Thanks to a team of Penn researchers, cars that almost drive themselves and buildings that can moderate their own temperatures may no longer be part of a mere futuristic dream.
Computer scientists at Penn and several other colleges recently received a three-year, $2.84 million grant from the United States Department of Defense to research ways to improve the dependability of minicomputers, or systems embedded in many small electronic apparatuses.
Embedded systems play a major role in the functioning of many household appliances, such as microwaves and toasters. They are also found in a wide variety of electronic devices, ranging from cell phones to dialysis machines.
The problem that the Department of Defense sees is that as technology has advanced, these embedded systems have become more complicated. The increased functions of the minicomputers have made them more prone to breaking down.
Computer and Information Science Professor Insup Lee, who is heading the committee of researchers, said that the aim is to create systems that are both effective and virtually undetectable.
"The goal is to make the embedded system invisible," Lee said. "You shouldn't notice them, nor should you be aware that they are there."
The failure of U.S. anti-missile systems in the Persian Gulf War, AT&T;'s telecommunication network failure and mistakes in radiation chemotherapy are among the errors that have resulted from the failures of embedded systems. Large nuclear reactors also depend heavily on these microsystems.
The microcomputers have also proved invaluable in the field of medicine. Embedded systems can be found in heart-lung machines, defibrilators and mammography machines.
The wide variety and importance of the functions for which embedded systems are responsible make it extremely important for these microcomputers to work consistently.
"The future of the world is in embedded systems, which makes it important that they be reliable," said Sampath Kannan, a computer and information science professor and one of Lee's colleagues on the project. "As their capabilities have increased, their reliability is becoming much more critical."
The research conducted by Lee and his colleagues has drawn the interest of many companies -- including Lockheed Martin, Allied Signal and Boeing -- who are willing to pay large sums for this type of technology.
However, the researchers' responsibilities do not end with the development of these embedded systems. They oversee the application of this technology, as well.
"It is not only important that these minicomputers perform well on their own." Lee said. "We must confirm that they correctly influence and actually help the processes of many medical devices."
