Robotics and Artificial Intelligent Systems (RAIS)

2024-10-01 – 2025-03-31

VESTA

Vegetation Evaluation with Satellite Technology and Analytics

The main objective of the VESTA project is the development of vegetation management tools based on Earth Observation data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for infrastructure management and maintenance operations, with a particular focus on the transportation (road) and energy (powerline) sectors.

2022-01-03 – 2025-04-02

GreenBotics

Intelligent Robotic System for Digital Agriculture

GreenBotics project aims to make a significant step in Precision Agriculture by integrating sensing, field robotics, probabilistic machine learning and agriculture-science to develop a new soil-moisture monitoring system for crop plantations (namely Maize). The system is called Maize and Moisture Monitoring System (M3Sys). Based upon anovel multimodal spatio-temporal probabilistic inference framework, M3Sys will incorporate fundamental and applied techniques from machine learning, field robotics, drone andsatellite sensing, probability and sensor-fusion. Concisely, GreenBotics has the goal of increasing the precision and reliability of early anomalies detection and monitoring of Maize plantations by combining robotics, datasensor, ML, and agriculture expertise, both experimental and computational.Intelligent Robotic System for Digital Agriculture (GreenBotics)

2025-05-01 – 2028-04-30

BCI4ALL

Brain-computer interfaces for people in Locked-in state and with disorders of consciousness

Project BCI4ALL aims to research and develop effective EEG-based BCIs for individuals in locked-in state (LIS) and completely LIS (CLIS). The focus is on machine learning methods to improve BCI usability, the use of tDCS for neuromodulation, and LLM-driven communication. It is also expected that researched techniques have the potential to be used for assessing patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC).

2019-04-01 – 2025-01-31

LIFEBOTS Exchange

Creating a new reality of care and welfare through the inclusion of social robots

The project aims enhancing cross-sector, international and interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of social robotics technology for care. Are robots ready for society, and is society ready for robots? How can social robots can be included in people’s lives? Robots are increasingly being used in the healthcare sector as a potential solution to the current and future challenges faced by the healthcare sector. Due to the global population ageing, by 2035 the world is projected to lack 12.9 million healthcare professionals (WHO: 2013). Social robots may benefit the quality life and wellbeing of patients, their families and healthcare professionals. Evidence and much of the needed knowledge are still lacking. Strong interdisciplinarity and cross-sectorial research and innovation activity is needed. A knowledge hub for social robotics will be created with a threefold aim: (1) To enhance the competencies of involved staff members, refining and focusing their skills; (2) To build a tri-sectoral network involving academia, industry and users of technology, and (3) to create an enduring network that will outlive the grant funding. The core of the project includes some of the strongest actors in international research, SMEs and user organisations, focusing on three activity lines: technological, sociological, care-and-welfare. To be able to understand the impact of introducing social robots in care, the three areas that will be affected by this technical evolution will be researched: (1) care provided as medical practice; this is the care given to patients in hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centres and other medical facilities. (2) residential care - this area refers to all care institutions accepting patient/clients as residents: elderly homes, nursing homes, special needs schools for children or adults, etc. (3) family care, investigating how social robots can be implemented in the home, and as a part of domestic life.

2022-07-01 – 2026-06-30

PRR–GreenAuto @ UC

GreenAuto: Green Innovation for the Automotive Industry

<b>PPS10- Neural network systems for robots</b> Neural networks are AI methods increasingly used in various industries, providing a layer of intelligence and greater adaptability to automation systems that are typically pre-programmed and not flexible. In this context, the GreenAuto Agenda proposes to functionalize neural networks for robotic systems, resulting in a product with the following innovative features: Low-code programming, allowing the functions of robots to be changed quickly and adjusted to any industrial context; Inclusion of perception systems based on computer vision, AI and sensorial fusion, ensuring fast adaptability of the robotic system; Development and addition of new dimensions, positions, colours and other relevant information around the AI layer, enabling interpretation and anticipation of problems/accidents with human interaction; Maximization of performance, adaptability and f lexibility of production line, via AI. <b>PPS12- Automated control systems for high-precision part handling</b> In a highly competitive environment such as the automotive industry, product customization is one of the newest selling arguments to attract customers and distinguish from the competition. In this context, increasingly f lexible autonomous vehicle production processes are required. Thus, the GreenAuto Agenda proposes the development of an automated control system for high-precision parts handling, incorporating differentiating features, namely: New production models of maximum flexibility, through the integration of flexible automation principles that adapt to real productive environments; Development of robust products with new technological content in the field of parts handling, artificial vision, precision robotics; Improvements in precision and/or speed in relation to manual processes, through the definition of routine algorithms, applicable to assembly, logistics or hardware areas. <b>PPS13- Collaborative robotic systems for the assembly line</b> The changes in the automotive industry regarding the electrification of products and processes are the source of an increasing demand for more flexible, advanced and interactive robotic systems, capable of collaborating in processes where operator presence is imperative. Thus, the GreenAuto Agenda proposes the development of a new collaborative robotic systems for the automotive industry, incorporating the following innovative features: Robotic system with AI algorithms, artificial vision supported by advanced sensors, for indexing doors for the assembly line; Collaborative clamping system for assembly of the front engine protection, using tasks with 2 distinct types of torque; Fully automated collaborative system for parts replacement on assembly islands, with ability to detect the needs according to the production cadence

2025-12-22 – 2028-12-21

RUGGED

Robust Uncrewed Ground technoloGy dEvelopment and Deployment

<p><b>RUGGED </b>addresses a critical gap in autonomous ground robotics: reliable operation in harsh, unstructured outdoor environments such as agriculture, forestry, and wildfire scenarios. While perception, localization, and navigation have advanced rapidly in controlled settings, little is known about how robotic systems and sensors degrade under dust, smoke, debris, extreme vibrations, and high temperatures. RUGGED tackles this problem head-on by jointly addressing hardware robustness and software resilience.The project follows a strongly experimental, multidisciplinary approach combining electrical and mechanical engineering with robotics and AI. It begins with a systematic assessment of how environmental stressors affect sensors, electronics, and perception pipelines, using both laboratory tests and real-world field trials with forestry machinery. Based on this evidence, RUGGED develops mitigation strategies at two levels: hardware solutions, such as optimized sensor placement, vibration damping, and thermal management; and software solutions, including robust multisensory perception, localization, and mapping.On the software side, the project advances real-time sensor fusion using complementary modalities (LiDAR, RADAR, depth, multispectral and thermal cameras), metric-semantic mapping, traversability analysis, and multimodal localization. These methods are developed and validated using noise-rich virtual environments and real datasets, within a ROS-based framework. The project concludes with large-scale field validation in progressively challenging scenarios and the release of open multisensory datasets. RUGGED ultimately delivers practical guidelines, validated technologies, and data resources to enable dependable semi-autonomous robots in extreme outdoor operations.</p>

2025-07-01 – 2028-06-30

REMORA

REMORA: Swarm Robotics for the Improvement and Monitoring of Aquatic Resources

The REMORA project aims to transform the monitoring and management of aquatic resources in Portugal and the European Union, addressing the need for innovative and sustainable solutions. REMORA seeks to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and safety of aquatic operations by using swarm robotics for monitoring and enhancing aquatic systems, creating detailed digital twins for informed and predictive management. The project brings together a multidisciplinary team led by Ingeniarius, a specialist in robotic systems, and includes as consortium members the Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra, which develops algorithms for swarm robotics and human-swarm interaction; the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, which promotes the sustainable management of aquatic resources through ecosystem health monitoring; and Riamaris, an aquaculture company with scientific and commercial interest in evaluating these innovative solutions. This joint effort aims to achieve a functional technological level in a representative environment (TRL6), demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed solutions. The REMORA project will run for 36 months, allowing for a methodical and systematic evaluation of R&D tasks in real-world contexts, with a technological perspective geared toward commercial valorization. The use cases for validating the project developments will include the monitoring of water properties and fish growth and feeding processes in aquaculture, as well as the monitoring of water quality in marinas. The integration of the different areas of expertise of the consortium partners will ensure the development of innovative and applicable solutions, contributing to the sustainability and efficiency of the blue economy sector.

2025-03-01 – 2026-08-31

ForestSphere

ForestSphere: A Digital Twin Approach for Monitoring and Managing Forests and Wildfire Risk

<p>The ForestSphere project aims to develop a Digital Twin (DT) for forest management, recognizing their socio-economic and ecological importance.Forests contribute significantly to the EU's GDP and serve as critical carbon sinks. However, wildfires pose a substantial threat to forests, leading to environmental damage, loss of life, and economic losses.</p><p>Despite advancements in DT technology in various sectors, current literature has limited exploration of its application in forest management, particularly regarding wildfire prediction.</p><p>The ForestSphere project intends to bridge this research gap by creating a Forest DT that combines multimodal and multi-scale data from various sensors to enhance forest health monitoring and wildfire risk assessment. The project's key objectives include:</p><ul><li>Developing an open, scalable, and modular Digital Twin architecture.</li><li>Enabling precise, high-resolution forest mapping using advanced sensing techniques.</li><li>Implementing data processing for dynamic updates of the DT.</li><li>Utilizing AI for predictive wildfire analytics.</li><li>Designing user-centric tools for decision support to assist firefighting teams and policymakers.</li><li>Conducting pilot cases to demonstrate the Forest DT's applications in forest and wildfire management.Challenges include managing high computation costs, ensuring real-time data synchronization, and effectively integrating diverse data sources.</li></ul><p><span>The project follows a structured three-phase methodology: Build, Optimize and Deploy, and the project promises significant socio-economic benefits by providing real-time data to authorities, aiding infrastructure management, and supporting civil protection efforts during wildfires.</span></p>

2025-02-13 – 2026-08-12

UpReGain

Gamified brain-machine interfaces for personalized upper-limb post-stroke rehabilitation

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide, affecting millions of people each year, and only 15% of patients fully recover and return to normal life. The UpReGain project uses a BCI-based rehabilitation system to enhance the effectiveness of motor rehabilitation. Additionally, it aims to automate the rehabilitation process for home use and enable telerehabilitation. The BCI system is designed to detect patients' movement intentions, which will then be executed by either a robotic hand exoskeleton or a virtual hand. The rehabilitation tasks will be gamified, as gamification has enhanced patient motivation and engagement, thereby facilitating motor recovery. This research project is a collaboration between the Institute of Systems and Robotics - University of Coimbra (ISR-UC) and Coimbra Local Health Unit (Unidade Local de Saúde de Coimbra - ULS).

2024-10-01 – 2028-09-30

AIGreenBots

Artificial Intelligence and Sensor Fusion systems in Sustainable (Green) Robotics for Precision Agriculture

Agricultural robotics for precision farming are now essential, but digital agriculture requires experts and skilled scientists. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AIGreenBots project aims to train 11 researchers in agricultural robotics for precision and digital agriculture. It involves a partnership among universities, research institutions, and companies from Portugal, the Netherlands, the UK, France, and Spain. The project focuses on academic and non-academic collaboration in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensor fusion, and safety for agricultural robotics. It will develop new agri-bot platforms. Currently, no PhD training programmes in Europe specifically focus on agriculture robotics, despite the rapidly growing demand for such research.

2024-03-26 – 2026-03-25

XPro

Explainable probabilistic models for robot applications

XPro is a bilateral project between ISR-UC and Universität Greifswald, funded by FCT (Portugal) and DAAD (Germany), aiming to tackle an important problem in engineering and robotics - probabilistic explainability of deep-models for robot-critical applications such as autonomous robot-perception, self-driving robot-vehicles, and decision making. XPro will focus on explainability by developing post-hoc techniques applied to existing pre-trained deep models applied to robot perception. In terms of case studies, XPro will explore two application domains, robotic perception and autonomous robotic-vehicles.

