Robotics and communication technology on show at the University of Porto’s Exhibition

Serious robotics…and fun stuff!

Robotics was showcased once again at the 9th edition of the University of Porto’s Science, Teaching and Innovation Exhibition that took place between 17th and 20th March at the Rosa Mota Pavilion in Porto. This year INESC Porto prepared to greet adults and children. One of INESC Porto LA’s stars, MARES (Modular Autonomous Robot for Environment Sampling), the underwater robot that has been used to monitor water quality and the presence of effluents in the river and sea, was certainly a success. This was not MARES’ first public display as it had already been on show with TriMARES at the Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between INESC Porto LA and the Higher Education Engineering Institute of Porto (ISEP). 

This underwater vehicle is able to descend to up to 100 metres and follow predefined trajectories, collecting data with onboard sensors to measure the water quality. These sensors allow it to analyse data such as water temperature, acidity, neutrality or alkalinity and consequently measure pollution levels. On top of this, MARES is able to detect cracks in structures (dams and bridges) and being autonomous it does not require human intervention (divers for example), meaning it does not put human lives at risk. The robot was displayed in a small show tank where visitors had the opportunity to see how this star of the Robotics Unit of INESC Porto LA really works.   

    
To the delight of the young visitors, this edition of the Exhibition introduced another element: the robot humanoid NAO that can interact with the environment and demonstrate skills by imitating a person’s movements. These robots are specifically designed for scientific research in robotics and autonomous systems and are also used in the international RoboCup Federation’s Standard Platform League. NAO was created by a French firm and can dance, speak (English and French), recognise faces, communicate with programmers and other similar robots as well as react to human touch. In an event directed at pupils from primary and secondary schools who are making decisions on future areas of study, INESC Porto aimed to capture the attention of these young visitors with science. 

The exhibition through the eyes of the visitors

This year the Exhibition offered a new interactive concept and INESC LA had a hand in it too: the use of QR-Codes in each of the stands for the 14 faculties and leading research units. When photographed with a mobile phone, visitors were able to access information about the activities of the stand in question along with questionnaires and a link to the respective website of the course/faculty/research institute and the Facebook profile of the Exhibition, all through the wireless system. The researchers at INESC Porto were responsible for preparing the server, linking the information about each stand to the platform and creating surveys, commentaries and testing the use of the codes in the existing operating systems.  A QR-Code (Quick Response Code) is a two-dimensional barcode, and as the name indicates, it can decode contents at high speed. Over the four days the exhibition registered 200 uses, proving the success of this innovation.        
     

Another innovative side to the Exhibition was how it was viewed through the eyes of the spectator. In addition to the QR-Codes, researchers from UTM Jaime Dias and Rui Campos and research students Filipe Teixeira, Tiago Costa and Vítor Barros supported the university in the development of the interactive image projecting system. This meant that visitors were able to send photos using the wireless service from mobile phones to the video wall creating a portfolio of images for the 9th edition of the Exhibition. Once again, this was a success with almost two hundred photos being displayed. This accomplishment will hopefully be repeated in future editions. 

The Exhibition also introduced a new conference style, the so called “lightening conferences” that last just seven minutes and João Claro and Abílio Pacheco from UITT participated in this innovative new format. Their presentation, “Management of Forest fires: an engineering system” aimed to explain some of the work that is taking place as part of the project FIRE-ENGINE-Design Flexível de Sistemas de Gestão de Incêndios Florestais. Portucel Florestal SA is also participating in this project along with the Engineering Systems Division of MIT, the Instituto Superior de Agronomia of the Technical University of Lisbon (ISA) and the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD). The main objective of the project is to create better policies to prevent and combat forest fires using management and technology.

The voice of the People

INESC Porto LA’s participation in the 9th edition of the University of Porto’s Science, Teaching and Innovation Exhibition was once again a success. The BIP team has been speaking to some of the participants to find out how they think events, such as this one, can get youngsters more involved in science.

     
•    Abílio Pacheco and João Claro (UITT)
“Explaining complex issues in a simple way is a challenge. However, this effort is rewarded not only by the fact that society in general can understand scientific research more easily but also due to the increase in the number of youngsters deciding to study science. The Exhibition is therefore commendable in this respect and INESC Porto stood out with its interactive stand.”  

