ASD1: Technical Session 1 (Monday March 25: 11h- 12h30)
Title: Designing Adaptive Autonomous Systems for Resource-Constrained Platforms
Talk 1: “Context-aware Multi-Model Object Detection for Diversely Heterogeneous Compute Systems” Justin Davis and Mehmet Belviranli , (jcdavis@mines.edu)
Talk 2: “Adaptive localization for autonomous racing vehicles with resource-constrained embedded platforms”, Federico Gavioli, Gianluca Brilli, Paolo Burgio and Davide Bertozzi, (paolo.burgio@unimore.it) (Link to presentation video)
Talk 3: “Adaptive Deep Learning for Efficient Visual Pose Estimation aboard Ultra-low-power Nano-drones”, Beatrice Alessandra Motetti, Luca Crupi, Omer Mohammed Elamin Elshaigi Mustafa, Matteo Risso, Daniele Jahier Pagliari, Daniele Palossi and Alessio Burrello, (beatrice.motetti@polito.it)
ASD2: Technical Session 2 (Monday March 25: 14h- 15h30)
Title: Towards Assuring Safe Autonomous Driving
Talk 1: “Back to the Future: Reversible Runtime Neural Network Pruning for Safe Autonomous Systems”, Danny Abraham, Biswadip Maity, Bryan Donyanavard and Nikil Dutt(dannya1@uci.edu)
Talk 2: “Automated Traffic Scenario Description Extraction Using Video Transformers”, Aron Harder and Madhur Behl, (ah2ph@virginia.edu)
Talk 3: “ADAssure: Debugging Methodology for Autonomous Driving Control Algorithms”, Andrew Roberts, Mohammad Reza Heidari Iman, Mauro Bellone, Tara Ghasempouri, Olaf Maennel, Jaan Raik, Mohammad Hamad and Sebastian Steinhorst, (andrew.roberts@taltech.ee)
ASD3: Special Session (Monday March 25: 16h30- 18h00)
Title: On Perception in Autonomous Systems
Organizer: Marilyn Wolf, University of Nebraska, USA
Talk1: “Enhancing Closed Loops: A Control-Aware Perception Approach for UAVs”, Veera Venkata Ram Murali Krishna Rao Muvva, Kunjan Theodore Joseph, Kruttidipta Samal, Marilyn Wolf, Santosh Pitla, University of Nebraska — Lincoln, USA.
Talk2: “Harnessing Brain-Inspired Hyperdimensional Computing for Lightweight, Error-Resilient, and Fast Machine Learning”, Hussam Amrouch, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany.
Talk3: “Real-time perception uncertainty estimation”, Minah Lee and Saibal Mukhopodhyay, Georgia Tech, USA.
Talk4: Designing Neural Networks for Machine Perception in Autonomous Systems, Marilyn Wolf, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, USA
*******
ASD Technical Session 4 (Tuesday March 26: 08h30h- 10h00)
Title: Real-Time Aware Communication Systems for Autonomy
Talk 1: “An Adaptive UAV Scheduling Process to Address Dynamic Mobile Network Demand Efficiently”, Ruide Cao, Jiao Ye, Jin Zhang, Qian You, Chao Tang, Yan Liu and Yi Wang , (caord2022@mail.sustech.edu.cn)
Talk 2: “End-to-End Latency Optimization of Thread Chains Under the DDS Publish/Subscribe Middleware”, Gerlando Sciangula, Daniel Casini, Alessandro Biondi and Claudio Scordino, (gerlando.sciangula@huawei.com)
Talk 3: “Orchestration-aware optimization of ROS2 communication protocols”, Mirco De Marchi and Nicola Bombieri, (nicola.bombieri@univr.it)
ASD5a: Keynote (Tuesday March 26: 11h00h- 12h00)
Speaker: Edward Lee (EECS, UC Berkeley)
Title: “ Certainty or Intelligence: Pick One!”
ASD5b: Poster Session (Tuesday March 26: 12h00h- 12h30)
“Constraint-aware Resource Management for Cyber-Physical Systems”, Justin McGowen, Ismet Dagli, Neil Dantam and Mehmet Belviranli, (ismetdagli@mines.edu)
“Robustness and Accuracy Evaluations of Localization Techniques for Autonomous Racing”, Tian Yi Lim, Nicolas Baumann, Edoardo Ghignone and Michele, Magno (eghignone@pbl.ee.ethz.ch)
“A Stakeholder Analysis on Operational Design Domains of Automated Driving Systems”, Marcel Aguirre Mehlhorn, Hauke Dierend, Andreas Richter and Yuri Shardt, (yuri.shardt@tu-ilmenau.de)
ASD6 Workshop (Tuesday March 26: 14h00h- 18h00)
Title: “Autonomous Systems Certification and Homologation”
Abstract: Autonomous functions have been proposed for pretty much all transport systems, vehicles, aircraft, or rail systems. Such transport systems and their design are governed by safety standards that are developed by large groups in public bodies or standardization organizations. At the core of such safety standards are certification or homologation processes that govern the regulatory approval of an autonomous system. A major challenge for this approval is the coexistence of traditional transport systems and transport systems with different levels of autonomy. This coexistence is a necessity, as there will be no exclusive space for autonomous transport systems, neither in the air nor on the ground, especially in densely populated areas. There are many related projects and initiatives addressing this challenge with different requirements and rules, in part a result of the specific form of potential system interference, in part based on the tradition of safety guarantees in the respective domain. The European U-space initiative is a very good example regulating the coexistence of traditional and unmanned aircrafts and drones and the related design processes and protection mechanisms.
