Abstract
The project aims at making cities "smarter" by engineering processes such as traffic control, efficient parking services, and new urban activities such as recharging electric vehicles. To that end, the research will study the components needed to establish a Cyber-Physical Infrastructure for urban environments and address fundamental problems that involve data collection, resource allocation, real-time decision making, safety, and security. Accordingly, the research is organized along two main directions: (i) Sensing and data acquisition using a new mobile sensor network paradigm designed for urban environments; and (ii) Decision Support for the "Smart City" relying on formal verification and certification methods coupled with innovative dynamic optimization techniques used for decision making and resource allocation. The work will bring together and build upon methodological advances in optimization under uncertainty, computer simulation, discrete event and hybrid systems, control and games, system security, and formal verification and safety. Target applications include: a "Smart Parking" system where parking spaces are optimally assigned and reserved, and vehicular traffic regulation.
The research has the potential of revolutionizing the way cities are viewed: from a passive living and working environment to a highly dynamic one with new ways to deal with transportation, energy, and safety. Teaming up with stakeholders in the Boston Back Bay neighborhood, the City of Boston, and private industry, the research team expects to establish new collaborative models between universities and urban groups for cutting-edge research embedded in the deployment of an exciting technological, economic, and sociological development.
Performance Period: 10/01/2012 - 12/31/2015
Institution: University of Connecticut
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1239030
Abstract
This NSF Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Frontiers project "Foundations Of Resilient CybEr-physical Systems (FORCES)" focuses on the resilient design of large-scale networked CPS systems that directly interface with humans. FORCES aims to pr ovide comprehensive tools that allow the CPS designers and operators to combine resilient control (RC) algorithms with economic incentive (EI) schemes.
Scientific Contributions
The project is developing RC tools to withstand a wide-range of attacks and faults; learning and control algorithms which integrate human actions with spatio-temporal and hybrid dynamics of networked CPS systems; and model-based design to assure semantically consistent representations across all branches of the project. Operations of networked CPS systems naturally depend on the systemic social institutions and the individual deployment choices of the humans who use and operate them. The presence of incomplete and asymmetric information among these actors leads to a gap between the individually and socially optimal equilibrium resiliency levels. The project is developing EI schemes to reduce this gap. The core contributions of the FORCES team, which includes experts in control systems, game theory, and mechanism design, are the foundations for the co-design of RC and EI schemes and technological tools for implementing them.
Expected Impacts
Resilient CPS infrastructure is a critical National Asset. FORCES is contributing to the development of new Science of CPS by being the first project that integrates networked control with game theoretic tools and the economic incentives of human decision makers for resilient CPS design and operation. The FORCES integrated co-design philosophy is being validated on two CPS domains: electric power distribution and consumption, and transportation networks. These design prototypes are being tested in real world scenarios. The team's research efforts are being complemented by educational offerings on resilient CPS targeted to a large and diverse audience.
Performance Period: 04/15/2013 - 03/31/2018
Institution: University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1238962
Project URL
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Abstract
This NSF Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Frontiers project "Foundations Of Resilient CybEr-physical Systems (FORCES)" focuses on the resilient design of large-scale networked CPS systems that directly interface with humans. FORCES aims to pr ovide comprehensive tools that allow the CPS designers and operators to combine resilient control (RC) algorithms with economic incentive (EI) schemes.
Scientific Contributions
The project is developing RC tools to withstand a wide-range of attacks and faults; learning and control algorithms which integrate human actions with spatio-temporal and hybrid dynamics of networked CPS systems; and model-based design to assure semantically consistent representations across all branches of the project. Operations of networked CPS systems naturally depend on the systemic social institutions and the individual deployment choices of the humans who use and operate them. The presence of incomplete and asymmetric information among these actors leads to a gap between the individually and socially optimal equilibrium resiliency levels. The project is developing EI schemes to reduce this gap. The core contributions of the FORCES team, which includes experts in control systems, game theory, and mechanism design, are the foundations for the co-design of RC and EI schemes and technological tools for implementing them.
