Co-design Of Systems Research Articles

Canalis: A Throughput-Optimized Framework for Real-Time Stream Processing of Wireless Communication

Stream processing, which involves real-time computation of data as it is created or received, is vital for various applications, specifically wireless communication. The evolving protocols, the requirement for high-throughput, and the challenges of handling diverse processing patterns make it demanding. Traditional platforms grapple with meeting real-time throughput and latency requirements due to large data volume, sequential and indeterministic data arrival, and variable data rates, leading to inefficiencies in memory access and parallel processing. We present Canalis, a throughput-optimized framework designed to address these challenges, ensuring high-performance while achieving low energy consumption. Canalis is a hardware-software co-designed system. It includes a programmable spatial architecture, FluxSPU (Flux Stream Processing Unit), proposed by this work to enhance data throughput and energy efficiency. FluxSPU is accompanied by a software stack that eases the programming process. We evaluated Canalis with eight distinct benchmarks. When compared to CPU and GPU in mobile SoC to demonstrate the effectiveness of domain specialization, Canalis achieves an average speedup of 13.4× and 6.6×, and energy savings of 189.8× and 283.9×, respectively. In contrast to equivalent ASICs of the benchmarks, the average energy overhead of Canalis is within 2.4×, successfully maintaining generalizations without incurring significant overhead.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Full-Stack Codesign for Robust and Secure AI-Enabled Autonomous Transportation Systems

Introduction to the Special Issue on Full-Stack Codesign for Robust and Secure AI-Enabled Autonomous Transportation Systems

Performance of co-designed diversified Mediterranean cropping systems: Hybridizing stakeholders' knowledge and modelling data

Mediterranean cropping systems, characterised by continuous cereal cropping, are largely dependent on synthetic inputs, such as N fertilisers. On the other hand, they face difficult pedoclimatic conditions, exacerbated by climate change. Diversification is seen as a way to increase cropping systems resilience. The aim of this study was to co-design diversified cropping systems based on the expertise of local stakeholders and co-assess their performance, using modelling data. Our case study is the Ebro valley in Spain, a Mediterranean area with great potential for diversification, particularly where irrigation is available. Two workshops were organized to i) define the reference system in the study area and its limitations ii) co-design diversified systems to overcome these limitations and iii) co-assess reference and diversified systems. Between the two workshops, the STICS soil-crop model was calibrated with local experimental data, enabling to simulate the inter-annual (2000–2021) agronomic and environmental performance of the reference and diversified systems. An economic analysis was conducted. Stakeholders evaluated all economic, agronomic and environmental aspects. The reference system was a continuous winter cereal crop based on synthetic N fertilisation and intensive tillage. The four diversified co-designed systems consisted in introducing pea and/or rapeseed every 2 or 4 years, reducing tillage and partially replacing synthetic N fertilisation with locally sourced livestock manure. Simulation results showed that wheat and barley grain yields remained stable with diversification. Pea and rapeseed yields were lower in rotations where both were introduced compared to when each was the only break crop over 4 years. At the system level, protein yield remained stable with diversification, however, energy yield decreased by 20 % when break crops were introduced twice and by 10 % when introduced once. Gross margins improved with diversification only when pea was introduced once (12 %), mainly due to reduced expenses (-31 %), while incomes remained stable compared to RCS. However, incomes decreased by 5 % when rapeseed was introduced once, and by 10 % when both break crops were introduced. Unexpectedly, environmental performance deteriorated with diversification, with increased N losses through ammonia volatilisation and nitrate leaching in the years following pea and rapeseed cropping, due to greater N availability in the soil. An increased use of pesticides was predicted by the stakeholders in diversified systems, where the environmental impacts were exacerbated with the higher presence of break crops. The reference system presented slightly lower N availability and increased soil organic carbon storage. Overall, the approach proved useful in identifying a diversification strategy that improved agronomic and economic performance, with the system including pea once every four years being the most efficient. However, the environmental trade-offs associated with the increased presence of pea and rapeseed in the crop rotation must be considered in order to mitigate the environmental risks.

