The world is on the verge of the autonomous systems revolution. Automation is the technology enabling the conduction of processes with minimum human assistance and can be used to operate Cyber-physical Systems of Systems (CPSoS) comprising complex, multi-faceted and dynamic virtual and physical resources. However, even when the most advanced degree of autonomy is exercised, the human is a variable which cannot and should not be left out of the CPSoS equation, especially in safety critical scenarios. Humans interact with the autonomous system either as passive end-users or as active co-operators in a mutual empowerment relationship towards a shared goal. Considering autonomous CPSoS from a human-aware perspective brings-in critical requirements in terms of adaptivity, dependability and privacy. Not to mention, a careful consideration of human comfort and distress throughout system operation. Nevertheless, it also enables unparalleled innovation potential throughout the realization of a holistic environment where the human and the cyber-physical entities support, cooperate and empower each other.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key technology to realize autonomous applications, even more so within the interacting context of a CPSoS. The stringent computational and memory requirements of AI will impose a significant rethinking of the underlying computing software and system which will need to provide AI-specialized support in the computing fabric, even at a hardware level. The realization of such an intelligent empowerment of the CPSoS will also require addressing challenges related to AI fundamentals as well as to dependability issues in distributed intelligent and autonomous systems
The H2020 TEACHING project stems from the need of providing an answer to the following compelling research questions:
- How to construct a cooperative human-CPSoS environment placing the needs, the comfort and the well-being of the human at the core of the CPSoS operation?
- How can such a cooperative environment be realized to operate in an autonomous, safe and dependable way, while being capable of self-adapting by exploiting sustainable human feedback?
- How to change the underlying computing system, at an architectural and software level, to support the operation of such an adaptive, dependable and human-centric CPSoS?
Providing an effective answer to these questions is fundamental for a safe diffusion of autonomous AI-enabled applications in the European society. This is of particular relevance for many safety-critical applications, such as in automotive, avionics and general autonomous transportation. In response to this challenge, TEACHING developed a human-aware CPSoS for autonomous safety-critical applications, based on a distributed, energy-efficient and dependable AI, leveraging innovative edge computing platforms integrating specialized computing support for AI and dependability guarantees. TEACHING designed and implemented a computing platform and the associated software toolkit supporting the development and deployment of autonomous, adaptive and dependable AI-driven applications distributed on CPSoS, allowing them to exploit a sustainable human feedback to drive, optimize and personalize the provisioning of their services. The project demonstrated its methodologies and technologies in an automotive and an avionic industrial use case, which are highly relevant for the European societal and industrial ecosystem, and that pose high challenges when it comes to dependable interactions between a system operating an intelligent task and the human.
