How can we use
autonomy to
enable future
engineering systems?
Effectively integrating with connected autonomous systems
This paper was published in June 2015.
The ideas and recommendations within
it are among dozens of suggestions that
arose from the Stanford Engineering Future
process. Share your thoughts with us at
SoEFutureFeedback@stanford.edu.
How can we use autonomy to enable future engineering systems?
In an era of continued industrialization,
urbanization and globalization, much
higher levels of autonomy in a variety
of engineered systems are emerging.
Robotic manufacturing, healthcare and service industries, transportation, rescue and disaster
situations, exploration of extreme environments (such as underwater and in space), earth and
space science, and even caring for the elderly are some of the many applications being pursued.
But the scientific, technological, legal and ethical knowledge required is not yet available to:
• Infuse higher levels of autonomy into many of these safety­critical applications.
• Combine autonomous robots/vehicles in systems of unprecedented complexity.
• Effectively integrate humans within such systems.
Moreover, the societal implications of much higher levels of systems autonomy in our daily
lives — such as the potential for significant loss in employment — are not well understood.
To address such research challenges, it will become necessary to integrate core engineering
disciplines into unique, multidisciplinary research programs that will transform how
humans and technology interact. The key intellectual innovation required is to expand
the science of autonomy well beyond its traditional engineering disciplines (such as
robotics) and focus on connected autonomous systems integrated within society and the
central role of human-machine interaction (e.g., psychological, legal and ethical points of
view). Such wide-ranging research programs have the potential to make commonplace,
repetitive tasks and decision-making processes simpler, cheaper, safer and more precise.
For example, by 2030 approximately 5 billion people will live in large cities. Privately
owned cars are widely regarded as an unsustainable solution for urban mobility. As a
result, a number of companies (from giants such as Google to small startups) are pursuing
networks of shared and connected autonomous cars as the main mode of urban mobility
for the 21st century — a potential multitrillion-dollar market affecting billions of people.
Similarly staggering potential exists for near­term drone and long-term medical technology.
How will these autonomous systems be created? Can they be effectively coordinated?
How reliable can they be? Are scalable and sustainable solutions feasible? What are the
legal implications of the use and deployment of such systems? Will they be more susceptible
to cyberattacks?
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RESEARCH CHALLENGES
How can we use autonomy to enable future engineering systems?
The challenges in this impact area cut across multiple departments in SoE and
other parts of Stanford University. Full realization of much higher levels of systems
autonomy in society will depend heavily on how well these various areas can be
interconnected. A short list compiled from input we have received includes:
Development of autonomous systems: aerial, ground, water, space, medical, etc.
Control theory and implementation: planning, perception, decisionmaking, real-time diagnostics and prognostics, networked control, intelligent
infrastructure and correct-by-construction coordination schemes.
Safety and dependability: fault-tolerant architectures, immunity to
cyberattacks, validation and verification of software/hardware systems.
Networking/connectivity: low-latency, highly reliable, ultrahigh-throughput
communication, scalable network infrastructures, dynamic reconfigurability.
Human factors: seamless integration/interfacing between humans and machines,
acceptance, transition between semi-autonomous and fully autonomous systems, and privacy.
Ethics, law and economics: certification and standardization,
regulations/liability, business models, etc.
More recently, foundational work is being pursued in:
Decision-making under uncertainty.
Coordination of large-scale networks of autonomous agents.
Precise operation of constellations of miniaturized satellites.
Unmanned aerial vehicles.
Robotic approaches to healthcare.
SoE is positioned to lead this kind of research agenda, given its long history of
developing prototypes of autonomous systems. For example, major pioneering
research at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, founded in 1962, has
resulted in many spinoff companies that commercialized related technologies.
Perhaps most important, Stanford includes schools of humanities and sciences, law,
medicine and business that can help with key elements of the research portfolio.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
How can we use autonomy to enable future engineering systems?
Creating an Autonomy Realization
Laboratory, where people not only
perform research, but also collectively
conceive and prototype first-of-a-kind
autonomous systems.
Setting up reconfigurable spaces for
nontraditional engineering, humanities
and law interactions [see whitepaper on
‘How do we create a synergistic interface
between engineering and humanity?’].
Developing a location/institute that
can house a significant number of PhD
students and post-doctoral scholars together
[see whitepaper on ‘The Accelerator for
Collaborative Research’; autonomy has
been suggested as one of the revolving
themes in the proposal for this institute].
Configuring a design space modeled on
the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at
Stanford, and test spaces for autonomous
vehicles (tracks and airspace), medicine
(procedure rooms) and multiagent systems
(such as satellite constellations, cooperative
manufacturing robots, etc.)
Integrating fabrication labs (appropriately
staffed) in the areas of nanoscale, microscale
and macroscale manufacturing, electronics
and programming [see discussion of
“maker spaces” in the whitepaper on
‘Interactions across the university’].
Supporting cross-cutting research
by graduate students and post-doctoral
scholars.
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