José Machado

University of Minho · School of Engineering

In textile manufacturing, ensuring high-quality yarn is crucial, as it directly influences the overall quality of the end product. However, imperfections like protruding and loop fibers, known as ‘hairiness’, can significantly impact yarn quality, leading to defects in the final fabrics. Controlling yarn quality in the spinning process is essential...

Stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s disease are some of the conditions that can lead to neuromotor disabilities requiring rehabilitation. To address the socio-economic burden that is amplified by the rapidly increasing elderly population, traditional rehabilitation techniques have recently been complemented by technological...

This article aims to explore the application of 3D vision techniques in the automation of logistical processes, using deep learning for object identification and manipulation in industrial environments. The work develops a 3D vision system that employs object and keypoint detection models trained with tools such as Roboflow and YOLOv8 (You Only Loo...

In the field of robotics, pick and place applications are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to automate repetitive tasks that can create temporary or permanent injuries. To enhance the efficiency of these applications, object recognition using a fixed camera or one mounted on a robotic hand has been employed. This paper explores th...

This book reports on topics at the interface between mechanical and materials engineering, emphasizing aspects related to design, simulation, and manufacturing. It covers advanced methods in design and process engineering applied to mechatronic systems, industrial equipment, turbines, and drives. It covers cutting-edge theoretical and experimental...

Currently, the technology of imparting the necessary reflective properties to a surface is becoming increasingly important. Darkening the surface and matting it helps to diffuse the reflected beam and prevent glare. The surface’s reflective properties are determined by its microstructure. Modern pico- and femtosecond lasers make it possible to obta...

This book reports on innovations and engineering achievements of industrial relevance, with a special emphasis on developments in mechatronics, control engineering and signal processing. It gathers peer-reviewed papers presented at the 3rd International Conference “Innovation in Engineering”, ICIE 2024, held on June 26-28, 2024, in Povoação, São Mi...

The bioconvection effects with nanofluid are major application in biofuels. This analysis aimed to observe the bioconvection effect in unsteady two-dimensional Maxwell nanofluid flow containing gyrotactic motile microorganisms across a stretching/shrinking cylinder evaluating the consequences of thermal radiation and activation energy. The Cattaneo...

The present paper proposes and describes an approach to stabilizing a ball on a rectangular surface using a three-armed robotic system. The system is based on advanced image detection for accurate ball and surface identification. The hardware includes three servo motors controlled by an Arduino board, and the camera used is a mobile phone connected...

This paper presents the methodology of measuring chip temperature in the cutting zone in the rough milling of magnesium alloys. Infrared measurements are taken to determine the effect of variable cutting speed, feed per tooth, and depth of cut on the maximum temperature of chips. Thermal images of chip temperature for a generated collective frame a...

A rapidly developing technology, digital twins have the potential to completely change how products are designed and developed. Digital twins enable the simulation of the performance of various design concepts, the identification of potential issues with a design, and the optimization of the design for certain performance needs. However, in terms o...

This paper introduces an online dataset focused on detecting hairiness in yarn, including loop and protruding fibers. The dataset is designed for use in assessing artificial intelligence algorithms. The dataset consists of 684 original images. Through augmentation, this number increases to 1644, with 11,037 annotations derived from videos featuring...

In response to the growing demand for robotic service providers in the hospitality industry, this work presents a cost-effective IoT-based waiter robot designed to enhance customer experiences and restaurant efficiency. Leveraging an rplidar sensor and encoded DC motors for mapping and navigation, this robot distinguishes itself by its ability to c...

Manual counting and packaging processes often involve repetitive, error-prone tasks. Specifically, packaging wooden handles, utilized in gardening tools and cutlery, typically relies on labor-intensive methods with dimensions varying in diameter, length and mass. These variations complicate packaging, requiring precise counting and diverse handling...

