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Publications

2017

Functionalities and Requirements of an Autonomous Shopping Vehicle for People with Reduced Mobility

Authors
Neves, A; Campos, D; Duarte, F; Domingues, I; Santos, J; Leao, J; Xavier, J; de Matos, L; Camarneiro, M; Penas, M; Miranda, M; Silva, R; Esteves, T;

Publication
VEHITS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY AND INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

Abstract
This paper concerns a robot to assist people in retail shopping scenarios, called the wGO. The robot's behaviour is based in a vision-guided approach based on user-following. The wGO brings numerous advantages and a higher level of comfort, since the user does not need to worry about controlling the shopping cart. In addition, this paper introduces the wGOs functionalities and requirements to enable the robot to successfully perform personal assistance while the user is shopping in a safe way. A user satisfaction survey is also presented. Based on the highly encouraging results, some conclusions and guidelines towards the future full deployment of the wGO in commercial environments are drawn.

2017

An optimization-simulation approach to the network redesign problem of pharmaceutical wholesalers

Authors
Martins, S; Amorim, P; Figueira, G; Almada Lobo, B;

Publication
COMPUTERS & INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Abstract
The pharmaceutical industry operates in a very competitive and regulated market The increased pressure of pharmacies to order fewer products and to receive them more frequently is overcharging the pharmaceutical's distribution network Furthermore, the tight margins and the continuous growth of generic drugs consumption are pressing wholesalers to optimize their supply chains. In order to survive, wholesalers are rethinking their strategies to increase competitiveness. This paper proposes an optimization-simulation approach to address the wholesalers network redesign problem, trading off the operational costs and customer service level. Firstly, at a strategic-tactical level, the supply chain network redesign decisions are optimized via a mixed integer programming model. Here, the number, location, function and capacity of the warehouses, the allocation of customers to the warehouses and the capacity and function of the distribution channels are defined. Secondly, at an operation level, the solution found is evaluated by means of a discrete event simulation model to assess the impact of the redesign in the wholesaler's daily activities. Computational results on a pharmaceutical wholesaler case-study are discussed and the benefits of this solution approach exposed.

2017

Integrated Optical Devices Fabrication of Multimode Interference Devices in Fused Silica by Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing

Authors
Amorim, VA; Maia, JM; Alexandre, D; Marques, PVS;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PHOTONICS, OPTICS AND LASER TECHNOLOGY (PHOTOPTICS)

Abstract
1xN (N=2, 3, 4) MMI power splitters were fabricated in a fused silica substrate by laser direct writing, using a focused 515 nm amplified femtosecond laser beam, and characterized at 1550 nm. To accomplish this, several low loss waveguides were fabricated side by side to form a multimode waveguide with the output in a polished facet of the substrate, while a single low loss waveguide was fabricated to inject light in the centre of the multimode waveguide. The performance of the fabricated devices was optimized by testing three different designs.

2017

The P-SOCRATES Timing Analysis Methodology for Parallel Real-Time Applications Deployed on Many-Core Platforms

Authors
Nélis, V; Yomsi, PM; Pinho, LM;

Publication
WCET

Abstract
This paper presents the timing analysis methodology developed in the European project P-SOCRATES (Parallel Software Framework for Time-Critical Many-core Systems). This timing analysis methodology is defined for parallel applications that must satisfy both performance and real-time requirements and are executed on modern many-core processor architectures. We discuss the motivation and objectives of the project, the timing analysis flow that we proposed, the tool that has been developed to automatize it, and finally we report on some of the preliminary results that we have obtained when applying this methodology to the three application use-cases of the project.

2017

RELink: A Research Framework and Test Collection for Entity-Relationship Retrieval

Authors
Saleiro, P; Frayling, NM; Rodrigues, EM; Soares, C;

Publication
SIGIR

Abstract
Improvements of entity-relationship (E-R) search techniques have been hampered by a lack of test collections, particularly for complex queries involving multiple entities and relationships. In this paper we describe a method for generating E-R test queries to support comprehensive E-R search experiments. Queries and relevance judgments are created from content that exists in a tabular form where columns represent entity types and the table structure implies one or more relationships among the entities. Editorial work involves creating natural language queries based on relationships represented by the entries in the table. We have publicly released the RELink test collection comprising 600 queries and relevance judgments obtained from a sample of Wikipedia List-of-lists-oflists tables. The latter comprise tuples of entities that are extracted from columns and labelled by corresponding entity types and relationships they represent. In order to facilitate research in complex E-R retrieval, we have created and released as open source the RELink Framework that includes Apache Lucene indexing and search specifically tailored to E-R retrieval. RELink includes entity and relationship indexing based on the ClueWeb-09-BWeb collection with FACC1 text span annotations linked to Wikipedia entities. With ready to use search resources and a comprehensive test collection, we support community in pursuing E-R research at scale.

2017

Magni - A Framework for Developing Context-Aware Mobile Applications

Authors
Queirós, R; Portela, F; Machado, J;

Publication
RECENT ADVANCES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES, VOL 3

Abstract
The advent of Internet and ubiquitous technologies has been fostering the appearance of intelligent mobile applications aware of their environment and the objects nearby. Despite its popularity, mobile developers are often required to write large and disorganized amounts of code, mixing UI with business logic and interact, in a ad-hoc fashion, with sensor devices and services. These habits hinder the code maintenance, refactoring and testing, while negatively influencing the consistency and performance of mobile applications. In this paper we present Magni as an abstract framework for the design and implementation of personalized and context-aware mobile applications. The corner stone of the framework is its architectural pattern based on the Model-View-Presenter pattern in the UI layer relying in REST services the majority of the app features. This paradigm fosters the modular design, implementing the separation of concerns concept and allowing an easier implementation of unit tests. In order to validate the framework, we present a prototype for an healthcare automotive app. The main goal of the app is to facilitate the access to health related points of interest such as hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.

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