Abstract
This paper presents a legged-wheeled hybrid robotic vehicle that uses a combination of rigid and non-rigid joints, allowing it to be more impact-tolerant. The robot has four legs, each one with three degrees of freedom. Each leg has two non-rigid rotational joints with completely passive components for damping and accumulation of kinetic energy, one rigid rotational joint, and a driving wheel. Each leg uses three independent DC motors-one for each joint, as well as a fourth one for driving the wheel. The four legs have the same position configuration, except for the upper hip joint. The vehicle was designed to be modular, low-cost, and its parts to be interchangeable. Beyond this, the vehicle has multiple operation modes, including a low-power mode. Across this article, the design, modeling, and control stages are presented, as well as the communication strategy. A prototype platform was built to serve as a test bed, which is described throughout the article. The mechanical design and applied hardware for each leg have been improved, and these changes are described. The mechanical and hardware structure of the complete robot is also presented, as well as the software and communication approaches. Moreover, a realistic simulation is introduced, along with the obtained results.

Abstract
Worldwide, forests have been devastated by fires in recent years. Whe- ther by human intervention or for other reasons, the history of burned areas is increasing year after year, degrading fauna and flora. For this reason, it is vital to detect an early ignition so that firefighters can act quickly, reducing the impacts caused by forest fires. The proposed system aims to improve the nature monitoring and to assist the existing surveillance systems through Wireless Sensor Network. The network formed by the set of sensors has the potential to identify forest ignitions and, consequently, alerts the authorities through LoRaWAN communication. This work presents a prototype based on low-cost technology, which can be used in areas that require a high density of modules. Tests with a Wireless Sensor Network made up of nine prototypes demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness in terms of data transmission and collection. In this way, it is possible to apply this approach in Portuguese forests with a high level of forest fire risk, transforming them into Forests 4.0 concept.

Abstract
There are several industrial processes that are controlled by a PID or similar controller. In robotics it is also usual the need of position control of joints. Tune a controller is the process to obtain the gains that optimise the behaviour of the system while maintaining its stability and robustness. This paper presents an approach of tuning a speed controller using the Internal Model Control (IMC) method and a position controller using the second order Bessel prototype while testing in different controllers methodology, such as PID, Cascade and feedforward combination with dead zone compensation. In order to compare the controllers, results for an Hermite reference position will allow to validate the proposed solution.

Abstract
Inspection based on mobile autonomous robots can assume an important role in many industries. Instead of having fixed sensors, the concept of assembling the sensors on a mobile robot that performs the scanning and inspection through a defined path is cheaper, configurable and adaptable. This paper describes a mobile robot, equipped with several gas sensors and a LIDAR device, that scans an established area by following a trajectory based on way-points searching for gas leakage and simultaneously avoid obstacles in the map. In other words, the robot follows the trajectory while the gas concentration is under a defined value and surrounding the obstacles. Otherwise, the autonomous robot starts the leakage search based on a search algorithm that allows to find the leakage position. The proposed methodology is verified in simulation based on a model of the real robot. The search test performed in a simulation environment allows to validate the proposed methodology.

Abstract
Robots are rapidly developing, due to the technology advances and the increased need for their mobility. Mobile Robots can move freely in unconstrained environments, without any external help. They are supplied by batteries as the only source of energy that they could access. Thus, the management of the energy offered by these batteries is so crucial and has to be done properly. Most advanced Battery Management System (BMS) algorithms reported in literature are developed and verified with laboratory-based experiments. The acquired data is then processed either online or offline, using PC-based software. This work consists of developing an on-Chip Extended Kalman Filter based BMS, which can be directly linked in a robot without having to be connected with an external device to process the data. The proposed system is implemented in a low-cost 8 bit microcontroller and results allow to validate the proposed approach.

Abstract
Industrial robots are a technology which is highly present in industry and can perform several tasks, namely machining activities. Different than CNC machines, which work with G-code and have available several software applications to generate the machine code, there is a lack of software for robotic arms, in addition to each application depending on its own language and software. This work studied a way to use different robotic arms for 3D part machining processes, to perform 3D objects reconstruction obtained through a low-cost 3D scanner. Dealing with the 3D reconstruction by integrating 3D acquisition and robotic milling with software available on the market, this paper presents a system that acquires and reconstructs a 3D object, in order to seek greater flexibility with lower initial investments and checking the applicability of robot arm in these tasks. For this, a 3D object is scanned and imported to a CAD/CAM software, to generate the machining toolpath, and a software application is used to convert the G-code into robot code. Several experiments were performed, using an ABB IRB 2600 robot arm, and the results of the machining process allowed to validate the G-code conversion and milling process using robotic arms, according to the proposed methodology.