Functional Self-Awareness and Metacontrol for Underwater Robot Autonomy.

Autonomous systems are expected to maintain a dependable operation without human intervention. They are intended to fulfill the mission for which they were deployed, properly handling the disturbances that may affect them. Underwater robots, such as the UX-1 mine explorer developed in the UNEXMIN project, are paradigmatic examples of this need. Underwater robots are affected by both external and internal disturbances that hamper their capability for autonomous operation. Long-term autonomy requires not only the capability of perceiving and properly acting in open environments but also a sufficient degree of robustness and resilience so as to maintain and recover the operational functionality of the system when disturbed by unexpected events. In this article, we analyze the operational conditions for autonomous underwater robots with a special emphasis on the UX-1 miner explorer. We then describe a knowledge-based self-awareness and metacontrol subsystem that enables the autonomous reconfiguration of the robot subsystems to keep mission-oriented capability. This resilience augmenting solution is based on the deep modeling of the functional architecture of the autonomous robot in combination with ontological reasoning to allow self-diagnosis and reconfiguration during operation. This mechanism can transparently use robot functional redundancy to ensure mission satisfaction, even in the presence of faults.

Human-Robot-Environment Interaction Interface for Smart Walker Assisted Gait: AGoRA Walker.

The constant growth of the population with mobility impairments has led to the development of several gait assistance devices. Among these, smart walkers have emerged to provide physical and cognitive interactions during rehabilitation and assistance therapies, by means of robotic and electronic technologies. In this sense, this paper presents the development and implementation of a human-robot-environment interface on a robotic platform that emulates a smart walker, the AGoRA Walker. The interface includes modules such as a navigation system, a human detection system, a safety rules system, a user interaction system, a social interaction system and a set of autonomous and shared control strategies. The interface was validated through several tests on healthy volunteers with no gait impairments. The platform performance and usability was assessed, finding natural and intuitive interaction over the implemented control strategies.

Heterogeneous Multi-Robot System for Mapping Environmental Variables of Greenhouses.

The productivity of greenhouses highly depends on the environmental conditions of crops, such as temperature and humidity. The control and monitoring might need large sensor networks, and as a consequence, mobile sensory systems might be a more suitable solution. This paper describes the application of a heterogeneous robot team to monitor environmental variables of greenhouses. The multi-robot system includes both ground and aerial vehicles, looking to provide flexibility and improve performance. The multi-robot sensory system measures the temperature, humidity, luminosity and carbon dioxide concentration in the ground and at different heights. Nevertheless, these measurements can be complemented with other ones (e.g., the concentration of various gases or images of crops) without a considerable effort. Additionally, this work addresses some relevant challenges of multi-robot sensory systems, such as the mission planning and task allocation, the guidance, navigation and control of robots in greenhouses and the coordination among ground and aerial vehicles. This work has an eminently practical approach, and therefore, the system has been extensively tested both in simulations and field experiments.

Follow-Up of Patients Diagnosed With Germinal Testicular Tumors (Seminomas and Non-seminomatous) Treated With a Bone Marrow Transplant and a High Dose of Chemotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Germinal testicular tumors are the most common malignant neoplasm in men around 20 to 34 years. Even though they are unusual, they have increased incidence in the last decade; they have an excellent prognosis and overall survival at five years, approximately 95%. Divergent data exists regarding treatment options in patients with first, second, and third relapses with conventional therapy. Some studies describe the possible benefit of using high-dose chemotherapy associated with a bone marrow transplant with variable results. METHODS:  The present study describes clinical outcomes, clinical response, mortality, overall survival, and progression-free survival to two years in a group of patients with germinal malignant tumors, seminoma versus non-seminomatous with evidence of progression of the disease at first, second, or third conventional chemotherapy regimens, and who received high dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation at the National Cancer Institute between 2010 and 2021. RESULTS: A retrospective observational study of case series showed that 57% of patients in third-line therapy received high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation, with progression disease median time from diagnosis more than two years. Patients in the post-graft period presented infectious complications (71%). The most common were febrile neutropenia (29%) with a mortality rate of 71% (n=5), progression-free survival of 2.3 months, and overall survival of 7.4 months. CONCLUSIONS:  These results show that in this group of patients, regimens with high-dose chemotherapy associated with bone marrow transplants, have a worse prognosis compared to other cohorts of patients, and may not be the best candidates for this rescue therapy.

An aerial–ground robotic system for navigation and obstacle mapping in large outdoor areas.

There are many outdoor robotic applications where a robot must reach a goal position or explore an area without previous knowledge of the environment around it. Additionally, other applications (like path planning) require the use of known maps or previous information of the environment. This work presents a system composed by a terrestrial and an aerial robot that cooperate and share sensor information in order to address those requirements. The ground robot is able to navigate in an unknown large environment aided by visual feedback from a camera on board the aerial robot. At the same time, the obstacles are mapped in real-time by putting together the information from the camera and the positioning system of the ground robot. A set of experiments were carried out with the purpose of verifying the system applicability. The experiments were performed in a simulation environment and outdoor with a medium-sized ground robot and a mini quad-rotor. The proposed robotic system shows outstanding results in simultaneous navigation and mapping applications in large outdoor environments.

Human detection from a mobile robot using fusion of laser and vision information.

