arXiv subjects

João Pedro Araújo

Publications and source records attributed to João Pedro Araújo.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Rotating Magnetocaloric Effect in Sintered La(Fe,Mn,Si)$_{13}$H$_z$ Plates

La-Fe-Si-based alloys are among the most application-ready magnetocaloric materials for room-temperature magnetic refrigeration. Powder metallurgy methods have been previously demonstrated to successfully produce structures with sub-mm features for magnetic refrigerators in a scalable method. In this work, we explore the rotating magnetocaloric effect (RMCE) present in a 0.27 mm thin plate of sintered and hydrogenated La(Fe,Mn,Si)$_{13}$. The high aspect ratio ($\sim$50) of the thin plate leads to an anisotropic magnetocaloric effect (MCE), dependent on the relative orientation of the external magnetic field, and an RMCE when the external field is rotated. We find a maximum rotating adiabatic temperature change ($ΔT_{ad}^{rot}$) of 1.17 K with the rotation of a 1 T magnetic field and 1.12 K when rotating a 0.6 T magnetic field, a reduction of only 4% for a 40% reduction in applied field strength. Magnetostatic computations revealed a considerable rotating isothermal entropy change ($ΔS_{iso}^{rot}$), comparable to the conventional MCE of Gd for similar fields, reaching 3.97 J K$^{-1}$ kg$^{-1}$ for 1 T and 3.68 J K$^{-1}$ kg$^{-1}$ for 0.6 T (7% reduction), highlighting La-Fe-Mn-Si alloys as high potential candidates for a magnetic refrigerator based on the RMCE utilizing relatively low external magnetic field amplitudes, such as 0.6 T.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Rotating Magnetocaloric Effect in First-order Phase Transition Material Gd5Si2Ge2

The rotating magnetocaloric effect (RMCE) induced by self-demagnetization has been investigated in the giant magnetocaloric effect (GMCE) material Gd$_5$Si$_2$Ge$_2$. This shape-dependent effect had thus far only been reported in pure Gd, marking this as the first analysis of the effect in a sample with a magnetostructural first-order phase transition. By rotating the applied magnetic field vector while keeping its intensity constant, the demagnetizing field within a high-aspect ratio sample changes significantly, resulting in a RMCE. We characterize RMCE by determining the adiabatic temperature change ($ΔT_{ad}^{rot}$) directly through temperature measurements, and the isothermal entropy change ($ΔS_M^{rot}$) via magnetometry and magnetostatic simulations. We obtain a remarkable maximum $ΔT_{ad}^{rot}$ of 1.77 K for a constant external field of 0.8 T, higher than that obtained under 1.0 T. The magnetostatic simulations not only corroborate the highly non-monotonous field-dependence of $|ΔS_{M}^{rot}|$, which reaches 95\% of its maximum value at 0.8 T, 6.12 J K$^{-1}$ kg$^{-1}$ for the experimentally measured shape, but also estimate a 35\% increase in the maximum $|ΔS_{M}^{rot}|$ up to 8.67 J K$^{-1}$ kg$^{-1}$ in a simulated shape with higher aspect ratio.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

TWIST: Teleoperated Whole-Body Imitation System

Teleoperating humanoid robots in a whole-body manner marks a fundamental step toward developing general-purpose robotic intelligence, with human motion providing an ideal interface for controlling all degrees of freedom. Yet, most current humanoid teleoperation systems fall short of enabling coordinated whole-body behavior, typically limiting themselves to isolated locomotion or manipulation tasks. We present the Teleoperated Whole-Body Imitation System (TWIST), a system for humanoid teleoperation through whole-body motion imitation. We first generate reference motion clips by retargeting human motion capture data to the humanoid robot. We then develop a robust, adaptive, and responsive whole-body controller using a combination of reinforcement learning and behavior cloning (RL+BC). Through systematic analysis, we demonstrate how incorporating privileged future motion frames and real-world motion capture (MoCap) data improves tracking accuracy. TWIST enables real-world humanoid robots to achieve unprecedented, versatile, and coordinated whole-body motor skills--spanning whole-body manipulation, legged manipulation, locomotion, and expressive movement--using a single unified neural network controller. Our project website: https://humanoid-teleop.github.io

