Francisco Manuel Sánchez

Ciclope Robot: Web-Based System to Remote Program an Embedded Real-Time System

This paper presents a particular case of a pedagogically successful, dynamic, and efficient remote laboratory. The aim of the remote laboratory is to learn how to program embedded real-time systems in a real machine such as a robot. The system supplies feedback information to the user through a Web browser and an ssh terminal. Likewise, the remote laboratory allows a high degree of interaction owing to a clear and simple interface. This type of telecontrol Web-based system generates strong interest among students. The following are the two main contributions of this system: The remote laboratory allows collaboration among students in order to solve the problem, and the usage of a free software architecture allows anyone to replicate and improve the laboratory.

CICLOPE CHEMICAL: A REMOTE LABORATORY TO CONTROL A SPECTROGRAPH

Abstract This paper presents an educational chemical laboratory accessible through the Internet. Its aim is providing remote access to a real spectrograph in order students carry out their practicals on distance, without restrictions of space or time, as if they were in the lab. Furthermore, teachers have full control of what students are doing, which is useful to evaluate. This lab has been used and tested with students of the 4 th year of the Industrial Engineering School (ETSII) of the Spanish Open University UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia). The system uses Ciclope architecture, methodology and philosophy, which is intended for building remote labs as libre projects. This means that all the software used and made, and the hardware developed in this project is free under the GPL license and it is available in SVN server of Ciclope project web page ( http://www.ciclope.info ). Furthermore, any person who would like to use, copy, imitate, modify, improve or collaborate with this project, or with any other of Ciclope, can do it following the instructions in Ciclopes URL.

Slow pyrolysis of olive stones in a rotary kiln: Chemical and energy characterization of solid, gas, and condensable products

The aim of this work is to investigate the slow pyrolysis of olive stones in a rotary kiln as a means to increase the fuel properties and potential use of this renewable solid fuel. The pyrolysis process takes place primarily at temperatures between 300 and 500 °C resulting in the transformation of the solid biomass into a biochar, a pyrolysis liquid (up to 38.1 wt. %) and a non-condensable gas fraction (up to 35.4 wt. %). This thermal treatment has a positive influence in the fuel properties of the solid fraction in terms of increased C content (up to 75.9 wt. %), reduced O/C and H/C ratios (down to 0.28 and 0.03), reduced volatile matter and moisture content (down to 6.9 wt. % and below 1.0 wt. %, respectively), increased fixed carbon (up to 90.2 wt. %), increased Lower Heating Value (LHVo up to 37.1 MJ/kg) and energy density (26.7 GJ/m3). The process also involved changes in the surface chemistry (increasingly hydrophobic nature) and textural properties of the solid (formation of cracks and internal vo...

Obstacle Avoidance for Teleoperated Robots for Live Power Lines Maintenance, Using Artificial Vision

Abstract Nowadays uninterrupted power supply has become a must for electrical companies, due to the increasing technological advances, present in our society, that lead to higher demands of electricity. This strong need is obliging the electrical companies to develop processes and techniques for outage-free maintenance of electrical power supply, whose major application lies in aerial distribution lines. In these conventional techniques workers have to do their job on a live electrical power line indirectly, with various kinds of hot-sticks or directly touching the line with rubber-insulated gloves. Therefore, work is performed in a hazardous environment with both, the risk of electric shock and the danger of falling from a high place. In addition, workers have to be very skilled and work cooperatively under very demanding tasks. For all these reasons, the European Community foresees the suppression of this operation in a short term. This paper presents a teleoperated system, developed at DISAM*, capable of performing electrical power lines maintenance and inspection, tasks. The general features of the project are explained, paying special attention to the artificial vision system, which is an obstacle avoidance system capable of preventing collisions between robots and the electric cable. Such a system is the result of several years of research on computer vision

Assessment of the bioethanol potential of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) biomass obtained from regular crops in the province of Almeria (SE Spain)

Prickly pear is a widely-known crop in the SE of Spain, where it is currently used for forage, fodder and fruit. Now it is being considered as a potential crop for bioethanol production from its whole biomass. In order to estimate the potential bioethanol production in the province of Almeria (SE-Spain) and the optimal location of bioethanol processing plants, a GIS analysis involving a predictive yield model of prickly pear biomass was undertaken following specific restriction criteria. According to this analysis, the total potential bioethanol production in Almeria would be up to 502,927.8 t dm·year-1 from 100,616 ha maximum that could be cultivated with prickly pear, with a calculated yield ranging between 4.2 and 9.4 t dm·ha-1·year-1. An exclusive suitability analysis and a preferable suitability analysis based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process were performed in order to estimate the optimal location of the subsequent processing plants within Almerias road network by a discrete location-allocation model.

