Abstract
Each year thousands of people lose their lower limbs, mainly due to three causes: wars, accidents and vascular diseases. The development of prostheses is crucial to improve the quality of millions of people's lives by restoring their mobility. Lower limb prostheses can be divided into three major groups: passive, semi-active or variable damping and powered or intelligent. This contribution provides a literature review of the principal control strategies used in lower limb prostheses, i.e., the controllers used in energetically powered transfemoral and transtibial prostheses. We present a comparison of the presented literature review and the future trends of this important field. It is concluded that the use of bio-inspired concepts and continuous control combined with the other control approaches can be crucial in the improvement of prosthesis controllers, enhancing the quality of amputee's lives.

Abstract
Combining large penetration of wind and solar generation with Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) seems a promising solution for energy cost saving and emissions reduction. PEVs connected to the grid with smart charging strategies can be an effective way to integrate non-dispatchable renewable generation, smoothing the load curve, contributing to the system stability by providing regulation services, and moving unhealthy emissions away from city centers. This paper analyzes the combined penetration of PEVs, and wind and solar generation using a Unit Commitment model for the Spanish power system, providing some insight on how the penetration of these technologies affects relevant variables such as energy and reserve, thermal plants behavior (such as starts-up and shut-downs, technological energy share, generation costs or emissions) and systems costs. Results show that PEV increase total demand, but its optimal charging smooths the net demand (to be supplied by thermal units) and the final electricity prices. In addition, solar generation penetration leads to a larger net demand with more variability but with lower production costs than wind generation penetration, due to their different hourly profiles. Finally neither solar nor wind generation penetrations are totally profitable for the system with the assumptions made, since their investments costs do not compensate the production cost decrement, but grid parity is almost reached for both technologies. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract
Interoperability may be defined as the ability of intelligent electronic devices (IED's) to exchange and use information correctly. Although the IEC 61850 standards define a consistent methodology for interconnecting IEDs in substation using LAN based technologies to promote interoperability, this ability to exchange information correctly is not always achieved between different IED's from different manufactures. This paper reports the assessment of IED's, featured with IEC 61850 standards and connected to the same communication network from different manufactures. Different interoperability tests are performed and the difficulty and challenges to exchange and receive information is also reported. Possible solutions on the XML schema to generate a compliant SCL file as well as the way to scale up the standardization of the substation project is also explored and discussed in this paper.

Abstract
In this paper an analysis is made of the impact of emergency loading made by several inductive loads on the thermal ageing of a distribution transformer belonging to a private industrial client. The analyzed system is a fragment of an isolated electric grid in a Portuguese Island. A transformer thermal model is used to estimate the hot-spot temperature and top-oil temperature given the load ratio. Real data are used for the main inputs of the model, i.e., private industrial client load, transformer parameters and the characteristics of the factory. Finally, a smart transformer protection method is proposed by the authors with the aim of monitoring and protecting it from similar upcoming challenges.

Abstract
The increasing connection of new assets in LV networks will surely require a better monitoring of these systems in a real-time manner. In order to meet this purpose, a Distribution State Estimator (DSE) module clearly appears as the most cost-effective and possibly the only reliable option available. In this sense, in the scope of the evolvDSO project, a DSE tool exploiting the concept of ELM-AE was developed and tested in two distinct real LV distribution networks. In this paper the main results achieved with the proposed DSE tool are presented and discussed.

Abstract
Purpose - Streamlining automated processes is currently undertaken by developing optimization methods and algorithms for robotic manipulators. This paper aims to present a new approach to improve streamlining of automatic processes. This new approach allows for multiple robotic manipulators commonly found in the industrial environment to handle different scenarios, thus providing a high-flexibility solution to automated processes. Design/methodology/approach - The developed system is based on a spatial discretization methodology capable of describing the surrounding environment of the robot, followed by a novel path-planning algorithm. Gazebo was the simulation engine chosen, and the robotic manipulator used was the Universal Robot 5 (UR5). The proposed system was tested using the premises of two robotic challenges: EuRoC and Amazon Picking Challenge. Findings - The developed system was able to identify and describe the influence of each joint in the Cartesian space, and it was possible to control multiple robotic manipulators safely regardless of any obstacles in a given scene. Practical implications - This new system was tested in both real and simulated environments, and data collected showed that this new system performed well in real- life scenarios, such as EuRoC and Amazon Picking Challenge. Originality/ value - The new proposed approach can be valuable in the robotics field with applications in various industrial scenarios, as it provides a flexible solution for multiple robotic manipulator path and motion planning.