Modelica is a powerful modelling language for modelling and simulation of Multiphysics Engineering Systems behaviour. This work explores a model to be implemented in the control design of a 6-axis industrial manipulator whose structure approaches the robotic arm ABB IRB 140, through inverse kinematics calculation. The significance of an inverse kin...

Rural farms constitute a vital component of a country’s agricultural landscape, traditionally reliant on energy installations known for their reliability yet notorious for their energy-intensive and inefficient characteristics. While the smart farm concept, integrating renewable energy sources and resource management technologies, has seen widespre...

The advent of digital hydraulic technology has heralded noteworthy advancements across a spectrum of domains, encompassing aspects such as intelligence augmentation, seamless integration, and the imperative curtailment of energy consumption, among other facets. Over the course of several decades, the continued investment in research and development...

Improving the efficiency of maintenance processes is one of the goals of companies. Improvement activities in this area require not only an appropriate maintenance strategy but also the use of a new approach to increase the efficiency of the process. This article focuses on using Six Sigma (SS) to improve maintenance processes. As an introduction,...

Companies have invested in Domain-Driven Design to support data-driven business, but this strategy has led to bottlenecks, demanding the decentralisation of analytical data by domain. This paper proposes a converged strategy for a domain-specific decentralisation of analytical data. Sequentially applied, the elicitation of cloud computing microserv...

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) presents a new era of production and process management, and in order for companies to take advantage of the benefits offered by this technological advancement, understanding how it can influence or be influenced by management approaches is a point of study. For this reason, this investigation aimed to analyze production and qua...

This paper intends to explore part of the development of a simple and compact system that operates an algorithm based on image processing techniques, concerning the characterization of textile yarn. Specifically, it aims to conclude about parameters such as the diameter, the linear mass, the volume, the imperfections, the twist’s pitch and directio...

Modern companies are operating under economic conditions resulting from the global crisis. This situation forces organizations to constantly look for solutions to increase the efficiency, productivity, and flexibility of processes, including manufacturing. In practice, this means implementing solutions based on the Lean Management philosophy. These...

This paper presents an application of computational simulation to a production problem on unrelated parallel machines and dependent setup times, aiming at the reduction of jobs’ total processing time (makespan). The scenarios studied by Rabadi, et al. (2014) were used, along with the SIMIO simulation software, to model and conduct experiments to st...

The increasingly standards of the electronic industry, especially in Printed Circuit Boards, make In-Circuit-Test Machines one of the most important systems on the production lines. With this, the pressure on the In-Circuit-Test Machines production to meet this strict requirements it is getting bigger every day.To react to this pressure it is neces...

Standardization is a key element in the effective use of lean manufacturing methodologies and tools for achieving process sustainability. Their combination is conducive to eliminating waste and improving the efficiency of production processes and guarantees the company that employees use the most efficient tools and do not waste time on unnecessary...

Every project that obtained good results in the research needs to continue its development and start the process go-to-market. In the specific case related in this paper, the Smartbath, a shower system takes a new step towards its technological evolution becoming an intelligent shower system that promotes better features that the previous system wa...

Blind people often encounter challenges in managing their clothing, specifically in identifying defects such as stains or holes. With the progress of the computer vision field, it is crucial to minimize these limitations as much as possible to assist blind people with selecting appropriate clothing. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to use...

Surface plastic deformation has a high productivity and allows for products with unique operational properties, namely: a high quality of the surface layer, increased support stability of the profile of the treated surface, a strengthened surface layer, and the formation of residual compressive stresses in the surface layer. The essence of smoothin...

In this chapter, the authors highlight the benefits of using Lean Maintenance, showing and discussing obtained results from studying industrial companies and concluding about used tools and level of this concept implementation in their activity. For obtaining the base results for this work, surveys were used for research carried out in enterprises....

Several aspects must be considered in the design of rolling bearing cages. One of the most important considerations relates to studying and developing a stationary approach for solving problems of heat and mass transfer during convection. In this context, this paper proposes, among other achievements, the development and validation of a model of he...

