Underwater gliders constitute a technology in active development, which has proven very promising in Ocean Research because of its relative low cost and long mission range. Due to their low surge speed, however, gliders are strongly affected by ocean currents, making path planning a crucial tool for this type of vehicles. In this work, we present a novel path planning algorithm for gliders based on iterative optimization that shows promising results in realistic simulations. This method reflects accurately the vehicle operation pattern and exhibits a better performance when compared with alternative approaches that are compared in this paper.

Developing software for controlling robotic systems is costly due to the complexity inherent in these systems. There is a need for tools that permit a reduction in the programming efforts, aiming at the generation of modular and robust applications, and promoting software reuse. The techniques which are of common use today in other areas are not adequate to deal with the complexity associated with these systems. In this work we present CoolBOT, a component oriented framework for programming robotic systems, based on the Port Automata model that fosters controllability and observability of software components. A simple demonstrator outlines the benefits of using the proposed approach in the development of a robotic application.

Environmental studies on coastal dune systems are faced with a considerable cost barrier due to the cost of the instrumentation and sensory equipment required for data collection. These systems play an important role in coastal areas as a protection against erosion and as providers of stability to coastal sedimentary deposits. The DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach to data acquisition can reduce the cost of these environmental studies. In this paper, a low-cost DIY wireless wind data acquisition system is presented which reduces the cost barrier inherent to these types of studies. The system is deployed for the analysis of the foredune of Maspalomas, an arid dune field situated on the south coast of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain), for the specific purpose of studying the dynamics of a dune type (tongue dunes), which is typical of this environment. The results obtained can be of interest for the study of these coastal environments at both the local level, for the management of this particular dune field, and at the general level for other similar dune fields around the world.