Due to its simplicity and efficiency, the pure-pursuit path tracking method has been widely employed for planned navigation of nonholonomic ground vehicles. In this paper, we investigate the application of this technique for reactive tracking of paths that are implicitly defined by perceived environmental features. Goal points are obtained through an efficient interpretation of range data from an onboard 2D laser scanner to follow persons, corridors, and walls. Moreover, this formulation allows that a robotic mission can be composed of a combination of different types of path segments. These techniques have been successfully tested in the tracked mobile robot Auriga- in an indoor environment.

Motion detection and tracking is a relevant problem for mobile robots during navigation to avoid collisions in dynamic environments or in applications where service robots interact with humans. This paper presents a simple method to distinguish mobile obstacles from the environment that is based on applying fuzzy threshold selection to consecutive two-dimensional (2D) laser scans previously matched with robot odometry. The proposed method has been tested with the Auriga-α mobile robot in indoors to estimate the motion of nearby pedestrians.

This paper presents the results obtained in the analysis of soiling effects in the energy production of CPV systems placed in desert areas (Abu Dhabi). These results are compared with the ones obtained from similar systems placed in continental climate areas, as it is the center of Spain at ISFOC headquarters. While the reduction in the energy generation because of soiling accumulation was less than a 10% at ISFOC, at Abu Dhabi it seems that it can reach values of 80% relatively fast, therefore a good cleaning policy becomes mandatory in climatic areas like Abu Dhabi.

Environmental testing following the draft of the IEC62817 standard has been carried out at ISFOC using a Soitec Solar tracker drive. The objective of this work is twofold; first to assure that the tracker design can perform under varying conditions and survive under extreme conditions and secondly to test the viability and usefulness of the tests described in the standard. After some changes in the device under test (specifically, gear-box oil) the drive system produced satisfactory results, assuring its performance under operational temperatures. Therefore, this work has demonstrated that the tests described in the standard are useful for detecting early failures.