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Publications

2025

Friday: The Versatile Mobile Manipulator Robot

Authors
de Souza, JPC; Cordeiro, AJ; Dias, PA; Rocha, LF;

Publication
EUROPEAN ROBOTICS FORUM 2025

Abstract
This article introduces Friday, a Mobile Manipulator (MoMa) solution designed at iiLab - INESC TEC. Friday is versatile and applicable in various contexts, including warehouses, naval shipyards, aerospace industries, and production lines. The robot features an omnidirectional platform, multiple grippers, and sensors for localisation, safety, and object detection. Its modular hardware and software system enhances functionality across different industrial scenarios. The system provides a stable platform supporting scientific advancements and meeting modern industry demands, with results verified in the aerospace, automotive, naval, and logistics.

2025

Towards Robust Breast Segmentation: Leveraging Depth Awareness and Convexity Optimization For Tackling Data Scarcity

Authors
Zolfagharnasab, MH; Gonçalves, T; Ferreira, P; Cardoso, MJ; Cardoso, JS;

Publication
Deep-Breath@MICCAI

Abstract
Breast segmentation has a critical role for objective pre and postoperative aesthetic evaluation but challenged by limited data (privacy concerns), class imbalance, and anatomical variability. As a response to the noted obstacles, we introduce an encoder–decoder framework with a Segment Anything Model (SAM) backbone, enhanced with synthetic depth maps and a multiterm loss combining weighted crossentropy, convexity, and depth alignment constraints. Evaluated on a 120patient dataset split into 70% training, 10% validation, and 20% testing, our approach achieves a balanced test dice score of 98.75%—a 4.5% improvement over prior methods—with dice of 95.5% (breast) and 89.2% (nipple). Ablations show depth injection reduces noise and focuses on anatomical regions, yielding dice gains of 0.47% (body) and 1.04% (breast). Geometric alignment increases convexity by almost 3% up to 99.86%, enhancing geometric plausibility of the nipple masks. Lastly, crossdataset evaluation on CINDERELLA samples demonstrates robust generalization, with small performance gain primarily attributable to differences in annotation styles.

2025

Developing a Serious Video Game to Engage the Upper Limb Post-Stroke Rehabilitation

Authors
Silva, JA; Silva, MF; Oliveira, HP; Rocha, CD;

Publication
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL

Abstract
Stroke often leads to severe motor impairment, especially in the upper limbs, greatly reducing a patient's ability to perform daily tasks. Effective rehabilitation is essential to restore function and improve quality of life. Traditional therapies, while useful, may lack engagement, leading to low motivation and poor adherence. Gamification-using game-like elements in non-game contexts-offers a promising way to make rehabilitation more engaging. The authors explore a gamified rehabilitation system designed in Unity 3D using a Kinect V2 camera. The game includes key features such as adjustable difficulty, real-time and predominantly positive feedback, user friendliness, and data tracking for progress. The evaluations were conducted with 18 healthy participants, most of whom had prior virtual reality experience. About 77% found the application highly motivating. While the gameplay was well received, the visual design was noted as lacking engagement. Importantly, all users agreed that the game offers a broad range of difficulty levels, making it accessible to various users. The results suggest that the system has strong potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes and encourage long-term use through enhanced motivation and interactivity.

2025

CINDERELLA Clinical Trial (NCT05196269): Patient Engagement with an AI-based Healthcare Application for Enhancing Breast Cancer Locoregional Treatment Decisions- Preliminary Insights

Authors
Bonci, EA; Antunes, M; Bobowicz, M; Borsoi, L; Ciani, O; Cruz, HV; Di Micco, R; Ekman, M; Gentilini, O; Romariz, M; Gonçalves, T; Gouveia, P; Heil, J; Kabata, P; Kaidar Person, O; Martins, H; Mavioso, C; Mika, M; Oliveira, HP; Oprea, N; Pfob, A; Haik, J; Menes, T; Schinköthe, T; Silva, G; Cardoso, JS; Cardoso, MJ;

Publication
BREAST

Abstract

2025

Automated Microservice Pattern Instance Detection Using Infrastructure-as-Code Artifacts and Large Language Models

Authors
Duarte, CE;

Publication
2025 IEEE 22ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE COMPANION, ICSA-C

Abstract
Documenting software architecture is essential to preserve architecture knowledge, even though it is frequently costly. Architecture pattern instances, including microservice pattern instances, provide important structural software information. Practitioners should document this information to prevent knowledge vaporization. However, architecture patterns may not be detectable by analyzing source code artifacts, requiring the analysis of other types of artifacts. Moreover, many existing pattern detection instance approaches are complex to extend. This article presents our ongoing PhD research, early experiments, and a prototype for a tool we call MicroPAD for automating the detection of microservice pattern instances. The prototype uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) artifacts to aid detection, aiming to keep costs low and maximize the scope of detectable patterns. Early experiments ran the prototype thrice in 22 GitHub projects. We verified that 83% of the patterns that the prototype identified were in the project. The costs of detecting the pattern instances were minimal. These results indicate that the approach is likely viable and, by lowering the entry barrier to automating pattern instance detection, could help democratize developer access to this category of architecture knowledge. Finally, we present our overall research methodology, planned future work, and an overview of MicroPAD's potential industrial impact.

2025

Anatomically and Clinically Informed Deep Generative Model for Breast Surgery Outcome Prediction

Authors
Santos, J; Montenegro, H; Bonci, E; Cardoso, MJ; Cardoso, JS;

Publication
Deep-Breath@MICCAI

Abstract
Breast cancer patients often face difficulties when choosing among diverse surgeries. To aid patients, this paper proposes ACID-GAN (Anatomically and Clinically Informed Deep Generative Adversarial Network), a conditional generative model for predicting post-operative breast cancer outcomes using deep learning. Built on Pix2Pix, the model incorporates clinical metadata, such as surgery type and cancer laterality, by introducing a dedicated encoder for semantic supervision. Further improvements include colour preservation and anatomically informed losses, as well as clinical supervision via segmentation and classification modules. Experiments on a private dataset demonstrate that the model produces realistic, context-aware predictions. The results demonstrate that the model presents a meaningful trade-off between generating precise, anatomically defined results and maintaining patient-specific appearance, such as skin tone and shape.

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