Publications by authors named "Patricia A Vargas"

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is a fundamental problem in the field of robotics, enabling autonomous robots to navigate and create maps of unknown environments. Nevertheless, the SLAM methods that use cameras face problems in maintaining accurate localization over extended periods across various challenging conditions and scenarios. Following advances in neuroscience, we propose NeoSLAM, a novel long-term visual SLAM, which uses computational models of the brain to deal with this problem.

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This work presents a neurorobotics model of the brain that integrates the cerebellum and the basal ganglia regions to coordinate movements in a humanoid robot. This cerebellar-basal ganglia circuitry is well known for its relevance to the motor control used by most mammals. Other computational models have been designed for similar applications in the robotics field.

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Behaviour selection has been an active research topic for robotics, in particular in the field of human-robot interaction. For a robot to interact autonomously and effectively with humans, the coupling between techniques for human activity recognition and robot behaviour selection is of paramount importance. However, most approaches to date consist of deterministic associations between the recognised activities and the robot behaviours, neglecting the uncertainty inherent to sequential predictions in real-time applications.

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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic hit almost all cities in Brazil in early 2020 and lasted for several months. Despite the effort of local state and municipal governments, an inhomogeneous nationwide response resulted in a death toll amongst the highest recorded globally. To evaluate the impact of the nonpharmaceutical governmental interventions applied by different cities-such as the closure of schools and businesses in general-in the evolution and epidemic spread of SARS-CoV-2, we constructed a full-sized agent-based epidemiological model adjusted to the singularities of particular cities.

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In this work, we present the first steps toward the creation of a new neurorobotics model of Parkinson's Disease (PD) that embeds, for the first time in a real robot, a well-established computational model of PD. PD mostly affects the modulation of movement in humans. The number of people suffering from this neurodegenerative disease is set to double in the next 15 years and there is still no cure.

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Modeling is widely used in biomedical research to gain insights into pathophysiology and treatment of neurological disorders but existing models, such as animal models and computational models, are limited in generalizability to humans and are restricted in the scope of possible experiments. Robotics offers a potential complementary modeling platform, with advantages such as embodiment and physical environmental interaction yet with easily monitored and adjustable parameters. In this review, we discuss the different types of models used in biomedical research and summarize the existing neurorobotics models of neurological disorders.

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Known as an artificial intelligence subarea, Swarm Robotics is a developing study field investigating bio-inspired collaborative control approaches and integrates a huge collection of agents, reasonably plain robots, in a distributed and decentralized manner. It offers an inspiring essential platform for new researchers to be engaged and share new knowledge to examine their concepts in analytical and heuristic strategies. This paper introduces an overview of current activities in Swarm Robotics and examines the present literature in this area to establish to approach between a realistic swarm robotic system and real-world enforcements.

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Worldwide demographic projections point to a progressively older population. This fact has fostered research on Ambient Assisted Living, which includes developments on smart homes and social robots. To endow such environments with truly autonomous behaviours, algorithms must extract semantically meaningful information from whichever sensor data is available.

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Objective: To review the state of the art of robotic-aided hand physiotherapy for post-stroke rehabilitation, including the use of brain-machine interfaces. Each patient has a unique clinical history and, in response to personalized treatment needs, research into individualized and at-home treatment options has expanded rapidly in recent years. This has resulted in the development of many devices and design strategies for use in stroke rehabilitation.

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Oscillatory activity is ubiquitous in nervous systems, with solid evidence that synchronisation mechanisms underpin cognitive processes. Nevertheless, its informational content and relationship with behaviour are still to be fully understood. In addition, cognitive systems cannot be properly appreciated without taking into account brain-body- environment interactions.

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