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Vanderbilt engineers lead unmanned space craft software initiative
Since there will be no human pilots on the
unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous space craft of the future, the computers
flying them will have to be pretty darned smart. Maybe even a few orders of
magnitude smarter than the ones running "smart" equipment these days.
This summer Vanderbilt engineering researchers kicked off a $5 million
ground-breaking effort to develop the computer software required to operate the
next generation of military and space vehicles safely and reliably.
The Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) is heading up a
team that includes researchers from the University of California, Berkeley,
Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University, along with several industry
partners. Team members from the five year project, funding by the Air Force
Office of Scientific Research met in Atlanta July 7 to begin their work.
"The military has developed exciting new aerospace technologies in recent years,
but the increasing capability and complexity has also intensified the risks of
failure in systems that absolutely require high levels of confidence and
reliability," said Janos Sztipanovits, ISIS director and E. Bronson Ingram
Distinguished Professor of Engineering.
"Everyone talks about 'smart systems' technology, but it's not safe enough yet
to risk the equipment and ultimately the lives of people who will depend on it,"
he says.
"Smart systems" technologies such as flight-control systems and other
intelligent systems on airplanes, automobiles, in security systems and in cell
phones are called "embedded systems" because the computing apparatus is
integrated with mechanical equipment.
Before the advent of "smart systems," computer scientists did not have to
consider the physical realities of mechanics in their software designs, other
than such physical requirements as lighting up a computer screen or running a
printer.
But with "smart systems," computer scientists have to literally think outside
the box because the computer has to control mechanical systems that obey the
laws of physics, as well as the man-made, mathematical laws of computer science.
The underlying challenge is the need to marry two complex disciplines that
diverged years ago, Sztipanovits says. Physics, meet Computer Science.
But getting the right hand to know what the left hand is doing-much less clasp--
is profoundly more difficult to do than it is to imagine, Sztipanovits says.
ISIS began tackling that challenge years ago by pioneering a variety of software
systems that enable disparate computing systems to work smoothly together and to
empower these computer systems to grapple successfully-and safely-with
mechanical systems.
Along the way, ISIS has developed long-term collaborations with other university
pioneers in embedded systems, and three of these partners are joining ISIS in
this project, which is entitled "Frameworks and Tools for High-Confidence Design
of Adaptive, Distributed, Embedded Control Systems."
The project includes four divisions of research. The first involved development
of embedded systems theory, in which much of the integration of computer science
and physical science will be achieved. The second task involves development of a
software design and verification approach that uses computer modeling to
coordinate and control computer component software. The third emphasis works to
eliminate ambiguity in the design process. The fourth part of the project
creates experimental testbeds to validate the research in the context of
aerospace vehicles.
"Our approach integrates the complete design development and maintenance cycle,
including verification, validation, test procedures, and life-cycle updates,"
Sztipanovits says.
This research will ultimately benefit private sector embedded systems
development as well as military systems, Sztipanovits says.
"Commercial computational tools now focus on only one aspect of the development
cycle, and this piecemeal approach is not sufficient for systems that require
high degrees of confidence." With the development of new software tools,
commercial applications will also increase in reliability.
ISIS is an internationally recognized research organization focused on advanced
technologies for intelligent systems and software.
Contact:
Vivian Cooper,
(615) 343-6314
Vivian.f.cooper@vanderbilt.edu
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