Abstract
The aim of this work was to study spatial and temporal distribution of Olea europeae airborne pollen in different Portuguese regions: Reguengos de Monsaraz (south); Bairrada (west): Braga (northwest); Valenca do Douro and Foz Coa (northeast). Airborne pollen sampling was conducted from 1998-2003 using "Cour" type samplers located in each region. The main pollen season (NIPS) of Olea lasted on average 36 days and occurred from late April until middle-to-end of June. During the studied period, inter-annual variations among and within regions, concerning the total annual pollen counts and the beginning, peak and ending dates of the MPS. were reported. Reguengos de Monsaraz and Bairrada registered the earliest MPS starting date, followed by Valenca do Douro and Foz-Coa, and the latest date was verified in Braga that also had the shortest MPS. Reguengos de Monsaraz presented the longest MPS with the highest differences in the beginning and ending dates, but minimum differences in the dates of the maximum pollen peak. Our results showed an increase in the Olea annual pollen index, from north to south. and from the west to the east regions of the country.

Abstract

Abstract
This article reports on the RoboCup-2003 event. RoboCup is no longer just the Soccer World Cup for autonomous robots but has evolved to become a coordinated initiative encompassing four different robotics events: (1) Soccer, (2) Rescue, (3) junior (focused on education), and (4) a Scientific Symposium. RoboCup-2003 took place from 2 to 11 July 2003 in Padua (Italy); it was colocated with other scientific events in the field of AT and robotics. In this article, in addition to reporting on the results of the games, we highlight the robotics and AT technologies exploited by the teams in the different leagues and describe the most meaningful scientific contributions.

Abstract
This paper studies the performance of integer and fractional order controllers in a hexapod robot with joints at the legs having viscous friction and flexibility. For that objective the robot prescribed motion is characterized in terms of several locomotion variables. The walking performance is analysed through the Nyquist stability criterion and several indices that reflect the system dynamical properties. A set of model-based experiments reveals the influence of the different controller implementations upon the proposed metrics.

Abstract
This paper studies periodic gaits of quadruped and hexapod locomotion systems. The purpose is to determine the best set of gait and locomotion variables for different robot velocities based on the system dynamics during walking. In this perspective, several performance measures are formulated and a set of experiments that reveal the influence of the gait and locomotion variables upon those proposed indices are performed.

Abstract
This paper describes a topological navigation system, based on the description of key-places by a reduced number of parameters that represent images associated to specific locations in configuration space, and the application of the developed system to robotic soccer, through the implementation of the developed algorithms to RoboCup Middle-Size League (MSL) robots, under the scope of the SocRob project (Soccer Robots or Society of Robots). A topological map is associated with a graph, where each node corresponds to a key-place. Using this approach, navigation is reduced to a graph path search. Principal Components Analysis was used to represent key-places from pre-acquired images and to recognize them at navigation time. The method revealed a promising performance navigating between key-places and proved to adapt to different graphs. Furthermore, it leads to a robot programming language based on qualitative descriptions of the target locations in configuration space (e.g., Near Blue Coal with the Goal on its Left). Simulation results of the method application are presented, using a realistic simulator.