30,907 research outputs found
SOTER: A Runtime Assurance Framework for Programming Safe Robotics Systems
The recent drive towards achieving greater autonomy and intelligence in
robotics has led to high levels of complexity. Autonomous robots increasingly
depend on third party off-the-shelf components and complex machine-learning
techniques. This trend makes it challenging to provide strong design-time
certification of correct operation.
To address these challenges, we present SOTER, a robotics programming
framework with two key components: (1) a programming language for implementing
and testing high-level reactive robotics software and (2) an integrated runtime
assurance (RTA) system that helps enable the use of uncertified components,
while still providing safety guarantees. SOTER provides language primitives to
declaratively construct a RTA module consisting of an advanced,
high-performance controller (uncertified), a safe, lower-performance controller
(certified), and the desired safety specification. The framework provides a
formal guarantee that a well-formed RTA module always satisfies the safety
specification, without completely sacrificing performance by using higher
performance uncertified components whenever safe. SOTER allows the complex
robotics software stack to be constructed as a composition of RTA modules,
where each uncertified component is protected using a RTA module.
To demonstrate the efficacy of our framework, we consider a real-world
case-study of building a safe drone surveillance system. Our experiments both
in simulation and on actual drones show that the SOTER-enabled RTA ensures the
safety of the system, including when untrusted third-party components have bugs
or deviate from the desired behavior
Addressing performance requirements in the FDT-based design of distributed systems
The development of distributed systems is generally regarded as a complex and costly task, and for this reason formal description techniques such as LOTOS and ESTELLE (both standardized by the ISO) are increasingly used in this process. Our experience is that LOTOS can be exploited at many stages on the design trajectory, from requirements specification to implementation, but that the language elements do not allow direct formalization of performance requirements. To avoid duplication of effort by using two formalisms with distinct approaches, we propose a design method that incorporates performance constraints in an heuristic but effective manner
Autonomous spacecraft maintenance study group
A plan to incorporate autonomous spacecraft maintenance (ASM) capabilities into Air Force spacecraft by 1989 is outlined. It includes the successful operation of the spacecraft without ground operator intervention for extended periods of time. Mechanisms, along with a fault tolerant data processing system (including a nonvolatile backup memory) and an autonomous navigation capability, are needed to replace the routine servicing that is presently performed by the ground system. The state of the art fault handling capabilities of various spacecraft and computers are described, and a set conceptual design requirements needed to achieve ASM is established. Implementations for near term technology development needed for an ASM proof of concept demonstration by 1985, and a research agenda addressing long range academic research for an advanced ASM system for 1990s are established
Advanced flight control system study
A fly by wire flight control system architecture designed for high reliability includes spare sensor and computer elements to permit safe dispatch with failed elements, thereby reducing unscheduled maintenance. A methodology capable of demonstrating that the architecture does achieve the predicted performance characteristics consists of a hierarchy of activities ranging from analytical calculations of system reliability and formal methods of software verification to iron bird testing followed by flight evaluation. Interfacing this architecture to the Lockheed S-3A aircraft for flight test is discussed. This testbed vehicle can be expanded to support flight experiments in advanced aerodynamics, electromechanical actuators, secondary power systems, flight management, new displays, and air traffic control concepts
A Multi-objective Perspective for Operator Scheduling using Fine-grained DVS Architecture
The stringent power budget of fine grained power managed digital integrated
circuits have driven chip designers to optimize power at the cost of area and
delay, which were the traditional cost criteria for circuit optimization. The
emerging scenario motivates us to revisit the classical operator scheduling
problem under the availability of DVFS enabled functional units that can
trade-off cycles with power. We study the design space defined due to this
trade-off and present a branch-and-bound(B/B) algorithm to explore this state
space and report the pareto-optimal front with respect to area and power. The
scheduling also aims at maximum resource sharing and is able to attain
sufficient area and power gains for complex benchmarks when timing constraints
are relaxed by sufficient amount. Experimental results show that the algorithm
that operates without any user constraint(area/power) is able to solve the
problem for most available benchmarks, and the use of power budget or area
budget constraints leads to significant performance gain.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, International journal of VLSI design &
Communication Systems (VLSICS
Laboratory Test Bench for Research Network and Cloud Computing
At present moment, there is a great interest in development of information
systems operating in cloud infrastructures. Generally, many of tasks remain
unresolved such as tasks of optimization of large databases in a hybrid cloud
infrastructure, quality of service (QoS) at different levels of cloud services,
dynamic control of distribution of cloud resources in application systems and
many others. Research and development of new solutions can be limited in case
of using emulators or international commercial cloud services, due to the
closed architecture and limited opportunities for experimentation. Article
provides answers to questions on the establishment of a pilot cloud practically
"at home" with the ability to adjust the width of the emulation channel and
delays in data transmission. It also describes architecture and configuration
of the experimental setup. The proposed modular structure can be expanded by
available computing power.Comment: 5 page
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