Workshop Organization: After an introduction, the workshop will start with a first session of introductory talks by experts from industry and public authorities in the different domains. In the second session, a panel of experts will discuss the implications for Autonomous Systems Design and research in the field.
ASD6.1: Introductory Talks (14h00-16h00)
Talk 1: “ISO PAS 8800: An AI safety standard for automotive applications”, Simon Burton, Independent Consultant and Honorary Visiting Professor, University of York
Talk 2: “Certifying Autonomy in Railway Systems”, Mario Trapp, Director Fraunhofer Institute Cognitive Systems
Talk 3: “AI Assurance and Challenges”, Huafeng Yu, Highly Automated Systems Safety Center of Excellence (HASS COE), US Department of Transportation
Talk 4: “Autonomous Systems: Management Oversight of Certification and Homologation”, William Widen, School of Law, University of Miami
ASD6.2: Panel (16h30-18h00)
Confirmed Panelists:
Huafeng Yu, HASS COE, US Department of Transportation
Simon Burton, Independent Consultant & University of York
Abstract: Autonomous functions have been proposed for pretty much all transport systems, vehicles, aircraft, or rail systems. Such transport systems and their design are governed by safety standards that are developed by large groups in public bodies or standardization organizations. At the core of such safety standards are certification or homologation processes that govern the regulatory approval of an autonomous system. A major challenge for this approval is the coexistence of traditional transport systems and transport systems with different levels of autonomy. This coexistence is a necessity, as there will be no exclusive space for autonomous transport systems, neither in the air nor on the ground, especially in densely populated areas. There are many related projects and initiatives addressing this challenge with different requirements and rules, in part a result of the specific form of potential system interference, in part based on the tradition of safety guarantees in the respective domain. The European U-space initiative is a very good example regulating the coexistence of traditional and unmanned aircrafts and drones and the related design processes and protection mechanisms.
Workshop Organization: After an introduction, the workshop will start with a first session of introductory talks by experts from industry and public authorities in the different domains. In the second session, a panel of experts will discuss the implications for Autonomous Systems Design and research in the field.
ASD6.1: Introductory Talks (14h00-16h00)
Talk 1: “ISO PAS 8800: An AI safety standard for automotive applications”, Simon Burton, Independent Consultant and Honorary Visiting Professor, University of York
Talk 2: “Certifying Autonomy in Railway Systems”, Mario Trapp, Director Fraunhofer Institute Cognitive Systems
Talk 3: “AI Assurance and Challenges”, Huafeng Yu, Highly Automated Systems Safety Center of Excellence (HASS COE), US Department of Transportation
Talk 4: “Autonomous Systems: Management Oversight of Certification and Homologation”, William Widen, School of Law, University of Miami
ASD6.2: Panel (16h30-18h00)
Confirmed Panelists:
Huafeng Yu, HASS COE, US Department of Transportation
Simon Burton, Independent Consultant & University of York
Fueled by the progress of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems become more and more integral parts of many Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) applications, such as automated driving, robotics, avionics, industrial automation and smart systems in general. Autonomous systems are self-governed and self-adaptive systems that are designed to operate in an open and evolving environment which is not completely defined at design time. This poses a unique challenge to the design and verification of dependable autonomous systems. Following the successful editions from previous years, DATE is again hosting the Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design. The initiative will include peer-reviewed papers, invited contributions and interactive sessions.
Areas of Interest
We welcome your contributions within the scope of the event. The main areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Concepts, Algorithms and Formal Methods for Autonomy
Platforms for Autonomous Systems
Architectures (from Chip Level to System Level) for Autonomous Systems
Middleware and Frameworks (e.g., ROS) for Autonomous Systems
Models and HW/SW Mechanisms for Self-Awareness and Self-Adaptation
Design of Autonomous Systems
Mastering Emergent and Evolving Behavior (Goals, Constraints, …)
Design, Verification and Test of High-Assurance Learning-Enabled Systems
Design Automation and Methodologies for Autonomous Systems
Dependability and Trustworthy Autonomy
Functional Safety and Assurance Cases for Evolving and Learning-Enabled Systems
HW/SW Mechanisms for Resilient Systems
Autonomous Systems Security
Applications and Case Studies of Autonomous Systems
Types of Contributions
Conference Papers: The special initiative features regular sessions for presenting novel technical contributions. Submitted papers will undergo a peer-review process and accepted papers will appear in the DATE conference proceedings. All manuscripts should be submitted in pdf format not exceeding 6 pages, following the DATE submission instructions.
Abstract Submission: 04 November 2023 AoE
Full Paper Submission: 11 November 2023 AoE
Acceptance Notification: 17 December 2023 AoE
Special Sessions / Panels / Interactive Sessions: We additionally solicit proposals for special sessions, panel discussions, interactive sessions and invited talks, targeting emerging challenges in the field of autonomous systems, especially that are of interest to the DATE conference participants. Sessions on industrial perspectives, prototypes and demos are also highly welcome. Proposals must consist of an extended summary of up to 1,500 words in a PDF file, describing the topic, the authors/speakers, and the intended format. Submission deadline is 11 November 2023.
Second Opening Keynote: (Monday April 17: 11h – 12h30)
Speaker: Dirk Elias from Robert Bosch GmbH.
Title: The Cyber-Physical Metaverse – Where Digital Twins and Humans Come Together
Abstract:
The concept of Digital Twins (DTs) has been discussed intensively for the past couple of years. Today we have instances of digital twins that range from static descriptions of manufacturing data and material properties to live interfaces to operational data of cyber physical systems and the functions and services they provide.
Currently, there are no standardized interfaces to aggregate atomic DTs (e.g., the twin of the lowest-level function of a machine) to higher-level DTs providing more complex services in the virtual world. Additionally, there is no existing infrastructure to reliably link the DTs in the virtual world to the integrated CPSs in the real world (like a car consisting of many ECUs with even more functions).