  
•     Ireneu Dias
“This year the group that took part in the Exhibition was really successful in attracting the general public. Even if a few things didn’t work straight away, it did not affect the overall success. Science and Technology are not perfect, they are not “made” they are “in the making”. And we will always have our friend Murphy...

I would like to congratulate ROBIS for their attitude, their willingness to help and their consistent effort. I would also like to congratulate everyone from UTM for putting forward the idea to use 2D codes.

From a more generic point of view it is important to mull over our participation in an event like this. Here are some things to consider:

- Is the objective to make science appeal to everyone? Is it to make science appeal to families or prospective students?
- Or is the idea to gain expose for INESC Porto and promote its position on Science-based Innovation?
-Do we want to be more visible or do we want to support the University of Porto by showing that their investment in Science and Education is an investment and not an extravagance?” 

 
•    Vítor Barros (UTM)
 “The objective of the interactive video wall was to show the Exhibition through the eyes (and cameras) of the visitors. The development of the wall reflects innovation as it made it simple for anyone to share their photos. Despite having little time to present the video wall project it all came together in the last few days with 139 shared images in total over the four day event.”

  
•    Rui Almeida (ROBIS)
 “I can only talk about the first day of the Exhibition but judging by how tired I felt at the end of the day it certainly went well. Both the students and their teachers were evidently interested in the projects on show. However, given the character of the exhibition I do think that INESC Porto’s position in relation to the University of Porto should have been made clearer. I don’t think it was very clear for many of the youngsters how the projects on display were linked. Nevertheless, the majority of visitors seemed very enthusiastic and impressed by the demonstration of both of the robots.”  
 

•    Tiago Costa (UTM)
“Contributing to the Exhibition with QR-Codes and contents for mobile devices presented many challenges (preparing the server, adapting the information from each workbench to the platform in use, creating sections for inquiries and comments and testing the codes in the existing operating systems) that had to be met with persistence as they were new to many areas. However, despite the difficulties during the short preparation period for the Exhibition, the final outcome was positive and hopefully the work can be used in future editions of the event with improvements and updates.”
  

•    Filipe Teixeira (UTM)
“Our challenge was to put the innovation and new communication technologies at the reach of the visitors. The use of QR-Codes allowed public interaction with the workbench: the visitors could take a photo of the code and they were sent to a page with information about that stand, where they could give their opinion in a short questionnaire. Another great challenge was to create the interactive image projection system to see the exhibition through the eyes of the visitors. I think it was a success; it was received by thousands of people that visited the area during the exhibition.”   

 
•    Eduardo Mota (ROBIS)
“This was the first time I had the opportunity to represent my faculty and INESC Porto in a public event of this dimension. In fact, I was impressed not only by the number of students who visited in order to help decide their future but also the number of adults who were either eager to see what teaching institutions (and the labour market) could offer them or visited simply out of curiosity and a desire to see the science on show each year. I fully recognise the importance of this type of event and I am happy to have been able to help students make an important decision that we all had to make at some point”. 

•    Bruno Ferreira (ROBIS)
“On Friday the majority of the visitors were secondary school pupils. In general they were interested in our technology but just a few of them were curious enough to want to understand what we were developing. Those who were curious I think left convinced about research, development, potential and capacity.
On the other hand, I don’t think the show tank had quite the impact we were hoping, the robot’s movements meant that it kept bumping into the sides of the tank, which I don’t think came across very well. If we repeat this set-up, I think it would be a good idea to put up a screen showing videos of exactly how the robot functions”.
 

•    Tiago Nascimento (ROBIS)
“This year I participated in the University of Port’s exhibition representing INESC Porto. It was easy to see that the youngsters were interested in the science even if it wasn’t linked to the course they were hoping to study. The public gathered around the NAO robot and I was able to explain how it was working as it moved. I really think participation in this event is fundamental. In fact after watching the demonstration, many of the youngsters asked me which course they would have to study in order to work in this area.”