North-central Chile and south-east France are facing semi-arid and Mediterranean climates, respectively. In addition to being historically exposed to water supply challenges, these regions are sensitive to climate change, which is increasing aridity. Thus, the pressure on water resources to meet domestic, agricultural and industrial demands is high and growing. As precipitation in these regions is low and highly variable, the water stored underground is a key adjustment variable to mitigate years with low precipitation. Hence, groundwater resources need to be carefully managed in order to secure water supply in the years and decades to come. To tackle this challenge, this project aims to
develop geophysical characterization and groundwater modeling approaches to support sustainable groundwater management. The main objective of the project is to produce key information about groundwater for water resources planners in semi-arid and Mediterranean areas such as in north-central Chile and southeast France. This objective will be achieved by training students and young researchers in state-of-the-art technologies such as the Magnetic Resonance Sounding (MRS) geophysical method and the WEAP-MODFLOW integrated water resources modeling framework.

La sustentabilidad de Chile es un desafío país en el cual deben interactuar diferentes actores de la sociedad. En la actualidad existe voluntad política e interés al interior de las Universidades y el sector Público-Privado para trabajar en la temática de Sustentabilidad, a fin de dar respuestas con sustento científico y responsable a la sociedad. Un desafío instalado a partir de la agenda de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas de fines de 2015, que incluye el establecimiento de 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), donde los países han adquirido un compromiso explícito y real de crecimiento económico, inclusión social y protección ambiental, basados en la Sustentabilidad. En este contexto, el Consorcio de Universidades del Estado de Chile (CUECH), ha definido la sustentabilidad como uno de los temas prioritarios de estudio. Así a mediados de 2017 se origina la Red de Investigación en Sustentabilidad de las Universidades del Estado (RISUE) para dar respuesta a los desafíos del desarrollo sustentable del país. En esta propuesta la RISUE se enfocaría en contribuír a los ODS 13 acción por el clima, 14 vida submarina, 15 vida de ecosistemas terrestres y 17 alianzas para lograr los objetivos. De este modo, la amplia distribución geográfica de las universidades pertenecientes al CUECH posibilita que esta RISUE aborde la sustentabilidad con una mirada local y al mismo tiempo con una representatividad de todo el país. Desde fines de 2017 la RISUE ha realizado cuatro talleres, definiendo el establecimiento de tres grandes líneas de investigación prioritarias: Sustentabilidad de Sistemas antrópicos, Sustentabilidad de Ecosistemas, y Caracterización y Proyección del Clima en Chile. A partir de estas líneas prioritarias, la RISUE se planteó una serie de objetivos que tuvieron un desarrollo variable debido a la crisis social y sanitaria del país y a la inexistencia de incentivos para participar en la RISUE.

The main aim of the present proposal is to assess, in the Western Andean Front, the magnitude and the spatiotemporal variability of deep groundwater flows and derived mountain block recharge using an original and direct collection of hydrogeological, lithological, and geophysical data. Specific objectives are:
– Obj. 1: Assess the spatial variation at depth of the Abanico Formation hydraulic properties to improve the understanding of Western Andean Front fault systems and their impacts on the water transference to alluvial aquifers.
– Obj. 2: Unravel the aquifer capacity of fractured rocks (i.e. Abanico Formation) and the critical zone extinction depth for groundwater flows and mountain block recharge mechanisms in the Western Andean Front of Central Chile.
– Obj. 3: Estimate the mountain block recharge mechanisms regarding their quantitative (flow) and qualitative (hydrogeochemistry) aspects and assess the vulnerability of deep groundwater flows to shallow water-store variations caused by current and future hydroclimatic changes in the Western Andean Front.
The study of borehole core lithological and hydraulic properties, groundwater geochemical composition, flow rates, together with spring hydraulic and hydrogeochemistry behaviors will help to fill a gap of knowledge about deep groundwater flows originating from the Principal Cordillera. This deep borehole and derived original information will therefore be used as an “eye” inside the deep Chilean Andes groundwater resources. Finally, it will be a useful observation point for multidisciplinary research due to the interest of national and international researchers to collect samples at depth and therefore will expand shared knowledge and national frontier research

Escuela de Verano Latino Americana de Robotica (LACORO)

KhipuX support grant for organizing the Third Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO) https://www.lacoro.org/

Fondos para apoyar la realizacion de la Third Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO 2024). La primera edición se realizó online en octubre de 2020; la segunda fue presencial en enero de 2023; la tercera versión tendrá lugar entre el 9 y el 13 de diciembre de 2024 en la Universidad de O’Higgins en Rancagua, Chile. https://lacoro.org/

Esta Escuela de Verano beneficiará principalmente a Estudiantes y Académicos de las Américas interesados en la Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial aplicada a la Robótica. Nuestro objetivo es fomentar la colaboración nacional y regional en esta área de investigación. Para la primera edición, alcanzamos 241 inscripciones para actividades online de todo el mundo, y la segunda versión tuvo 166 inscripciones para actividades presenciales en enero de 2023, principalmente de Chile, México, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay.

In the previous project the research focus was on the sensing principle and the development of prototype modules for a tactile proximity sensor (TPS). In the current project the focus is on the methods and algorithms with which the events in the near proximity of the robots can be modelled by means of these sensors. Collectively, the TPS on the robot surface and gripper constitute a smart skin. The application scenarios here are the Active Exploration of the Environment, Grasping and the Safe Human-Robot-Interaction. The methods to be developed will improve significantly on the quality of state of the art methods and expand the horizon of possible solutions for these problems. The capacitive measuring principle and the spatial resolution in both, the tactile and proximity modalities, enable an area-wide and distance based coverage of the robot surroundings. It is the first time that algorithms for Exploration, Grasping and Safe-Human-Robot-Interaction are presented that rely simultaneously on both tactile and proximity sensing with spatial resolution. The goal of the Exploration is to research which methods and strategies enable the robot to acquire a contact- and proximity-based world-model by means of TPS. The quality of state of the art solutions for grasping should be improved significantly. For the Safe-Human-Robot-Interaction algorithms should be developed that adapt the robots path and velocity according to the current situation as determined by the TPS. Also, new algorithms should make a TPS-based Interaction possible with the goal of robot controlling and programming by the human through tactile and proximity input. Finally, according to the context of the task and situation at hand (Exploration, Manipulation and Interaction) the robot should show an appropriate behaviour which is given by a behavioural strategy that will also be developed. The starting point in the project is the TPS-modules which were successfully developed in the previous project. At the beginning, research will be focused on the algorithms for signal processing that extract robust features from TPS for higher level tasks. This step is followed by the integration of TPS into a robot system realizing the smart skin. Building on these steps the methods for Exploration, Manipulation and Safe-Human-Interaction are developed. Finally, the results of the project will be shown and evaluated in a combined demonstration scenario that includes a robot endowed with TPS.

Desarrollo de réplicas fidedignas e interactives de objetos deformables del mundo real. La principal aplicación estudiada serán los phantomas de órganos humanos, que permitirán la validación de intervenciones así como ayudar durante la formación de especialistas.