Abstract
Human pressure is pushing many of our natural resources to their limits in various regions of the world. Optimize their use is an urgent need. The management of agro-industry has been aware of that need, seeking to improve the productivity and reduce waste throughout the production process, as well by increasing the distribution efficiency of their products. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can support the control/management of the process inputs and outputs in various activities. This article attempts to describe a complete mushroom production chain. The information system developed by the agro-industry company studied allows to acquire, in real-time, the information about what is being produced (quantity and type of mushroom), which products are to be delivered to the different clients and which should be the planning for the next few days. © 2011 AISTI.

Abstract
One important issue in a machining robotic cell is the location of the workpiece with respect to the robot. The feasibility of the task, the quality of the final work and the energy consumption, just to mention a few, are all dependent upon it. This can be formulated as an optimization problem where the objective functions are chosen in order to meet desired performance criteria. Typically, the complexity of the problems and the large number of optimization parameters that, usually, are involved, make the genetic algorithms an appropriate tool in this context. In this paper, two optimization problems are formulated: firstly, the power consumed by the manipulator is considered and the problem is solved using a single-objective genetic algorithm; then the stiffness of the manipulator is also included and the respective optimization problem is solved using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Simulation results are presented for a parallel manipulator robotic cell.

Abstract
Dynamic modeling is of great importance regarding computer simulation and advanced control of parallel manipulators. Dynamic modeling of parallel manipulators presents an inherent complexity, mainly due to system closed-loop structure and kinematic constraints. In this paper an approach based on the manipulator generalized momentum is explored and applied to the dynamic modeling of a Stewart platform. The generalized momentum is used to compute the kinetic component of the generalized force acting on each manipulator rigid body. Analytic expressions for the rigid bodies' inertia and Coriolis and centripetal terms matrices are obtained, which can be added, as they are expressed in the same frame. Gravitational part of the generalized force is obtained using the manipulator potential energy.

Abstract
Ever since the first studies about biomedical implantable devices, the problem of how to energize them has stood out as both important and notoriously difficult to solve. In order to extend the lifetime of implants, it is imperative to develop power generators that are autonomous, safe and maintenance-free. Energy harvesting is a natural way of meeting these requirements. First, the energy source is theoretically everlasting, a fact that helps to guarantee the autonomy. Second, the energy is obtained from the environment of the application itself, contributing to its safety. Finally, a properly designed energy harvesting system is very unlikely to ever require maintenance. This paper follows this line and describes an electromagnetic power transducer that harvests electrical energy from the human gait and stores it. An efficient power management module uses the stored energy to energize the telemetric system of a smart hip prosthesis implant, enabling the early detection of loosening, the target application of this work. The system is able to extract a total 1912.5 mu J of usable energy under normal walking conditions.

Abstract
Using the new trend of energy harvesting, an envisioned electromagnetic power transducer that uses human gait to produce electrical energy is presented as a solution to energize biomedical devices. Regardless of the walking speed, starting at 0.7 Hz, it is possible to store a total energy of 2.2 mJ, using two 1000 mu F capacitors as energy storage elements. Afterwards, this energy becomes available to the telemetric system through an efficient power management module. Since the end application, an implantable biomedical telemetric system, needs a total of 360 mu J to operate, the here presented power transducer is well suited for implant power needs.

Abstract
Wireless sensor networks have found multiple applications in precision viticulture. Despite the steady progress in sensing devices and wireless technologies, some of the crucial items needed to improve the usability and scalability of the networks, such as gateway infrastructures and in-field processing, have been comparatively neglected. This paper describes the hardware, communication capabilities and software architecture of an intelligent autonomous gateway, designed to provide the necessary middleware between locally deployed sensor networks and a remote location within the whole-farm concept. This solar-powered infrastructure, denoted by iPAGAT (Intelligent Precision Agriculture Gateway), runs an aggregation engine that fills a local database with environmental data gathered by a locally deployed ZigBee wireless sensor network. Aggregated data are then retrieved by external queries over the built-in data integration system. In addition, embedded communication capabilities, including Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and GPRS, allow local and remote users to access both gateway and remote data, as well as the Internet, and run site-specific management tools using authenticated smartphones. Field experiments provide convincing evidence that iPAGAT represents an important step forward in the development of distributed service-oriented information systems for precision viticulture applications.