This keynote will address how the Metaverse can become the virtual world where DTs of humans and machines live and how to reliably connect DTs to the physical world. Insights in current activities of Bosch Research and its academic partners to move towards this vision will be provided.
Later with the Keynote Speaker: (Monday April 17: 9:45h – 10h30)
Speaker: Dirk Elias from Robert Bosch GmbH.
Photo:
Short CV:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dirk Christian Elias is currently Senior Vice President at Robert Bosch GmbH and heading the Corporate Research Division ‘Advanced Digital’ (CR/AD). The division is focusing its applied research on ICT, SW development and systems engineering and simulation. He also is responsible for the Bosch Research and Technology Center in India. After studying EE at TU Munich he started his career at Fraunhofer Fokus in 1992. In 1996 he received his PhD from TU Berlin. In 2000 he left Fraunhofer and started IVISTAR AG. IVISTAR focused on IoT products for the organization of open offices and provided later also development services for smart home products. In 2008 he left Berlin and started setting up the Fraunhofer Portugal Research Center AICOS and joined the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) as invited full professor.
***
ASD Technical Session 1 (Monday April 17: 11h – 12h30)
Title: Designing Fault tolerant and resilient autonomous systems
Talk 1: MAVFI: An End-to-End Fault Analysis Framework with Anomaly Detection and Recovery for Micro Aerial Vehicles Yu-Shun Hsiao, Zishen Wan, Tianyu Jia, Radhika Ghosal, Abdulrahman Mahmoud, Arijit Raychowdhury, David Brooks, Gu-Yeon Wei and Vijay Janapa Reddi (yushun_hsiao@g.harvard.edu)
Talk 2: Phalanx: Failure-Resilient Truck Platooning System Changjin Koo, jaegeun park, Ahn TaeWook, Hongsuk Kim, Jong-Chan Kim and Yongsoon Eun (jongchank@kookmin.ac.kr)
Talk 3: Efficient Software-Implemented HW Fault Tolerance for TinyML Inference in Safety-critical Applications Uzair Sharif, Daniel Mueller-Gritschneder, Rafael Stahl and Ulf Schlichtmann (uzair.sharif@tum.de)
Talk 4: Formal Analysis of Timing Diversity for Autonomous Systems Anika Christmann, Robin Hapka and Rolf Ernst (christmann@ida.ing.tu-bs.de)
ASD Special Session 1: (Monday April 17: 14h – 15h30)
Title: Information Processing Factory, Take Two on Self-Aware Systems of MPSoCs
Organizers: Fadi Kurdahi (UCI)
Chair: Bryan Donyanavard, San Diego State University, US
Co-Chair: Smail Niar, UPHF, FR
Abstract: The Information Processing Factory (IPF) project is a collaboration between research teams in the US (UC Irvine) and Germany (TU Munich and TU Braunschweig) looking into Self-aware MPSoCs. IPF 1.0, was first introduced in ESWEEK 2016 as a paradigm to master complex dependable systems. The IPF paradigm applies principles inspired by factory management to the continuous operation and optimization of highly-integrated embedded systems. IPF 2.0 is an extension of the IPF for recent data-centric approaches and decentralization methodologies. While an IPF 1.0 system can operate independently, IPF 2.0 has a system-of-systems structure in which several IPF 1.0 “factories” interact, thus providing an additional layer of abstraction aimed at this data-centric approach. It horizontally extends core concepts such as self-optimization, self-construction, and runtime verification, while maintaining the strengths of the existing IPF methodology. Four talks in this session highlight the various concepts in IPF 2.0 illustrated through a truck platooning exemplar.
The talks outline the challenges introduced when moving from self-organizing local systems in IPF 1.0 to autonomous systems collaboration in IPF 2.0, using commercial vehicle platooning as a use case. The first talk explains how the self-aware truck control systems collaborate towards a platoon-level runtime verification that continuously supervises the state of a platoon, even under a changing platoon formation and external disturbance, e.g., by intersecting traffic participants. The second talk outlines the challenges related to managing enormous amounts of dynamic data in the system, and discusses how self-aware caching can help in mastering the resulting communication and data management requirements. The third talk proposes approaches to mitigate the energy cost of data management across multiple systems. The fourth talk addresses lack of explainability in the underlying machine learning technology in collaborative autonomous systems.
Talk 1: Trust, But Verify: Towards Self-Aware, Safe, Autonomous Self-Driving Systems, Fadi Kurdahi (UCI)
Talk 2: Vehicle as a Cache – A Data Centric Platform for the IPF Paradigm, Rolf Ernst (TUBS)
Talk 4: Learning Classifier Tables – Turning ML Decision Making Explainable, Andreas Herkersdorf (TUM)
ASD Technical Session 2 (Monday April 17: 16h30 – 18h00)
Title: Autonomy for systems perception, control and optimization
Talk 1: Autonomous Hyperloop Control Architecture Design using MAPE-K, Julian Demicoli, Laurin Prenzel and Sebastian Steinhorst
Talk 2: Reinforcement-Learning-Based Job-Shop Scheduling for Intelligent Intersection Management Shao-Ching Huang, Kai-En Lin, Cheng-Yen Kuo, Li-Heng Lin, Muhammed Omer Sayin and Chung-Wei Lin
Talk 3: Bio-inspired Autonomous Exploration Policies with CNN-based Object Detection on Nano-drones, Lorenzo Lamberti, Luca Bompani, Victor Javier Kartsch Morinigo, Manuele Rusci, Daniele Palossi and Luca Benini
Talk 4: Butterfly Effect Attack: Tiny and Seemingly Unrelated Perturbations for Object Detection Nguyen Anh Vu Doan, Arda Yueksel and Chih-Hong Cheng
ASD Panel Session (Monday April 17: 18h30 – 20h00)
Title: : Autonomous Systems Design as a Driver of Innovation? Organizers: Rasmus Adler, Peter Liggesmeyer ( Fraunhofer IESE, Germany)
Abstract: Autonomous systems have high potential in many application domains. However, most discussions seem to take place with respect to autonomous road vehicles. Automotive industry promised substantial progress in this field but many predictions have not come true. Companies stepped back and corrected their predictions. Does this mean, systems autonomy is not ready to drive innovation? However, autonomous behavior is obviously not limited to road vehicles. Various kinds of systems can benefit from autonomous behavior in various domains such as health and pharmaceutics, energy, manufacturing, farming, mining and so on. In this session, we will thus take a broader perspective on autonomous system design as a driver of innovation and discuss benefits, challenges, and risks in various application domains.