2023-07-01 – 2026-06-30

EuroAGE+

International Network for Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer to Promote Active Ageing

The EuroAGE+ project aims at fostering autonomous healthy life, mainly in elderly people but also in people with some degree of dependency, through the promotion of innovative initiatives based on ICT and specially socially assistive robots. The project involves Portugal-Spain cross-border cooperation of partners from EuroACE region, a region that covers Centro and Alentejo regions in Portugal, and Extremadura region in Spain, which is a territory in Iberian Peninsula heavily affected by the ageing of the population. The research team from ISR - University of Coimbra (ISR-UC) who participates in the EuroAGE+ project has been demonstrating and validating with elderly people the use of assistive robots as a key technology to promote active and healthy ageing, through cognitive, socio-emotional stimulation and physical activity promotion, thus contributing to quality of life enhancement and increased healthy life expectancy, mainly in the elderly population. In EuroAGE+, the research effort of ISR-UC is directed to the improvement of artificial perception and semantic knowledge representation of assistive robots and the development of more natural and personalized human-robot interaction in assistive robots, including the use of natural language (i.e. dialogue).

2022-10-01 – 2026-06-30

PRR–GreenAuto

Green Innovation for the Automotive Industry (PPS 18 - 3D navigation system for mobile robotic equipment)

In PPS18, the objective is to develop an integrated warehouse management and on-line transport system, based on an intelligent AMR stacker-type platform, with natural navigation supported by a multisensory localization. The system will essentially consist of: 1)- Automated warehouse module: 2) Precise location module, optimized to operate in large warehouses; 3) Predictive maintenance module.

2022-04-01 – 2026-06-30

PRR–Packaging of the Future

Packaging of the Future | +ecological +digital +inclusive

<p>In 2024, the <b>Embalagem do Futuro</b> project advanced through the coordinated work of three groups: Codification, Sensoring, and Futuring. Codification developed hybrid graphical codes combining public and encrypted private data, enabling offline access by authorized users. Sensoring created a miniaturized, autonomous sensing device with environmental monitoring and wireless communication. Futuring focused on scalable fabrication of stretchable electronics and battery-free sensor systems powered by inductive coupling. Together, these developments pave the way for smarter, more sustainable, and fully integrated packaging solutions.Codification Over the past year, the group focused on adapting advanced graphical codes to the constraints imposed by smart packaging. It was established that the packaging must contain codes compatible with conventional readers, while also enabling authorized users to retrieve the necessary information to unlock encrypted sensor data. The developed solution integrates both public and private data into a single code. During the shipping phase (first mile), a label is applied to the packaging containing two levels of information, with the private part comprising access keys to the sensors embedded in the packaging, as illustrated in Figure 1. Upon reception (last mile), if internet access for authentication is unavailable, the user can rely on a dedicated application capable of reading the private part of the code and locally retrieving the necessary credentials, as shown in Figure 2.One of the key innovations introduced is the ability to access encrypted information entirely offline, restricted only to authorized users &#8212; a new paradigm in physical environments with limited connectivity. The solution maintains compatibility with conventional readers for accessing public information, while fully concealing the private data. This hybrid approach allows for a smooth transition to industry adoption and minimizes the need for changes in existing processes.</p>

2022-01-01 – 2026-06-30

PRR–Micro Electronics

Micro-electronics: for a better future

The Microelectronics Agenda - Micro.electronics: for a better future, involves a group of 17 partners and is aligned with the EU's semiconductor initiatives: ICPEI ME (Important Project of Common European Interest on MicroElectronics) and the EU Chips Act. It is an initiative that aims to help unlock the potential of the semiconductor industry in the face of systemic failures in the microelectronics sector at European level. It aims to strengthen production capacity and competitiveness in the area of microelectronics, in terms of advanced packaging, industrialisation of products based on integrated optical circuits, new high-speed access networks and technologies for industry 4.0, as well as positioning Portugal at the forefront of the semiconductor management, production, distribution and recycling market, capable of supplying Europe and other countries on a global scale.

2022-01-01 – 2025-06-30

RECY-SMARTE

Sustainable approaches for recycling and re-use of discarded mobile phones

The project intends to implement an environmentally sound management of Waste Mobile Phones (WMP), achieving a significant reduction of the chemicals and all waste released into air, water, and soil to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment. Additionally, the project aims to reduce waste generation through prevention, recycling, and reuse of WMPs

2021-03-01 – 2025-12-31

5GSmartFact

Industrial Doctorate Training Network on Future Wireless Connected and Automated Industry enabled by 5G

The transition into the 4th industrial revolution promises to integrate IoT and cyber-physical systems into the industrial domain and to boost the productivity of industrial verticals thanks to a radical automation of all the phases of production. Communications are key to enable i4.0, but are subject to the stringent requirements of automated applications in terms of availability, reliability, low latency, integrity, scalability, safety and positioning accuracy. A wirelessly connected factory enables novel mobile robots, easy reconfiguration of assembly lines and migration of embedded control functions to the virtually infinite computational/cache resources and flexibility of edge clouds. From a managerial perspective, integrated billing and tracking capabilities of 5G facilitate novel models such as that can drive a business disruption. As a result, the i4.0 ecosystem is an opportunity for the wireless community and has become one of the key targets of 5G. From a technical side, the development of wireless i4.0 entails a paradigm shift from reactive and centralized networks towards massive, ultrareliable and proactive networks that may operate in wide remote scenarios, with thousands of devices, uncertainty, high dynamics, rare events, unpredictable interference and harsh conditions. Merging 5G networks and i4.0 comes with its own difficulties, because these two domains have been disjoint so far. Here is the key opening identified by 5GSmartFact: the need of a surge of skilled researchers and engineers in the upcoming years to work at the crossroads of factory automation and 5G evolutions. Having this in mind, the objective of the research programme is to train young researches to be able to analyse, design, develop and assess the deployment of 5G networks that target the i4.0 requirements and exploit them to integrate current robot applications which might lead to a complete redesign of robot architectures and hence to a leap forward in the automation industry.

2019-01-01 – 2024-12-31

ECOBOTICS

SEA-Bio-inspired Technologies for a Sustainable Marine Ecosystem

ECOBOTICS.SEA is a future-oriented 4-year research project with a research-driven human-resources training network in its center. ECOBOTICS.SEA focuses on the research of underwater robotics and biomimetics concepts and technology, targeting problems and needs in the real world that are related to the study of biospheres, species and ecosystems and their preservation. 8 Early-Stage Research Projects (ESRP) compose the research plan. The research to be carried out in these 8 ESRP is organized into 5 scientific work packages. The core of the research activities is constituted by 88 months of secondments within the partner network which are essential for ensuring the required knowledge and know-how transfer between the partners. The partner network is composed by 3 universities and R&D institutes and 3 companies located in European member states, plus 1 R&D in Third Countries. The consortium is highly interdisciplinary, aggregating excellence from various domains, including robotics,biomimetics for water/underwater systems, automation, biology, ecosystem preservation, entrepreneurship and anthropology applied to species preservation. Workshops, summer schools and international conferences serve as complementary measures, not only for further stimulating the exchange of knowledge and providing training, namely to the ESRs, but also for achieving the 4 scientific objectives as specified in the proposal. ECOBOTICS.SEA also incorporates a detailed and well defined career and risk management and training towards application-oriented R&D.Finally, the project is planned to establish an open community that will grow over time and enlarge its impact during and beyond the period of this project, resulting in a lasting, truly international R&D and business network beyond the project’s lifetime.

2022-04-17 – 2024-02-29

RoboTherapist

UIDB/00048/2020 | Child-Robot Interaction (cHRI) in Pediatric Settings

The RoboTherapist is an interdisciplinary project focused on researching and developing innovative robotic applications for child-robot interaction (cHRI) to facilitate adaptive health-related coping and improve the quality of life outcomes in pediatric settings. Interactive stimulation robots, a subset of robots designed for social, educational, rehabilitation, therapeutic, and entertainment purposes, offer potential benefits across various practical domains such as communication, learning, entertainment, rehabilitation, therapy, and behavior change. The application of robotics to therapeutic interventions, commonly referred to as robotherapy, represents a promising and groundbreaking approach to promoting health, adjustment, and development in children. This is particularly significant given children's increasing enthusiasm for technology and their openness to interactions with robots. To achieve the intended therapeutic goals and design effective cHRI applications, the RoboTherapist project faces multiple research challenges, with a primary focus on ensuring sustained engagement between the child and the robot.The project aims to contribute to cHRI by proposing applications that incorporate unobtrusive sensing, deep-learning-based automatic perception of child engagement in the robot task, and the application of reinforcement learning (RL) methods. These methods enable the robot to proactively and adaptively engage and interact with children. Ultimately, the RoboTherapist project seeks to advance the field of cHRI by addressing these challenges and designing applications that enhance the well-being of children through effective therapeutic interactions with robots.

2021-02-01 – 2024-01-31

RELIABLE

Advances in Control Design Methodologies for Safety Critical Systems Applied to Robotics

Advanced robotics, smart sensors, and related control systems methodologies have the potential to be disruptive technologies that may generate significant societal benefits, but it may also produce serious consequences in case of failure, particularly in safety-critical applications. Safety is a critical requirement for a wide range of engineering systems, and engineering design of such systems is complex and involves many technical fields ranging from conceptual algorithmic level design with formal guaranties to hardware and software development, implementation, and operation. In this project, we target the methodological/conceptual side at the algorithmic/design level in the field of automation and control systems. The aim is to develop system methodological tools and algorithms that explicitly integrates in the formulation safety constraints and that are provably (mathematically) safe certified. To this end, a particular goal is to combine data driven approaches and machine learning techniques (known to be non-reliable, and/or extremely difficult to obtain formal guarantees) with recent optimization control based techniques capable of enforcing invariance in the context of control barrier functions (CBFs) and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) in the presence of challenging restrictions and uncertainties. Another goal is to move from a single system to (possible large scale) safety critical networked systems involving multiple agents operating autonomously over networks in dynamic environments, where additional challenges arise due to the presence of a communication network. In this case, we will investigate the following crucial aspects: i) how to design control strategies to detect and/or isolate faulty agents and malicious attacks, ii) how to improve robustness under faulty agents and/or tempered input/output signals regarding controllability and observability properties of the overall system, and iii) how to improve resilience of consensus like processes, covering in this way a wide range of applications (distributed optimization, motion coordination tasks like flocking, leader following, among others). This project is mainly devoted to conceptual aspects, but to illustrate, demonstrate and also assure that it is driven by high-impact safety-critical application systems, RELIABLE will also focus on the following case studies: - Robotic vehicles in space, aerial and underwater scenarios: The scenarios considered here are mostly related to remote monitoring and exploration applications that require high performance control systems, and are critical in the sense that the consequences of failure can lead to an increase of operational costs, loss of resources (e.g., equipment), opportunities, and failure of the mission. An example to study is the development of path planners for hopping robots traversing rugged terrains of large celestial bodies (such as planets and moons) which has disconnected safe regions cluttered with forbidden zones. Other important topics include the development of localization, navigation and motion control strategies of single and multiple autonomous underwater vehicles and unmanned fixed-wing aerial vehicles with safety guarantees. Here, we plan to go beyond algorithm development, but to test them in digital twins (realistic simulators) and field experiments. - Mobile robotics in industry 4.0 scenarios: The aim is to contribute to the development of innovative manufacturing solutions with particular emphasis on robotic co-workers scenarios using mobile robotic vehicles. Key research points include the development of high performance active and reliable perception algorithms, reactive planning, navigation and control systems to enable mobile robots to operate autonomously in unstructured environments with effective human-robot collaboration with safety guarantees. This proposal brings together experts from the areas mentioned above involving a team of PhD students, pos-docs and several faculty members with the University of Porto and University of Coimbra. The merit of this research program is that it targets fundamental/conceptual research, but it is also well motivated by applications. The theoretical solutions envisioned will be strongly rooted in research work done by the team, where obtaining formal guarantees of safety, robustness, stability and performance is a key objective. At practical level, one key objective is to demonstrate and integrate some of the algorithms developed in software tools for command and control of single and multiple robotic systems, simulate and test within hardware in the loop, and validate through real field tests. https://home.isr.uc.pt/~rui/projects.html

2022-07-01 – 2024-01-31

Move4ASD

UIDB/0048/2020 | Multimodal Motion Analysis Using Machine Learning-based Techniques for Autism Spectrum Disorder Characterization

Studies on motor function are relevant in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because action/perception cycles are impaired in this condition. This goes beyond atypical motor coordination, including core symptoms of autism. Accor- dingly, the neural basis of action understanding and motor function impairment in ASD remains poorly characterized. The mirror neuron system is believed to be altered and it is involved in a broad range of deficits such as poor dexterity, atypical repetitive movements, and action imitation. These basic deficits may explain core social and communication impairments. In this project, we aim to develop a machine learning-based approach to characterize ASD through multimodal motion analysis including gait function analysis. For this purpose, a paradigm based on imitation and action understanding will be used to map motor function through electroencephalography and behavioral motion data in a serious game framework.