Expected Impacts
Resilient CPS infrastructure is a critical National Asset. FORCES is contributing to the development of new Science of CPS by being the first project that integrates networked control with game theoretic tools and the economic incentives of human decision makers for resilient CPS design and operation. The FORCES integrated co-design philosophy is being validated on two CPS domains: electric power distribution and consumption, and transportation networks. These design prototypes are being tested in real world scenarios. The team's research efforts are being complemented by educational offerings on resilient CPS targeted to a large and diverse audience.
Xenofon Koutsoukos
Xenofon Koutsoukos is a Professor of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. He is also a Senior Research Scientist in the Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS).
Before joining Vanderbilt, Dr. Koutsoukos was a Member of Research Staff in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) (2000-2002), working in the Embedded Collaborative Computing Area.
He received his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece in 1993. Between 1993 and 1995, he joined the National Center for Space Applications, Hellenic Ministry of National Defense, Athens, Greece as a computer engineer in the areas of image processing and remote sensing. He received the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in January 1998 and the Master of Science in Applied Mathematics in May 1998 both from the University of Notre Dame. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering working under Professor Panos J. Antsaklis with the group for Interdisciplinary Studies of Intelligent Systems.
His research work is in the area of cyber-physical systems with emphasis on formal methods, distributed algorithms, diagnosis and fault tolerance, and adaptive resource management. He has published numerous journal and conference papers and he is co-inventor of four US patents. He is the recipient of the NSF Career Award in 2004, the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, and the 2011 Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Associate Administrator (AA) Award in Technology and Innovation from NASA.
Performance Period: 04/15/2013 - 03/31/2018
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Sponsor: National Science Foundaiton
Award Number: 1238959
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Abstract
The goal of this research is to develop fundamental theory, efficient algorithms, and realistic experiments for the analysis and design of safety-critical cyber-physical transportation systems with human operators. The research focuses on preventing crashes between automobiles at road intersections, since these account for about 40% of overall vehicle crashes. Specifically, the main objective of this work is to design provably safe driver-assist systems that understand driver's intentions and provide warnings/overrides to prevent collisions. In order to pursue this goal, hybrid automata models for the driver-vehicles-intersection system, incorporating driver behavior and performance as an integral part, are derived from human-factors experiments. A partial order of these hybrid automata models is constructed, according to confidence levels on the model parameters. The driver-assist design problem is then formulated as a set of partially ordered hybrid differential games with imperfect information, in which games are ordered according to parameter confidence levels. The resulting designs are validated experimentally in a driving simulator and in large-scale computer simulations.
This research leverages the potential of embedded control and communication technologies to prevent crashes at traffic intersections, by enabling networks of smart vehicles to cooperate with each other, with the surrounding infrastructure, and with their drivers to make transportation safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. The work is based on a collaboration among researchers in formal methods, autonomous control, and human factors who are studying realistic and provably correct warning/override algorithms that can be readily transitioned to production vehicles.
Paul Green
Dr. Paul A. Green is a research professor in UMTRI's Driver Interface Group and an adjunct professor in the University of Michigan (U-M) Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE). He is also a past president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and currently a member of the HFES Executive Council and the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics Board of Directors. He is a fellow in HFES and the Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics. Dr. Green teaches automotive human factors (IOE 437) and human-computer interaction (IOE 436) classes. He has also been leader of U-M's Human Factors Engineering Short Course, the flagship continuing education in the field since the 1980s.
Dr. Green leads a research team that focuses on driver distraction, driver workload and workload managers, navigation system design, and motor-vehicle controls and displays. The research makes extensive use of instrumented cars and driving simulators.
Dr. Green's research has been published in over 200 journal articles, proceedings papers, and technical reports. He was the lead author of several landmark publications: the first set of U.S. DOT telematics guidelines and SAE recommended practices concerning navigation system design (SAE J2364, the 15-second rule), distraction compliance calculations (SAE J2365), and driving performance measurement and statistics (SAE J2944).
Before joining UMTRI, Dr. Green was an engineering staff member at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and a safety and health engineer for Scovill. At U-M, he has held appointments in the Department of Psychology, the School of Art (Industrial Design), and the School of Information. He has a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University and three degrees from U-M: an M.S.E. in IOE, an M.A. in psychology, and a joint Ph.D. in IOE and psychology.