Prof. Martin Fränzle – OFFIS e. V., Scientific Director Division Transportation
Dr. Arne Hamann- Chief Expert Distributed Intelligent Systems, Corporate Research Robert Bosch GmbH
Prof. Davy Pissoort – KU Leuven Faculty of Engineering Technology
Dr. Claus Bahlmann – Head of R&D Department AI, Siemens, Mobility Division, Technology & Innovation
Dr. Christoph Schulze – Technology Expert from “the Autonomous”
***
ASD focus Session 1 (Tuesday April 18: 08h30 – 10h00)
Title: : Autonomy-driven Emerging Directions in Software-defined Vehicles
Organizers: Markus Joachim and S. Ramesh (General Motors, USA)
Abstract: Over the past two decades, the volume of electronics and software in cars have grown tremendously. There is now widespread consensus that more than 90% of the innovation in modern vehicles is driven by them. But this growth has also resulted in hardware and software architectures that are proving to be a bottleneck for further innovation and efficient design flows, especially when implementing compute-intensive functions necessary for autonomous features. Another emerging trend in the domain of automotive software is the need for continuous improvement and continuous deployment (CI/CD) of functionality, that is enabled by Over-The-Air (OTA) capability. The goal of this special session is to discuss these new trends, the resulting challenges, and explore emerging solutions and directions in the broad area of design, development, and verification of software-defined vehicles. The three talks will highlight different aspects of software-defined vehicle designs, what research challenges they pose, and how they would impact the future automotive design ecosystem.
Talk1: Impacts of Service Oriented Communication on SDV architectures, Prachi Joshi (General Motors R&D, USA)
Talk 2: “Shift-Left” Development and Validation of Software Defined Vehicles with a Virtual Platform, Unmesh Bordoloi (Siemens, USA)
Talk 3: Design Tools for Assured Autonomy, Samarjit Chakraborty (UNC Chapel Hill, USA)
ASD focus Session 2 (Tuesday April 18: 11h – 12h30)
Title: SelPhys: Self-awareness in Cyber-physical Systems
Abstract: Computational self-awareness enables autonomous systems to operate in rapidly unfolding situations and conditions that have not been considered during development. Cyber-physical systems, constantly interacting with the physical world, have to deal with an even wider spectrum of potentially unknown situations introduced in their environment, including other (autonomous) systems and humans. Their ability to respond appropriately is vital for these systems not only to achieve their goals but also to ensure the safety of other machines and humans in the process. In this special session, we will have various invited talks on different aspects of computational self-awareness and its contribution to autonomous systems design. Specifically, we aim to have talks ranging from fundamental theory on computational self-awareness, over signal processing, embedded and high-performance computing, towards applications utilising self-aware properties for increased safety and performance. After the short presentations, the presenters will be invited to participate in a panel discussion together with the audience.
Talk1: “Self-Aware Machine Intelligence”, Peter R. Lewis (Ontario University of Technology, Canada)
Talk2: ”Incremental Self-Awareness Based on Free Energy Minimization for Autonomous Agents”, Carlo Regazzoni and and Lucio Marcenaro (University of Genova)
Talk3: “Adaptive, Resilient Computing Platforms through Self-Awareness”, Nikil Dutt (University of California, Irvine)
Talk4: “Cognitive Energy Systems”:, Christian Gruhl (University of Kassel)
***
ASD Workshop (Tuesday April 18: 14h – 18h00): Can Autonomous Systems Be Safe?
Abstract: Despite the advancement of machine learning and artificial intelligence, safety still constitutes the main hurdle for supporting high levels of autonomy in domains such as self-driving cars, where more than 400* car accidents** involving autonomous functionalities were reported last year*. The design process according to safety standards typically assumes a correct and complete system specification. For autonomous systems, it is often impossible to show that the specification is complete, e.g. due to the underspecified environment and evolving behavior. This extremely challenges current safety engineering practices to reason about risk and uncertainty at operation time for decision making. *https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105252793/nearly-400-car-crashes-in-11-months-involved-automated-tech-companies-tell-regul
**Actually according to the 2021 autonomous vehicle disengagement report, almost 3000 accidents/incidents were reported.
DATE 2023 Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD)
Fueled by the progress of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems become more and more integral parts of many Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) applications, such as automated driving, robotics, avionics, industrial automation and smart systems in general. Autonomous systems are self-governed and self-adaptive systems that are designed to operate in an open and evolving environment which is not completely defined at design time. This poses a unique challenge to the design and verification of dependable autonomous systems. Following the successful editions from previous years, DATE is again hosting the Initiative on Autonomous Systems together with a workshop. The initiative will include peer-reviewed papers, invited contributions and interactive sessions.