2021-01-01 – 2023-12-31

POLIBOT

Intelligent Collaborative Robotics for Steel Mold Polishing

POLIBOT is a co-promoted RTD project involving two companies, Norcam (consortium leader) and TJ Aços, and two Non-Business Entities from the Research and Innovation System (ENE SII), the Institute for Systems and Robotics - University of Coimbra and CENTIMFE - Technological Center for the Mouldmaking, Special Tools and Plastics Industry. The goal of this project is to develop a collaborative robotics system to address the problem of surface finishing and polishing of injection molds for plastic parts. In this context, compliant robotic control architectures will have to be developed, as well as associated human-robot "mixed/virtual reality" interfaces, in order to significantly improve the polishing process (which is currently manual and very time consuming). Autonomous robotic learning based on sensory patterns will also be explored, taking human "skills" as a starting point. The project integrates a strong research component in an area little explored and focused on industrial processes, the collaborative robotics in the finishing of mold surfaces, from which will result an innovative system that will constitute a new product for the borrowing company, and a significant technological leap for the industry. This system will be quickly integrated in the companies' production chain, becoming an added value for the co-promoters and users, where a greater efficiency of the processes is foreseen, reduction of defects and waste, and where a strong contribution to the increase of productivity and sustainability is estimated.

2018-10-01 – 2022-06-30

SEMFIRE

Safety, Exploration and Maintenance of Forests with the Integration of Ecological Robotics

Europe has been affected by an alarming number of wildfires every year, ravaging nearly half a million hectares of forestry areas and resulting in an unacceptable amount of human losses. The year 2017 was one of the worst ever recorded, with devastating wildfires raging across the globe. Bearing these shocking facts in mind, this position paper aims to lay the foundations of crucial new upcoming research in the field of forestry robotics by presenting an overview of the SEMFIRE project. SEMFIRE proposes the development of a robotic system designed to reduce the accumulation of combustible material in forests, thus assisting in landscaping maintenance tasks for wildfire prevention. SEMFIRE (Safety, Exploration and Maintenance of Forests with the Integration of Ecological Robotics) proposes the development of a support system embracing robotics and other innovative technologies, so as to reduce fuel accumulation (e.g., forest debris), thus assisting in landscaping maintenance tasks. This is an application domain with an unquestionable beneficial impact at the economic, social and environmental level, as the proposed project will contribute by significantly reducing wildfire hazard potential. SEMFIRE addresses several relevant disciplines to succeed in fire prevention by benefiting from disruptive technologies and novel ecological robotic approaches. The focus will be placed in the development of a multi-robot system, combined with pervasive local positioning, multi-robot navigation and coordination in forests, and an innovative artificial perception architecture. SEMFIRE will be developed by a consortium with proven experience in robotics and other technological solutions. as well as experts in wildfire prevention. SEMFIRE follows the research topics covered by the Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra (ISR-UC), the robotic technologies developed by Ingeniarius, Lda. (ING), and in the application domain of SFera ultimate, Lda. (SFU). This 36-month project will be methodically evaluated by specialists under real-world settings (i.e., forest lands), in a technological perspective of commercial valuation.

2011-03-01 – 2014-08-31

PDCS10

Pedestrian Detection in Urban Challenging Scenarios

Amongst the various capabilities required by an intelligent vehicle perception system, object detection is a key one to provide safe and reliable vehicle autonomy or assistance (e.g. collision detection). Over the plethora of world objects which a human being learns how to avoid in driving situations, the human being himself is one of the most difficult for an intelligent machine to detect. This is so because the human body can appear in several poses, positions, forms, sizes and colors. Research in the area of pedestrian detection has been intense in the last years in our research group with state of the art results. However there are some 'critical' situations, regarding pedestrian detection on urban scenarios that were not satisfactory resolved. The key problem behind these critical situations occurs when pedestrians appear in the scene partially occluded, close to each other (cluttered situations) or in scenes with complex backgrounds (problematical object-background segmentation). New challenges are now faced by the research team on developing pedestrian detection systems suitable for more real-world applications, focused on specific challenging urban scenarios. These new approaches will embody scene contextual information aiming to improve the detection performance in the above mentioned challenging situations, while performing also the assessment of danger situations. To accomplish the project objectives, the following tasks were defined: 1) Laser and vision data segmentation; 2) Feature Extraction and Feature Selection; 3) Neural Classifiers - Training; 4) Classifier fusion - Trainable approaches; 5) Context-aware multi-sensor fusion; 6) Scenarios definition, datasets and field tests.

2005-09-01 – 2008-08-31

NCT04

Nonlinear control techniques applied in path following of WMRs and autonomous, vehicles with high precision localization system

A navigation system with anti-collision behavior for DD and car-like WMRs, that integrates redundant encoders data, inertial data, and absolute positioning data, is under development by the team of the project. Among other modules, a path-following controller, a vehicle's pose estimator, and an anti-collision system compose the navigation system. In this proposal the purpose is to further research on path-following control with the main goal of developing improved controllers with better performances when compared with the path-following controllers already developed using fuzzy-logic and input-output feedback linearization methods. Improvements are required in to ensure that the vehicle follows the predefined reference trajectory with high precision, for a large range of velocities, and in presence of uncertainties.The main issues to be investigated are the following: - Based on appropriate dynamic models formulations, experiments will be performed in order to identify and validate the parameters of WMRs prototypes; - The design of a velocity planner in order to achieve smooth vehicle acceleration and jerk minimization. Taking into account that certain polynomial splines minimize jerk, the core of the approach will be a variational principle that generates such splines; - In the design and implementation of the path-following controllers, intelligent control and model-based approaches, using nonlinear and adaptive control techniques, will be researched and applied. In particular, the nonlinear techniques include input-output feedback linearization and sliding mode. The robustness in WMR path-following control can be effectively accomplished by sliding mode control with on-line parameter identification, and, in the case of the input output feedback linearization controller, by an outer control loop based on Kalman-based active observer controller; - Further developments of our guidance system based on fusing redundant wheel encoders, inertial data, and positioning data provided by sensing natural and artificial landmarks.

2009-04-01 – 2013-03-31

SInCACI

Intelligent Systems for Industrial Control, Acquisition and Communication

The objectives and scope of the project are performing R&D on intelligent control and decision methods; Development of a general-purpose Fuzzy Control System (FCS); On-line process control and monitoring; Controller specification and implementation; Visualization of the process state; Devices/process failure reports; Direct application to industry problems; Research computational intelligence techniques for the development of soft sensors for industrial application; R&D on industrial communication and processing modules: industrial distributed real-time communication fieldbus protocols: ControlNet, Ethernet/IP, DeviceNet; ProfiNet. Relevant properties to industrial fieldbuses: Real-time operation, Reliability, Deterministic, Error-proof, Easy to extend and maintain. Direct application to industry problems; Selling on market.

2018-07-26 – 2022-07-25

BCI-CONNECT

Effective brain connectivity of decision and error monitoring circuits in health and disease: from neurocognition to brain computer interfaces

The Project B-RELIABLE (concluded in July 2022), was focused on the research of neurofeedback and Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) approaches for neurodevelopmental disorders based on error monitoring and how error signals may contribute to the understanding of goal oriented decision-making and action. From the ISR developments, we highlight a gamified BCI approach based on non-volitional neurofeedback for cognitive training, aiming at reaching a neurorehabilitation tool for application in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The BCI consists of an emotional facial paradigm (EFP) controlled by an intelligent agent that makes correct and wrong actions, while the user observes and judges the agent’s actions, and that learns through reinforcement learning (RL) an optimal strategy if the participant elicits Error-related Potentials (ErrPs) upon incorrect agent actions.

2018-06-20 – 2022-06-19

B-RELIABLE

Boosting reliability and interaction on brain-machine interface systems integrating automatic error-detection

The Project B-RELIABLE (concluded in June 2022), was very focused on the research and development of methods to improve the reliability, naturalness, and usability of brain-machine/computer interfaces (BMI/BCI). The following two achievements are highlighted: 1) new approaches to use an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal called Error Related Potential (ErrP) allowing the automatic detection and correction of errors in communication spellers, and new detection methods based on Riemannian geometry to improve the generalization of ErrP classification models across sessions and participants; 2) a unique BMI framework in the context of a Brain-actuated Wheelchair, combining self-paced control, dynamic time-window commands and a collaborative-controller. This framework allowed to achieve very high driving performances reaching unprecedent results, and with minimal physical and mental workload. This showed the possibility of significantly improving the usability of BCI systems.

2017-02-01 – 2020-01-31

HTPDIR

Human Tracking and Perception in Dynamic Immersive Rooms

The potential of immersive reality systems and its broad range of application are well known. Despite the numerous systems available, there are currently no solutions that map static and dynamic obstacles in the physical space, and thereby users have to circulate in empty rooms or perform interaction with the immersive system in a very limited space. On the other hand, the tracking of the users restricts to the user's head (or hands through the use of controllers), or when members and hands are also tracked, users need to stand in front of the RGB-D sensors -D (or other sensors) in a limited space. The motion tracking of the entire body in larger areas is usually solved using tags, with optical or radiofrequency modulation, placed at several points of the body, and using high frequency sensors to capture these tags. This leads to systems with low flexibility and extremely expensive. In this project it is proposed to develop a low cost system based on multiple RGB-D sensors ( = 4), providing simultaneously the tracking of the full body of the user at any point of the physical space (areas of tens of m ^ 2 ) considering unstructured and dynamic environments, gesture recognition for a more natural interaction with the immersive environment, as well as the interaction with the real world from the immersive world. This system finds a broad range of applications in many areas, namely, shopping area (real estate development, allowing to show final finishing/decoration in spaces), education (space simulation in classrooms, museums, showrooms), training in simulation (accident simulation, police training, social training). The possibility of adapting any space to a new dynamic virtual world, where the user can move within it, opens up a whole new range of solutions with a potential that can be exploited in several areas of activity.

