Improving Autonomous Vehicle Reliability Through Hardware-Software Co-Design

Wayne State University has received a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance research on the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles and machines. The project focuses on developing an integrated hardware-software architecture to improve real-time safety certifications for deep neural network-driven autonomous systems.

Zheng Dong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Wayne State’s School of Engineering, received a five-year, $595,611 NSF grant for the project titled "CAREER: ChronosDrive: Ensuring Timing Correctness in DNN-Driven Autonomous Vehicles with Accelerator-Enhanced Real-Time SoC Integration."

We are in an age of artificial intelligence. Deep neural networks and autonomous vehicles are opening new frontiers in real-time systems research, which demands new solutions to ensure these systems are safe and effective.

Zheng Dong, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, School of Engineering, Wayne State University

Autonomous machines, particularly those using deep neural networks (DNNs) in autonomous vehicles, must meet strict timing requirements, requiring real-time safety certifications. These certifications depend on advanced analytical methods that combine worst-case execution time analysis with schedulability analysis to ensure safety and reliability. However, integrating these analyses remains challenging, especially when evaluating the timing accuracy of systems that rely on computing accelerators for autonomous driving.

Dong’s project aims to develop an integrated architecture that uses hardware-software co-design to address these challenges. This approach seeks to improve the safety and reliability of autonomous driving systems and other autonomous machines.

Even though we are talking about artificial intelligence, advancements in this field still rely on human innovation and creativity. We hope our research lays a solid foundation for the development of safe and effective autonomous vehicle and machine systems.

Zheng Dong, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, School of Engineering, Wayne State University

Ezemenari M. Obasi, Ph.D., Wayne State’s Vice President for Research & Innovation, said: “NSF CAREER awards are prestigious honors to rising researchers that emphasize the integration of research and education. Dr. Dong’s important research will incorporate AI to address the complex problems associated with autonomous driving systems and machines. Through this award, he will train computer science and engineering students to create the next generation of autonomous machines and vehicles to be safer and more reliable.”