Areas of Interest
We welcome your contributions within the scope of the event. The main areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Concepts, Algorithms and Formal Methods for Autonomy
Platforms for Autonomous Systems
Architectures (from Chip Level to System Level) for Autonomous Systems
Middleware and Frameworks (e.g., ROS) for Autonomous Systems
Models and HW/SW Mechanisms for Self-Awareness and Self-Adaptation
Design of Autonomous Systems
Mastering Emergent and Evolving Behavior (Goals, Constraints, …)
Design, Verification and Test of High-Assurance Learning-Enabled Systems
Design Automation and Methodologies for Autonomous Systems
Dependability and Trustworthy Autonomy
Functional Safety and Assurance Cases for Evolving and Learning-Enabled Systems
HW/SW Mechanisms for Resilient Systems
Autonomous Systems Security
Applications and Case Studies of Autonomous Systems
Types of Contributions
Conference Papers:
The special initiative features regular sessions for presenting novel technical contributions. Submitted papers will undergo a peer-review process and accepted papers will appear in the DATE conference proceedings. All manuscripts should be submitted in pdf format not exceeding 6 pages, following the DATE submission instructions. Detailed submission instructions can be found here: https://www.dateconference.com/call-for-papers#Submission-Instructions
Abstract Submission: 06 November 2022 AoE
Full Paper Submission: 13 November 2022 AoE
Acceptance Notification: 18 December 2022 AoE
Special Sessions / Panels:
We additionally solicit proposals for special sessions, panel discussions and invited talks, targeting emerging challenges in the field of autonomous systems, especially that are of interest to the DATE conference participants. Special Session proposals must consist of a title of the session, a summary of up to 500 words in a PDF file, describing the topic, (preferably confirmed) authors/speakers, and the intended format.
The workshop Interactive Day will feature highly interactive sessions on emerging or controversial hot topics in the scope of the ASD initiative. We also encourage sessions on business trends or public policies. The form of a session can be a special session with invited talks and panel discussions, leaving enough room for interaction among the participants. Sessions on industrial perspectives, prototypes and demos are also highly welcome.
Organizing Committee
Rolf Ernst, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
Selma Saidi, Technical University Dortmund, Germany
Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University Munich, Germany
DATE 2022 Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD)
14-18 March 2022
Fully virtual event
Scope of the Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD)
Fueled by the progress of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems become more and more integral parts of many Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) applications, such as automated driving, robotics, avionics, industrial automation and smart systems in general. Autonomous systems are self-governed and self-adaptive systems that are designed to operate in an open and evolving environment which is not completely defined at design time. This poses a unique challenge to the design and verification of dependable autonomous systems. Following the successful editions from previous years, DATE is again hosting the Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The initiative will include peer-reviewed papers, invited contributions and interactive sessions.
ASD 2022 Program Overview
Date: Tuesday, 15 March 2022 (online)
Panel Discussion: Autonomous Systems Design as a Research Challenge
Time: 16:30-18:00 CET
Session Description: Autonomous systems require specific design methods that leave behavioral freedom and plan for the unexpected without losing trustworthiness and dependability. How does this requirement influence research at major research institutions? How is it reflected in public funding? Should autonomous systems design become a new discipline or should the regular design process be adapted to handle autonomy? The panel will begin with position statements by the panelists, followed by an open discussion with the hybrid audience.
Panelists: Karl-Erik Arzen, Lund University and co-director Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program, Sweden; Peter Liggesmeyer, Director Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE, Germany; Axel Jantsch, Director Institute of Computer Technology, TU Wien, Austria
Organizers:
Selma Saidi, TU Dortmund, DE
Rolf Ernst, TU Braunschweig, DE
Date: Thursday, 17 March 2022 (online)
Chair: Sharon Hu, University of Notre Dame, USA
Co-chair: Selma Saidi, TU Dortmund, DE
Session 1: Interactive Presentations Session
Time: 11:30-12:15 CET (Interactive Presentations Session)
Session Chair: Philipp Mundhenk, Robert Bosch GmbH, DE
Session Co-Chair: Rolf Ernst, TU Braunschweig, DE
“Deadlock Analysis and Prevention for Intersection Management Based on Colored Timed Petri Nets”, Tsung-Lin Tsou, Chung-Wei Lin and Iris Hui-Ru Jiang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
“Attack Data Generation Framework for Autonomous Vehicle Sensors”, Jan Lauinger1, Andreas Finkenzeller1, Henrik Lautebach2, Mohammad Hamad1 and Sebastian Steinhorst1, 1Technical University of Munich, DE, 2ZF Group, DE
“Contract-Based Quality-of-Service Assurance in Dynamic Distributed System”, Lea Schönberger1, Susanne Graf2, Selma Saidi1, Dirk Ziegenbein3 and Arne Hamann3, 1TU Dortmund University, DE, 2University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, FR, 3Robert Bosch GmbH, DE
Lunch Keynote: “Probabilistic and Deep Learning Techniques for Robot Navigation and Automated Driving”
Time: 13:00 – 13:50 CET
Wolfram Burgard, Technical University of Nuremberg, Germany
Bio: Wolfram Burgard is a Professor for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the Technical University of Nuremberg. His interests lie in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision. He has published over 400 publications, more than 15 of which received best paper awards. In 2009, he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the most prestigious German research award. In 2010, he received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. In 2021, he received the IEEE Technical Field Award for Robotics and Automation. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the AAAI, the EurAI, and a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina as well as of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Abstract: For autonomous robots and automated driving, the capability to robustly perceive environments and execute their actions is the ultimate goal. The key challenge is that no sensors and actuators are perfect, which means that robots and cars need the ability to properly deal with the resulting uncertainty. In this presentation, I will introduce the probabilistic approach to robotics, which provides a rigorous statistical methodology to deal with state estimation problems. I will furthermore discuss how this approach can be extended using state-of-the-art technology from machine learning to deal with complex and changing real-world environments.
