Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report a collection of developments that enable users to program industrial robots using speech, several device interfaces, force control and code generation techniques. Design/methodology/approach - The reported system is explained in detail and a few practical examples are given that demonstrate its usefulness for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where robots and humans need to cooperate to achieve a common goal (coworker scenario). The paper also explores the user interface software adapted for use by non-experts. Findings - The programming-by-demonstration (PbD) system presented proved to be very efficient with the task of programming entirely new features to an industrial robotic system. The system uses a speech interface for user command, and a force-controlled guiding system for teaching the robot the details about the task being programmed. With only a small set of implemented robot instructions it was fairly easy to teach the robot system a new task, generate the robot code and execute it immediately. Research limitations/implications - Although a particular robot controller was used, the system is in many aspects general, since the options adopted are mainly based on standards. It can obviously be implemented with other robot controllers without significant changes. In fact, most of the features were ported to run with Motoman robots with success. Practical implications - It is important to stress that the robot program built in this section was obtained without writing a single line of code, but instead just by moving the robot to the desired positions and adding the required robot instructions using speech. Even the upload task of the obtained module to the robot controller is commanded by speech, along with its execution/termination. Consequently, teaching the robotic system a new feature is accessible for any type of user with only minor training. Originality/value - This type of PbD systems will constitute a major advantage for SMEs, since most of those companies do not have the necessary engineering resources to make changes or add new functionalities to their robotic manufacturing systems. Even at the system integrator level these systems are very useful for avoiding the need for specific knowledge about all the controllers with which they work: complexity is hidden beyond the speech interfaces and portable interface devices, with specific and user-friendly APIs making the connection between the programmer and the system.

Abstract
Integration of equipment in industrial robot cells is to an increasing part involved with interfacing modern Ethernet technologies and low-cost mass produced devices, such as vision systems, laser cameras, force-torque sensors, soft-PLCs, digital pens, pocket-PCs, etc. This scenario enables integrators to offer powerful and smarter solutions, more adapted to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), capable of integrating process knowledge and interface better with humans. Nevertheless, programming all these devices efficiently requires too much specific knowledge about the devices, their hardware architectures and specific programming languages, details about system communication low-level protocols, and other tricky details at the system level. To address these issues, this paper describes and analyses two of the most interesting service-oriented architectures (SOA) available, which exhibit characteristics that are well adapted to industrial robotics cells. To compare, discuss and evaluate their programming features and applicability a test bed was specially designed, and the two SOA are fully implemented to program the test bed. Special focus is given to the way services are specified and to the orchestration tools used to manage system logic. The obtained results show clearly that using integrations schemes based on SOA reduces system integration time and are more adapted to industrial robotic cell system integrators.

Abstract
This work presents a procedure to automate the design of Si-integrated radio frequency (RF) discrete tuning varactors (RFDTVs). The synthesis method, which is based on evolutionary algorithms, searches for optimum performance RF switched capacitor array circuits that fulfill the design restrictions. The design algorithm uses the c-dominance concept and the maximin sorting scheme to provide a set of different Solutions (circuits) well distributed along an optimal front in the parameter space (circuit size and component values). Since all the solutions present the same performance, the designer call Select the circuit that is best suited to be implemented in a particular integration technology. To assess the performance of the synthesis procedure, several RFDTV circuits, provided by the algorithm, were designed and simulated rising a 0.18 mu m CMOS technology and the Cadence Virtuoso Design Platform. The comparisons between the algorithm and circuit; simulation results show that they are very close, pointing out that; the proposed design procedure is a powerful design tool.

Abstract
This paper presents an automated design procedure of radio-frequency integrated CMOS discrete timing varactors (RFDTVs). This new method use the maximin and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to promote well distributed non-dominated fronts in the parameters space when a single-objective function is optimized. The fitness function used in the search tool is proportional to the RFDTV quality factor. The outcome of the automated design method comprises a set of RFDTV circuits, all having the same maximum performance. Each solution, which corresponds to one RFDTV circuit, is defined by the number of cells and by the circuit components values. This approach allows the designer to choose among several possible circuits the one that is easier to implement in a given CMOS process. To validate the effectiveness of the synthesis procedure proposed in this paper (PSO-method) comparisons with a design method based on genetic algorithms (GA-method) are presented. A 0.18 mu m CMOS radio-frequency binary-weighted differential switched capacitor array (RFDSCA) was designed and implemented (the RFDSCA is one of the possible topologies of the RFDTVs). The results show that both design methods are in very good agreement. However, the PSO technique outperforms the GA-method in the design procedure run time taken to accomplish the same performance results.

Abstract
A novel variant of a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is reported. The proposed multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is based on the maximin technique previously proposed for a multi-objective genetic algorithm. The technique is applied to optimize two types of problems: firth to a set of benchmark functions and second to the design of PID controllers regarding the classical design objectives of set-point tracking and output disturbance rejection.

Abstract
This paper presents a tool for automating the design of road tunnels lighting systems. The tunnel lighting system must guarantee some minimal luminance values in order to ensure a easy driving and visual perception. The lights distribution, in different tunnel zones, is obtained in the proposed technique by using a genetic algorithm. The developed software framework automatically selects the best light type and its localization, according to a specified design objective, along the tunnel independently of the light manufacturer. © 2009 IEEE.