CAREER: Towards Networked Airborne Computing in Uncertain Airspace: A Control and Networking Facilitated Distributed Computing Framework

网络化机载计算是一种新的计算范式，它依靠具有直接飞对飞通信链路的飞行器组成的机载网络来实现空中计算。它不仅可以受益于广泛的现有应用（例如，无人机展，精准农业和应急响应），还可以产生各种新的应用（例如，下一代空中交通管制，物联网和实时三维地图）。尽管有令人兴奋的应用，但实现网络化机载计算需要克服许多艰巨的挑战，如三维节点移动性、高度不确定的操作环境和严格的安全要求。该项目旨在开发一个创新的理论框架，以克服这些挑战，使网络机载计算成为可能。与传统的移动计算系统将移动性、不确定性和通信作为计算的约束不同，所提出的框架利用它们的优点，在不确定、动态和异构的空域中促进鲁棒、高效和可扩展的计算。所提出的框架具有快速响应、对不确定干扰和故障的弹性、可扩展性以及对系统和环境变化的适应性等特点，将推进移动计算的基础计算机和网络系统（CNS）科学和工程，并对基于无人系统的应用产生更广泛的民用和经济影响。该项目的研究结果也将有助于分布式计算、随机最优控制、网络、不确定性下的实时决策和实验设计等领域。创新教育和拓展活动（例如虚拟实验室模块、夏令营和实习）将对社区产生深远影响，并显著惠及圣地亚哥县及其他地区不同层次的学生，尤其是代表性不足的少数民族。建议的传播活动（例如工作坊和辅导课）将进一步扩大建议研究的影响，并使公众受益。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。

Networked airborne computing is a new computing paradigm that relies on the airborne network formed by aerial vehicles with direct flight-to-flight communication links to achieve computing in the air. It can not only benefit a wide range of existing applications (e.g., drone show, precision agriculture and emergence response), but also give rise to a variety of new applications (e.g., next-generation air traffic control, Internet of Things and real-time 3-dimensional mapping). Despite the exciting applications, enabling networked airborne computing requires overcoming many formidable challenges such as 3-dimensional node mobility, highly uncertain operating environment and strict safety requirements. This project aims to develop an innovative theoretical framework that conquers these challenges to enable networked airborne computing. Unlike traditional mobile computing systems that treat mobility, uncertainty and communication as constraints for computing, the proposed framework exploits their benefits to facilitate robust, efficient and scalable computing in the uncertain, dynamic and heterogeneous airspace. The proposed framework, featured by fast response, resilience to uncertain disturbances and failures, scalability, and adaptivity to system and environmental changes, will advance the fundamental Computer and Network Systems (CNS) science and engineering on mobile computing and produce broader civilian and economic impacts related to unmanned systems based applications. The findings of this project will also contribute to fields such as distributed computing, stochastic optimal control, networking, real-time decision-making under uncertainty and experiment design. Innovative education and outreach activities (e.g., virtual lab modules, summer camps and internships) will produce a profound impact on the community and significantly benefit students, especially underrepresented minorities, at different levels in San Diego county and beyond. The proposed dissemination activities (e.g., workshops and tutorials) will further broaden the impact of the proposed research and benefit the general public.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.