2013-01-01 – 2015-12-30

AMS-HMI12

Assisted Mobility Supported by Shared-Control and Advanced Human-Machine Interfaces

This interdisciplinary project, aims to develop theoretical and experimental frameworks for the design, control and evaluation of a new generation of networked assistive mobile robots. This project addresses human-centered mobile robotics and will contribute for safer and more user-friendly mobile robotic assistants adapted to human environments. In partnership with the APCC (Associação de Paralisia Cerebral de Coimbra), we aim to contribute with results towards better mobility of people suffering from neuromotor disorders. Human factors will be taken into account, namely by benchmarking and evaluating the developed approaches by end users. Human-machine interfaces are a central key in Human-centered mobile robotics since they define how users can input commands to steer the mobile robot. Users with severe motor disabilities need interfaces that can be controlled with minimal or zero muscular activity, such as brain-computer interfaces and eye-trackers. However, this type of interface provides information that is sparse in time and that may be unreliable. The use of multi-modal interfaces can help to increase both information transfer rate and reliability, but it is still not enough to operate efficiently a mobile robot (e.g., a wheelchair) in domestic environments. Therefore, human-machine collaborative navigation, accepting input commands from user is required to have a safer and efficient navigation. The development of 2D/3D perception/reconstruction is a major requirement for SLAM and to plan navigation trajectories in cluttered and dynamic environments. To accomplish the project objectives, the following research topics were addressed: 1- 3D Reconstruction Algorithms 2- Real-time Dense Reconstruction 3- Visual Odometry from Planes 4- Signal Processing and Classification of Biosignals 5- BCI-based Human-Machine Interface (HMI) 6- Multimodal HMI and User’s State Characterization 7– Collaborative Control, Planning and Safety for Assistive Robot Navigation 8– Human-robot Interaction 9- Prototypes 10- Experimental Tests

2010-04-01 – 2012-06-30

INTERFACE10

Emergent Interfaces for Improving Accessibility of Persons with Cerebral Palsy

The main goal of this project is to research on new technologies that can contribute to increase mobility and accessibility of people suffering from cerebral palsy disorders. Cerebral palsy is a broad term used to describe a group of chronic movement or posture disorders, and the symptoms vary significantly among patients, making the design of interfaces for such specific persons a very challenging task. Among the accessibility problems, increasing the mobility of persons with motor disabilities has motivated researchers on the development of assisted navigation technologies to give, otherwise motor impaired people, a higher freedom of movement, contributing, in this sense, to improve their life standards. Bearing this goal in mind, several research works related to the development of intelligent wheelchairs has been performed in past recent years. In this sense, the user characterization is a relevant research topic when dealing with shared-control systems, such as an intelligent wheelchair, once it may allow an adaptation of the shared control system to the users capabilities.

2007-10-01 – 2010-09-30

PMITS06

Perception Methods for an Intelligent Transportation System using On-Board and Off-Board Sensing

On this project, the main focus resides on the research of methods and algorithms for robust and reliable perception of pedestrians and other moving obstacles in ITS specific scenarios. The perception system will integrate information from both on-board and off-board tracking and classification modules. These modules are the research core of this proposal together with the fusion module that will integrate them. The project aims at enhancing the perception capability of an ITS, pursuing the following scientific and technical goals: Improve object classification algorithms and design new ones using several sensing modalities (laser, ultrasound, vision) gathered from on-board and off-board sensors; Algorithms for multi-view detection and classification of objects, pedestrians and vehicles using a calibrated camera network; Algorithms to robustly fuse information provided by object tracking and classification modules; Analyze algorithms for object detection and tracking modules and adapt them to come up with a context-based object tracker (well adapted to each specific situation); Information fusion techniques that will allow to obtain accurate detection and localization of vehicles and pedestrians by making use of data obtained both on-board and off-board the vehicles.

2005-06-01 – 2008-05-31

MTDTS04

Multi-target detection and tracking in semi-structured outdoor environment using laserscanner and vision

The problems to be studied under this proposal deal with collision avoidance for Intelligent Vehicles. We propose to research on techniques for a Multi-Target Detection and Tracking System (MTDTS) for CyberCars, following previous work of the team members. The MTDTS is based on six main modules: - Laserscanner data segmentation -- concerning this subject we propose further research on methods to come up with an improved scan segmentation algorithm, namely improving raw data filtering and adding other line fitting capabilities; - Color camera based object detection and classification --the algorithm will be made up of two submodules:segmentation module using color and geometrical features, provided by the vision system, and using clusters of range data provided by the laserscanner processing module; module for generation of bounding boxes (blobs) defining obstacle regions. A set of different blobs will be considered corresponding each one to a possible different object type. The blobs generation will use information such as dimensions, distance to the object, color; - Object classification using range data - The classification process follows a multi-hypothesis approach and uses a voting scheme considering every hypothesis over time. A confidence level is associated to each classified object; - Object classification fusion - investigate algorithms to robustly fuse information provided by the object classification modules of both laser and vision. Baysian-based methods will be evaluted for this purpose; - Information fusion techniques that will allow to obtain accurate detection and localization of vehicles and pedestrians by making use of data obtained both on-board and off-board the vehicles; - Situation-based information processing -- in this task the algorithms for the different modules of the MTDTS will be analysed and adapted to the specific situations which can arise in CyberCars scenarios; - Object tracking and impact-time computation - the object tracking will be performed by means of a kalman filtering applied to each tracked object. Different process models in the Kalman algorithm fitted to the dynamics of the detected/tracked objects will be researched and used. The impact-time computation will use a classical method based on the projection of all possible points of impact (edges of the vehicle or the object) in the direction of the object´s velocity, and for each instant it is assumed a constant object velocity relative to the vehicle.

2017-07-15 – 2019-07-14

EVOLLU

Experiências Auditivas Melhoradas

2018-07-01 – 2022-04-30

CORE

Centre of Operations for Rethinking Engineering

The consortium aims to create and invigorate an R&D centre, following the activities promoted by Ingeniarius company, whose motto has been “Thinking Beyond Engineering”, called CORE: Centre of Operations for Rethinking Engineering. CORE reflects the key element that adds innovation and research promoted by the partners, with strong past collaboration, pouring into disruptive proofs-of-concept, which aims for the industrial and commercial exploitation of knowledge associated with new technologies, with particular focus on Intelligent Systems and Robotics and Sports Engineering and Health Technologies. This R&D centre in copromotion comprises qualified human resources from Ingeniarius (ING), University of Coimbra (UC), and the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC), in line with RIS3 priorities. This unit embodies all the innovations behind the competitive development of ING, which has progressively proved to be a differentiating factor in its context, promoting technology transfer and knowledge sharing. This research focuses on Soccer Wearable Technologies as a promising field in scientific, technological, and economic aspects. This research deals with different approaches from several perspective. For the scientific viability, it namely treats the development and the interest of the scientific community in this technology, in addition to the technological aspect in which it evaluates the hardware and software tools that are available. Concerning the economic viability, it demonstrates the interest of economic players and potential investment for future interests. This research intends to demonstrate the feasibility and technological prospect of serious games and mixed reality for future scientific aspects, mainly exploring mixed reality technologies, providing important definitions and scientific background, In addition to the technological aspect in which the software and hardware solutions related to the field of study are treated , The economic in the viability section briefly approaches some markets prospects regarding Mixed Reality Technologies and serious games, while searching for key players.

2015-02-01 – 2018-01-31

GrowMeUp

Grown-ups with supportive robots

GrowMeUp main aim is to increase the years of independent and active living, and the quality of life of older persons (age of 65+) with light physical or mental health problems who live alone at home and can find pleasure and relief in getting support or stimulation to carry out their daily activities over the ageing process. GrowMeUp will provide an affordable service robotic system able to learn the older persons needs and habits over time and enhance (‘grow up’/scale up) its functionality to compensate for the elder’s degradation of abilities, to support, encourage and engage the older persons to stay longer active, independent and socially involved, in carrying out their daily life at home. State of the art cloud computing technologies and machine learning mechanisms will be used, enabling the GrowMeUp robot to extend and increase its knowledge continuously over time. Robots will share and distribute their knowledge through the cloud, so that other “connected” robots can learn from each other's experience, increasing thus their functionality/competencies and simultaneously reduce learning effort. Implicit daily activities support will be provided in a human like way characterized by behaviour and emotional understanding, intelligent dialoguing and personalized services provision. GrowMeUp will be introduced early enough to the elder person, creating thus a positive long-term relationship between the elder and the robot, considering persons as active collaborators with whom the robot can interact, so as to increase its knowledge about their personalized needs. Furthermore, the robot will be connected to a virtual care network that will provide for continuous care, but also motivation and education to the older persons of how to best use the platform. A group of relevant stakeholders will use the system over a nine month pilot period. The goal is to achieve global leadership in advanced solutions supporting active and healthy ageing.

2014-01-01 – 2016-12-31

BAMBI

Bottom-up Approaches to Machines dedicated to Bayesian Inference

We propose a theory and a hardware implementation of probabilistic computation inspired by biochemical cell signalling. We will study probabilistic computation following three axes: algebra, biology, and hardware. In each case, we will develop a bottom-up hierarchical approach starting from the elementary components, and study how to combine them to build more complex systems. We propose Bayesian gates operating on probability distributions on binary variables as the building blocks of our probabilistic algebra. These Bayesian gates can be seen as a generalisation of logical operators in Boolean algebra. We propose to interpret elementary cell signalling pathways as biological implementation of these probabilistic gates. In turn, the key features of biochemical processes give new insights for innovative probabilistic hardware implementation. We propose to associate conventional electronics and novel stochastic nano-devices to build the required hardware elements. Combining them will lead to new artificial information processing systems, which could, in the future, outperform classical computers in tasks involving a direct interaction with the physical world. For these purposes, the BAMBI project associates research in Bayesian probability theory, molecular biology, nanophysics, computer science and electronics.

2013-04-15 – 2015-04-14

CASIR

Coordinated Attention for Social Interaction with Robots

When interacting in socially-relevant applications, robots are expected to engage with humans while displaying attentional behaviours that resemble those of their interlocutors; as a matter of fact, they are supposed to be able to assess intentionality and to be, themselves, intentional agents. Several solutions have been proposed for providing social robots with the ability of engaging in joint attention, the ability to share attention with another agent towards the same object or event, one of the most primal of social interactions. However, they have yet to appropriately capture some of the most crucial skills involved, such as the multisensory nature of active perception and attention, its inherent uncertainty, or the processes responsible for the emergence of an intentional stance. Consequently, social robots have only been able to instil a sense of intentionality and reciprocity for very specific and constrained social scenarios. We therefore propose to research an integrated probabilistic framework to deal with the endogenous and exogenous coordinated control of stimulus-driven and goal-directed multisensory attention within the context of social interaction.

2006-01-08 – 2010-02-08

BACS

Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems

BACS &ndash; Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems &ndash; is an Integrated Project conducted under the Thematic Priority: Information Society Technologies - Sub-topic: Cognitive Systems - of the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission. Objectives: To demonstrate that Bayesian probability theory is a feasible alternative mathematical framework. To propose a new modeling methodology to both, better understand the cognition of living beings, and to build more efficient artificial cognitive systems. To validate the whole approach by demonstrating effective Bayesian cognitive models for living beings and artificial systems by producing results. This can clearly and objectively be assessed with new designed experimental paradigms. In this project we investigate and apply Bayesian models and approaches in order to develop artificial cognitive systems that can carry out complex tasks in real world environments. We will take inspiration from the brains of mammals including humans and apply our findings to the developments of cognitive systems.