Session 2: An Industrial Perspective on Autonomous Systems Design (Industrial Session)
Time: 14:30-15:30 CET
Session Description This session presents 4 talks from industry sharing current practices and perspectives on autonomous systems and their design. The session discusses several challenges related to software architecture solutions for safe and efficient operational autonomous systems, novel rule-based methods for guaranteeing safety, and requirements on infrastructure for autonomy currently merging CPSs as well as IT domains.
Session Chair: Rolf Ernst, TU Braunschweig, DE
Session Co-Chair: Selma Saidi, TU Dortmund, DE
“Symbiotic Safety: Safe and Efficient Human-Machine Collaboration by utilizing Rules”, Tasuku Ishigooka, Hiroyuki Yamada, Satoshi Otsuka, Nobuyasu Kanekawa and Junya Takahashi, Hitachi, Ltd., JP
“A Middleware Journey from Microcontrollers to Microprocessors”, Michael Pöhnl, Alban Tamisier and Tobias Blass, Apex. AI, DE
“Reliable Distributed Systems”, Philipp Mundhenk, Arne Hamann, Andreas Heyl and Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH, DE
“PAVE 360 – A paradigm Shift in autonomous driving verification with a Digital Twin”, Tapan Vikas, Siemens EDA GmbH, DE
Session 3: Bringing Robust Deep Learning to the Autonomous Edge: New Challenges and Algorithm-Hardware Solutions (Special Session)
Time: 15:40-16:30 CET
Session Description: Deep neural networks (DNNs) are being continually deployed at the autonomous edge systems for many applications, such as speech recognition, image classification, and object detection. While DNNs have proven to be effective in handling these tasks, their robustness (i.e. accuracy) can suffer postdeployment at the edge. Moreover, designing robust deep learning algorithms for the autonomous edge is highly challenging because such systems are severely resource-constrained. This session includes four different invited talks that present the challenges and propose novel, lightweight algorithm-hardware codesign methods to improve DNN robustness at the edge. The first paper evaluates the effectiveness of various unsupervised DNN adaptation methods on real-world edge systems, followed by selecting the best technique in terms of accuracy, performance and energy. The second paper explores a lightweight image super-resolution technique to prevent adversarial attacks, which is also characterized on an Arm neural processing unit. The third paper tackles the issue of loss in DNN prediction accuracy in resistive memory-based in-memory accelerators by proposing a stochastic fault-tolerant training scheme. The final paper focuses on robust distributed reinforcement learning for swarm intelligence where it analyzes and mitigates the effect of various transient/permanent faults.
Session Organizers: Kshitij Bhardwaj, Maya Gokhale and Bhavya Kailkhura, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), USA
Session Chair: Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH, DE Session Co-Chair: Chung-Wei Lin, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Talks:
“Unsupervised Test-Time Adaptation of Deep Neural Networks at the Edge: A Case Study”, Kshitij Bhardwaj, James Diffenderfer, Bhavya Kailkhura and Maya Gokhale, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNC Lab), USA
“Super-Efficient Super Resolution for Fast Adversarial Defense at the Edge”, Kartikeya Bhardwaj1, Dibakar Gope2, James Ward1, Paul Whatmough2 and Danny Loh1, 1ARM Inc,USA, 2ARM Research, USA
“Fault-Tolerant Deep Neural Networks for Processing-In-Memory based Autonomous Edge Systems”, Siyue Wang, Geng Yuan, Xiaolong Ma, Yanyu Li, Xue Lin and Bhavya Kailkhura, Northeastern University, USA, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, USA
“FRL-FI: Transient Fault Analysis for Federated Reinforcement Learning-Based Navigation Systems”, Zishen Wan1, Aqeel Anwar1, Abdulrahman Mahmoud2, Tianyu Jia3, Yu-Shun Hsiao, Vijay Janapa Reddi2 and Arijit Raychowdhury1, 1Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, 2Harvard University, USA, 3Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Session 4: Safe and Efficient Engineering of Autonomous Systems (Regular Session)
Time: 16:40-17:20 CET
Session Description: This session discusses novel approaches for engineering autonomous systems considering safety and validation aspects as well as efficiency. The first paper uses an ontology-based perception for autonomous vehicles which enables a comprehensive safety analysis, the second paper relies on formal approaches for generating relevant critical scenarios for automated driving. The last paper proposes an efficient method for recharging unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to perform a large-scale remote sensing with maximal coverage.
Session Chair: Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University Munich, DE
Session Co-Chair: Sharon Hu, University of Notre Dame, USA
Talks:
“Using ontologies for dataset engineering in automotive AI applications”, Martin Herrmann1, Christian Witt2, Laureen Lake1, Stefani Guneshka3, Christian Heinzemann1, Frank Bonarens4, Patrick Feifel4 and Simon Funke3, 1Robert Bosch GmbH, DE, 2Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH, DE, 3Understand AI, DE, 4Stellantis, Opel Automobile GmbH, DE.
“Using Formal Conformance Testing to Generate Scenarios for Autonomous Vehicles”, Jean-Baptiste Horel1,3, Christian Laugier1,3, Lina Marsso2, Radu Mateescu3, Lucie Muller3, Anshul Paigwar1,3, Alessandro Renzaglia1,3 and Wendelin Serwe3, 1Univ. Grenoble Alpes, FR, 2University of Toronto, CA, 3INRIA, FR.
