CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Design and Control of High-performance Provably-safe Autonomy-enabled Dynamic Transportation Networks

在过去的十年里，我们见证了自主系统技术在空中、道路、水下和海上车辆中的快速渗透。这些车辆所具有的自主性具有显著提高性能的潜力，例如，通过在一些交通系统中减少延误和增加运力，同时提高安全性。然而，为了充分利用这些具有自主能力的交通系统的潜力，我们必须重新思考交通网络和控制算法，以协调在这些网络上运行的自动车辆。该项目的重点是设计和运营具有自主能力的交通网络，为实现高性能和始终保持安全提供可证明的保证。在这一领域出现的基本问题包括考虑管理车辆的物理因素，以便使用网络手段协调它们。这项研究的目的是通过遵循一种独特而激进的方法，从非平衡统计力学和自组织系统中汲取灵感和技术，并将这种灵感与排队论、控制论和最优化的基本工具相结合，来推进网络物理系统的科学。这种方法可以使各种运输网络在运送货物或人员方面的服务能力提高几个数量级。这些应用包括仓库、工厂车间、海港、航空母舰甲板的自动化、涉及无人驾驶汽车的运输网络、无人机启用的交付网络、空中交通管理和军事物流网络。该项目还旨在启动新一波课程和教程，在自主网络物理系统实现的安全和高效交通网络领域培养训练有素的工程师和研究社区。

During the last decade, we have witnessed a rapid penetration of autonomous systems technology into aerial, road, underwater, and sea vehicles. The autonomy assumed by these vehicles holds the potential to increase performance significantly, for instance, by reducing delays and increasing capacity, while enhancing safety, in a number of transportation systems. However, to exploit the full potential of these autonomy-enabled transportation systems, we must rethink transportation networks and control algorithms that coordinate autonomous vehicles operating on such networks. This project focuses on the design and operation of autonomy-enabled transportation networks that provide provable guarantees on achieving high performance and maintaining safety at all times. The foundational problems arising in this domain involve taking into account the physics governing the vehicles in order to coordinate them using cyber means. This research effort aims to advance the science of cyber-physical systems by following a unique and radical approach, drawing inspiration and techniques from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and self-organizing systems, and blending this inspiration with the foundational tools of queueing theory, control theory, and optimization. This approach may allow orders of magnitude improvement in the servicing capabilities of various transportation networks for moving goods or people. The applications include the automation of warehouses, factory floors, sea ports, aircraft carrier decks, transportation networks involving driverless cars, drone-enabled delivery networks, air traffic management, and military logistics networks. The project also aims to start a new wave of classes and tutorials that will create trained engineers and a research community in the area of safe and efficient transportation networks enabled by autonomous cyber-physical systems.