From home appliances to aircraft and from medical devices to power distribution networks, embedded software systems monitor and control our physical world in a computational manner. The goal of this NSF CAREER Development project is to develop the theoretical foundations, design tools and education programs to enable the modern system engineers to effectively and efficiently design embedded software based on hybrid systems theory for performance-critical and safety-critical applications. The research has four focus areas of research. (a) Multi-resolution Computation of Interface Evolution. The focus here is to develop computational methods, by combining the Level Set Methods with the Multi-resolution Analysis, for computing the evolution of interfaces of high-dimensional continuous systems with level-of-control in solution resolution. (b) Model-Based Computation Platform. The goal is to develop a computation platform that allows systematic construction of algorithms for the design of hybrid systems and enables automatic synthesis of associated embedded software. (c) Experimental Research. Two experimental testbeds, which are a FPGAbased reconfigurable power electronic circuit and a multi-vehicle multi-model system, provide case studies for the computational methods and software tools developed in this research. (d) Improving Undergraduate and Graduate Education. The research advancements made in this research would be integrated into an Interdisciplinary Curriculum that combines lecture and laboratory instruction in the design of hybrid systems for both undergraduate and graduate education. The broader impact on society made by this CAREER Development Plan is the generation of new paradigms and tools for the design of complex embedded software systems to ensure reliability and performance.
