Computing and Networking Challenges in the Transportation CPS

Rudra DuttaDepartment of Computer Science, NCSUNSF DriveSense Workshop, October 2014, Norfolk, VA

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Personal Perspective• Analytics, coupled by sensing/actuating to

transportation infrastructure can enable a variety of innovative applications– Analytics computing– Sensing/Actuation computing, communications

• Computing, networking, and transportation together form a cyber-physical system– Requires an ecosystem of capabilities, which produce

research and development challenges• What are the problem areas, and important

problems?

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Ecosystem

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Example Application• Congestion information fed over ad-hoc network to drivers –

model resulting mobility• Patwa and Dutta, ICCCN 2007

Information plane

Physical plane

Sensecongestion

(low speed)

Provide notificationto driver

disseminate

Modify behavior

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Issue: Coupled Network and Congestion• Requires joint modeling• Microscopic simulation• Macroscopic modeling using Klar et al’s dense gas mesoscopic

model• Reasonable agreement

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Surprising Coupling at Intermediate Regime• The very success of the network causes it to disconnect

– As drivers exit in advance of congestion– Reconnects as subsequent drivers join congestion– Sets up oscillatory behavior

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Surprising Coupling at Intermediate Regime

Cavities

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Surprising Coupling at Intermediate Regime

(a) CWMsg Lifetime = 1 (b) CWMsg Lifetime = 50

Width of Cavity

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Research Problem Areas• Sensing

– Observation of driving behavior– Onboard multi-sensor (similar to i2D) – design– External visual – other vehicles, poles, drones?– Observation of driver: biometrics

• Actuation– Onboard: driver notifications, safety overrides– Traffic lights, lane reversals, police dispatch

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Research Problem Areas• Communication

– Opportunistic, multimode– Privacy preserving

• Analytics– Local pre-processing of sensor data, local realtime

decisions– Fusion of big data – usual V3 challenge– Sharing sensed data in cloud with anonymity,

privacy

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CentMesh Facility at NCSU

• CentMesh : a project to build a versatile, open source shared resource on campus

• Provide an active testbed to support research and instruction on wireless networks

• Part of NCSU’s “Living Laboratory” vision• An extensible, programmable, open, real outdoor

wireless network• A teaching and research resource at NCSU

Centennial• centmesh.csc.ncsu.edu

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CentMesh Nodes

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Who Built CentMesh ?

• Homemade !– Built by NCSU student researchers– CoTS hardware, open-source and NCSU-developed

software– Guided by NCSU faculty– Funded by Army Research Office and NCSU– Operationalized by Institute of Technology of Next

Generation (ITng), NCSU

Firefighting Drones Challenge

Control Module - Input from joystick - Input from sensors - Plan motion - Command airframe

Operator Control & Feedback - Make operator joystick commands available to Control - Make IR/camera video available to operatorSensor Package

- 360 obstruction detection - Make fused sensor data available to Control

Airframe - VTOL, hover capability - Light, small - Payload capacity - Accept motion directives from Control

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