Architecture for Efficient and Trusty Embedded Systems

麻省理工学院正在开发ARETES，即“高效可靠嵌入式系统架构”，这是一个统一的框架，用于设计支持安全高效嵌入式系统的关键控制和通信基础设施。ARETES有四个组成部分：开发用于评估感兴趣系统的安全性和效率的数学框架，设计计算效率高的算法，开发必要的软件模块，以及模拟案例研究。为了满足安全和效率的要求，ARETES采用了控制理论方法。这个想法是利用和创新现有的理论，通过三方面的方法来解释性能目标和资源约束，同时防止环境的不确定性，组件级别的不完善和组件间通信中的故障。作为第一个方面，现有乘数理论将得到扩展，以保证资源受限系统的最坏情况性能。为了给出一些具体的例子，将推导出固有不确定性以及由组件间协调施加的带宽饱和和延迟约束的最佳拟合积分二次约束（IQC）表征。作为第二个方面，将编译一个基本块数据库来近似这些系统的混合模型。乘数理论和混合系统分析方法之间的联系将通过“鲁棒混合自动机”等新概念建立起来。作为第三个关键方面，将开发一组参数化测试问题，以表征任务调度和上述缺陷对在线软件复杂性和离线软件验证过程的影响。ARETES的目标是推导这些规范模型的分析性能界限，并将开发一个可扩展的软件模块库，以促进仿真研究。ARETES所追求的理论进步包括鲁棒控制理论，因为最佳拟合IQC特性有助于最小保守的输入-输出稳定性分析。ARETES还将发展投入产出混合系统分析方法与乘数理论方法之间的联系。规范模型和相关的算法库将直接用于为各种感兴趣的场景推导分析性能界限。除了与研究机构和行业相关外，这将在学术界具有重要的技术价值。ARETES开发的技术在为涉及完全或部分自主的协调代理的各种应用提供必要的关键基础设施支持方面具有巨大的效用。此类应用的示例包括协调入侵警报系统、危险地形监测、空中交通管制系统、智能车辆高速公路减速警告系统、动画行业应用中使用协调的智能无生命物体团队、科学探索中的协调目标跟踪，以及教育项目，如实验室环境中小型直升机团队的复杂轨迹规划。

Feron, EricCCR-0208831MIT is developing ARETES, an 'Architecture for Efficient and Trusty Embedded Systems', which is a unified framework to design the critical control and communication infrastructure support for safe and efficient embedded systems. ARETES has four components to it: development of a mathematical framework for assessing safety and efficiency of the systems of interest, design of computationally efficient algorithms, development of the necessary software modules, and simulation case studies.To meet the safety and efficiency requirements, ARETES is adopting a control theoretic approach. The idea is to use and innovate upon the existing theory via three-faceted approach to account for the performance objective and resource constraints while safeguarding against uncertainty in the environment, component level imperfections, and faults in the inter-component communications. As the first facet, the existing multiplier theory will be extended to guarantee the worst case performance for resource constrained systems. To give some specific examples, the best fit integral quadratic constraint (IQC) characterization will be derived for the inherent uncertainties, and for the bandwidth saturation and delay constraints imposed by the inter-component coordination. As the second facet, a database of elementary blocks to approximate the hybrid models of such systems will be compiled. Links between the multiplier theory and hybrid systems analysis methods will be established via novel concepts such as a 'robust hybrid automaton'. As the third key facet, a set of parameterized test problems will be developed to characterize the impact of task scheduling and the above mentioned imperfections on the online software complexity and the offline software verification process. ARETES aims at deriving analytical performance bounds for these canonical models and will develop a library of scalable software modules to facilitate the simulation studies.The theoretical advances being pursued in ARETES include robust control theory since the best fit IQC characterization facilitates the least conservative input-output stability analysis. ARETES will also develop links between the input-output hybrid system analysis approach and the multiplier theory approach. The canonical models and the associated library of algorithms will be directly useful in deriving analytical performance bounds for various scenarios of interest. Besides its relevance to research organizations and industry, this will have a significant technological value in academia. Technology being developed in ARETES has immense utility in providing the critical infrastructure support necessary in various applications involving coordinated agents that are either fully or partially autonomous. Examples of such applications include coordinated intrusion alert systems, monitoring of hazardous terrains, air traffic control systems, slowdown warning systems for intelligent vehicle highways, animation industry applications employing teams of coordinated intelligent inanimate objects, coordinated target tracking in scientific explorations, and educative projects such as the complex trajectory planning of a team of mini-helicopters in a laboratory setting,