Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center: Aerospace Autonomy Center of Excellence (AACE)

工程研究中心规划拨款竞赛是ERC项目的试点征集。规划补助金不需要作为ERC竞赛的一部分，但它旨在在团队之间建立能力，以规划聚合的、中心规模的工程研究。全球定位卫星和计算机视觉等传感器的最新进展，以及基于软件的飞行控制技术，加快了航空航天工业40多年来从未见过的创新步伐。车载自动驾驶是一项革命性的创新。它不仅出现在商业航空中，而且是不断增长的商业无人机服务、新兴的空中出租车行业和许多民用空间应用的关键。然而，航空航天公司正在努力开发、认证并将新的自主技术整合到商业航天和航空的各个方面。它们受到与当前自主科学技术相关的风险以及自主系统中知识渊博的科学家和工程师的短缺的阻碍。这项NSF工程研究中心规划拨款为航空航天自治卓越中心（AACE）奠定了基础，该中心的目标是通过(1)推进基础自治研究及其在航空航天中的应用，以及开发新的软件安全和认证协议，(2)教育多样化的劳动力，(3)让利益相关者社区、监管机构和公众参与，从而改变航空航天界。(4)创造一个环境，鼓励自主系统的技术转让，引导航空航天工业的创新和创业精神；(5)使航空航天系统对社会更好、更安全。该中心将使工程专业的学生和教师能够与政策和法律专业的学生和教师以及监管机构和行业密切合作，在一个多样化、包容性的ERC中心环境中实现综合政策技术项目和课程。它将促进探索不同领域和学科之间的交叉，包括计算机科学、网络-人类系统、航空航天工程、控制理论以及安全、认证自主系统的政策和法规。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. Recent advances in sensors like global position satellites and computer vision, as well as in software-based flight control techniques have accelerated the pace of innovation in the aerospace industry not seen in more than 40 years. Onboard autonomy is such a transformative innovation. It is not only seen in commercial aviation, but it is the lynchpin for growing commercial drone services, emerging air taxi industries and many civilian space applications. Aerospace companies are however struggling to develop, certify and integrate new autonomous technologies into all aspects of commercial space and aviation. They are hampered by the risks associated with current science and technology of autonomy and by a shortage of a knowledgeable scientists and engineers in autonomous systems. This NSF Engineering Research Center planning grant lays the groundwork for the Aerospace Autonomy Center of Excellence (AACE), which has the goal of transforming the aerospace community by (1) advancing basic autonomy research and its application in aerospace as well as developing new software security and certification protocols, (2) educating a diverse workforce, (3) engaging the stakeholder community, regulators, and general public, (4) creating an environment to encourage technology transfer for autonomy systems, leading to innovations and entrepreneurship in aerospace industries, and (5) making aerospace systems better and safer for society. This center would enable engineering students and faculty to work in close collaboration with policy and law students and faculty, as well as regulators and industry to achieve an integrated policy-technology program and curriculum in a diverse, inclusive setting of an ERC center. It would facilitate exploration of the intersection among diverse areas and disciplines, including computer science, cyber-human systems, aerospace engineering, and control theory as well as policy and regulation for safe, certified autonomous systems.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.