartment assignment of conflicting prisoners and simultaneous services in order to optimize a given objective function. In this paper, we present anew solution framework to address this problem that leads to an efficient heuristic. A comparison with computational results from previous papers shows that the heuristic is very competitive for some classes of benchmark instances from the literature and clearly superior in the remaining cases. Finally, suggestions for future studies are presented.
2025
Authors
Martins, J; Ramos, AG;
Publication
OPTIMIZATION, LEARNING ALGORITHMS AND APPLICATIONS, OL2A 2025, PT I
Abstract
To maintain high levels of efficiency and compliance with delivery dates, automotive repair shops must have a good system for scheduling their activities. The scheduling of the activities of an automotive repair shop is a very complex task to be performed manually. Throughout this work, a Decision Support System (DSS) was developed and tested that considers two major constraints in an automotive workshop: human resources (technicians) and physical resources (work stalls). The proposed DSS has an embedded MIP model that assigns a technician and a work stall to each job, according to the input conditions. The DSS also generates schedules with the planning of technicians and jobs. The system was tested with real data from an automotive workshop and was able to create plans and schedules not only for the human and physical resources in but also to analyse the limiting resources of the workshop.
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