Nowadays, global resources management intersects with collaboration and Industry 4.0 paradigms, namely for collaboratively managing cyber-physical systems. Only organizations that cooperate with their business partners, along with their suppliers and remaining stakeholders, including their clients, will be able to permit and promote the much-needed...

The quality of yarn is essential in the control of the fabrics processes. There is some commercial equipment that measures the quality of yarn based on sensors, of different types, used for collecting data about some textile yarn characteristic parameters. The irregularity of the textile thread influences its physical properties/characteristics and...

Managing supply chain activities have become a critical issue for manufacturing organization due to globalization and challenges faced by sustainability. Performance of supply chain can be evaluated by indicators and other factors. The evaluation of these factors becomes difficult due to lack of benchmarks and evaluation method. The supply chain ha...

In this paper, the main problems associated with the mechanical processing of parts of various types and purposes are investigated. On the basis of this, a new technology for processing and strengthening the surface layer of parts made of high-speed steel of the P6M5 brand using the combined RTS effect is proposed. A block diagram of the main addit...

Fieldbus standards are industrial networks that establish hardware interfaces and communication protocols. Central automation structures were used to undertake automation prior to these standards. Among others, it was required direct wiring to the stations of central automation which increased errors and faults. Networked Control Systems are one ca...

Aim of this research is to design the central processing unit, which is indispensable today, with 3 different motor types and to control the ideal motor in ideal torque and rpm units in the market, and to complete the process with the same precision with the minimum unit required in the energy and time domain. The stepper motors used in the hobby a...

The paper presents the possibility of implementation the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to reduce the number of variables needed to describe the production process. In particular, the process of oil inserts for candles has been taken into account. The provided research was divided into two stages. The first stage was aimed at collecting the dat...

Measurements are crucial for research in the fields of microelectromechanical (MEMS), nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) and industrial applications. In this work, the design approach for the development and construction of a testing 4D mechatronic system, and respective validation, including the detailed description of the used components and parts as w...

The quality of yarn is essential in the control of the fabrics processes. There is some commercial equipment that measures the quality of yarn based on sensors, of different types, used for collecting data about some yarn characteristic parameters. The existing equipment, for the above-mentioned purpose, is characterized by its high size and cost,...

The blade shape is of great interest to hybrid turbine designers, due to its significant and direct impact on turbine performance. The inlet and outlet diameters of the vane affect the size of the rotor, which is limited because of the small space available in internal combustion engines. The effect of the ratio of the average inlet diameter and th...

Yarn quality analysis is an issue that textile companies try to solve in a fast and automatic way. Nowadays, yarn quality analysis machines are available in the market, but those are not adequate for large-scale use due to their low versatility and huge dimensions. This paper presents the development of an automatic unwinding and winding system to...

Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance processes is a constant goal of production companies. The elimination of unexpected failures that generate excessive costs and production losses is emphasized. Not only the selection of an appropriate maintenance strategy, but also the use of appropriate methods and tools to support the dec...

Meta-models enable to introduce dynamism and flexibility while trying to develop tools for solving a widened set of problems in a given application domain, which is considered nowadays to be of upmost importance, in the current Industry 4.0 era, and its underlying Cyber Physical Production Systems. In this paper a meta-model about flow shop schedul...

Underground mining is a difficult area for miners to work. Miners must go to the working faces by walking, which is not only time consuming but also physically demanding. In mines, a man-rider chair lift system (MRCL) has been developed to alleviate the strain stresses caused by walking lengthy and uneven distances up to the working faces. All para...

Many wheelchair people depend on others to control the movement of their wheelchairs, which significantly influences their independence and quality of life. Smart wheelchairs offer a degree of self-dependence and freedom to drive their own vehicles. In this work, we designed and implemented a low-cost software and hardware method to steer a robotic...

This book covers a variety of topics in the field of mechatronics engineering, with a special focus on innovative control systems and automation concepts for a wide range of applications. Based on a set of papers presented at the 2nd International Conference “Innovation in Engineering”, ICIE, held in Minho, Portugal, on June 28-30, 2022, the chapte...

