Abstract
In this work, an innovative fully integrated monitoring infrastructure based on optical fibre sensors was developed and implemented. In the framework of the research project named PROTEU [Tecnologias Avan double dagger adas para a Monitoriza double dagger o de Sistemas Estuarinos e Costeiros (PDCTM/P/MAR/15275/1999)], an 11 km optical fibre cable with Bragg sensors each 500 m was installed from the lagoon mouth to Vouga river, along the bed of the Espinheiro channel, allowing the real-time measurement of water temperature at each sensor location. The results of this project are currently feeding several studies concerning Ria de Aveiro and the surrounding area and are crucial for a continuous assessment and management of the environmental conditions. Meanwhile, a fibre optic sensing system for simultaneous measurement of temperature and salinity based on fibre Bragg grating (FBG) technology was also developed. In the following sections, a complete description of the fabrication process, as well as theoretical and experimental results regarding this particular sensing system, are addressed. Earlier in situ local measurements, as well as the latest remote monitoring and data processing scheme, are described. The developed technology is now being exploited by FiberSensing, an INESC Porto spin-off company devoted to the development of optical fibre Bragg grating-based sensor systems for advanced monitoring applications. The main markets of the company are the ones of structural health monitoring in civil and geotechnical engineering, energy production and distribution, and environment.

Abstract
Increasingly, robot programs are generated off-line, for example, through a virtual model of a robotic cell. However, when the virtual model does not reproduce exactly the real scenario or the calibration process is not performed correctly it is difficult to generate reliable robot programs. In order to circumvent this problem, it was introduced sensory feedback (force and torque sensing) in a robotic framework. By controlling the robot end-effector pose and specifying its relationship to the interaction/contact forces, robot programmers can ensure that the robot maneuvers correctly, damping possible impacts and also increasing the tolerance to positioning errors from the off-line programming process. In this paper Fuzzy-PI and PI reasoning was proposed as a force control technique. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was evaluated in a serie of 20 experiments that demonstrated that Fuzzy-PI controllers are more suitable to deal with this type of situations.

Abstract
We develop a model of quantity and price competition for low cost airlines based on announcements of new routes and their impacts on the announcer and on its rival. We find that both firms' profits may rise or fall as a result of an announcement of new routes, depending on launching costs for the announcer, and on whether market expansion or market substitution is dominant for the rival. We present an empirical study for two European low cost airlines that shows asymmetric behaviour: while EasyJet announcements have positive effects on Ryanair's share price, the opposite is does not occur. This suggests that an airline's reputation for reacting in response to rivals' announcements may affect the stock market and may thus affect announcement behaviour.

Abstract
The fall of chess as a main domain for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, after the victory of Deep Blue over Kasparov, put forward robotic soccer as a new challenging domain for AI researchers. Robotic Soccer is very appropriate for researching in Distributed AI problems, e.g. coordination methodologies, whose results can later be applied to other domains. Coordination can be defined as the capability of several agents to work together as a team, in order to accomplish a common goal. In the context of robotic soccer, several aspects may benefit from appropriate coordination methodologies, since team play is decisive for winning the games. This paper presents a methodology to enable a team of robotic soccer agents to coordinate their positioning in the field, and a methodology that enables them to cooperatively execute predefined set plays (flexible plans). Both coordination methods are used in real soccer and sports in general, commonly known as formations and set plays respectively. However, its use in a team of autonomous agents is still unexplored and is a major innovation of this work. A graphical tool to define formations and set plays was fully developed in the context of this work offering a quicker and more appealing way to define both formations and set plays. The tool's interface was inspired on "blackboard" applications, used nowadays for the same purpose in real sports. The tool enables very easy definition of set plays that may then be executed in real-time during the matches. Examples of complete set plays and their practical execution are also described, showing the usefulness of the set play concept and the utility of the developed tool.

Abstract
Today, industrialized countries are facing a major problem, the lack of skilled engineers. Despite the increasing demand for engineers in the labor market, the number of students going to engineering courses has been declining. This paper reports some initiatives carried out by the industrial robotics laboratory of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) which can contribute to help the youths to obtain an enlarged image of what the engineers can do. These initiatives have focused on the organization of one-day visits to the university campus and participation in events (fairs and exhibitions) to disseminate science and technology. Our participation in such initiatives has been done through the exhibition of a robotic platform to be experienced by the public, usually high school students. In order to allow visitors to intuitively drive the robot, two human-robot interfaces (HRI) has been used. So, to make the process more appealing, the visitors will not only drive the robot but also will play a game with the robot. Besides, it is also important for us receive feedback from the visitors. In such way, a questionnaire about their understanding of the presented robotic platform was proposed. Some points regarding the questionnaires are pointed out for discussion, the students' interest in robotics and the effectiveness of our "hands-on' robotic platform. Results are presented by dividing the answers collected by gender.

Abstract
We address a problem that often arises in industry, the multi-item capacitated-lot-sizing and scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times and costs. Powerful commercial solvers fail to solve even medium-sized instances of this NP-hard problem, therefore we employ a tabu search and a variable neighbourhood search meta-heuristic to solve it and compare the performance of these metaheuristics over time. In contrast to the majority of the literature on this topic, the solution representation explicitly considers production quantities and setup variables, which enables us to develop fast search heuristics. A comprehensive set of computational experiments shows the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approaches in solving medium-to large-sized problems.