Performance Period: 11/01/2012 - 12/31/2015
Institution: University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1238600
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Abstract
The objective of this research is to address issues related to the platform revolution leading to a third generation of networked control systems. The approach is to address four fundamental issues: (i) How to provide delay guarantees over communication networks to support networked control? (ii) How to synchronize clocks over networks so as to enable consistent and timely control actions? (iii) What is an appropriate architecture to support mechanisms for reliable yet flexible control system design? (iv) How to provide cross-domains proofs of proper performance in both cyber and physical domains?
Intellectual Merit: Currently neither theory nor networking protocols provide solutions for communication with delay constraints. Coordination by time is fundamental to the next generation of event-cum-time-driven systems that cyber-physical systems constitute. Managing delays and timing in architecture is fundamental for cyberphysical systems.
Broader Impact: Process, aerospace, and automotive industries rely critically on feedback control loops. Any platform revolution will have major consequences. Enabling control over networks will give rise to new large scale applications, e.g., the grand challenge of developing zero-fatality highway systems, by networking cars traveling on a highway. This research will train graduate students on this new technology of networked control. The Convergence Lab (i) has employed minority undergraduate students, including a Ron McNair Scholar, as well as other undergraduate and high school researchers, (ii) hosts hundreds of high/middle/elementary school students annually in Engineering Open House. The research results will be presented at conferences and published in open literature.
Performance Period: 09/01/2011 - 08/31/2013
Institution: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1232602
Abstract
The objective of this research is to establish a foundational framework for smart grids that enables significant penetration of renewable DERs and facilitates flexible deployments of plug-and-play applications, similar to the way users connect to the Internet. The approach is to view the overall grid management as an adaptive optimizer to iteratively solve a system-wide optimization problem, where networked sensing, control and verification carry out distributed computation tasks to achieve reliability at all levels, particularly component-level, system-level, and application level.
Intellectual merit. Under the common theme of reliability guarantees, distributed monitoring and inference algorithms will be developed to perform fault diagnosis and operate resiliently against all hazards. To attain high reliability, a trustworthy middleware will be used to shield the grid system design from the complexities of the underlying software world while providing services to grid applications through message passing and transactions. Further, selective load/generation control using Automatic Generation Control, based on multi-scale state estimation for energy supply and demand, will be carried out to guarantee that the load and generation in the system remain balanced.
Broader impact. The envisioned architecture of the smart grid is an outstanding example of the CPS technology. Built on this critical application study, this collaborative effort will pursue a CPS architecture that enables embedding intelligent computation, communication and control mechanisms into physical systems with active and reconfigurable components. Close collaborations between this team and major EMS and SCADA vendors will pave the path for technology transfer via proof-of-concept demonstrations.
Performance Period: 10/01/2011 - 08/31/2013
Institution: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1232601
Abstract
The national transmission networks that deliver high voltage electric power underpin our society and are central to the ongoing transformation of the American energy infrastructure. Transmission networks are very large and complicated engineering systems, and "keeping the lights on" as the transformation of the American energy infrastructure proceeds is a fundamental engineering challenge involving both the physical aspects of the equipment and the cyber aspects of the controls, communications, and computers that run the system. The project develops new principles of cyber-physical engineering by focusing on instabilities of electric power networks that can cause blackouts. It proposes novel approaches to analyze these instabilities and to design cyber-physical control methods to monitor, detect, and mitigate them. The controls must perform robustly in the presence of variability and uncertainty in electric generation, loads, communications, and equipment status, and during abnormal states caused by natural faults or malicious attacks.
The research produces cyber-physical engineering methodologies that specifically help to mitigate power system blackouts and more generally show the way forward in designing robust cyber-physical systems in environments characterized by rich dynamics and uncertainty. Education and outreach efforts involve students at high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, as well as dissemination of results to the public and the engineering and applied science communities in industry, government and universities.
Performance Period: 01/01/2012 - 08/31/2015
Institution: Iowa State University
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1219917
Abstract
This proposal requests travel funds from NSF to assist 50 US students to participate in IROS 2011, which will be held in San Francisco, CA, Sep. 25-30, 2011. The purpose of this Group Travel Grant Proposal is to make it possible for US students and postdocs to attend the conference, present their work, and forge connections with colleagues from around the world.
