Software & systems engineering and their applications.
The objective of this research project is to achieve fundamental advances in software technology that will enable building cyber-physical systems to allow citizens to see the environmental and health impacts of their daily activities through a citizen-driven body-worn mobile-phone-based commodity sensing platform. The approach is to create aspect-oriented extensions to a publish-subscribe architecture, called Open Rich Services (ORS), to provide a highly extensible and adaptive infrastructure. As one example, ORS will enable highly adaptive power management that not only adapts to current device conditions, but also the nature of the data, the data's application, and the presence and status of other sensors in the area. In this way, ORS will enable additional research advances in power management, algorithms, security and privacy during the project. A test-bed called CitiSense will be built, enabling in-the-world user and system studies for evaluating the approach and providing a glimpse of a future enhanced by cyber-physical systems. The research in this proposal will lead to fundamental advances in modularity techniques for composable adaptive systems, adaptive power management, cryptographic methods for open systems, interaction design for the mobile context, and statistical inference under multiple sources of noise. The scientific and engineering advances achieved through this proposal will advance our national capability to develop cyber-physical systems operating under decentralized control and severe resource constraints. The students trained under this project will become part of a new generation of researchers and practitioners prepared to advance the state of cyber-physical systems for the coming decades.
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University of California-San Diego
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National Science Foundation
Ingolf Krueger
Griswold, William
William Griswold Submitted by William Griswold on October 31st, 2011
The goal of this project is to develop a semantic foundation, cross-layer system architecture and adaptation services to improve dependability in instrumented cyberphysical spaces (ICPS) based on the principles of "computation reflection". ICPSs integrate a variety of sensing devices to create a digital representation of the evolving physical world and its processes for use by applications such as critical infrastructure monitoring, surveillance and incident-site emergency response. This requires the underlying systems to be dependable despite disruptions caused by failures in sensing, communications, and computation. The digital state representation guides a range of adaptations at different layers of the ICPS (i.e. networking, sensing, applications, cross-layer) to achieve end-to-end dependability at both the infrastructure and information levels. Examples of techniques explored include mechanisms for reliable information delivery over multi-networks, quality aware data collection, semantic sensing and reconfiguration using overlapping capabilities of heterogeneous sensors. Such adaptations are driven by a formal-methods based runtime analysis of system components, resource availability and application dependability needs. Responsphere, a real-world ICPS infrastructure on the University of California at Irvine campus, will serve as a testbed for development and validation of the overall ?reflective? approach and the cross-layer adaptation techniques to achieve dependability. Students at different levels (graduate, undergraduate, K-12) will be given opportunities to gain experience with using and designing real-world applications in the Responsphere ICPS via courses, independent study projects and demonstration sessions. Students will benefit tremendously from exposure to new software development paradigms for the ICPSs that will be a part of the future living environments.
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SRI International
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National Science Foundation
Denker, Grit
Grit Denker Submitted by Grit Denker on April 7th, 2011
The goal of this project is to develop a semantic foundation, cross-layer system architecture and adaptation services to improve dependability in instrumented cyberphysical spaces (ICPS) based on the principles of "computation reflection". ICPSs integrate a variety of sensing devices to create a digital representation of the evolving physical world and its processes for use by applications such as critical infrastructure monitoring, surveillance and incident-site emergency response. This requires the underlying systems to be dependable despite disruptions caused by failures in sensing, communications, and computation. The digital state representation guides a range of adaptations at different layers of the ICPS (i.e. networking, sensing, applications, cross-layer) to achieve end-to-end dependability at both the infrastructure and information levels. Examples of techniques explored include mechanisms for reliable information delivery over multi-networks, quality aware data collection, semantic sensing and reconfiguration using overlapping capabilities of heterogeneous sensors. Such adaptations are driven by a formal-methods based runtime analysis of system components, resource availability and application dependability needs. Responsphere, a real-world ICPS infrastructure on the University of California at Irvine campus, will serve as a testbed for development and validation of the overall ?reflective? approach and the cross-layer adaptation techniques to achieve dependability. Students at different levels (graduate, undergraduate, K-12) will be given opportunities to gain experience with using and designing real-world applications in the Responsphere ICPS via courses, independent study projects and demonstration sessions. Students will benefit tremendously from exposure to new software development paradigms for the ICPSs that will be a part of the future living environments.