The Avocado and Its Waste: An Approach of Fuel Potential/Application

With a global production exceeding 4 million tons per year in 2011, avocado has become a major agroindustrial commodity. Most of the production and the transformation industry is located in North and Central America, although consumption is growing fast primarily in developed countries like the USA and the European Union. The principal use of the avocado fruit is human consumption, although other applications related to the production of cosmetics, nutritional supplements and livestock feed have been reported.

GLORIA: The First Free Access e-Infrastructure of Robotic Telescopes for Citizen Science

This paper describes the GLORIA system (GLObal Robotic telescope Intelligent Array), the first worldwide network of robotic telescopes, which covers four continents with seventeen telescopes, and can be extended. The network architecture has been designed taking into account the functionalities offered to the community, the number of telescopes, users that will be managed and network compatibility with all kinds of robotic telescopes. Different kinds of experiments have been designed to support the various requirements of astronomers. In order to manage the user access to the network resources, an evaluation system, called karma, has been defined which will operate according to some established policy.

The Montegancedo astronomical observatory: The first free remote observatory for learning astronomy

This paper describes the first open robotic observatory available to the public on the Internet (http://om.fi.upm.es), interactive and completely free access through a Web 2.0 application, which lets users manage professional astronomical devices and collaborate with other amateur users through a web browser. Its main goal is to open the astronomy to the society and that people learn informally about the cosmos by means of experimenting with real remote devices. Its architecture is made up by common collaborative Web 2.0 tools (such picture gallery, wiki, forum, chat, voting and discussing systems, etc.) and services and policies to offer meritocratically the observatory and its observing time. The paper presents an innovative approach which proposes a reputation system for sharing an online resource to encourage high-quality contributions, and the initial outcomes obtained since the observatory started in December 2008. This paper also describes the first experience using the observatory for carrying out online practical assignments in an Educational Innovation Project within the Technical University of Madrid during academic year 2008–2009 and using it for three subjects of these different degrees: Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, and Topography.

Biomass Resources to Hybridize CSP with Biomethane: Potential of Horticultural Residues and Drought-tolerant Crops.☆

Abstract HYSOL technology allows the hybridization of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology with biomethane for the efficient generation of clean and sustainable electricity in a firm and dispatchable manner. Biomass from horticultural residues and drought-tolerant crops is a promising feedstock for biomethane production in areas with high solar radiation. This paper investigates the biomass potential of these two resources in Spain by considering the volume of horticultural residues generated, availability of suitable land for dedicated prickly pear plantations and its methane generation capacity. Experimental biomethane yields have also been determined for different substrates mixtures of overripe tomatoes and prickly pear cladodes. Potential biomethane and electricity production are then calculated, as well as the number of conventional CSP and HYSOL plants that could be supplied with this energy. Results show that a significant number of CSP plant could be methane-supplied by the studied resources: up to 45 conventional CSP or 4 HYSOL plants.

A fuzzy logic based decision algorithm for a heterogeneous telescope network

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic based algorithm which decides the best telescope, within a heterogeneous network, taking into account user constraints, weather forecast, visibility and statistical information from every telescope. The main objective of this algorithm is to serve the maximum number of observations as soon as possible, minimizing the reallocation process and improving the selection one. Moreover, this algorithm has been deployed into the GLORIA robotic telescope network, which is composed by 17 heterogeneous telescopes located in different countries, and also, it has been tested using an interface deployed into the GLORIA user website which has been tested by real users. Finally, using this information, a comparison between this algorithm and the previous one, is analyzed.