“Remote Sensing with UAV and Mobile Recharging Vehicle Rendezvous”, Michael Ostertag, Jason Ma and Tajana Rosing, University of California, San Diego, USA
Chair: Chung-Wei Lin, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Co-chair: Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University of Munich, DE
Opening Session
Time: 08:30-09:30 CET
8:30 – 8:45: Opening of ASD Friday Interactive Day, Introduction of Sponsors
8:45 – 9:30: Keynote: Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Development
Keynote Speaker: Joseph Sifakis, Verimag Laboratory
Session Chair: Rolf Ernst, TU Braunschweig, DE
Abstract: Autonomous systems emerge from the needs to automate existing organizations by progressive replacement of human operators by autonomous agents. Their development raises multi-faceted challenges, which go well beyond the limits of weak AI.
We attempt an analysis of the current state of art focusing on design and validation. First, we explain that existing approaches to agent design are unsatisfactory. Traditional model-based approaches are defeated by the complexity of the problem, while solutions based on end-to-end machine learning fail to provide the necessary trustworthiness guarantees. We advocate “hybrid design” solutions that take the best of each approach and seek tradeoffs between trustworthiness and performance. In addition, we argue that traditional case-by-case risk analysis and mitigation techniques are failing to scale, and we discuss the trend away from correctness at design time and toward reliance on runtime assurance techniques. Second, we explain that simulation and testing remain the only realistic approach for global validation, and we show how current methods and practices can be transposed to autonomous systems by identifying the technical requirements involved.
We conclude by discussing the factors that will play a decisive role in the acceptance of autonomous systems, and by arguing for the urgent need for new theoretical foundations.
Session 1: Human-Machine Systems
Time: 09:30-10:45 CET
Session Description: The technology of autonomous vehicles continues advancing, but there will be a long time before human-driven vehicles are completely replaced by fully-autonomous vehicles. Therefore, mixed traffic environments need to be taken care of to provide safe, efficient, and comfortable transportation. In this session, the experts will discuss the roles of autonomous vehicles, human-driven vehicles, and roadside units and share their visions on human-machine systems. The ultimate goal is to support a smooth transition from current transportation to autonomous transportation.
Session Chair: Chung-Wei Lin, National Taiwan University
Agenda of Talks and Speakers/Panelists:
09:30 – 09:45: “Towards Cooperative Autonomous Vehicles for Mixed Traffic Environments”, Shunsuke Aoki, National Institute of Informatics, JP
09:45 – 10:00: “Automation as a Service Provider for Shared Mobility”,Meike Jipp, German Aerospace Center (DLR), DE
10:15 – 10:45: Interactive panel discussion on Human-Machine Systems
Session 2: Hardware and Components
Time: 11:00-12:15 CET
Session Description: For the design of autonomous systems, powerful hardware and system components are as much a core enabler of advanced autonomy as the software running on them. With the increase in cognitive capabilities by integration of computation and sensing platforms, many opportunities as well as challenges arise, such that both hardware and AI-centric software can operate fully synergetic and, hence, reach their full potential. The purpose of this session is to discuss the latest trends in hardware components and their design aspects for efficient and holistic integration of computation, sensing and communication.
Session Chair: Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University of Munich
Agenda of Talks and Speakers/Panelists:
11:00 – 11:15: “PULP: An Open Ultra Low-Power Platform for Autonomous Nano Drones”,Luca Benini, ETH Zürich, CH
11:30 – 11:45: “Efficient Machine Learning: Algorithms-Circuits-Devices Co-design”, Hai (Helen) Li, Duke University, US
11:45 – 12:15: Interactive panel discussion on Hardware and Components
Session 3: Panel Discussion “Autonomous Systems Design”
Time: 13:30-15:00 CET
Organizers:
David Harel, Weizmann Institute of Science
Joseph Sifakis, Verimag Laboratory
Moderator:
David Harel, Weizmann Institute of Science
Panelists:
Sandeep Neema, DARPA
Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, UC Berkeley
Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano
Simon Burton, Fraunhofer
Michael Paulitsch, Intel
Arne Hamann, Bosch
Topics to be discussed by the panel:
1) What is your vision for AS? For example, the role of these systems in the IoT and AI revolutions; autonomy as a step from weak to strong AI; the gap between automated and autonomous systems.
2) What challenges do you see in AS design? For example, AI-enabled end-to-end solutions; “hybrid design” approaches, integrating model- and data-driven components; systems engineering issues.
3) How should we ensure the reliability of AS? For example, achieving explainable AI; adapting and extending rigorous V&V techniques to ASs; ensuring safety based exclusively on simulation and testing.
4) Looking to the future, is the vision of total autonomy viable? how can we make it happen? For example, decisive factors for acceptance; research challenges; ethical issues; “easy” total autonomy categories.
Session 4: V2X, Edge Computing, and Connected Applications
Time: 15:10-16:50 CET
Session Description: Connectivity realizes many advanced applications for vehicles. Especially, the interactions between vehicles and edge servers (or roadside units) further boost the trend and involve more players in the business. In this session, the experts from an auto-maker, a supplier, a high-tech company, and a start-up will meet together, describe their roles in the connected and edge-computing environment, and discuss potential integration or competition.