This paper presents a human detection system that can be employed on board a mobile platform for use in autonomous surveillance of large outdoor infrastructures. The prediction is based on the fusion of two detection modules, one for the laser and another for the vision data. In the laser module, a novel feature set that better encapsulates variations due to noise, distance and human pose is proposed. This enhances the generalization of the system, while at the same time, increasing the outdoor performance in comparison with current methods. The vision module uses the combination of the histogram of oriented gradients descriptor and the linear support vector machine classifier. Current approaches use a fixed-size projection to define regions of interest on the image data using the range information from the laser range finder. When applied to small size unmanned ground vehicles, these techniques suffer from misalignment, due to platform vibrations and terrain irregularities. This is effectively addressed in this work by using a novel adaptive projection technique, which is based on a probabilistic formulation of the classifier performance. Finally, a probability calibration step is introduced in order to optimally fuse the information from both modules. Experiments in real world environments demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method.

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in healthcare workers in a network of clinics in Latin America.

Objectives: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been severely affected in terms of both morbidity and mortality since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first few months of 2021, Colombia experienced a surge in positive cases. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of vaccination on the incidence of new positive cases in HCWs. Design: This was a retrospective cohort study of frontline employees in a network of clinics in Colombia, who were prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination from February to March 2021. Results: Our findings were consistent with recent reports. During early 2020, the incidence of HCWs positively diagnosed with COVID-19 in Colombia was higher than that for the general population. With the start of the national vaccination program, the incidence among HCWs decreased from April 2021, while that for the general population remained relatively unchanged. Our study identified lower infection rates among HCWs during April (odds ratio [OR], 0.72 [95% CI 0.58-0.90]; p < 0.01) and May (odds ratio [OR], 0.25 [95% CI 0.18-0.36]; p < 0.01). Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Colombia during early 2021 led to a decrease in the incidence of new positive cases among HCWs, in contrast to a continuing surge in the general population. Our findings suggested that COVID-19 vaccination provided adequate immunity, which guaranteed protection to HCWs.

Producción académica en salud y seguridad en el trabajo en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia / Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s academic production in health and safety at work / Produção acadêmica sobre saúde e segurança no trabalho na Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Objetivo: conocer las áreas de interés en el campo de la salud y seguridad en el trabajo en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, mediante la revisión de la producción académica. Métodos: se analizaron los trabajos que conforman la producción efectuada durante los últimos 20 años en el posgrado interdisciplinario en Salud Ocupacional en la Facultad de Enfermería; para tal fin se utilizaron variables descriptivas y de contenido y se establecieron áreas de interés y tipos de trabajo.Resultados: se encontró que se produjeron 140 trabajos; se logró catalogar 106 de ellos de las sedes de Bogotá, Manizales y Leticia. El 42,45% de los productos se desarrollan teniendo como énfasis el sector productivo, mientras que el restante 57,55% abordan aspectos específicos de Medicina del trabajo, Ergonomía, Condiciones psicosociales, Gestión en salud ocupacional, Higiene y seguridad industrial y Promoción de la salud en lugares de trabajo. El 71,67% de la producción es de tipo empírico, en tanto que el restante 28,33% es conceptual e instrumental. Discusión: hay congruencia con el nivel de formación, pero poca correlación con los objetivos del Plan Nacional de Salud Ocupacional y con el perfil de Enfermedad Profesional en Colombia 2003-2005.Recomendaciones: fortalecer la evaluación de la calidad, orientación y enfoque de la producción académica, y de esta manera conocer su impacto e influencia en el progreso de la ciencia, la tecnología, la calidad de vida y su posible beneficio social.

Objective: To determine the areas of interest in the field of health and safety at work at the National University of Colombia, through a review of academic production.Methods: An analysis has been conducted on the work developed and on such which makes the bulk of production over the past 20 years in the graduate interdisciplinary programs on Occupational Health at the Nursing School, descriptive variables and content variables, areas of interest, as well as types of work, have been established.Results: 140 pieces of works are found to have been produced, 106 of which were catalogued at the Bogota, Manizales and Leticia branches. 42.45% of the products are currently under development, with an emphasis on the productive sector, while the remaining 57.55% addresses specific aspects of occupational medicine, ergonomics, psychosocial conditions, management in occupational health and industrial safety and hygiene promotion health in workplaces. The 71.67% of production is empirical, while the remaining 28.33% is conceptual and instrumental.Discussion: congruence is found to exist with the level of training, whereas little correlation has been found to exist with the objectives of the National Occupational Health and Occupational Disease profile in Colombia 2003-2005.Recommendations: To strengthen quality assessment, orientation and focus of academic production, and thus get to know their impact and influence on the progress of science, technology, quality of life and its possible social benefit.

Objetivo: conhecer as áreas de interesse no campo da saúde e segurança no trabalho na Universidade Nacional da Colômbia, mediante a revisão da produção acadêmica.Métodos: analisaram-se os trabalhos que conformam a produção efetuada durante os últimos 20 anos no curso de pós-graduação interdisciplinar em Saúde Operacional na Faculdade de Enfermagem; para isso, utilizaram-se variáveis descritivas e de conteúdo, e se estabeleceram áreas de interesse e tipos de trabalho.Resultados: 140 trabalhos foram produzidos; sendo que 106 deles foram catalogados nas sedes de Bogotá, Manizales e Leticia. 42,45 % dos produtos foram desenvolvidos levando como ênfase o setor produtivo, enquanto o restante 57,55% abrange aspectos específicos de Medicina do trabalho, Ergonomia, Condições e Promoção da saúde em locais de trabalho. 71,67 % da produção é de tipo empírico, enquanto o restante 28,33 % é conceitual e instrumental.Discussão: existe congruência com o nível de formação, mas pouca correlação a respeito dos os objetivos do Plano Nacional de Saúde Operacional e do perfil de Doença Profissional na Colômbia, 2003-2005.Recomendações: fortalecer a avaliação da qualidade, orientação e foco da produção acadêmica, e assim, conhecer seu impacto e influência no progresso da ciência, da tecnologia, da qualidade de vida e de seu benefício social.