2010-01-01 – 2013-05-30

EVSIM09

Models for traffic simulation of electric vehicles with communications and dynamic decision capacity

One important advancement in the ITS area is the introduction of the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. This new technology opens new frontiers leading to multi-vehicle strategies and making the existent traffic simulators inadequate for modern purposes due to the lack of communication and information management. Until now the research focus of the ITS group in the ISR-UC was in individual Intelligent and Electric Vehicles (EV), but with the new technologies enabling communication and demanding information management, the research is turning from single to communicant multi-vehicles. The lack of communication and information models, energy consumption models and an appropriated architecture of the existing traffic simulators made the group decide to research these models and new simulator architectures. As the development of a new class of traffic simulators, suitable for massive traffic simulations with communicant vehicles should demand much time and a great effort (beyond the scope of this project, and more adequate to a larger International project) the group decided to extend functionalities of one of the available traffic simulators in order to study 3D energy consumption without depending on the implementation of the new class of simulators. The project has four main research components: 1) Energy models for EV; 2) Communication and information management models for V2V and V2I; 3) New traffic simulation architecture; 4) Extensions of an existing traffic simulator.

2016-07-01 – 2019-06-30

A2HR

Automatic Adaptation of an Humanoid Robot Gait to Different Floor-Robot Friction Coefficients

A human gait trajectory acquisition will be performed using an upgraded acquisition system already developed using 2 digital video cameras, one to the sagittal and the other to the lateral plane. It will be also developed an instrumented pair of shoes for reading the vertical and horizontal forces on a human walking shoe, allowing the calculation of shoe-floor friction coefficient and CoP trajectories. Another innovation proposed by the project team is to include the reinforcement learning to automatically adapt the robot walking when it detects the change of the friction condition between the robot and the ground. Finally, to complement the complex dynamic model of the humanoid robot, a haptic system (implemented using a force feedback device) will be developed to allow real time feedback of the robot's CoP to an operator to correct its stability, changing the ankle and torso angles manually. Data from this system will be used to train the SVR (Support Vector Regression) stability control system of the humanoid robot. It is expected that the instrumented shoes developed can also be used for medical applications, allowing gait pathologies identification and quantification of their severity. It can be an important new medical diagnosis tool, overcoming the cost limitations of the present gait diagnosis tools. This system would allow an objective understanding of the clinical evolution of patients, enabling an effective functional rehabilitation of a patient's gait. This system will be tested in the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Unit, Coimbra Hospital and University Centre (CHUC).

2013-01-01 – 2015-12-31

Mobility People

Diagnosis and Assisted Mobility for People with Special Needs

2014-08-28 – 2015-01-31

Sandal

Sapato Instrumentado para Caraterização e Análise da Marcha Humana

2018-07-26 – 2022-07-27

LANDMARK

Sistema Integrado de Comunicações e Lidar

Main Objective: A key technology for autonomous driving is the real-time high-definition (HD) map of the car's surroundings. The usual approach to fulfil those requirements is to use on-board sensors inside the vehicle, such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) and vision based systems. Due to its accuracy and fast scanning speed LiDAR systems have been adopted by the major car makers. An autonomous vehicle operates in isolation from other vehicles by using its internal sensors. However, better performance can be achieved if connected and cooperative vehicles can exchange sensor information and real-time ultra-high definition (UHD) maps with other vehicles or with the infrastructure, to overcome limitations of their onboard ranging sensors regarding their detection range, angle of view and blockage areas. However, collaborative UHD mapping places high requirements on computing power and data transmission on V2X. Ultra-fast data transmission can be provided by free-space optical wireless communication (OWC). Furthermore, OWC provides small size and light weight transceivers and is highly immune to electromagnetic interference and interception, making itself a secure communication technology. LANDmaRk ambition is to make a giant step forward in autonomous driving, by a revolutionary concept that integrates into high bandwidth OWC systems optical reflectometry concepts. This hybrid technology will increase the available wireless bandwidth by several orders of magnitude, enabling real time cloud based high definition map generation.

2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31

CHOPIN

Cooperation between Human and rObotic teams in catastroPhic INcidents

MRS may be very useful on assisting humans in many distributed activities, especially in hazardous scenarios, by extending human perception and actuation with distributed sensors and actuators. The CHOPIN R&D project aims at exploiting this human-robot symbiosis in the development of human rescuers’ support systems for small-scale search and rescue missions in urban catastrophic incidents, an application domain with an unquestionable beneficial impact on society. A proof of concept will be developed for innovative techniques about cooperation between teams of human agents and teams of mobile robotic agents and collaborative context awareness in search and rescue scenarios.

2008-08-01 – 2011-08-01

PROMETHEUS

Prediction and interpretation of human behaviour based on probabilistic structures and heterogeneous sensors

The project intends to establish a link between fundamental sensing tasks and automated cognition processes that concern the understanding a short-term prediction of human behaviour as well as complex human interaction. The analysis of human behaviour is unrestricted environments, including localization and tracking of multiple people and recognition of their activities, currently constitutes a topic of intensive research in the signal processing and computer vision communities. This research is driven by different important applications, including unattended surveillance and intelligent space monitoring.

2012-09-02 – 2017-09-02

TULA Move

Technology Transfer

TULA Move is the Intelligent Transport System (ITS). It is an electric vehicle built with leading edge technology, designed to be easily used for small trips at low speed in urban or private environments, to complement regular public and private transports. Rovisco Pais Hospital Medical Center for physical rehabilitation which provides special care to patients with reduced mobility - Tocha, Coimbra; Former hospital for treatment of patients with leprosy; Has an area of 114 hectares and it was built with a modular structure composed by dispersed buildings.

2011-11-01 – 2015-10-30

Social Robot

Social Robot

The main goal of the proposed project is to provide an answer to the demographic change challenge, through knowledge transfer and the creation of strategic synergies between the project's participating academia and industry regarding the development of an integrated Social Robotics system (SocialRobot) for "Ageing Well". The work focuses on bringing together the Robotic and Computer Science fields by integrating state of the art Robotic and Virtual Social Care Communities technologies and services to provide solutions to key issues of relevance for improved independent living and quality of life of elderly people and efficiency of care. The SocialRobot development will be based on a "human centred approach" in which the elderly individual needs and requirements are met. The project will give the opportunity to participating SMEs with excellent credit in their domain and peripheral European regions, to reach excellence and compete with innovative products in the elderly care market, at European and International level. The major challenges to be addressed in the project include the adaptation of state of the art robotic mobile platforms and their integration with a virtual collaborative social network to provide: - Detection of individual needs and requirements related to ageing (e.g. physical mobility limitations or/and cognitive decline), and provision of support through timely involvement of care teams, consisting of different groups of people (family members, neighbours, friends) that collaborate dynamically and virtually; means independently of time and their physical locations; behaviour analysis to adapt social relationships and contexts of the elderly people as they age; - Navigate indoors and unstructured environments and provide affective and empathetic user-robotic interaction, taking into account the capabilities of and acceptance by elderly users.

2011-01-08 – 2014-07-01

TICE.Healthy

Health and Quality of Life Systems

TICE.Healthy will develop new products and services for the &ldquo;Health and Quality of Life&rdquo; markets using the internet as the infrastructure&rsquo;s support. This will be achieved through 4 actions lines: 1) We.Can: platform for delivering "Health and Quality of Life" products and services (PPS # 1). 2) We.Can Connect: Interoperability between health and quality of life systems (PPS # 2). 3) Products and Services Health and Quality of Life: the other PSP's. 4) Support business models development (Task across all PPS's). This line is structured around an ICT platform named WE.CAN, which will be a products/services delivery channel and a tool to build an and ecosystems around sellers, users and stakeholders The project has a diverse and complementary partnership, with 30 co-sponsors (20 companies and 10 institutions for R & D and Technology Transfer) and about 10 partners (user entities and other stakeholders), and is coordinated with the PCT "HCP - Health Cluster Portugal" in sharing knowledge and opportunities and supporting its various members in reaching global markets.

2011-01-08 – 2014-07-01

TICE.Mobility

User-Centered Mobility System

The TICE.Mobility project aims to provide mobility products and services through the internet and thereby converging to the availability of such solutions on the market. The area of mobility has been considered a priority in social and economic European politics (the European economy loses annually about 100 billion euros, or 1% of EU GDP, due to mobility problems), and TICE.PT elected the "MOBILITY" as one of its key areas. The consortia will develop an IT platform for mobility services, called "One.Stop.Transport", in PPS # 1 (first sub-project) and products and mobility services in the other sub-projects, which will be marketed on that platform, but also other channels according to each business model. The consortia complementarities can be analyzed by participants in this project, with 16 companies, 12 R&D institutions and 10 end-users. It should be noted that TICE.Mobility has agreed with the "Pole of Competitiveness and Technology Industry for Mobility” a continuous collaboration between R&D projects from each other and support to the consortia internationalization strategies.

2011-01-03 – 2012-12-03

APSUBA

Active Perception for Scene Understanding and Behaviour Analysis (APSUBA): An application for Social Robotic

Active Perception for Scene Understanding and Behaviour Analysis (APSUBA): An application for Social Robotic. Wiki. The aim of the presented project is to develop an active perception system of the environment, acting as an agent inside a heterogeneous sensor network, for scene understanding and behaviour analysis. The proposed perception system is composed of two different mechanisms: an active visual perception system and a metric perception system acting inside a network of heterogeneous sensor such as 3D laser scanner, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and camera. Both two systems will be calibrated. The sensorial fusion allows detecting the regions of interest using active vision (e.g. changes in the scene, human-robot interaction, human/robot motion, etc). Metric information will be used for later segmentation and 3D modelled stages. Moreover, data fusion will be applied for both heterogeneous sensor calibration and perception. Finally, the models will be used for scene recognition and behaviour understanding. In order to obtain the relevant elements in the scene, a perception-based grouping process will be employed, which is performed by a hierarchical irregular pyramid. Using the information given by the visual mechanism, the metric perception system will provide 3D information of the interest sector, through developing a multi-layer homography-based reconstruction approach. The segmentation in large datasets will be achieved using clusters provided by Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM). These segments will be modelled using high level geometric features (superquadric surfaces), which will be used for the last stage of the system: scene understanding and behaviour analysis using Bayesian rules. The proposed project will provide contributions in different topics like mobile-structure sensor network, heterogeneous sensor calibration, localization, scene recognition, 3D reconstruction, active perception, sensorial fusion or human behaviour understanding. The results of this project are also interesting in other research fields (e.g. smart environment).

2009-02-02 – 2013-02-01

HANDLE

Developmental pathway towards autonomy and dextery in robot-hand manipulation

2007-01-01 – 2009-12-31

IRPS

Intelligent Robotic Porter System

The purpose of the project is to provide mobile robotics platforms with advanced mapping and navigation systems based on a very accurate positioning and 3D measurement technology. The 3D measurement technology, named LIMS (LIDAR Imaging and Measurement System) is based on an innovative concept of real time measurement of position in presence of sparse regular objects. The measurement technology principles based on three eye-safe laser systems were originated in Israeli Aircraft Industries and are patent pending. Project goals: The main objective of the project is to develop and integrate an accurate 3D sensing system as a modular component for robotics platforms, enabling fast dense mapping of large areas, populated with sparse objects. The project will develop and demonstrate the LIMS on high demanding application as an Intelligent Robotic Porter System (IRPS) to help porting & guiding the public in airport areas.