This year mark the 50th anniversary of robotics. In addition to the regular conference, IROS 2011 will feature interactive presentations, robot demonstrations, thematic plenary sessions on design, bio-robotics, and intelligent transportation, and special-topic symposia celebrating 50 years of robotics. As part of this award, students will also have the opportunity to participate in these historical events and learn more about the field of robotics. Travel funding will be in the form of partial airfare reimbursement and full reimbursement for student registration to approximately 50 U.S. students who plan to present at least one paper at the Conference.
The "big two" major international robotics conferences were outside of North America this past year, so demand should be very high from American students and professors to attend this major robotics event. The benefit to student learning and mentorship by encouraging attendance of students by direct monetary means brings large dividends in student confidence, knowledge and expertise.
Performance Period: 09/01/2011 - 08/31/2012
Institution: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1153994
Abstract
This project, investigating active building facades that proactively contribute to energy conservation by changing their opacity and air permeability as a function of environmental and user parameters, promises to contribute strongly to both the cyber and physical sciences. Often energy is wasted when parts of a building are heated or cooled, but are not actually used, or when they are actively cooled if simply opening a window would suffice. The proposed "Self-Organizing Amorphous Facades" (SOAF) consist of a large number of identical cells that can each change their opacity and air permeability, sense light, temperature, and occupancy, and communicate with each other in a distributed collective. For complex cyber physical systems, this promises to provide a novel design methodology that is potentially applicable to a large class of systems and, therefore, will result in foundational knowledge of use to the community at large. This high-risk, high-reward project integrates ideas from computer science and engineering, with a little human physiology and environmental science thrown in, to develop new theoretical foundations for the design, validation, and improvement of coordination strategies for multi-agent robotic systems.
The project's intellectual merit lies in novel algorithms that allow one to take advantage of distributed computation to drastically reduce the dimensionality of the data coming from the system, and novel algorithms that turn low-dimensional control data to the system into high-dimensional control signals. In particular, this research focuses on distributed algorithms that can identify regions that share similar spatio-temporal data, distributed algorithms that recognize patterns and gestures in spatio-temporal data sets, and distributed algorithms that automatically derive distributed policies for global control signals on temperature and light.
Broader Impacts: The direct impact of this project will be huge potential reduction in the energy footprint of modern buildings by active lighting and ventilation control. A related impact is the introduction of novel ways of using space using truly reconfigurable walls. Due to its interdisciplinary nature spanning computer science and civil engineering together with its positive environment implications, this project is likely to be attractive to students with a broad range of backgrounds and interests. It will lead to educational modules that let students explore energy, heat transfer and solar gains in a building using sensors, wireless technologies, and algorithms, and introduce students to the challenges of complex cyber-physical systems. The PI proposes outreach to women and minorities and suggests a novel mechanism of comic distribution via HowToons.com that will make technical results and environmental impact of CPS accessible to a wide audience.
Nikolaus Correll
Nikolaus is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 2009, with joint appointments in Aerospace, Electrical and Materials engineering. Nikolaus obtained his PhD from EPFL and did a 2-year post-doc at MIT CSAIL. He is the reciepient of a 2012 NSF CAREER and NASA Early Career Faculty fellowship.
Performance Period: 03/15/2012 - 02/28/2014
Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1153158
Abstract
This project, holding a two-day workshop which will bring together experts from a wide range of disciplines to articulate the challenges involved in Vertical Farming, will invigorate the research community. Vertical Farming is an indoor, urban farming concept that solves many energy problems associated with outdoor farming. Recent implementations have shown very high yields in the production vegetables, including green peppers and tomatoes, spinach and lettuce. In many cases, water usage has been significantly reduced compared to traditional outdoor farming, and the conditions in which the crops are grown naturally shields them from unseasonal climate, and, from pests and diseases. In addition, Vertical Farming has the potential to generate fresher and healthier produce at reasonable cost.
The proposed research has direct impact on the way the majority of the world's population lives. Agriculture impacts each and every one of us. Transformational technology is needed to meet the needs of simply feeding people in the coming decades. We need food to be safe such that it doesn't harm people because of the methods of cultivation used. Finally, agriculture has the potential to negatively impact the environment if not managed carefully and intentionally. This workshop will impact the way that crops are grown in the future, producing safe food, with a low environmental footprint.
Performance Period: 10/01/2011 - 09/30/2012
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1152110
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