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Publications

2020

Using Pre-Computed Knowledge for Goal Allocation in Multi-Agent Planning

Authors
Luis, N; Pereira, T; Fern?ndez, S; Moreira, A; Borrajo, D; Veloso, M;

Publication
JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Abstract
Many real-world robotic scenarios require performing task planning to decide courses of actions to be executed by (possibly heterogeneous) robots. A classical centralized planning approach has to find a solution inside a search space that contains every possible combination of robots and goals. This leads to inefficient solutions that do not scale well. Multi-Agent Planning (MAP) provides a new way to solve this kind of tasks efficiently. Previous works on MAP have proposed to factorize the problem to decrease the planning effort i.e. dividing the goals among the agents (robots). However, these techniques do not scale when the number of agents and goals grow. Also, in most real world scenarios with big maps, goals might not be reached by every robot so it has a computational cost associated. In this paper we propose a combination of robotics and planning techniques to alleviate and boost the computation of the goal assignment process. We use Actuation Maps (AMs). Given a map, AMs can determine the regions each agent can actuate on. Thus, specific information can be extracted to know which goals can be tackled by each agent, as well as cheaply estimating the cost of using each agent to achieve every goal. Experiments show that when information extracted from AMs is provided to a multi-agent planning algorithm, the goal assignment is significantly faster, speeding-up the planning process considerably. Experiments also show that this approach greatly outperforms classical centralized planning.

2020

Factors that Influence the Use of Educational Software in Mathematics Teaching

Authors
Nunes, PS; Nascimento, MM; Catarino, P; Martins, P;

Publication
REICE-REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA SOBRE CALIDAD EFICACIA Y CAMBIO EN EDUCACION

Abstract
This paper aims to explore and describe fundamental factors that influence the knowledge and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in particular of Educational Software (ES) as a tool, by teachers who teach mathematics in any portuguese teaching cycle. The adopted method has a descriptive and exploratory nature, focusing on a quantitative paradigm. The study participants were 96 teachers who teach mathematics, from various elementary and secondary schools, from different regions of Portugal, as well as from other countries where the portuguese curriculum is inserted. The questionnaire, the chi-square independence test and Cramer's V test were used as instruments. Data analysis was performed using SPSS (version 25) and Excel (Office 2016). The results suggest that the age, gender and length of service of mathematics teachers may be factors that influence the knowledge and use of Kahoot ES and that having training may be an essential condition for the use of Modellus and Scratch ESs. We did not find any relationship of dependence between having training and the use of the rule and compass ES by the respondents.

2020

Determining Microservice Boundaries: A Case Study Using Static and Dynamic Software Analysis

Authors
Matias, T; Correia, FF; Fritzsch, J; Bogner, J; Ferreira, HS; Restivo, A;

Publication
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE (ECSA 2020)

Abstract
A number of approaches have been proposed to identify service boundaries when decomposing a monolith to microservices. However, only a few use systematic methods and have been demonstrated with replicable empirical studies. We describe a systematic approach for refactoring systems to microservice architectures that uses static analysis to determine the system's structure and dynamic analysis to understand its actual behavior. A prototype of a tool was built using this approach (MonoBreaker) and was used to conduct a case study on a real-world software project. The goal was to assess the feasibility and benefits of a systematic approach to decomposition that combines static and dynamic analysis. The three study participants regarded as positive the decomposition proposed by our tool, and considered that it showed improvements over approaches that rely only on static analysis.

2020

Welcome Message

Authors
Lau N.; Silva M.F.; Reis L.P.; Cascalho J.;

Publication
2020 IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions, ICARSC 2020

Abstract

2020

Examining Temporal Trends and Design Goals of Digital Music Instruments for Education in NIME: A Proposed Taxonomy

Authors
Margarida Pessoa; Cláudio Parauta; Pedro Luís; Isabela Almeida; Gilberto Bernardes;

Publication

Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the design principles behind Digital Music Instruments (DMIs) for education across all editions of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Music Expression (NIME). We compiled a comprehensive catalogue of over hundred DMIs with varying degrees of applicability in the educational practice. Each catalogue entry is annotated according to a proposed taxonomy for DMIs for education, rooted in the mechanics of control, mapping and feedback of an interactive music system, along with the required expertise of target user groups and the instrument learning curve. Global statistics unpack underlying trends and design goals across the chronological period of the NIME conference. In recent years, we note a growing number of DMIs targeting non-experts and with reduced requirements in terms of expertise. Stemming from the identified trends, we discuss future challenges in the design of DMIs for education towards enhanced degrees of variation and unpredictability.

2020

Learning Signer-Invariant Representations with Adversarial Training

Authors
Ferreira, PM; Pernes, D; Rebelo, A; Cardoso, JS;

Publication
TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MACHINE VISION (ICMV 2019)

Abstract
Sign Language Recognition (SLR) has become an appealing topic in modern societies because such technology can ideally be used to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing people. Although important steps have been made towards the development of real-world SLR systems, signer-independent SLR is still one of the bottleneck problems of this research field. In this regard, we propose a deep neural network along with an adversarial training objective, specifically designed to address the signer-independent problem. Concretely speaking, the proposed model consists of an encoder, mapping from input images to latent representations, and two classifiers operating on these underlying representations: (i) the signclassifier, for predicting the class/sign labels, and (ii) the signer-classifier, for predicting their signer identities. During the learning stage, the encoder is simultaneously trained to help the sign-classifier as much as possible while trying to fool the signer-classifier. This adversarial training procedure allows learning signer-invariant latent representations that are in fact highly discriminative for sign recognition. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and its capability of dealing with the large inter-signer variations.

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