Elements:Open-source hardware and software evaluation system for UAV

The usage of Robots and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is increasing, and they are becoming a part of our everyday lives. In the process, robotic systems have ceased to be solely a mechanical design problem but now include substantial computing power as well. However, little system or architecture research has been done for robotics workloads, especially in realistic environments.

The existing infrastructure is focused on drone flight algorithm tests, with little flexibility to configure the computing capability. To this end, this project develops a software-hardware co-design framework that includes an end-to-end, vertically integrated stack that enables reconfigurable hardware to be programmed and exposed to virtual reality environments for realistic drone navigation problems.

It will establish a flexible software-hardware infrastructure of drones and open up exciting possibilities for more research in academia and industry. Since drones are nowadays widely used, the research has potential for impact across a wide range of applications.

The project develops an end-to-end hardware and software infrastructure that can evaluate the computing requirements and test out new architectures and technologies. This includes: (1) profiling the workload for UAVs, which include both model-based as well as learning-based workloads; (2) developing an open-source hardware/software drone platform that can be used for testing computing architecture/systems with a real system; (3) developing a cyber-physical system infrastructure that can be connected with drones and flight simulation; and (4) developing a simulation infrastructure to offload high-end computation to other accelerators while running drone flight scenarios.

The project will advance the state of the art in implementation of processors for robotics/UAV workloads. It will offer new opportunities in power-constrained platforms for applications including surveillance, automotive, environment, military, and disaster to name a few.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.