Compact photonic model based on coupled-mode theory for nonlinear interactions in electronic-photonic co-simulation

This paper demonstrates a Verilog-A compact photonic model based on coupled-mode theory for nonlinear interactions, including four-wave mixing (FWM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM), to present a general framework and methodology for modeling nonlinear interactions in electronic-photonic co-simulation. The model is compatible with existing electronic design automation (EDA) platforms and can support rapid electronic-photonic co-simulation. It avoids describing the complicated physical process of the FWM and provides an easy way for system designers to monitor the dynamics of the critical optical parameters, thus accelerating the co-design and co-optimization of the electronic-photonic hybrid systems incorporating FWM. Meanwhile, the model is not tailored for a particular photonic device but can be applied to different photonic devices as a fundamental component. The model framework and modeling methodology presented in this paper are expected to be further applied to the modeling of other optical nonlinear interactions. The simulation results of the proposed model agree well with both numerical and experimental results. A closed-loop electronic-photonic co-simulation example using the proposed model is also carried out successfully.

An End-to-End In-Memory Computing System Based on a 40-nm eFlash-Based IMC SoC: Circuits, Toolchains, and Systems Co-Design Framework

An End-to-End In-Memory Computing System Based on a 40-nm eFlash-Based IMC SoC: Circuits, Toolchains, and Systems Co-Design Framework

“It should be much faster fashion”— textile industry stakeholders’ perceptions of a just circular transition in Tamil Nadu, India

There is a need for a paradigm shift to circular, sustainable textile systems. The transition will have impacts on people and businesses around the world, yet research on the circular economy has been overly focused on the economic and environmental dimension, lacking in the social dimension. Without design for comprehensive justness, the transition can reproduce or lead to novel injustices. We use distributive, procedural, and recognitive justice dimensions to analyze and uncover justness aspects related to the circular transition in the textile industry in Tamil Nadu, India. Our qualitative analysis is based on interviews with stakeholders of the industry. We uncover several justness tensions related to economic, social, power, value, epistemic, and governance issues. For the just circular transition to succeed, the tensions should at the very least be acknowledged, and ameliorated or dealt with when possible. The building blocks for this process are, for example, codesign of private governance systems, sharing the costs of the transition more equally and inclusion of various voices in knowledge production. As a step forward from the current situation in which a circularity focused approach and a justness focused approach emphasize different aspects, we present a new framework for designing just circular transitions, one that bring these important perspectives together.

Control/physical systems co-design with spectral temporal logic specifications and its applications to MEMS

‘Co-design’ problems try to simultaneously design the physical and control components to improve the overall system performance. However, existing co-design paradigms cannot deal with complex frequency temporal domain specifications. In this paper, we investigate the co-design problem for a class of linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems with frequency temporal domain specifications. Firstly, the frequency temporal domain specifications are written in a formal language called spectral temporal logic (STL). Secondly, the satisfaction conditions of the spectral temporal logic specifications have been transformed into non-linear matrices inequality forms with necessary and sufficient conditions. Thirdly, the co-design problem is transformed into a non-convex optimisation problem with mixed-integer linear matrix inequalities (MILMIs) constraints, and then an iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the co-design problem with semidefinite programming (SDP). Finally, the performance of the algorithm and the expressiveness of spectral temporal logic are illustrated with the applications to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).

Smart Sensing and Communication Co-Design for IIoT-Based Control Systems

Smart Sensing and Communication Co-Design for IIoT-Based Control Systems

Co-Design for Novelty Anchoring Into Multiple Socio-Technical Systems in Transitions: The Case of Earth Observation Data

Co-Design for Novelty Anchoring Into Multiple Socio-Technical Systems in Transitions: The Case of Earth Observation Data

Ethical Requirements for Achieving Fairness in Radiology Machine Learning: An Intersectionality and Social Embeddedness Approach