2004-01-01 – 2006-01-31

DIVA

Dirigível Instrumentado para Vigilância Aérea

This is a project in the area of aerial robotics, an area which has justified a growing interest in recent times, with very different application objectives, namely in the civilian domain, for monitoring of roads, detection of forest fires, inspection of power lines. Among the advantages of the airship solution, we may cite its natural stability, low operational costs, reduced pollution, and the ability to move at very low airspeeds or even hover.

2003-10-01 – 2006-03-01

RAC

Robótica Académica de Coimbra

This project aims at building a small-size league robot soccer team for: (a) developing a new cooperative real time architecture for a team of mobile robots; (b) developing new intelligent sensors through the integration of artificial vision and inertial sensors; (c) stimulating teaching and research about mobile robotics among undergraduate students on Electrical and Computer Engineering, at University of Coimbra, by participating in robot soccer competitions.

2021-06-01 – 2023-05-31

TRUSTID

Intelligent and Continuous Online Student Identity Management for Improving Security and Trust in European Higher Education Institutions

The COVID-19 outbreak has created notable challenges to European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), which ought to sustain their educational and academic quality and reputation during the urgent transition towards to a completely online teaching and learning paradigm. One such crucial aspect is related to the continuous verification of the students' identity, classroom attendance, and therefore, adequate performance assessment of students. In essence, being able to continuously verify the student's identity, attendance and presence in online teaching activities is a prerequisite to offer trustworthy and credible online educational services, and of major importance in several online educational activities, such as laboratories quizzes or online examinations etc., in order to tackle the threat of impostors intentionally pretending someone else’s identity. However, a key issue in the majority of the recently online-transitioned education systems relates to the fact that they usually define a single entry-point authentication mechanism as a prerequisite to allowing access to protected resources and services. Hence, it remains questionable whether the user who logged in, is in reality the one who attends or fulfills the educational activities throughout the user session. State-of-the art approaches and existing solutions are usually designed as proctoring and invigilation tools only during online examinations with a person monitoring/identifying students remotely, which tend to be erroneous, do not consider the rest of the course participation and are not scalable. Hence, far reaching and innovative solutions are needed that could reinforce the ability of HEIs to offer credible and trustworthy digital education and improve their digital readiness with regards to the aforementioned challenges. TRUSTID envisions to design, develop and evaluate, following a User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology, an innovative continuous user identification and student presence solution, which will be open-source and will rely on a data-driven multi-tier framework that will consist of state-of-the-art intelligent image, voice and interaction data classification algorithms. The solution will be easy to integrate by HEIs through the provision of best practices and adaptable integration guidelines to system administrators. We will also adopt a GNU open-source policy of the development solution in order to enhance the sustainability of project results. Throughout the project, and after its end, we will disseminate the project results through multiple dissemination channels, i.e., three multiplier events, learning teaching training, scientific papers, project Website, social media posts and workshops. We will also create a knowledge repository that will consist of training webinars designed to inform miscellaneous stakeholders of HEIs on why, when and how to adopt continuous student identification solutions. The repository will embrace forums, best practices guides, system integration guidelines, validation reports and training materials that will be derived based on the project activities. The consortium consists of transnational partners who have complementary profiles, which are necessary to achieve the project's objectives. The applicant (University of Patras) has a strong research profile in usable-security and over 30 years of experience in applying UCD methodologies in various application domains and will coordinate the project, and will apply the UCD method throughout the project. Cognitive UX has developed innovative products and services on identity management and big data analytics, respectively. As such, their participation within the project's consortium mitigates the risk related to providing state-of-the-art solutions towards the achievement of technological innovation. Finally, the University of Cyprus and the University of Coimbra will serve as end-users and verification partners of the prototypes developed by integrating the provided solutions to their online courses. The expected impact of the provided solution is that HEIs will increase their digital readiness in terms of offering inclusive, trustworthy and credible online education activities through the provision of innovative and open-source solutions for continuous student identification and presence awareness. The open-source policy will allow HEIs to adapt the solutions based on their intrinsic requirements and needs, thus increasing sustainability of the project results and produced tools. We envision that the project results will further support HEIs to fulfill their mission and to ensure that their graduates have acquired the necessary skills and competencies through a trustworthy and credible online academic process.

2021-04-01 – 2023-06-30

UltraBot

Robô para desinfecção por radiação ultravioleta

Robot for disinfection by ultraviolet radiation of hospital spaces or other indoor spaces subject to contamination. The robot will be equipped with an ultraviolet radiation decontamination system, which as a whole will integrate several innovative features, namely: 1) assess the irradiation needs of the space surfaces according to the anticipated/measured contamination in the different spaces; 2) ability to move and direct the emitted radiation to ensure that all areas will be irradiated with the required and sufficient amount of energy to reduce the concentration of microorganisms to a predefined value; 3) have the ability to recognize critical areas, such as door handles, switches and handrails, and will direct a focused, high intensity UVC source to these areas to ensure enhanced decontamination; 4) integrate a user-friendly interface so that it can be used by non-specialized personnel.

2021-04-01 – 2023-06-30

ILAF

Intelligent Logistic Autonomous Fleet

The project aims to develop autonomous platforms for transporting goods within large areas, such as industrial parks, indoors or outdoors, and capable of dealing with static or moving obstacles, and other players in the area, such as people.

2015-08-24 – 2019-02-28

AGVPOSYS

Automated-Guided-Vehicle with innovative indoor positioning system for the factory of the future

The AGV developed within this project must have a low cost given that this is a very important factor for the industry market but, mainly, its offered functionalities must distinguish themselves by innovation and the suitability in the real world. Functionalities like bidirectional movement, being able to move in either direction, front or back, or lateral movement are functionalities considered to be very important for the industry world, but are just available at high cost, or not available at all in many AGV ranges. Besides we are proposing to develop an innovative global indoor localization system (Indoor GPS-LEDUS) which combines the use of communication technologies with Light Emitting Diode (LED) and ultrasound (US).

2017-01-01 – 2019-12-31

ROSE

RObot Sensing for tele-Ecography

The main objective of this project is to develop a system (named ROSE) for the telemedicine market based on recent advances of robotic assisted tele-echography. Several researchers of the Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra (UC-ISR) have been working in this area for the last 7 years, where new tele-control architectures have been developed for collaborative robots. The developed laboratory prototype at UC-ISR was successfully tested in gynecological/obstetric exams, paving the way to market uptake. A new tele-diagnosis paradigm will be established by the ROSE system, where physicians and patients can interact without requiring physical proximity. Each ROSE system includes two robotized ergonomic stations (one at the physician side, and the other one at the patient side), a set of ultrasound probes with classical functionalities, patient data base systems located in the “cloud” and safe internet-based communication facilities. Merging all these components in coherent way, the ROSE system will allow the interaction of multiple physicians and patients, mitigating shortcomings of traveling from both patient and physician sides, and creating new services such as technical tele-mentoring, and international collaboration. From the imagiology perspective, robotic assistance allows precise control of the ultrasound probe in position and orientation, improving also physician and patient comfort, based on ergonomic designs and compliant interactions. Presently, there are no mature market solutions to solve the problem of robotic-assisted tele-echography. All commercial systems so far have had small market impact. The main reasons for the unsuccessful attempts are: 1) Lack of intuitiveness during tele-manipulation due to the absence of contact sensations at the physician side; 2) No full control of robot position/orientation by the physician, requiring an active assistant during medical procedures. The ROSE consortium proposes a disruptive solution strongly immersive and intuitive, based on recent technological advances on torque controlled lightweight robots and compliant tele- control architectures with haptic feedback. Beyond the UC-ISR technical contribution, the consortium also has the leadership of Sensing Future Technologies, Lda., (SFT) a company dedicated to the development and commercialization of medical devices. The laboratory of Automatic and Systems of Pedro Nunes Institute (LAS-IPN) will address the development of intuitive human-machine interfaces, connecting the scientific know-how of UC-ISR to real market needs. Finally, the company “Imacentro - Clínica de Imagiologia Médica”, which belongs to the Idealmed group, will give all support to test the ROSE solution in real scenarios, since it has collaborations with reputed physicians in the area of imagiology.

2017-07-03 – 2020-12-31

Fireprotect

Protection Systems for the protection of persons and elements exposed to the fire

In the "FireProtect" project, coordinated by the Associação para o Desenvolvimento da Aerodinâmica Industrial (ADAI) of the University of Coimbra, and with the participation of the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR), the main goal is to develop, test and demonstrate various solutions which aim to minimize the adverse effects of the devastation caused by wildfires in areas involving forest, urban and industrial grounds. The "FireProtect" solutions focus on the self-protection of critical and strategic elements exposed to wildfires, increasing the security of populations and goods such as vehicles, dwellings and other buildings, constructions or agricultural properties and other areas that lack peripheral protection, as well as facilitate the work of fire-fighting agents and significantly reduce the impact of wildfires. Research at ISR-UC is targeted to the development of moderate cost advanced multi-sensor solutions which can autonomously detect and pinpoint wildfire fronts, provide warnings and deploy automated counter measures, such as active barriers, sprinklers and smart firefight hose systems. In December 2017, the project received the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award from Crédito Agrícola and the INOVISA Agency in the Forest category, as well as the Born From Knowledge prize from the National Innovation Agency. The project was selected for display in the Web Summit, Lisbon, November 2018

2017-06-01 – 2021-04-01

PAMI

Portuguese Additive Manufacturing Initiative

PAMI, Portuguese Additive Manufacturing Initiative, is an infrasturcture project, which aims to maximize partnerships between the scientific and technological infrastructures in Mechanical Engineering, Materials, Electronics and Biosciences of Portugal central region, with focus on fundamental research and development of new additive manufacturing techniques, new designs and materials for additive processes (with characterization of their properties), Heatlh Technologies, medical robots, flexible electronics, medical prostheses and use of MEMS. It will also promote and support the creation of spinoff companies for technology development and dissemination. In addition to the scientific impacts, this initiative will also have educational, economic and social impacts related to medical applications. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is defined as ?a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing technologies. AM means greater flexibility in design and customization, less scrap, and shorter production cycles and allows: focus-ondesign, multi material integration, complex electromechanical and MEMS system with embedded electronics, customized parts and systems (e.g. for biomedical implants) and resource efficiency. AM is considered as the third Industrial revolution after the automation of textile industry and assembly lines. It has the potential to meet the future needs for resource efficiency, efficient manufacturing systems, material integration, new manufacturing processes ? providing world beating platforms for new, agile, more cost-effective manufacturing processes and new business models. President Obama drew attention to AM for its ?potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything?, different institutes opened in USA in China and Europe. AM impacts almost all of Portuguese strategic emerging industries (e.g. advanced equipment manufacturing, mold Industry, information technology biomedicine); PAMI intends to respond to a crucial competitiveness challenge and threat to future property: closing the gap between R&amp; activities and the development of technological innovations in production of goods. PAMI is also inline with the CRER2020 program for the central region of Portugal. All nodes of PAMI will follow he following general aims: (1) Fostering novel research areas and interdisciplinary fields, (2) To encourage, support and help in creation of products and launch of spin off companies from the current research institutes in fields of engineering, and medical sciences, (3) to provide educational services and prepare the new generation of engineers and (4) to provide prototyping services to external companies/ Institutes; PAMI proposes a clever distribution of excellent infrastructures within central region of Portugal with different areas of speciality: Mechanical, Materials, and Electrical Engineering, BioSc. IPL: Network Leader, fundamental research and development of novel techniques for AM. DEM-UC: production of new materials and characterization of raw materials and final components: ISR/CNC-UC: support research activities in mobile robots, medical robots, flexible electronics, Formulário Portugal 2020 Página 32 de 64 506971244 :: INSTITUTO POLITÉCNICO DE LEIRIA soft robots, bio-compatible and active medical prosthesis, and selected areas of MEMS among others. IPN: Creation and support of spin offs; In addition to the scientific impacts as described above, PAMI will have different Impacts: educational (we estimate 1000 visitants per year from several universities and companies), economic (fostering new spin offs from research institutes, encouraging product development spirit in universities) and social (considering the ambitious research objectives of the consortium related to medical applications).