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University of California-Irvine
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National Science Foundation
Venkatasubramanian, Nalini
Nalini Venkatasubramanian Submitted by Nalini Venkatasubramanian on April 7th, 2011
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.
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Arizona State University
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National Science Foundation
Zhang, Junshan
Junshan Zhang Submitted by Junshan Zhang on April 7th, 2011
The objective of this research is to develop new methods for verifying the safety of complex cyber-physical systems based on information derived from the wide variety of models and methods used throughout the design process. The approach is based on a new formalism to represent the architecture of systems with cyber components, physical components, and interconnections between these domains. Diverse engineering models of different aspects of the system will be associated through the cyber-physical architecture for the complete system. Formal logic will be developed to express and reason about inter-model consistency and to infer system-level properties from information derived from the domain-specific models. The project's intellectual merit lies in the creation of a comprehensive, unified framework for verifying properties of systems rich in both cyber and physical components. The new formal logic will make it possible to integrate information from the wide range of engineering domains and technical expertise required to design complex systems. This will lead to a principled, rigorous approach to system-level verification engineering for real-world cyber-physical systems. The application of the new methodology to verify the safety of cooperative intersection collision avoidance systems will have immediate impact on emerging technologies for safer automobile systems. A new interdisciplinary course in engineering and computer science on system-level design of cyber-physical systems will prepare a new cadre of graduates with the cross-cutting skills needed to develop safety-critical systems. Innovative educational modules will also be developed to inspire pre-college students to pursue education and careers in engineering and computer science.
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Carnegie-Mellon University
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National Science Foundation
Krogh, Bruce
Bruce Krogh Submitted by Bruce Krogh on April 7th, 2011
The objective of this research is to develop advanced distributed monitoring and control systems for civil infrastructure. The approach uses a cyber-physical co-design of wireless sensor-actuator networks and structural monitoring and control algorithms. The unified cyber-physical system architecture and abstractions employ reusable middleware services to develop hierarchical structural monitoring and control systems. The intellectual merit of this multi-disciplinary research includes (1) a unified middleware architecture and abstractions for hierarchical sensing and control; (2) a reusable middleware service library for hierarchical structural monitoring and control; (3) customizable time synchronization and synchronized sensing routines; (4) a holistic energy management scheme that maps structural monitoring and control onto a distributed wireless sensor-actuator architecture; (5) dynamic sensor and actuator activation strategies to optimize for the requirements of monitoring, computing, and control; and (6) deployment and empirical validation of structural health monitoring and control systems on representative lab structures and in-service multi-span bridges. While the system constitutes a case study, it will enable the development of general principles that would be applicable to a broad range of engineering cyber-physical systems. This research will result in a reduction in the lifecycle costs and risks related to our civil infrastructure. The multi-disciplinary team will disseminate results throughout the international research community through open-source software and sensor board hardware. Education and outreach activities will be held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Summer School in Smart Structures Technology jointly hosted by the US, Japan, China, and Korea.
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Washington University
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National Science Foundation
Lu, Chenyang
Chenyang Lu Submitted by Chenyang Lu on April 7th, 2011
The objective of this research is to develop new principles and techniques for adaptive operation in highly dynamic physical environments, using miniaturized, energy-constrained devices. The approach is to use holistic cross-layer solutions that simultaneously address all aspects of the system, from low-level hardware design to higher-level communication and data fusion algorithms to top-level applications. In particular, this work focuses on body area sensor networks as emerging cyber-physical systems. The intellectual merit includes producing new principles regarding how cyber systems must be designed in order to continually adapt and respond to rapidly changing physical environments, sensed data, and application contexts in an energy-efficient manner. New cross-layer technologies will be created that use a holistic bottom-up and top-down design -- from silicon to user and back again. A novel system-on-a-chip hardware platform will be designed and fabricated using three cutting-edge technologies to reduce the cost of communication and computation by several orders of magnitude. The broad impact of this project will enable the wide range of applications and societal benefits promised by body area networks, including improving the quality and reducing the costs of healthcare. The technology will have broad implications for any cyber physical system that uses energy constrained wireless devices. A new seminar series will bring together experts from many fields (including domain experts, such as physicians and healthcare professionals). The key aspects of this work that deal with healthcare have the potential to attract women and minorities to the computer field.