Radiodiagnostics by machine-learning (ML) systems is often perceived as objective and fair. It may, however, exhibit bias towards certain patient sub-groups. The typical reasons for this are the selection of disease features for ML systems to screen, that ML systems learn from human clinical judgements, which are often biased, and that fairness in ML is often inappropriately conceptualized as “equality”. ML systems with such parameters fail to accurately diagnose and address patients’ actual health needs and how they depend on patients’ social identities (i.e. intersectionality) and broader social conditions (i.e. embeddedness). This paper explores the ethical obligations to ensure fairness of ML systems precisely in light of patients’ intersectionality and the social embeddedness of their health. The paper proposes a set of interventions to tackle these issues. It recommended a paradigm shift in the development of ML systems that enables them to screen both endogenous disease causes and the health effects of patients’ relevant underlying (e.g. socioeconomic) circumstances. The paper proposes a framework of ethical requirements for instituting this shift and further ensuring fairness. The requirements center patients’ intersectionality and the social embeddedness of their health most notably through (i) integrating in ML systems adequate measurable medical indicators of the health impact of patients’ circumstances, (ii) ethically sourced, diverse, representative and correct patient data concerning relevant disease features and medical indicators, and (iii) iterative socially sensitive co-exploration and co-design of datasets and ML systems involving all relevant stakeholders.

A Holistic Way to Understand the Determinants of Physical Activity in Urban New South Wales, Australia: A Codesigned Systems Mapping Project.

To meet the World Health Organization goal of reducing physical inactivity by 15% by 2030, a multisectoral system approach is urgently needed to promote physical activity (PA). We report the process of and findings from a codesigned systems mapping project to present determinants of PA in the context of urban New South Wales, Australia. A participatory conceptual mapping workshop was held in May 2023 with 19 participants working in education, transportation, urban planning, community, health, and sport and recreation. Initial maps were developed and refined using online feedback from the participants. Interviews were conducted with 10 additional policymakers from relevant sectors to further refine the maps. Two systems maps were cocreated, identifying over 100 variables influencing PA and their interconnections. Five settings emerged from the adults' map-social and community, policy, built environment and transportation, health care, and workplace-and 4 for the young people's map-family, school, transportation, and community and environment. The maps share similarities, such as regarding potential drivers within the transportation, community, and built environment sectors; however, the young people's map has a specific focus on the school setting and the adults' map on workplace and health care settings. Interviews with policymakers provided further unique insights into understanding and intervening in the PA system. This codesigned participatory systems mapping process, supplemented by stakeholder interviews, provided a unique opportunity to bring together stakeholders across sectors to understand the complexity within the PA system and begin to identify leverage points for tackling physical inactivity in New South Wales.

Co-design of diversified cropping systems in the Mediterranean area

Agriculture today faces opposing challenges: reducing its environmental impacts while feeding a growing population and adapting to climate change. Diversification of cropping systems has been proposed as a solution to address these issues and promote sustainable and resilient agricultural systems. While alternatives have been proposed by research and development, changing the agricultural systems remains a huge challenge. Engaging local actors when considering those changes is important for their successful implementation. While co-designing with stakeholders is gaining interest in the scientific community, approaches that consider varying local contexts remain uncommon. In this study, our aim was to co-design, during workshops with local stakeholders, diversification options in five case studies located in the Mediterranean countries of Algeria, France, Greece, and Spain. Prior to the co-design process, we conducted a SWOT/PESTLE analysis in each case study to analyze the local context of current and potential agricultural systems. Our hypothesis was that co-designed systems would differ between case studies, according to their environmental, social and political contexts leading to fine-tuned locally ad hoc systems. Options for intercropping and diversifying rotations were considered for both cereal-based systems and vine systems. Additionally, these options included adapted management practices for cereal-based systems and more innovative diversification, such as photovoltaic panels or agroforestry, for vine systems. While some of these options could serve as adaptations to climate change, they may not be sufficient to address future climate conditions. Interestingly, we did not observe significant differences among the system options designed for the various case studies, even though the local contexts were very different. Indeed, options only partially addressed the issues identified by stakeholders: primarily, economic and environmental threats. This study points to the advantage of participatory research in diverse contexts along with cross-case analyses, and to the need to consider the future of these Mediterranean regions, where crop diversification is limited by water deficit. To foster the transition next steps should consider assessing experimentally these systems with farmers to stimulate learning, while considering market possibilities.

