PL-TOON: A Low-Cost Experimental Platform for Teaching and Research on Decentralized Cooperative Control.

In this paper, we present the development of a low-cost multi-agent system experimental platform for teaching, and research purposes. The platform consists of train-like autonomous agents equipped with local speed estimation, distance sensing to their nearest predecessor, and wireless communications with other agents and a central coordinator. The individual agents can be used for simple PID experiments in a classroom or laboratory setting, while a collection of agents are capable of performing decentralized platooning with cooperative adaptive cruise control in a variety of settings, the latter being the main goal of the platform.

Combining LCT tools for the optimization of an industrial process: material and energy flow analysis and best available techniques.

Life cycle thinking (LCT) is one of the philosophies that has recently appeared in the context of the sustainable development. Some of the already existing tools and methods, as well as some of the recently emerged ones, which seek to understand, interpret and design the life of a product, can be included into the scope of the LCT philosophy. That is the case of the material and energy flow analysis (MEFA), a tool derived from the industrial metabolism definition.