Industry 4.0 promotes the advance of several key areas in manufacturing. Industrial metrology, and associated activities such as Quality Assurance are receiving constant pressure to enhance integration, interoperability, and availability of measurement information to other operations. This promotes a trusted Internet of Things (IoT) or Cyber-Physic...

This paper justifies the primary conditions for the strength, rigidity, and stability of the part’s structural elements (a mechanism). They presented the theoretical and practical part of the conditions for checking the strength of a beam (Rod). Graphically presented the stress \({\sigma }_{n}{, \tau }_{n}\) in height. We investigated the behavior...

In order to predict the evolution of the vulcanization process of cork-rubber slabs, a numerical approach was developed combining heat transfer by conduction and kinetics models. A one-dimensional model was applied to predict the evolution of temperature and degree of cure at different stages of the vulcanization of a cork-rubber composite. Also, d...

This volume of Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering gathers selected papers presented at the 7th International Scientific-Technical Conference MANUFACTURING 2022, held in Poznan, Poland, on May 16–19, 2022. The conference was organized by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, Poland. The aim of the conference wa...

This work shows a case study of the application of data digitalization in visual inspections on smartphone manufacturing, from the context of the need for inspection carried out by humans, in order to analyze its impacts. The impacts of visual stress and fatigue in employees, the technological techniques that can be used through computer vision and...

Manufacturers of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems in Brazil are experiencing several challenges to increase competitiveness of their operations, considering the world class companies which are continuously improving their products and processes to deliver better quality products with lower costs. To achieve this target, new opportun...

The article describes four stages of building a model based on a set of non-conforming products, and then verifies them on a practical example of implementation in a company from the automotive industry. The aim of the model is to support the analysis of quality problems in manufacturing companies. The first stage consists in defining the level at...

Management of production systems requires making immediate decisions based on the data generated in bulk by IT systems. In this case, it can be helpful to use models of artificial neural networks (ANN) that, on the grounds of accessible data, will determine results of the made decision. One of the key problems in production companies is determinati...

Today’s perishable food supply chains must be resilient to handle volatile demands, environmental restrictions, and disruptions in order to meet customers’ requirements. The enablers of the perishable food supply chain have not yet been explored. In this paper, a bibliometric systematic literature review has been conducted to identify the articles...

Machine end-effector kinematic analysis is critical to optimizing transporting components where inertial forces are the main loads. While displacements may be measured with relatively high accuracy in transportation equipment motors, the inertial forces in the transported components are seldom optimized. This is especially relevant in electronic co...

Secure, transparent, and sustainable distributed manufacturing system (DMS) is a pressing need for current Industry 4.0. In this paper, exchange of highly sensitive information in a more transparent and secure way and to avoid the misunderstandings and trust issues between the enterprises a smart contract based on blockchain technology has been pro...

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special issues/Systems Engineering Availability and Reliability).

The paper deals with a production scheduling process, which is a problematic and it requires considering a lot of various factors while making the decision. Due to the specificity of the production system analysed in the practical example, the production scheduling problem was classified as a Job-shop Scheduling Problem (JSP). The production schedu...

Current trends in Industry 4.0 are largely related to issues of reliability and availability. As a result of these trends and engineering systems’ complexity, research and development needs now refer to new solutions in the integration of intelligent machines or systems, with emphasis on changes in production processes aimed at increasing productio...

When performing In-Circuit Tests (ICTs) of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), there are certain phenomena related with strain analysis that must be known in order to obtain stronger and more accurate testing results. During testing, PCBs are often subjected to mechanical bending efforts that induce excessive strain. This study focuses on the building o...

This paper describes the development of a mechatronic punch and bind office machine. Integrating smart technologies in the existing traditional business machines will ease the evolution of these systems, enabling productivity and efficiency. The development of an experimental platform that enables further advances in servitization is required. To i...