An information-decision framework for the multilevel co-design of products, materials, and manufacturing processes

Realizing products that meet targeted performance requires careful consideration of the material processing to identify appropriate material microstructures and associated mechanical properties. The integrated design of such systems involving products, materials, and manufacturing processes necessitates facilitating co-design - a collective and coordinated effort by the product, materials, and process designers at multilevel to share their resources, information, and knowledge for making effective design decisions using the Processing-microStructure-Property-Performance (PSPP) relations. Goal-oriented Inverse Design (GoID) is one approach to co-designing these systems. In GoID, multilevel decisions are targeted at meeting the goals propagated inversely from the top level in the design hierarchy. Nevertheless, achieving the inversely propagated goals from one level may not be feasible at another level owing to the goal targets, established constraints, and available bounds. This results in design conflicts between multilevel decisions, leading to a loss in multilevel and system performance.In this paper, we propose an information‐decision framework to model goal-directed, multilevel decision-making and interactions for products, materials, and manufacturing processes, detect potential conflicts between the multilevel decisions, and regulate the decisions to achieve improved multilevel and system performance. Decision regulation is achieved by studying the sensitivity of the goals to dominant design variables and constraints and making appropriate design modifications. We use a hot rod rolling problem to showcase the efficacy of the proposed framework in systematically detecting and managing conflicts while co-designing the product, material, and manufacturing processes involved. The framework is generic and facilitates the top-down co-design of multilevel systems involving products, materials, and manufacturing processes.

Experimental investigation of advanced turbine control strategies and load-mitigation measures with a model-scale floating offshore wind turbine system

To advance the control co-design of offshore wind energy systems, the authors perform basin-scale experiments with a fully instrumented and actuated floating offshore wind turbine model. The model consists of a 1:70 scale performance-matched model of the International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Programme 15-MW reference turbine atop the VolturnUS-S semisubmersible platform. The Reference OpenSource Controller provides real-time blade pitch and generator torque control. We aim to develop an open data set for the validation of numerical models in predicting the influence of turbine control and load-mitigation measures. For this purpose, we measure the effects of advanced turbine control features, including peak shaving and floating feedback as well as hull-based control using tuned mass dampers on the system. Overall, the results demonstrate measurable and consistent influences from the control and load-mitigation measures, thus confirming the usefulness as a validation data set. Peak shaving attenuates the response to wind turbulence at near-rated wind speed. Floating feedback reduces the load and platform pitch motion associated with the negative damping induced by blade pitch control. The tuned mass dampers also attenuate the system response near the targeted frequencies under suitable conditions. We also identify detrimental side effects of each load-mitigation measure.

Control Co-Design of Power Take-Off Systems for Wave Energy Converters Using WecOptTool

Control Co-Design of Power Take-Off Systems for Wave Energy Converters Using WecOptTool

Dual Event-Triggered Controller Co-Design for Networked Control Systems with Network-Induced Delays

To address the presence of network-induced delays in networked control systems (NCSs), a dual event-triggered mechanism (DETM) is used to investigate the problem of reducing network delays and controller co-design. Firstly, the DETM of the sensor–controller (SC) and the controller–actuator (CA) is adopted. By determining whether the sampled data meet the event-triggered threshold conditions for network transmission, we effectively reduce the sampled data transmitted over the network, which can reduce a network delay by reducing occupation of the network resources. Secondly, a dual event-triggered NCS model with a network-induced delay is developed, and a Lyapunov function including a DETM and network-induced delay is chosen. The functional upper limit of the Lyapunov function is estimated by combining the Wirtinger’s-based integral inequality with the reciprocally convex approach. This results in a stability criterion for systems with low conservativeness and a controller co-design method for a DETM. Finally, the availability of this method was verified through a numerical example and case study.

Preliminary Identification of the Dynamics of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Barge

Offshore wind turbines have become an increasingly attractive source of renewable energy because of their potential to access and utilize energy from deeper waters with more stable, stronger winds. The goal of this paper is to propose a mathematical model based on transfer functions to identify and study the behavior of the six degrees of freedom of floating turbines. For this purpose, the system has been simulated with OpenFAST for specific environmental conditions. A subset of data has been used to identify transfer functions to obtain a control-oriented model. The model has been progressively validated, extending the preliminary proposed model. The scope and limitations of this methodology have been assessed, as well as the possibilities of extending the present work to include a more functional methodology oriented to system co-design.

