CAREER: Robust and Adaptive Streaming Analytics for Sensorized Farms: Internet-of-Small-Things to the Rescue

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。如今，越来越敏感的农业农场由传感器和产生大量数据的无人机组成。计算的两个趋势催生了与数字和可持续农业相关的“小物联网”，或称“IOST”。首先，能够承受农业严酷环境的廉价传感器的可用性。第二，开发用于数据分析算法的设备上计算的近似算法。与此同时，一些要求苛刻的算法可能会被机会主义地转移到边缘设备或云设备上。越来越多的趋势是利用来自这些“小”传感器节点的数据来执行可靠、迅速和有弹性的行动。可靠意味着算法需要处理丢失或损坏的数据、网络中断和节点故障。Prompt指的是低延迟决策，与农民或数字农业提供商的需求相当。天狼星项目将IOST和机器学习(ML)结合在一起，创建了一个适应网络和物理条件的计算结构，并提供快速驱动，对噪声传感器节点和通信信道具有弹性。天狼星将首次在数字农业网络物理系统的背景下实现：(1)设备上计算，该计算将适应不同设备的计算能力、网络条件和由于共处的应用程序而导致的设备竞争。(2)使用本质上不可靠的传感器节点网络进行重量级流分析的近似计算。(3)利用传感器、边缘设备和云的连续体来适时调整计算以满足用户需求。然后，这将扩展到最近的无服务器计算体系结构，以及用于移动监视、传感和驱动的无人机群。这项研究的结果将在可持续农业领域产生重大的社会影响。它还将推动多学科的教育和研究。这将包括用于设备上分析和驱动的数据科学、创新的网络应用、近似的计算机视觉算法，以及用于农业应用的高能效无人机监控。此外，这项工作将使用游戏平台和新的数据科学课程，将在HBCU和互动在线平台上提供。这项CPS职业计划还将扩大美国数据科学家的基础设施，特别是本科生和研究生，包括那些来自代表性不足的少数族裔的学生，并在机器学习、计算机视觉和数字农业方面建立强大的跨学科专业知识。最后，天狼星将创建的数据集将经过精心管理，并用于以CPS为主题的营地。该项目还将利用强大的行业联系，促进将发现转化为可用的原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Today’s increasingly sensorized agricultural farms are composed of sensors and drones generating copious volumes of data. Two trends in computation have catalyzed the “Internet-of-Small-Things”, or IoST, in relation to digital and sustainable agriculture. First, the availability of inexpensive sensors that can withstand the rigors of agriculture. Second, the development of approximation algorithms for on-device computation of data analytics algorithms. In parallel, some demanding algorithms can be opportunistically offloaded to edge devices or to the cloud. There is an increasing trend to leverage the data from these “small” sensor nodes to actuate dependable, prompt, and resilient actions. Dependable means the algorithms need to deal with missing or corrupted data, network disruption, and node failures. Prompt refers to low-latency decisions, which are at par with the needs of the farmers or digital agriculture providers. The proposed project, Sirius, brings together IoST with machine learning (ML), and creates a compute fabric that is adaptive to the cyber and the physical conditions, and provides prompt actuation, resilient to noisy sensor nodes and communication channels.Sirius will achieve, for the first time, in the context of Cyber Physical Systems for digital agriculture: (1) On-device computation that will adapt to the computation capabilities of heterogeneous devices, to the network conditions, and to the contention on the devices due to co-located applications. (2) Approximate computation for heavyweight streaming analytics using a network of inherently unreliable sensor nodes. (3) Leverage the continuum of sensors, edge devices, and cloud to opportunistically adapt the computation to match the user requirements. This will then be extended to the recent server-less computing architectures and to drone swarms for mobile surveillance, sensing, and actuation. The outcomes of this research will have significant societal impacts in the area of sustainable agriculture. It will also propel education and investigation in multiple disciplines. This will range from data science for on-device analytics and actuation, innovative networking applications, approximating computer vision algorithms, and energy-efficient drone surveillance for agricultural applications. Further, this work will use gaming platforms and new data science courses to be offered in HBCUs and over interactive online platforms. This CPS CAREER proposal will also grow the infrastructure of US data scientists, in particular undergraduate and graduate students, including those from underrepresented minorities, and build strong cross-disciplinary expertise in machine learning, computer vision, and digital agriculture. Finally, the datasets that Sirius will create will be carefully curated and used in CPS-themed camps. The project will also leverage the strong industry linkages to facilitate translation of discoveries to usable prototypes.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.