Tekever (Portugal)

Nowadays, one of the problems associated with Unmanned Systems is the gap between research community and end-users. In order to emend this problem, the Portuguese Navy Research Center (CINAV) conducts the REX 2016 (Robotic Exercises). This paper describes the trials that were presented in this exercise, divided in two phases. The first phase happened at the Naval Base in Lisbon, with the support of divers and RHIBs (Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boats), and the second phase, also with divers' support, at the coast of Lisbon-Cascais. It counted with many participants and research groups, including INESC-TEC, UNINOVA, TEKEVER and UAVISION. There are several advantages of doing this exercise, including for the Portuguese Navy, but also for partners. For the Navy, because it is an opportunity of being in contact with recent market technologies and researches. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for the partners to test their systems in a real environment, which usually is a difficult action to accomplish. Therefore, the paper describes three of the most relevant experiments: underwater docking stations, UAV and USV cooperation and Tracking targets from UAVs.

This paper presents a study on development and evolution of Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) com- munication networks in the perspective of the next 15-20 years. A need for modern, reliable mobile communications systems for PPDR offering a wide range of services, yet harmonized, is commonly recognized at both country and European level. There are therefore a number of activities in this area currently being undertaken. In this paper we discuss several technical aspects of migration of PPDR networks towards broadband systems and describe the most likely upgrade scenario based on an evaluation of migration costs.

Nowadays wireless sensor netwoks (WSN) technology, wireless communications and digital electronics have made it realistic to produce a large scale miniaturized devices integrating sensing, processing and communication capabilities. The focus of this paper is to present an innovative mobile platform for heterogeneous sensor networks, combined with adaptive methods to optimize the communication architecture for novel potential applications in multimedia and entertainment. In fact, in the near future, some of the applications foreseen for WSNs will employ multi-platform systems with a high number of different devices, which may be completely different in nature, size, computational and energy capabilities, etc. Nowadays, in addition, data collection could be performed by UAV platforms which can be a sink for ground sensors layer, acting essentially as a mobile gateway. In order to maximize the system performances and the network lifespan, the authors propose a recently developed hybrid technique based on evolutionary algorithms. The goal of this procedure is to optimize the communication energy consumption in WSN by selecting the optimal multi-hop routing schemes, with a suitable hybridization of different routing criteria. The proposed approach can be potentially extended and applied to ongoing research projects focused on UAV-based sensing with WSN augmentation and real-time processing for immersive media experiences.