CAREER: A Unified Event-triggered Real-Time Scheduling and Control Co-Design Framework for Networked Safety-critical Control Systems

NSF Award Search · 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $628,260 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This NSF CAREER project aims to ensure the safety, reliability, and efficiency of modern interconnected autonomous systems, such as robot swarms, intelligent transportation networks, and smart manufacturing. The project will bring transformative change to how these complex systems share limited resources, including communication networks, computer processors, and shared physical space, by preventing the "traffic jams" of data or physical collision that cause catastrophic physical accidents or energy waste. This will be achieved by creating new mathematical methods that allow networked systems to smartly schedule actions and design controls that compensate for time delays in real time. The intellectual merit of the project includes establishing a unified theoretical framework that links complex timing delays with physical stability guarantees, enabling safe resource management for large-scale autonomous technologies. The broader impacts of the project include contributing to national prosperity through potential economic savings from mitigated traffic congestion and improved manufacturing efficiency. Furthermore, the project cultivates a highly skilled engineering workforce by integrating these research concepts into the Airborne Robotics Competition (ARC), an accessible, low-cost national robotic blimp competition where K-12 students gain hands-on experience with the critical importance of networked real-time robotic systems. The fundamental technical challenge in large-scale networked control systems is "correlated resource contention," where simultaneous demands for shared resources create complex non-linear timing dynamics. Traditional periodic or centralized methods fail to predict when these unpredictable scheduling delays will destabilize the physical system or determine how to scale up safely. To resolve these issues, this research develops a decentralized real-time scheduling and control co-design framework. First, novel models are formulated to accuratel

Key facts

NSF award ID
2539218
Awardee
George Mason University (VA)
SAM.gov UEI
EADLFP7Z72E5
PI
Ningshi Yao
Primary program
01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
OPTIMIZATION & DECISION MAKING, Control systems & applications, CAREER-Faculty Erly Career Dev, Cyber-Physical Systems, CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, LEARNING & INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
Estimated total
$628,260
Funds obligated
$628,260
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
06/01/2026 → 05/31/2031