2014-11-01 – 2015-10-31

MEMS

Compliant Robotics Hands with Integrated Soft MEMS Skin (for Medical Prosthesis and Industrial Robotics Applications)

Soft robotics requires and offers rich new opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations involving organic chemistry, robotics, mechanical, computer, biomedical, and electrical engineering. Research in soft robotics includes soft actuators and sensors, soft material creation and modeling, flexible electronics, control and simulation of highly deformable structures, Biohybrid devices, etc. Dr. Tavakoli&rsquo;s group in ISR-UC has recently developed a very promising prototype of the &ldquo;SoftHand&rdquo;. Inspired by biological systems, this prototype integrates complaint and rigid elements into a robotic hand that can be used both as medical prosthesis and industrial applications. By integration of elastic joints and compliant grasping pads rather than discrete revolute joints, the soft hand showed a very good adaptability to a large number of the objects. SML-CMU is one of the few and the leading labs in the world that investigates technologies for soft sensors, including soft stretchable and tactile sensors. This project launches a collaboration between the Institute of Systems and Robotics of University of Coimbra (ISR-UC) and Soft Machine Lab of Robotics institute at Carnegie Melon University (SML-CMU), in order to foster some areas related to the soft technologies and in particular to move toward development of a fully integrated softhand, that integrates the Soft-MEMS skin into the ISR-Softhand

2014-10-08 – 2020-10-12

STRETCHTRONICS

Stretchtronics, Soft and Stretchable Mechatronics for Wearable Devices: Fabrication, Implementation and Applications

Stretchtronics is a project in the ambient of CMU-Portugal international cooperation project, in which Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra is closely cooperating with the active Soft Machines Laboratory of the Carnegie Mellon University to investigate novel fabrication methods and show-case applications of Stretchable Electronics, including wearable systems for bio monitoring and active prosthetic hands. It also involves methods and materials for additive manufacturing (3D printing) of stretchable electronics. The project involves also the polymer group of CEMUC from University of Coimbra and Center for development and CDRSP-Ipleira (Centro para o Desenvolvimento Rápido e Sustentavel do Produto). The interdisciplinary project joins experts from material and polymer science, electrical engineering, additive manufacturing and stretchable electronics.

2012-01-13 – 2015-12-13

OmniClimbers

Climbing Robots with high maneuverability for inspection and maintenance of 3D human-made structures

This project aims to develop several prototypes of climbing robots to be applied for inspection of pipelines in oil, gas and petrochemical industries, as well as shipyard applications e.g. ship hull grooming. The previously developed 3DCLIMBER, was a successful implementation of the first climbing robot in the word which could climb from structures with bents, branches and deal with step changes on the profile structure. Yet there were many problems which remained unsolved during the implementation of the 3DCLIMBER. The current projects aims as further development of the 3DCLIMBER, but also to design and develop several novel concepts. In detail, the project involves conceptual and detailed design, development of mechanical prototypes, control boards, sensorial system, and test of at least three climbing robot prototypes.

2021-01-01 – 2022-02-21

AgriBotics

Remote Sensing and Machine Learning for Agriculture Robotics

Agriculture plays a vital role in our lives and faces tremendous pressure to feed a growing world population from limited available resources. This pressure has been mitigated by a massive use of water, fertilizers and chemicals, but such approach has its own limitations and undesirable effects, making it clear the need for sustainable procedures while keeping increasing yields. Precision Agriculture (PA), a concept that can be understood as digital/intelligent or automated agriculture, encompasses the use of technology (including robotics and automation) in agricultural production, protection, monitoring, and management. The AgriBotics project aims to make a significant step in multi-robotic systems for PA by integrating remote sensing (using satellite and low-altitude UAVs), field robotic-machines, probabilistic machine learning and agriculture-science to develop novel monitoring systems for Vineyards/Maize fields.

2016-10-01 – 2019-09-30

STOP

Cooperative Robotic Securities

Over the past years, the private security sector in Europe has been growing, representing an annual turnover of about 35 billion euros. This growth makes this sector as a market with potential to be exploited in an innovative technological perspective. On the other hand, security tasks are monotonous, repetitive, have low value-added for humans, and can be potentially dangerous in some scenarios, thus presenting a high potential for human agents to be replaced by robots. The STOP project presents the implementation of a new technology in the development of novel surveillance systems, with prospects of technical and economic feasibility and conditions of replicability, by exploiting the knowledge associated with new robotic technologies. The project, called Cooperative Robotic Securities ("Seguranças robóTicos coOPerativos" in Portuguese, or STOP), follows the research promoted at the University of Coimbra by the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR-UC), in order to demonstrate, through the start-up company Ingeniarius, the economic and technical advantages associated with cooperative multi-robot patrolling. Such evidences will be put in place by the Technological Center of Ceramics and Glass (CTCV), before a specialized audience (e.g., security teams), and in real situations (e.g., surveillance of buildings), validating the scientific methodologies developed in a technological perspective for commercial value. The STOP project aims at implementing several scientific contributions within distributed multi-robot patrolling and the development of innovative technical features in order to adapt the robotic system to real scenarios, namely the automatic perception of abnormal situations, as well as the resilient operation during long periods of time.

2020-01-01 – 2023-06-30

INPACT

Intelligent Platform for Autonomous Collaborative Telerehabilitation

The prevalence of musculoskeletal problems is increasing, due to sedentary lifestyle and aging populations. This will tend to increase the needs and the demand for rehabilitation care, ideally carried out continuously to maintain the mobility and activity of citizens. This continuity is not sustainable for any health system and represents a social, economic, and psychological burden for patients and their families. Telerehabilitation can be a solution, empowering citizens to manage the disease and promote their health. The cost savings in travel, face-to-face therapy sessions, absenteeism and medication are significant. It allows a greater frequency in exercise sessions in the comfort associated with home and motivates the patient to carry out a program in a personalized way, through an interactive component that introduces serious games elements to increase the levels of adherence. Scientific evidence on the effectiveness of telerehabilitation shows similar or superior results when compared to conventional interventions. This proposal seeks to be cost-effective and facilitate access and equity to rehabilitation care, with an impact on the reduction of waiting lists. It will allow the development of a low-cost telerehabilitation platform, with a user interface capable of suggesting exercises remotely pre-configured by a therapist. The system monitors the user's performance and gives feedback in real time. It is innovative in the sense that it allows a holistic visual perception of the user's body movement, without the use of markers and with an autonomous ability to analyze its performance using machine learning techniques. The information obtained for each user is centralized in the cloud, allowing an autonomous temporal analysis of the user's performance over several rehabilitation sessions and the generation of alarms for the therapist whenever there is a deviation from the plan.

2016-11-01 – 2019-03-21

AutoCITS

Regulation Study for Interoperability in the Adoption of Autonomous Driving in European Urban Nodes

The objective of AUTO C-ITS is to contribute to the deployment of cooperative services in Europe by improving the interoperability of autonomous driving, and to promote the role of cooperative services (C-ITS) as a catalyst for the autonomous driving implementation. To do this, three pilots will be developed in three major European cities located in the Atlantic Corridor: Madrid, Paris and Lisbon. Objectives: a)- Study on the current National, European and International legal framework for autonomous driving; b)- Deploy, Test and Evaluate “Day 1” C-ITS services as recommended by the ITS Platform for autonomous vehicles (AVs) under the applicable traffic regulation; c)- Provide recommendations for regulations and large scale deployments; - Cooperate with other current initiatives during the study; d)- Study the extension of the results and large scale deployment in other European countries.

2014-01-01 – 2014-12-31

PTInov

Augmented Reality in Mobility Contexts

This project was funded by PT Inovação e Sistemas which is a technology company of Portugal Telecom Group, focused on the development of innovative products and services, as well as on the integration of systems in the Telco and IT markets. A typical technical intervention on a telecommunication network infrastructure can involve complex scenarios involving a large number of equipments and connections. The technician is very often confronted with difficulties to identify the exact place where the intervention should take place. This difficulties can lead to errors, which can cause service disruption and delays in technical interventions. The goal of this applied project is the implementation of augmented reality tools that could help the technician in his intervention tasks by allowing the following: - Visual identification of equipments using a mobile device video camera, taking into account the location of the installation and a record of available equipments; - Overlaying contextual information about the equipment (i.e. manual, connection diagrams, etc); - Automatic Identification of each panels led state and connecters use.

2013-01-01 – 2015-12-31

HomeTech

Novel Home Technologies for a healthy living of citizens with special needs

This project aims to develop new technology based products intended for populations with special needs (children with disabilities or the elderly). One of the project’s partners is the APPDA, IPPS dedicated to citizens in the autism spectrum, covering almost 1% of the population), who is rehabilitating a dwelling for this type of user and will be a partner in implementing the "intelligent automation" (with "warning" technologies in case of emergency and remote monitoring, developed by the ISA) and neuro. The house will be a test platform (focusing first on the citizen with autism), and the solutions developed will then be generalized to other populations such as elderly. This joint effort of engineers, neuroscientists and users in implementing the concept of "Assisted Living Facility," aims to generate a set of technological capabilities at competitive costs that this team will use to help people with cognitive problems of aging or neurodevelopment. Using a population of high functioning autism will help to overcome an initial limiting factor that is the fact that users with other diseases do not adhere easily to new technologies. The products to be developed in this project include a remote monitoring platform. There will be a video capture system with an online communication mode and a remote electronic record that can be shared in confidence and communicate between users and health professionals in the field of products used at home for neuro. The IBILI and the BrainEyes will work in the area of non-intrusive human-machine interaction that encourage cognitive rehabilitation and acquisition of new skills at home. We will adapt new technologies from virtual reality concepts, augmented or simulated, for application on "assisted living" devices that can be used either as tools for rehabilitation or for "diagnostic reading" . Here, the collaboration of ISR in products for video analysis of gesture and facial expression is very important. Some of these technologies, in the home environment, will thus include sensors/computers embedded in the everyday life network, and in case of daily routines will advance/check the user's needs.

2012-01-13 – 2016-12-13

TIRAMISU

Toolbox Implementation for Removal of Anti-personnel Mines, Submunitions and UXO

The TIRAMISU project aims at providing the foundation for a global Toolbox that will cover the main Mine Action activities, from the survey of large areas to the actual disposal of explosive hazards, including Mine Risk Education. The Toolbox produced by the project will provide Mine Action actors with a large set of tools, grouped into thematic modules. These tools will have been designed with the help of end-users and validated in mine affected countries. The TIRAMISU team includes organisations that were involved in the most important recent research projects in Mine Action. The TIRAMISU partners will build on their past experience of this topic, the strong links they have forged with Mine Action Centres, Demining operators and non-governmental organisations, to bring a Toolbox that will represent a genuine step forward in Mine Action by serving as the basis for a unifying, comprehensive and modular integrated solution. ISR will coordinate WP3000 &ndash; Field Tools for close-in detection, which include systems and methods for accurate localisation of explosive targets by means of novel sensors, and semi-autonomous demining platforms.