Session Chair: Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH
Agenda of Talks and Speakers/Panelists:
15:10 – 15:25: “Video Uberization Using Edge AI and Mobile Video”, Chun-Ting Chou, OmniEyes, TW
15:25 – 15:40: “Connected Applications as Driver for Automation”, Frank Hofmann, Bosch, DE
15:40 – 15:55: “Environmental parity between cloud and embedded edge as a foundation for software-defined vehicles”, Stefano Marzani, Amazon, US
15:55 – 16:10: “Mobility Digital Twin with Connected Vehicles and Cloud Computing”, Ziran Wang, Toyota Motor North America R&D, US
16:10 – 16:50: Interactive panel discussion on V2X, Edge Computing, and Connected Applications
Information from Call for Contributions
Areas of Interest
We welcome your contributions within the scope of the event. The main areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Concepts, Algorithms and Formal Methods for Autonomy
Platforms for Autonomous Systems
Architectures (from Chip Level to System Level) for Autonomous Systems
Middleware and Frameworks (e.g. ROS) for Autonomous Systems
Models and HW/SW Mechanisms for Self-Awareness and Self-Adaptation
Design of Autonomous Systems
Mastering Emergent and Evolving Behavior (Goals, Constraints, …)
Design, Verification and Test of High-Assurance Learning-Enabled Systems
Design Automation and Methodologies for Autonomous Systems
Dependability and Trustworthy Autonomy
Functional Safety and Assurance Cases for Evolving and Learning-Enabled Systems
HW/SW Mechanisms for Resilient Systems
Autonomous Systems Security
Applications and Case Studies of Autonomous Systems
Types of Contributions
Conference Papers:
The special initiative features regular sessions for presenting novel technical contributions. Submitted papers will undergo a peer-review process and accepted papers will appear in the DATE conference proceedings. All manuscripts should be submitted in pdf format not exceeding 6 pages for standard oral presentation and 4 pages for interactive presentation, following the DATE submission instructions.
Abstract Submission: 12 September 2021
Full Paper Submission: 19 September 2021
Acceptance Notification: 11 November 2021
Special Sessions / Panels:
We additionally solicit proposals for special sessions, panel discussions and invited talks, targeting emerging challenges in the field of autonomous systems, especially that are of interest to the DATE conference participants. Special Session proposals must consist of an extended summary of up to 1,500 words in a PDF file, describing the topic, the authors/speakers, and the intended format. Submission deadline is 21 September 2021.
Submission Instructions
All submissions should follow the DATE proceedings submission instructions.
The Friday Interactive Day will feature highly interactive sessions on emerging or controversial hot topics in the scope of the ASD initiative.
We also encourage sessions on business trends or public policies. The form of a session can be a special session with invited talks and panel discussions, leaving enough room for interaction among the participants. Sessions on industrial perspectives, prototypes and demos are also highly welcome. Please send the proposals via email with the subject #ASD2021 to the organizers Chung-Wei Lin (cwlin@csie.ntu.edu.tw) and Sebastian Steinhorst (sebastian.steinhorst@tum.de).
Thursday Chairs:
X. Sharon Hu, University of Notre Dame, USA
Selma Saidi, Technical University Dortmund, Germany
Friday Chairs:
Chung-Wei Lin, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University Munich, Germany
Organizing Committee:
Rolf Ernst, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
Selma Saidi, Technical University Dortmund, Germany
Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University Munich, Germany
For the participants of the DATE ASD 2021 event, we are providing recordings of the scientific paper sessions, the ASD reception talk as well as of the Friday interactive day. Please refer to the session details of Thursday and Friday.
In this video edited for the opening panel of the Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design at DATE 2021, eminent scientists and industry leaders will talk about their visions of autonomous systems, the challenges they see in the development of autonomous systems as well as how autonomous systems will impact the business in their industries.
“Additionally, DATE 2021 hosted a two-day Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design which was a great success with more than 230 participants. The Initiative kicked off with statements of industrial leaders from Porsche, Bosch, and Airbus unanimously highlighting the tremendous importance of autonomous systems for the future of their industries. However, while current research into autonomous systems is mostly focused on improving systems functionality, there is a growing need for the related design processes, platforms and EDA, as addressed by the ASD Initiative. A poll showed that the industrial and academic participants were greatly satisfied by the way DATE has picked up that topic.”
Rolf Ernst, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Selma Saidi, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany
Dirk Ziegenbein, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
Sebastian Steinhorst, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Jyotirmoy Deshmukh, University of Southern California, United States
Christian Laugier, INRIA Grenoble, France
Two-Day Special Initiative
Fueled by the progress of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems become more and more integral parts of many Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) applications, such as automated driving, robotics, avionics and industrial automation. Autonomous systems are self-governed and self-adaptive systems that are designed to operate in an open and evolving environment that has not been completely defined at design time. This poses a unique challenge to the design and verification of dependable autonomous systems. The DATE Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD) on Thursday and Friday will include high-profile keynotes and panel discussions, as well as peer-reviewed papers, invited contributions and interactive sessions addressing these challenges.
The Thursday of the DATE Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD) will start with an opening session where industry leaders from Airbus, Porsche and Robert Bosch will talk about their visions of autonomous systems, the challenges they see in the development of autonomous systems as well as how autonomous systems will impact the business in their industries. These input will be discussed in an open floor panel with eminent speakers from academia. After the opening session, three sessions will present peer-reviewed papers on “Reliable Autonomous Systems: Dealing with Failure & Anomalies”, “Safety Assurance of Autonomous Vehicles” and “Designing Autonomous Systems: Experiences, Technology and Processes”. Furthermore, a special session will discuss latest research on “Predictable Perception for Autonomous Systems”.
The Friday Interactive Day of the DATE Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design (ASD) features keynotes from industry leaders as well as interactive discussions initiated by short presentations on several hot topics. Presentations from General Motors and BMW on predictable perception, as well as a session on dynamic risk assessment will fuel the discussion on how to maximize safety in a technically feasible manner. Speakers from TTTech and APEX.AI will present insights into Motionwise and ROS2 as platforms for automated vehicles. Further sessions will highlight topics such as explainable machine learning, self-adaptation for robustness and self-awareness for autonomy, as well as cybersecurity for connected vehicles.