Data processing, analysis, and evaluation methods for co-design of coreless filament-wound building systems

Abstract The linear design workflow for structural systems, involving a multitude of iterative loops and specialists, obstructs disruptive innovations. During design iterations, vast amounts of data in different reference systems, origins, and significance are generated. This data is often not directly comparable or is not collected at all, which implies a great unused potential for advancements in the process. In this paper, a novel workflow to process and analyse the data sets in a unified reference frame is proposed. From this, differently sophisticated iteration loops can be derived. The developed methods are presented within a case study using coreless filament winding as an exemplary fabrication process within an architectural context. This additive manufacturing process, using fiber-reinforced plastics, exhibits great potential for efficient structures when its intrinsic parameter variations can be minimized. The presented method aims to make data sets comparable by identifying the steps each data set needs to undergo (acquisition, pre-processing, mapping, post-processing, analysis, and evaluation). These processes are imperative to provide the means to find domain interrelations, which in the future can provide quantitative results that will help to inform the design process, making it more reliable, and allowing for the reduction of safety factors. The results of the case study demonstrate the data set processes, proving the necessity of these methods for the comprehensive inter-domain data comparison.

Co-Design Dedicated System for Efficient Object Tracking Using Swarm Intelligence-Oriented Search Strategies

The template matching technique is one of the most applied methods to find patterns in images, in which a reduced-size image, called a target, is searched within another image that represents the overall environment. In this work, template matching is used via a co-design system. A hardware coprocessor is designed for the computationally demanding step of template matching, which is the calculation of the normalized cross-correlation coefficient. This computation allows invariance in the global brightness changes in the images, but it is computationally more expensive when using images of larger dimensions, or even sets of images. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of six different swarm intelligence techniques aiming to accelerate the target search process. To evaluate the proposed design, the processing time, the number of iterations, and the success rate were compared. The results show that it is possible to obtain approaches capable of processing video images at 30 frames per second with an acceptable average success rate for detecting the tracked target. The search strategies based on PSO, ABC, FFA, and CS are able to meet the processing time of 30 frame/s, yielding average accuracy rates above 80% for the pipelined co-design implementation. However, FWA, EHO, and BFOA could not achieve the required timing restriction, and they achieved an acceptance rate around 60%. Among all the investigated search strategies, the PSO provides the best performance, yielding an average processing time of 16.22 ms coupled with a 95% success rate.

Developing a System of Health Support for Young People Experiencing First-Episode Psychosis: Protocol for a Co-design Process.

People living with psychosis face a substantially increased risk of poor psychological well-being and physical health and premature mortality. Encouraging positive health behaviors from an early stage is crucial to the health and well-being of this population but is often overshadowed by symptom management within early intervention services. Experience-based co-design is a participant-centered approach that aims to combine service user narratives with service design methods to design systems of support for health and well-being. This study aims to use experience-based co-design principles to co-design a system that supports the health and well-being of young people experiencing first-episode psychosis (FEP), which considers the lived experience of these people within the context of early intervention services. We also aim to develop a set of principles to guide future systems to support the health and well-being of young people experiencing FEP. Up to 15 young people living with FEP aged 16 to 24 years who are service users of early intervention services in psychosis, their immediate support networks (family or friends), and health professionals involved with early intervention services in psychosis will be invited to participate in a series of co-design workshops. Data will be collected in various forms, including expressive forms (eg, art and spoken word) and traditional methods (interview transcription and surveys), with phenomenographic and thematic analyses being used to understand these data. Furthermore, the co-design process will draw upon indigenous (Māori) knowledge and the lived experience of mental health services from the perspectives of the members of the research team. The co-design process will be evaluated in terms of acceptability from the perspective of service users via rating scales and interviews. The study will be conducted within the Lower North Island in Aotearoa New Zealand. Data collection will be performed between August 2022 and February 2023. Drawing from extended consultations with service users and service providers, we have developed a robust co-design process with which we intend to collect rich qualitative and quantitative data. The results of this process will be used to create a system of support that can be immediately applied and as preliminary evidence for funding and resource applications to deliver and evaluate a "full" version of the co-designed system of support. The co-designed system of support and accompanying set of principles will offer a potentially impactful health and well-being intervention for young people experiencing FEP in Aotearoa New Zealand. Furthermore, making the co-design process transparent will further the field in terms of providing a blueprint for this form of participant-focused research. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12622001323718; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=384775&isReview=true. DERR1-10.2196/44980.