2021-02-28 – 2023-06-30

WoF

Warehouse of the Future – Novos sistemas inteligentes, conectados, flexíveis e eficientes para o armazém do futuro

This project aims to develop a new paradigm of the Warehouse of the Future, based on the sensing of people, equipment and inventory, as well as the automation and real-time management of processes of collection and movement of materials and components, using robots and autonomous mobile manipulators. The results of the project will be demonstrated at the PSA Mangualde (Peugeot/Citroen) plant.

2021-02-01 – 2022-01-31

AI+Green

Intelligent Automation in Precise Agriculture

We have witnessed the colossal development and progress of automation and artificial intelligence in many sectors of our society such as industrial processes, robotics, autonomous systems, driverless cars, digital farming, and many others. Agriculture, at different paces, is also embracing the new technological innovations and is becoming a sector of strategic significance because of the increasing of population, the climate changes, environmental sustainability and limited natural resources. Precision agriculture, a concept that can be understood as digital/intelligent or automated agriculture, encompasses the use of technology (software and hardware) in agricultural production, protection, monitoring, and management. Due to the importance of agriculture in our lives and the numerous potential applications to be explored, precision agriculture has become, besides in agricultural science, very ttractive for other scientific areas including robotics, satellite remote sensing, and AI/ML. However, a major step from research to pplications in realistic conditions has still to be done. Real-life application domain is very important for any research system towards offering relevant outcomes for the agriculture sector, allowing the verification of assumptions made, identifying new challenges, and leveraging future scenarios. The interdisciplinary AI+Green project, which addresses some of the key challenges in precision agriculture, has the goal of increasing the precision and reliability of vineyard production and monitoring by developing a novel spatio-temporal data-information fusion system based on fundamental and applied techniques from remote (satellite) sensing, agriculture science, probabilistic machine learning, and aerial (UAV) robots.

2024-12-31 – 2026-12-30

POWERAUT

A medical brain computer interface device to improve social cognition in autism spectrum disorder

<p>Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect the way a person perceives emotions and socialises with others in a flexible way, often leading to difficulties with interaction and communication. As a result, most scientific efforts focus on interventions aimed at improving these two aspects. Drugs have been developed which, although somewhat successful in helping to control some of these manifestations, do not address the core symptoms. Behavioural therapies have also been introduced, which have yet to prove fully effective. They are very expensive and not suitable for intensive rehabilitation. In the present project, they will conduct a phase IIb clinical trial using a brain-computer interface that incorporates educational games. The ultimate goal is to develop an inexpensive, portable, easy-to-use device that can be used anywhere, enabling people with ASD to improve their social and emotional cognition.<br></p>

2024-10-01 – 2028-09-30

G-quAI

Combining AI and quantum computing in the fight against gastroin testinal cancer

<p>More than 2 million new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed every year around the globe. The entire global population, living anywhere on earth, above the age of 45 50 can be potentially affected by this challenge. Colorectal cancer remained the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths, accounting for 12 to 14% of all cancers recorded in Europe in 2012, and contributes U$14 billion to annual healthcare costs in the United States alone. In Asia, incidence rates range from 49.3 in Japan, 24.7 in South Korea, and 35.1 in Singapore, and they are equally high in many African and South American countries, turning this into a global challenge. Current scientific breakthroughs enable the development of non-invasive, high-quality imaging, energy-efficient, and miniaturized electronic devices that can travel inside the gastrointestinal tract using natural body cavities. Applying this technology to the screening of large groups, once they reach the age of 45 50, can significantly lower the number of new cases in an advanced stage of progression that are diagnosed every year.&#160;</p><p>Conventional computing, implementing for instance Convolutional Neural Networks, transfer learning, and ensemble learning, struggle with the computational load of analysing billions of hours of track images used. By using quantum computing, it could be possible to solve some complex optimisation and pattern recognition tasks more efficiently than classical computers. Quantum algorithms such as Quantum Neural Networks and Quantum Support Vector Machines could enhance the efficiency and accuracy of image analysis, and quantum features space could provide more nuanced insights from the data, potentially improving detection rates.<br></p>

2025-02-01 – 2026-07-31

Q-Bet

Bridging classical to quantum approaches, leveraging HPC and bio inspired computational approaches, with applications in Physics, Chan nel Coding, and Bio-inspired AI

<p>Bridging classical computing and quantum computing towards high-performance computing (HPC) systems involves harnessing the strengths of both approaches to tackle complex problems efficiently. Classical computing excels at executing sequential algorithms exploiting data locality and handling vast amounts of data up to some level of parallelism, while quantum computing offers the potential to solve certain problems exponentially faster through quantum parallelism and entanglement. Q-Bet will try to find a methodology to bridge the know-how acquired with 80 years from classical computing to make the leap to quantum computing, exploiting the strengths of each and overcoming the limitations of the other. This hybrid exploration of both technologies will be performed first running perfect qubits with HPC at quantum simulators in some of the fastest machines available in our datacenters at the Universidade de Coimbra, and later on real noisy qubits from IBM (partner of the project) quantum machines. The middleware developed will foster the experimentation of new use cases in the quantum domain, namely in the physics arena by exploiting new potential agents in the form of particles sensing for solar energy conversion cells. We will also advance security problems for networks and communications by developing powerful error- correcting codes for quantum technology. Finally, we will explore bio-inspired computing and AI for performing Bayesian inference and running optimization algorithms in several domains. By integrating classical and quantum computing techniques, HPC systems can leverage the power of quantum algorithms for specific tasks while maintaining the robustness and scalability of classical systems. The exploratory nature of the project will allow integrating on a competitive environment a core team experienced in teaching and researching quantum computing. Adding new post-grads involving more departments and targeting emerging applications will be possible thanks to the active collaboration of IBM Portugal. Q-Bet outlines the exciting potential for hybrid classical-quantum computing architectures in realising the next generation of HPC. Moreover, collaborating across borders with external partners of Q-Bet will allow sharing the costs and resources associated with research and development. This can help mitigate the financial and logistical constraints that small countries or individual institutions may face, enabling a more ambitious and impactful Q-Bet project. Finally, we expect to integrate in this preliminary research project specific recommendations regarding the integration of Quantum Technologies into the work programs of the Chips-Act for semiconductors, and EuroHPC for High- Performance Computing (HPC).<br></p>

2025-02-01 – 2026-07-31

VR-ACT after Stroke

A feasibility RCT of a Virtual Reality delivery of ACT for pain management

<p><span>Project led at CINEICC (Universidade de Coimbra) that aims to develop and pilot-test a self management, 8-week Virtual Reality (VR) program delivering Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to support pain management and mental health in adults with chronic post-stroke pain. Using a parallel-group randomized controlled feasibility trial, the study compares (i) the VR-ACT intervention, consisting of eight 3D immersive skills-training modules (e.g., attentional and emotional regulation through mindful meditation practices, and fostering valued behavior change), with (ii) a sham VR control comprising eight 2D non-immersive video animations and distraction exercises delivered via a VR headset. The project adopts a mixed-methods evaluation (quantitative and qualitative, with qualitative content analysis supported by NVivo) and includes psychosocial outcomes as well as fMRI-based assessment of triple-network connectivity using Network Based Statistic methods. ISR-UC participates in the project, providing technical support for the development and integration of the VR delivery components/platform.</span></p>

2025-06-01 – 2028-05-31

NewGenVIP

Development and Optimization of Industrial Mixer for Vacuum Infusion Processes

<p><span>The NewGenVIP project aims to develop and optimize, from an ecodesign perspective, a new range of industrial mixers for Vacuum Infusion Processes (VIP), integrating real-time monitoring and decision support through the application of artificial intelligence powered by historical data and new instrumentation developed within the project. Among the planned innovations are the ability to operate with multiple infusion channels simultaneously, an active degassing system, an IoT interface, and tools that enable comprehensive tracking of operating conditions. The goal is to reduce the occurrence of failures, improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability in industrial processes within the composites sector, increase the quality of final products, and lower operational costs.</span></p>

2025-03-01 – 2028-02-29

PharmaRobot

Logistics robot for urgent pharmaceutical distribution

<p>The PharmaRobot project aims to improve hospital efficiency through an autonomous robot that distributes urgent medications quickly and accurately, reducing waiting times and minimizing human error. The proposed solution will enable more effective resource management, freeing up professionals for critical tasks and ensuring greater safety and quality in healthcare.<br></p>

2025-01-01 – 2027-12-31

SOMIPs

Simulation, Optimization and Monitoring using AI-based Digital Twin Technology for Incineration Plants

<p>The operation of Biomass Valorization Plants (CVB) is complex due to the great variability of factors related to biomass, such as humidity, types and granulometry, as well as due to the condition of the equipment, quantity of pollutants produced, etc. The uncertainty regarding operational factors implies a high need for human intervention in balancing the various process parameters. This model of constant human supervision of industrial processes, transversal to different production sectors, places the operator with a preponderant role in the performance and efficiency of the processes, with invariably large associated inefficiencies. Taking advantage of its recognition in the industrial process control solutions market, OnControl, in cooperation with Universidade de Coimbra, thus advances this project with the aim of introducing a transformation of the usual scenario of control and management of biomass burning processes, through the development of an advanced control solution to optimize the operation of biomass boilers, applicable to the CVB market or other industries with biomass boilers. The ultimate objective of this technology is to increase the amount of energy per volume of biomass consumed and reduce the maintenance cost of process equipment. From a holistic approach, advanced control technology will be developed and adapted, through advanced computing and artificial intelligence methods that allow the digitalization of the production process, in a digital transformation logic, which allows achieving performance gains and new formats assistance/decision support for operators. Performance gains will be achieved by automatically guiding the process using computing algorithms and supporting the decision to execute tasks by operators and redirecting them to activities with greater added value, contributing to the green transition by promoting more efficient processes and sustainable.<br></p>

2025-04-01 – 2028-03-31

WOOSU

Waste Water Treatment Optimal Operation and Symbiotic Upgrade

<p>The WOOSU project aims to develop a solution that promotes the optimization of the operation, sustainability and circularity of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Its results lead to a reduction in operational costs, the sector&#8217;s ecological footprint with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and local water reuse methodologies. The project will also value other surpluses from the operation, sludge, biogas and heat, reintegrating them into the production chain and closing the resource use cycle, through new models of multi-aspect industrial symbiosis. Process optimization leads to improved effluent quality, taking into account energy consumption and variations in equipment operating times. The project will innovate by incorporating Life Cycle Analysis into the decision-making process for treatment actions, developing complementary tools to support the ISO 59020:2024 standard, aligning with EU best practices and future industry procedures. The inclusion of sustainability and circularity components in ETEs allows for management that reduces resource waste and maximizes the reuse of treated water, nutrients included in biofertilizers and biogas. This results in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, operational costs, and the adoption of concrete circular economy practices. These advances reduce the immediate local environmental impact of treatment operations, promote more efficient use of natural resources, ensure the economic sustainability of WWTPs and contribute to public health and environmental preservation. The project strives for scientific advances and development of technologies in various areas, namely process monitoring, creation of biochemical models and symbiotic models, sustainability assessment, development of advanced control systems and industrial interface tools with the operator. All technologies will be tested in a real environment, using facilities contracted with one of the co-promoters. A great effort will be made to promote the dissemination of the project and its results among the population, entities managing similar equipment, government decision-making bodies and environmental systems, thus also reinforcing the social sustainability component.<br></p>

2025-02-01 – 2025-12-31

CoDRI

Cognitive-Driven Robot Interaction

<p><span>The project positions itself at the forefront of industrial automation and human-machine coexistence, focusing on the growing influence of robotics over experience and performance. It envisions cognition-adaptation synergy as the natural step leading to both improved productivity and worker well-being.</span></p>