Systems Engineering

Designing and managing complex engineering projects over their life cycles.
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Visible to the public Provably Safe Automotive Cyber-Physical Systems with Humans-in-the-Loop

Abstract:

This project focuses on the formal design of semi-autonomous automotive Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Rather than disconnecting the driver from the vehicle, the goal is to obtain a vehicle where the degree of autonomy is continuously changed in real-time as a function of certified uncertainty ranges in driver behavior and environment reconstruction.

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Visible to the public Cyber-enabled Manufacturing Systems (CeMS)

Abstract:

Quality control in high-volume manufacturing is commonly performed using Statistics-based quality control techniques. These techniques require large data sets in order to specify acceptable variation limits. These statistics-based QC approaches are not applicable in small-lot high-value manufacturing where it is important to ensure the quality of each one of the final products. Previous model based process control used simplified representations of the actual physics of the process.

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Visible to the public Cybernetic Interfaces for the Restoration of Human Movement through Functional Electrical Stimulation

Abstract:

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a promising technology for activating muscles in spinal cord injured (SCI) patients. The objective of our project is to develop an intuitive user interface and control system that allows high--level tetraplegic patients to regain the use of their own arm.

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Visible to the public A Hybrid Detector Network for Nuclear and Radioactive Threat Detection

Abstract:

The research is along two directions and a number of results have been published or submitted. Physical side: Algorithms have been developed to detect isotopes based on the ideas of group positive Lasso and the total least squares. Two papers have been either published or to appear in Radiation Measurements. Cyber-side: The research focused on detection of unknown sources.

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Visible to the public Timing-Centric Software

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to define programming abstractions and theories of computation with temporal semantics for distributed cyber--physical systems. The approach is to create a coordination language for distributed embedded software that blends naturally with models of physical dynamics and to study the semantics of such a coordination language. The coordination language is a visual modeling language that is based on a rigorous discrete--event concurrent model of computation.

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Visible to the public Coordinated Resource Management of Cyber-Physical-Social Power Systems

Abstract:

Critical infrastructure systems - electricity grids, transportation networks, gas and water distribution networks - serve the needs of millions of people with extraordinary reliability. These large-scale systems comprise 106 108 individual elements (humans and hardware) whose actions are inconsequential in isolation but profoundly important in aggregate. This proposal focuses on coordination of these elements in smart infrastructure systems with integrated ubiquitous sensing, communications, computation, and control.

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Visible to the public Formal Design of Semi-autonomous Cyber-Physical Transportation Systems

Abstract:

The goal of this project is to develop fundamental theory, computationally efficient algorithms, and real- world experiments for the analysis and design of safety-critical cyber-physical transportation systems with human operators. We envision a nearby future in which roads will be populated by networks of smart vehicles that will cooperate with each other, with the surrounding infrastructure, and with their drivers to make transportation safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient.

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Visible to the public Robust Capacity-Constrained Scheduling and Data-Based Modeling

Abstract:

More than a half million pieces of space debris are in low-Earth orbit, of which about 5% are considered a threat to operational satellites. Collisions, such as the one that occurred on February 10, 2009 between the decommissioned Russian military communications satellite Kosmos-2251 and a operational U.S. Iridium communications satellite, produce yet more debris, and the accumulation of space debris renders low-Earth orbit increasingly dangerous and un- usable.

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Visible to the public Computational Eyeglasses for Advanced Context Sensing

Abstract:

Continuous real-time tracking of the eye and field-of-view of an individual is profoundly important to understanding how humans perceive and interact with cyber-physical systems. Such continuous monitoring can enable detection of hazardous behaviors such as drowsiness while driving, mental health issues such as schizophrenia, addictive behavior and substance abuse, neurological disease progression, head injuries, and others.

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Visible to the public Software Defined Buildings

Abstract:

The SDB project seeks to design, engineer, and evaluate the foundational information substrate for cyberphysical systems in a concrete, canonical form - creation of efficient, agile, model- driven, human-centered building systems. Modern commercial buildings provide increasingly integrated Building Management Systems, but are typically closed or based on proprietary interfaces, are difficult to extend, and it is expensive to add new capabilities.