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Publications

2026

An Explosion of the Uses of Immersive Learning Environments: A Mapping of Reviews Update

Authors
Beck, D; Morgado, L; O'Shea, P;

Publication
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK, ILRN 2025

Abstract
Since the publication of the 2020 paper, Finding the Gaps About Uses of Immersive Learning Environments: A Survey of Surveys, the landscape of immersive learning environments (ILEs) has continued to evolve rapidly. This update aims to revisit the gaps identified in that previous research and explore emerging trends. We conducted an extensive review of new surveys published after that paper's cut date. Our findings reveal a significant amount of new published reviews (n = 64), more than doubling the original corpus (n = 47). The results highlighted novel themes of usage of immersive environments, helping bridge some 2020 research gaps. This paper discusses those developments and presents a consolidated perspective on the uses of immersive learning environments.

2026

A Power-Conditioned Pricing Electricity Tariff to Restore Consumption Incentives under Revenue Neutrality

Authors
Fidalgo, JNM; Saraiva, J;

Publication

Abstract
Current residential electricity tariffs often combine a flat energy price with a fixed charge linked to contracted power, resulting in electricity bills that are weakly responsive to changes in consumption. This lack of proportionality reduces incentives for energy savings and may undermine demand-side efficiency.This paper proposes a novel Power-Conditioned Pricing (PCP) tariff, in which unit energy prices depend on the power level at which electricity is consumed. By associating higher prices with higher consumption intensity, the proposed tariff introduces progressivity while preserving transparency and regulatory feasibility. The tariff is calibrated to ensure revenue neutrality with respect to the current tariff for each contracted power level.Two complementary calibration strategies are analysed: a profile-based approach using representative regulatory load profiles, and an empirical approach based on statistical distributions derived from real consumer data. To assess consumer responsiveness, electricity bills are evaluated under both vertical and horizontal consumption adjustment models.Results show that bill elasticity increases from values between 0.43–0.73 under the current tariff to values close to unity under PCP, while maintaining revenue neutrality across contracted power levels. These findings suggest that power-conditioned pricing constitutes a promising alternative to current residential tariff structures, better aligned with energy-efficiency and conservation objectives.

2026

A Robotic Coordination Framework for Human-Robot Teams in Matrix Manufacturing

Authors
Costa, GD; Figueira, G; Moreira, AP; Petry, MR;

Publication
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL

Abstract
Matrix manufacturing requires close coordination between collaborative workcells, mobile robots, and battery management resources to support the execution of heterogeneous human-robot operations in reconfigurable production environments. This paper presents a cyber-physical robotic coordination framework for human-robot teams deployed in an industrial matrix manufacturing system, integrating a collaborative workstation, a fleet of mobile programmable cobots, and an automatic battery changer through ROS/OPC UA communication. The framework coordinates task execution, intra-logistics, and energy management through a decision layer that assigns operations to human and robotic agents, relocates idle mobile robots, and triggers battery swaps. Three coordination modules-a Battery Management Module, a Task Allocation Module, and a Robot Relocation Module-implement this pipeline by computing feasible execution plans at each scheduling cycle, accounting for human and robot capabilities, workstation availability, transport times, and battery state. The approach is validated on a deployed industrial matrix manufacturing platform through a disassembly task comprising human-only, robot-only, and human-robot collaborative operations, demonstrating the feasibility of coordinating heterogeneous robotic and human resources in a physical reconfigurable manufacturing environment.

2026

Reconfiguring Staggered Quantum Walks with ZX

Authors
Jardim, B; Santos, J; Barbosa, LS;

Publication
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND FORMAL METHODS. SEFM 2024 COLLOCATED WORKSHOPS

Abstract
The staggered model is a recent, very general variant of discrete-time quantum walks which, avoiding the use of a coin to direct the walker evolution, explores the underlying graph structure to build an evolution operator based on local unitaries induced by adjacent vertices. Optimising their implementation to increase resilience to decoherence phenomena motivates their analysis with the ZX-calculus. The whole optimisation can be seen as a graph reconfiguration process along which the original circuit is rewrote, significantly reducing the number of (expensive) gates used. The exercise identified an underlying pattern leading to an alternative, potentially more efficient evolution operator.

2026

Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost and Low-Power Wireless Sensor Network for Estuary Environmental Monitoring

Authors
Matos, T; Martins, MF; Rocha, J; Dinis, H; Martins, M; Lopes, SF; Afonso, JA; Gonçalves, L;

Publication
ELECTRONICS

Abstract
Wireless sensor networks have become essential tools for environmental monitoring, enabling distributed data acquisition in remote and dynamic environments. However, challenges related to communication reliability, energy efficiency, synchronization, and real-time data availability remain critical for long-term deployments. This work presents the design, implementation, and validation of a synchronous wireless sensor network tailored for environmental monitoring in the challenging conditions of an estuarine setting. The proposed architecture is based on Digi XBee SX 868 RF modules operating in DigiMesh mode with synchronized cyclic sleep, enabling coordinated measurements and low-power operation. The network comprises monitoring, repeater, and coordinator/gateway nodes, integrated with a web-based platform for real-time data visualization and management. A custom message exchange format was developed to support seamless transmission of monitoring information from sensors to the web server through the wireless mesh infrastructure. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate network coverage, synchronization performance, communication reliability, and energy consumption. The results demonstrated successful multi-hop communication over the estuarine area, stable synchronization among distributed nodes over extended periods, and energy savings through synchronized sleep operation. The developed web platform enabled reliable real-time data access and network management. The proposed system demonstrates the feasibility of deploying scalable, energy-efficient, and synchronized wireless sensor networks for long-term environmental monitoring in estuarine environments.

2026

Paraconsistent Reactive Graphs

Authors
Cunha, J; Madeira, A; Barbosa, LS;

Publication
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND FORMAL METHODS. SEFM 2024 COLLOCATED WORKSHOPS

Abstract
This paper introduces Paraconsistent Reactive Graphs, as an extension of Reactive graphs that incorporates paraconsistency into the ground edges to address vagueness and inconsistency within dynamic systems. By assigning pairs of truth values to ground edges, this framework captures the uncertainty and contradictions stemming from incomplete or conflicting information. We explore the semantics of these graphs and provide a practical example to illustrate the proposed approach.

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