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University of Virginia
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National Science Foundation
Stankovic, John
John Stankovic Submitted by John Stankovic on April 7th, 2011
Abstract The objective of this research is to develop advanced distributed monitoring and control systems for civil infrastructure. The approach uses a cyber-physical co-design of wireless sensor-actuator networks and structural monitoring and control algorithms. The unified cyber-physical system architecture and abstractions employ reusable middleware services to develop hierarchical structural monitoring and control systems. The intellectual merit of this multi-disciplinary research includes (1) a unified middleware architecture and abstractions for hierarchical sensing and control; (2) a reusable middleware service library for hierarchical structural monitoring and control; (3) customizable time synchronization and synchronized sensing routines; (4) a holistic energy management scheme that maps structural monitoring and control onto a distributed wireless sensor-actuator architecture; (5) dynamic sensor and actuator activation strategies to optimize for the requirements of monitoring, computing, and control; and (6) deployment and empirical validation of structural health monitoring and control systems on representative lab structures and in-service multi-span bridges. While the system constitutes a case study, it will enable the development of general principles that would be applicable to a broad range of engineering cyber-physical systems. This research will result in a reduction in the lifecycle costs and risks related to our civil infrastructure. The multi-disciplinary team will disseminate results throughout the international research community through open-source software and sensor board hardware. Education and outreach activities will be held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Summer School in Smart Structures Technology jointly hosted by the US, Japan, China, and Korea.
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Purdue University
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National Science Foundation
Dyke, Shirley
Shirley Dyke Submitted by Shirley Dyke on April 7th, 2011
Tens of thousands of the nation?s bridges are structurally deficient. This project proposes to design a self sustaining, wireless structural monitoring system. The novel low-power Flash FPGA-based hardware platform and the corresponding software architecture offer a radically new approach to CPS design. A soft multi-core platform where software modules that run in parallel will be guaranteed to have dedicated single-threaded soft processor cores enables flexible power management by running only the necessary cores at any given time at the slowest clock rate mandated by the observed/controlled physical phenomena. As bridges tend to vibrate due to wind and dynamic load conditions, we are developing a novel vibration-based energy harvesting device that is capable of automatically adjusting its resonant response in order to capture much more energy than the current techniques can. Moreover, the PIs are developing structural health assessment techniques involving quantitative analysis of signals to determine crack type, location and size. The technology will indicate structural problems before they become critical potentially saving human lives and averting late and extensive repairs. The impact of the vibration harvesting technique and the soft multi-core architecture will go beyond structural monitoring. A separate soft core dedicated to each software component that interacts with the physical world will make CPS more responsive while saving power at the same time. The education plan focuses on outreach toward underrepresented minorities by recruiting such undergraduates to participate in the research. To facilitate the dissemination of our results, all hardware designs and software developed under this project will be open source.
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Vanderbilt University
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National Science Foundation
Volgyesi, Peter
Peter Volgyesi Submitted by Peter Volgyesi on April 7th, 2011
The objective of this research is to develop a prototype programmable microfluidic laboratory-on-chip that concurrently executes assays (chemical algorithms) in an on-line fashion. A chemist specifies an assay (chemical algorithm) using a text-based language. Assays arrive at the device in real-time and an operating system/virtual machine running on an attached microcontroller interprets them. The approach is to develop a software simulation infrastructure for the laboratory-on-chip and to build the operating system/virtual machine on top of it. The intellectual merit of this activity is due to the fact that no type of runtime support system has yet been proposed for microfluidic devices. The key challenges to be solved in this project include: deadlock-free deterministic and adaptive routing algorithms; real-time constraints for routing droplets in the system; routing wash droplets for decontamination; scheduling assay operations on the devices; congestion estimation; and fault diagnosis and recovery. In terms of broader impact, advances in laboratory-on-chip technology will improve public health worldwide and lead to significant advances in clinical diagnostics and medicine. Laboratory-on-chips are commercially available from established companies such as Agilent Technologies as well as startup companies such as Advanced Liquid Logic, Silicon Biosystems, and Ayanda Biosystems; thus, the economic impact of this research is tremendous. The University of California, Riverside is a Minority-Serving Institution. The PI is committed to the introduction of laboratory-on-chip technology in both undergraduate and graduate education and will make every possible effort to recruit underrepresented minorities (including women) at the graduate and undergraduate level to work on the project.
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University of California at Riverside
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National Science Foundation
Brisk, Philip
Philip Brisk Submitted by Philip Brisk on April 7th, 2011
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