Abstract
The constant search of industry for productivity raises and market shares, pushes forward the development of new products capable of giving an answer to these concerns. Specifically the tool-machines makers have tried to solve these problems incrementing the capability of the machines they produce, essentially in speed and precision. The recent study of some problems associated to the machining process, has revealed the possibility of incrementing the productivity of some of vertical milling machine, only through the force control, keeping it constant and equal to the optimum value defined for the tool. The cutting force control, due to the system characteristics, can only be implemented by making use of adaptive control. In order to implement adaptive controllers we have at our disposal two technologies that have been showing good results. These technologies are Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic. We thought that it would be of interest to research the use of Artificial Neural Networks in implementation of a controller. This has been the objective for the development of the work described in this paper. The results obtained have been encouraging, showing the possibility of implementing those controllers in real systems.

Abstract
An innovative software called FEUP Fuzzy Tool was developed by professor and students as a teaching tool to support the control of non-linear systems using the computational resources available. It is based on the theory of Fuzzy Logic control. The tool is currently used for investigation and educational purposes. This document briefly describes and validates through some example applications the current release of the toolbox which makes it one of the most complete and advanced fuzzy logic software available. The present tool now includes Neuro Fuzy optimization, visual debugging and run time control on the PC or in an embeddable platform.

Abstract
The goal of this paper is to discuss the usage of distributed architecture for the Lego NXT robots. This platform is very interesting because it provides standard hardware for configurable mounting of several sensors and actuators. The presented work characterizes sensors and actuators and identifies limitations of the stand-alone architecture. In order to maximize usefulness and go beyond the identified limitations, a distributed computing architecture was developed that allows the Lego NXT to address complex missions. The distributed architecture makes use of two different programming environments. The described architecture was tested in a sample self localization task.

Abstract
This paper presents a case study of a web application for inventory management of electronics laboratories. The iLab project efficiently manages the inventory, requests, users (borrowings, purchases, etc.) and associated historic and workflow information. This enables users to queue requests and track their status. This project differs from the existing applications from this kind, since it not only serves administrative proposes, but also the users requirements. It was also developed with tools that ensure ease of development and deployment, while maintaining high performance, stability, security and future growth. In order to ensure a low "Total Cost of Ownership" application, freeware and web based tools were used. Future work includes Business to Business communications with large suppliers and optimization of the information stored in the database.

Abstract
This paper presents an innovative software called FEUP Fuzzy Tool. It was developed by teacher and students as an attempt to provide means to easily control non-linear plants and Multiple Input Multiple Output systems under soft real time constraints with the advantages offered by Fuzzy Logic controllers such as the usage of linguistic variables. The tool was partially developed in the classes and is currently used for investigation and educational purposes. This document discusses the features recently added to the toolbox, highlighting some very interesting capacities such as the capacity to export the developed fuzzy controllers to embedded systems. It is also given some insight of what it is currently been developed.

Abstract
This paper intends to demonstrate the development of and easy-to-use local human-machine interface that would allow any user to control all kinds of service robots intuitively. This interface is based on the Nintedo Wii remote controller and consists of three operating modes: a steering wheel, an infra-red monitor and a movement identifier. These modes were tested on a cleaning robot and they led to very satisfactory results, proving that the Wiimote is an inexpensive and interesting way of making this kind of interfaces.