CI-New: Collaborative Research: Developing an Open Networked Airborne Computing Platform

网络机载计算是一种新型的计算范式，可以造福于许多重要的民用应用，包括智能交通、应急响应、基础设施监测、精准农业等。网络机载计算也开辟了许多新的基础研究机会。尽管其重要性，但现有的无人机系统（UAS）研究基础设施不能满足研究需求，因为它们通常是专门为单一目的和/或面向涉及单架飞机的任务而设计的。因此，迫切需要一个开放的网络机载计算基础设施，以使计算机和信息科学与工程（CISE）社区以及其他社区能够参与这一新兴领域的新研究和开发。该项目预计将对应急、能源、环境和运输部门的合作多无人机应用产生广泛影响。该项目还提供科学、技术、工程和数学学习机会，扩大未被充分代表的少数民族的参与。参与的大学中有三所是面向少数族裔和/或西班牙裔的院校，其中有大量未被充分代表的少数族裔学生。该项目的目标是开发一种新的社区基础设施，使网络机载计算系统的高级研究成为可能。具体来说，拟议的社区基础设施将提供硬件/软件设计和开发工具、研讨会和培训机会，以及在联邦航空管理局指定的测试地点进行现场测试支持。提议的机载计算平台具有创新性，包括安装在无人机系统上的通用交互式计算系统、宽带无线通信系统、无人机/天线协同控制系统以及支持全面开发的上下应用开发能力。硬件和软件都是开源的，并以支持虚拟化的模块设计，因此CISE研究人员可以轻松地增强或替换模块，并实例化额外的虚拟化功能，以促进网络机载计算应用和服务的各种研究和开发活动。新开发的模块化设计，灵活性和可扩展性使研究人员能够轻松地隔离和开发自己的研究重点的特定组件，同时依赖于其他组件的基本功能，从而节省了学习和开发的大量成本和时间。该项目为CISE研究人员提供了快速开发和测试解决方案的机会，这些解决方案解决了网络机载计算中的许多新的基本挑战，并显著推进了计算、通信、控制和航空航天领域的交叉研究和开发。

Networked airborne computing is a novel computing paradigm that can benefit many important civilian applications, including intelligent transportation, emergency response, infrastructure monitoring, precision agriculture, etc. Networked airborne computing also opens up many new fundamental research opportunities. Despite its importance, existing infrastructures for Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) research cannot serve the research needs because they are often designed specifically for a single purpose and/or oriented to missions that involve a single aircraft. Therefore, an open networked airborne computing infrastructure is critically needed to enable the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) communities and beyond to participate in new research and development in this burgeoning field. This project is expected to produce broad impact related to cooperative multi-UAS applications in emergency, energy, environment, and transportation sectors. This project also provides Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics learning opportunities, and expands underrepresented minority participation. Three of the participating universities are minority-serving and/or Hispanic serving institutions with a large number of underrepresented minority students. The objective of this project is to develop a new community infrastructure to enable advanced research on networked airborne computing systems. Specifically, the proposed community infrastructure will provide hardware/software designs and development tools, workshop and training opportunities, and field-test support in a Federal Aviation Administration-designated test site. The proposed airborne computing platform is innovative in that it includes a UAS-mounted generic and interactive computing system, a broadband wireless communication system, a UAS/antenna cooperative control system, and up-to-down application development capabilities to support a full-scale development. Both hardware and software are open-sourced and designed in modules with virtualization support so that CISE researchers can easily enhance or replace modules and instantiate additional virtualized functions to facilitate various research and development activities for networked airborne computing applications and services. The modular design, flexibility and extensibility for new development allow researchers to easily isolate and develop specific components of their own research focus while relying on the basic functionality of other components, thus saving significant cost and time for learning and development. The project opens up opportunities for CISE researchers to quickly develop and test solutions that address many new fundamental challenges in networked airborne computing, and to significantly advance cross-cutting research and development in computing, communication, control, and aerospace.