No abstract

Currently, there is a lack of developer-friendly software tools to formally address multi-robot coordination problems and obtain robust, efficient, and predictable strategies. This paper introduces a software toolbox that encapsulates, in one single package, modeling, planning, and execution algorithms. It implements a state-of-the-art approach to representing multi-robot systems: generalized Petri nets with rewards (GSPNRs). GSPNRs enable capturing multiple robots, decision states, action execution states and respective outcomes, action duration uncertainty, and team-level objectives. We introduce a novel algorithm that simplifies the model design process as it generates a GSPNR from a topological map. We also introduce a novel execution algorithm that coordinates the multi-robot system according to a given policy. This is achieved without compromising the model compactness introduced by representing robots as indistinguishable tokens. We characterize the computational performance of the toolbox with a series of stress tests. These tests reveal a lightweight implementation that requires low CPU and memory usage. We showcase the toolbox functionalities by solving a multi-robot inspection application, where we extend GSPNRs to enable the representation of heterogeneous systems and system resources such as battery levels and counters.

The gut microbiota comprise all the living organisms in our intestine. Microbiota has key roles in metabolic homeostasis, digestion and nutrient metabolism protection against pathogens or modulation of the immune system. Advances in techniques such as metagenomics or metabolomics have expanded our knowledge of the intestinal ecosystem. Beyond genetic, behavioral, or environmental factors, alterations of gut microbiota parameters such as composition, diversity, or metabolites including short-chain fatty acids, have shown to be associated with cardiovascular comorbidities. In this chapter, we described the role of the gut microbiota in obesity and type 2 diabetes pathophysiology, and the changes it undergoes during bariatric surgery, as well as explored the possibilities of modifying the microbiome to obtain potential clinical benefits.