cs.RO↗

arXiv2020

Control with adaptive Q-learning

This paper evaluates adaptive Q-learning (AQL) and single-partition adaptive Q-learning (SPAQL), two algorithms for efficient model-free episodic reinforcement learning (RL), in two classical control problems (Pendulum and Cartpole). AQL adaptively partitions the state-action space of a Markov decision process (MDP), while learning the control policy, i. e., the mapping from states to actions. The main difference between AQL and SPAQL is that the latter learns time-invariant policies, where the mapping from states to actions does not depend explicitly on the time step. This paper also proposes the SPAQL with terminal state (SPAQL-TS), an improved version of SPAQL tailored for the design of regulators for control problems. The time-invariant policies are shown to result in a better performance than the time-variant ones in both problems studied. These algorithms are particularly fitted to RL problems where the action space is finite, as is the case with the Cartpole problem. SPAQL-TS solves the OpenAI Gym Cartpole problem, while also displaying a higher sample efficiency than trust region policy optimization (TRPO), a standard RL algorithm for solving control tasks. Moreover, the policies learned by SPAQL are interpretable, while TRPO policies are typically encoded as neural networks, and therefore hard to interpret. Yielding interpretable policies while being sample-efficient are the major advantages of SPAQL.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2020

Single-partition adaptive Q-learning

This paper introduces single-partition adaptive Q-learning (SPAQL), an algorithm for model-free episodic reinforcement learning (RL), which adaptively partitions the state-action space of a Markov decision process (MDP), while simultaneously learning a time-invariant policy (i. e., the mapping from states to actions does not depend explicitly on the episode time step) for maximizing the cumulative reward. The trade-off between exploration and exploitation is handled by using a mixture of upper confidence bounds (UCB) and Boltzmann exploration during training, with a temperature parameter that is automatically tuned as training progresses. The algorithm is an improvement over adaptive Q-learning (AQL). It converges faster to the optimal solution, while also using fewer arms. Tests on episodes with a large number of time steps show that SPAQL has no problems scaling, unlike AQL. Based on this empirical evidence, we claim that SPAQL may have a higher sample efficiency than AQL, thus being a relevant contribution to the field of efficient model-free RL methods.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2019

A Survey on Varieties Generated by Small Semigroups and a Companion Website

The aim of this paper is to provide an atlas of identity bases for varieties generated by small semigroups and groups. To help the working mathematician easily find information, we provide a companion website that runs in the background automated reasoning tools, finite model builders, and GAP, so that the user has an automatic \textit{intelligent} guide on the literature. This paper is mainly a survey of what is known about identity bases for semigroups or groups of small orders, and we also mend some gaps left unresolved by previous authors. For instance, we provide the first complete and justified list of identity bases for the varieties generated by a semigroup of order up to~$4$, and the website contains the list of varieties generated by a semigroup of order up to~$5$. The website also provides identity bases for several types of semigroups or groups, such as bands, commutative groups, and metabelian groups. On the inherently non-finitely based finite semigroups side, the website can decide if a given finite semigroup possesses this property or not. We provide some other functionalities such as a tool that outputs the multiplication table of a semigroup given by a $C$-presentation, where~$C$ is any class of algebras defined by a set of first order formulas. The companion website can be found here \url{http://sgv.pythonanywhere.com} Please send any comments/suggestions to \url{jj.araujo@fct.unl.pt}

math.GR↗

arXiv2019

A Transversal Property for Permutation Groups Motivated by Partial Transformations

In this paper we introduce the definition of $(k,l)$-universal transversal property, which is a refinement of the definition of $k$-universal transversal property, which in turn is a refinement of the classic definition of $k$-homogeneity for permutation groups. In particular, a group possesses the $(2,n)$-universal transversal property if and only if it is primitive; it possesses the $(2,2)$-universal transversal property if and only if it is $2$-homogeneous. Up to a few undecided cases, we give a classification of groups satisfying the $(k,l)$-universal transversal property, for $k\ge 3$. Then we apply this result for studying regular semigroups of partial transformations.

math.GR↗