CAREER: System Support for Capable, Reliable Intermittently-Powered Computer Systems

能量收集设备是一种新兴的微型嵌入式计算和传感系统，它通过收集从周围环境中提取的少量能量，利用无线电波、太阳能和振动等来源来运行。通过系统支持使无电池设备可靠运行，这些设备将成为未来应用的关键推动者，包括物联网、灾区和冲突地区传感和通信、可穿戴和植入式医疗设备以及包括芯片级纳米卫星在内的航空航天应用。建立可靠的无电池硬件和软件计算机系统是一个挑战，因为与典型系统不同，能量只是间歇性地可用。当无电池设备的间歇性能量供应中断时，系统突然重置，擦除计算机的一些内存，保留计算机内存的某些部分，并要求系统在继续运行之前收集更多的能量。在无电池系统中出现的间歇性电源中断会导致新的软件错误，这对于系统设计人员来说是非常难以理解和修复的。该项目的工作是开发非专业人员构建高度可靠、高效和功能强大的无电池计算机系统所需的工具和技术。使这些系统可靠，使其能够在需要可靠操作的社会重要领域中使用，包括医疗设备，国防应用和新兴的消费者空间探索系统。这个项目将使无电池系统对非专业的系统建设者也能使用，让企业家、研究人员和业余爱好者利用这些至关重要的未来计算机系统。该项目理念的技术转让将使工业界能够将无电池计算机系统纳入产品中，为物联网和智能城市设备等现有经济领域做出贡献。未来行业采用本提案中的想法将有助于围绕可靠的无电池医疗设备、灾区和战区传感和通信设备以及新兴的小型卫星设备创建新的经济部门。该项目通过连贯、综合的研究和教育计划服务于国家利益，将有助于培养下一代STEM创新者、技术工作者、制造者和计算思考者。该项目的产品融入了研究生和本科生的课程开发和研究，产生了直接的影响，并使本科生和研究生能够使用无电池计算机系统进行创新。该项目的高中实习项目组成部分和高中外展项目使早期学习者能够理解和使用无电池计算机系统，并早期培养对STEM的兴趣。这项工作使无电池计算设备广泛使用，促进了STEM领域以外的推广，甚至允许艺术家和设计师在创造性应用中使用该项目的产品。向高中生和创意用户推广的目的是鼓励代表性不足的少数民族参与计算，并建立一支更加多样化和有效的未来STEM劳动力队伍。

Energy-harvesting devices are an emerging class of tiny, embedded computing and sensing systems that operate by collecting small amounts of energy extracted from their environment, tapping into sources such as radio waves, solar energy, and vibration. With system support to make batteryless devices operate reliably, these devices will be a key enabler of future applications including the Internet of things, disaster zone and conflict zone sensing and communication, wearable and implantable medical devices, and aerospace applications including chip-scale nano-satellites. Building reliable batteryless hardware and software computer systems is a challenge because, unlike in a typical system, energy is only intermittently available. When a batteryless device's intermittent energy supply is interrupted, the system suddenly resets, erasing some of the computer's memory, retaining some parts of the computers memory, and requiring the system to collect more energy before it can continue operating. The intermittent power interruptions that occur in a batteryless system lead to new kinds of software errors are extremely difficult for a system designer to understand and fix. The work in this project develops the tools and techniques required for non-experts to build batteryless computer systems that are highly reliable, efficient, and capable. Making these systems reliable enables their use in societally important domains that demand dependable operation including in medical devices, defense applications, and emerging consumer space exploration systems. This project will make batteryless systems accessible to even non-expert system builders, allowing entrepreneurs, researchers, and hobbyists to leverage these crucially important future computer sytems. Technology transfer of the ideas in the project will allow industry to incorporate batteryless computer systems into products, contributing to existing economic sectors such as the Internet of Things and Smart Cities devices. Future industry adoption of the ideas in this proposal will contribute to the creation of new economic sectors around reliable, batteryless medical devices, disaster zone and war zone sensing and communication devices, and emerging small satellite-based devices.The project serves the national interest with a coherent, integrated research and education plan that will help to prepare the next generation of STEM innovators, technology workers, makers, and computational thinkers. The project's products incorporate into graduate and undergraduate curricular development and research creating an immediate impact and equipping undergraduate and graduate students to innovate using batteryless computer systems. The project's high school intern program component and high school outreach program enables early learners to understand and use batteryless computer systems and develop an early interest in STEM. The work makes batteryless computing devices broadly accessible facilitating outreach outside of the STEM field, allowing even artists and designers to use products of this project in creative applications. The purpose of outreach to high schoolers and creative users is to encourage involvement of under-represented minorities in computing and to build a more diverse and effective future STEM workforce.