Agent-Based Intelligent Interface for Wheelchair Movement Control.

People who suffer from any kind of motor difficulty face serious complications to autonomously move in their daily lives. However, a growing number research projects which propose different powered wheelchairs control systems are arising. Despite of the interest of the research community in the area, there is no platform that allows an easy integration of various control methods that make use of heterogeneous sensors and computationally demanding algorithms. In this work, an architecture based on virtual organizations of agents is proposed that makes use of a flexible and scalable communication protocol that allows the deployment of embedded agents in computationally limited devices. In order to validate the proper functioning of the proposed system, it has been integrated into a conventional wheelchair and a set of alternative control interfaces have been developed and deployed, including a portable electroencephalography system, a voice interface or as specifically designed smartphone application. A set of tests were conducted to test both the platform adequacy and the accuracy and ease of use of the proposed control systems yielding positive results that can be useful in further wheelchair interfaces design and implementation.

A Context-Aware Indoor Air Quality System for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Prevention.

Context-aware monitoring systems designed for e-Health solutions and ambient assisted living (AAL) play an important role in today's personalized health-care services. The majority of these systems are intended for the monitoring of patients' vital signs by means of bio-sensors. At present, there are very few systems that monitor environmental conditions and air quality in the homes of users. A home's environmental conditions can have a significant influence on the state of the health of its residents. Monitoring the environment is the key to preventing possible diseases caused by conditions that do not favor health. This paper presents a context-aware system that monitors air quality to prevent a specific health problem at home. The aim of this system is to reduce the incidence of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which is triggered mainly by environmental factors. In the conducted case study, the system monitored the state of the neonate and the quality of air while it was asleep. The designed proposal is characterized by its low cost and non-intrusive nature. The results are promising.

Increasing the Intensity over Time of an Electric-Assist Bike Based on the User and Route: The Bike Becomes the Gym.

Nowadays, many citizens have busy days that make finding time for physical activity difficult. Thus, it is important to provide citizens with tools that allow them to introduce physical activity into their lives as part of the day's routine. This article proposes an app for an electric pedal-assist-system (PAS) bicycle that increases the pedaling intensity so the bicyclist can achieve higher and higher levels of physical activity. The app includes personalized assist levels that have been adapted to the user's strength/ability and a profile of the route, segmented according to its slopes. Additionally, a social component motivates interaction and competition between users based on a scoring system that shows the level of their performances. To test the training module, a case study in three different European countries lasted four months and included nine people who traveled 551 routes. The electric PAS bicycle with the app that increases intensity of physical activity shows promise for increasing levels of physical activity as a regular part of the day.

Combination of Multi-Agent Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks for the Monitoring of Cattle.

Precision breeding techniques have been widely used to optimize expenses and increase livestock yields. Notwithstanding, the joint use of heterogeneous sensors and artificial intelligence techniques for the simultaneous analysis or detection of different problems that cattle may present has not been addressed. This study arises from the necessity to obtain a technological tool that faces this state of the art limitation. As novelty, this work presents a multi-agent architecture based on virtual organizations which allows to deploy a new embedded agent model in computationally limited autonomous sensors, making use of the Platform for Automatic coNstruction of orGanizations of intElligent Agents (PANGEA). To validate the proposed platform, different studies have been performed, where parameters specific to each animal are studied, such as physical activity, temperature, estrus cycle state and the moment in which the animal goes into labor. In addition, a set of applications that allow farmers to remotely monitor the livestock have been developed.