Research partners seek to deliver reliability, security to flight computer system applications 

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have multiple potential uses. To optimize their operability and efficiency, they need to be protected from hackers and must also expend minimal energy to extend their flight time. A variety of internal components tell the drone where to go, how to orient itself and how to avoid danger. However, some of these factors may be exploited to wrest control of the drone from its rightful operator.

In collaboration with the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) and international partners from universities across Italy, Canada and the US, researchers at Khalifa University, led by Dr. Baker Mohammad, Professor and Director of the KU System-on-Chip Lab (SoCL), are creating a secure flight computer system to prevent external parties from attacking and taking control of drones.

The KU team, comprising Dr. Mohammad, Dr. Hani Saleh, Associate Professor, Dr. Mahmoud Al Qutayri, Professor, and Dr. Dima Kilani, are developing a system-on-chip hardware for drone flight computer applications to optimize security, resilience, power efficiency and real-time performance. In addition, their design will showcase innovative in-processor and platform design to ensure the power- and area-efficiency of the solution for use on standard and micro drones.

The team is basing its hardware on established reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. This means their system will use a small, highly optimized set of instructions rather than the more specialized set often found in other types of computer architecture. Based on open source RISC-V, this architecture allows the research team to achieve at least 10 times greater efficiency and performance when compared to existing commercial systems.

Once the computer architecture is developed, the team plans to scale it down to serve heavily power-constrained applications such as flight computers for nano drones.

A smaller device will further mitigate the cost and integration issues often seen in large power-hungry and expensive systems. Owing to its enhanced computing capabilities, this device will also enable drones to tackle the most demanding advanced flight control tasks and connectivity management functions, such as drone-to-drone and drone-to-cloud communication.

“A key objective of the project is to co-design software and hardware to achieve a strong Trusted Computing Base (TCB) for the flight controller and drone connectivity platform,” Dr. Mohammad said. “The TCB is designed to ensure that the hardware and software components work together to provide security guarantees. Our approach to the design will be based on the Kerckhoffs’ principle, which states that the TCB of a security system should be publicly known and transparent except with regard to the cryptographic keys. Therefore, even if an attacker knows everything about the operation of the TCB, they still cannot break the system unless they are familiar with the keys.”

Once these parameters are assured, the designed computer architecture can deliver security and reliability in real-time while addressing the power efficiency requirements.  

The project also has the ambitious goal of exploring the combination of security and safety features to ensure a truly reliable and flexible flight control platform for unmanned aerial vehicles well capable of withstanding intentional attacks as well as unintentional faults emerging from a harsh operating environment. This is one of many projects currently underway as part of the multi-year collaboration between KU and TII and is set to pave the way for future synergies.

Speaking on the collaboration, Dr. Shreekant Thakkar, Chief Researcher at TII’s SSRC, said, “SSRC is focused on developing and applying innovative security technologies to protect potentially vulnerable systems in our increasingly connected world, where cyber threat levels continue to surge every day. Through our collaboration with our international partners, we target one order of magnitude improvements in performance and efficiency with respect to current flight computer systems. In the context of commercial solutions, we hope to deliver the reliability and security requirements flight computer system applications urgently need today.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
9 August 2021

The post Technology Innovation Institute and Khalifa University Join Forces to Design, Develop Secure Flight Computer System appeared first on Khalifa University.

Focus on Research into Artificial Intelligence to Develop Futuristic Devices that Bring Long-Term Benefits to UAE

Cutting-edge research advances in robotics and drones-related technologies are being showcased by Khalifa University at the 14th edition of the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX 2019) and the fifth edition of Naval Defense Exhibition (NAVDEX 2019) in Abu Dhabi.

Organized by (ADNEC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and UAE Armed Forces, the twin events themed ‘Defense for Security and Safety’ run from 17-21 February 2019 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

One of the projects on display at Khalifa University stand (C6-011) includes the ‘Firefighting Drone for High-Rise Buildings’ prototype – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the capability to fight fires at high altitudes such as Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 829 meters. Current fire-fighting capability devices can reach only up to 300 meters.

Other projects include a dedicated SOC chip that can be used in a multiplicity of vision-based systems for advanced surveillance and security applications; small UAVs to provide great opportunities for diverse military, civil, and commercial applications; the MYSat-1 CubeSat developed by students of Space Systems and Technologies Concentration that was launched into orbit on 13 February by the Cygnus vehicle; and a comprehensive tool for real-time monitoring and forecasting of marine water quality in the Arabian Gulf to predict ocean currents around offshore drilling platforms, monitor pollution such as oil spills and harmful algal bloom (HAB) events, as well as provide information to help optimize the route of tankers in the Gulf.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “Our participation in IDEX 2019 and NAVDEX 2019 illustrates the extent of our advanced research for technologies that can be utilized by the civil defense, security and military sectors of the country. Our research centers focusing on aerospace, robotics, artificial intelligence, smart systems, data science; and advanced materials, strive to obtain cutting-edge solutions that can be adopted by the industry.”

“We believe participation in the twin events will strengthen our status among the government and industry stakeholders, offering an opportunity for those keen to collaborate with a world-class institution renowned for research innovation in strategic sectors,” Dr Al Hammadi added.

Khalifa University’s research centers cover several defense and high technology areas. The Aerospace Research and Innovation Center (ARIC) houses a wide range of facilities, including advanced manufacturing equipment for the cost-effective production of aerospace components, testing and characterization facilities for evaluating the properties of materials under extreme loading conditions, and advanced modeling capabilities for predicting the behavior of larger structures. The KU Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS) focuses on robotics for extreme environments; industrial applications; and infrastructure inspection.

Additionally, the System-on-Chip Center (SoCC) focuses on high performance, energy efficient, small form factor, and low cost electronic systems; while the Center for Cyber-Physical Systems (C2PS) focuses on cybersecurity, big data analytics and artificial intelligence, networks and communication technology, and computation architectures.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
19 February 2019

The post Khalifa University to Showcase Cutting-Edge Research Advances in Drones and Robotics Technologies at IDEX 2019 appeared first on Khalifa University.

Mechanical Strength Improved by 1600% while Weight Reduced by 50%

A collaborative team of researchers from Khalifa University, Kingston University, and the University of Liverpool have leveraged the unique capabilities of additive manufacturing – or 3-dimensional (3D) printing – to design ultra-strong, lightweight and functional components that will make the structures of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) significantly lighter and stronger, allowing for advanced applications. The results of their research were also published on 3Dprint.com, an authority on the 3D printing industry.

KU’s research team, led by Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering Dr. Yahya Hashem Abdallah Zweiri, was able to increase the mechanical strength of 3D printed plastic parts by 1600% through a sandwich-structured composite solution and reduce the weight of 3D printed drone structures by 50% through topology infill optimization methods, which optimize the material layout within its design space and its interior structure. Results will support the advancement of the UAE’s national innovation goals, specifically in the targeted area of autonomous transportation, which is identified by the UAE Economic Vision 2030 as a key area of focus.

“3D printing has been limited by factors like production costs and low material strength, underscoring the need for disruptive developments in advanced manufacturing. With so many of KU and the UAE’s goals dependent on climate and energy research, and so much of that research dependent upon drones, it was prudent that we focus our 3D printing research on more practical applications like drone tech,” said Dr. Zweiri. “Our contributions to 3D printing materials and production methods have enabled the production of lightweight, low-density drones that are able to carry bigger payloads, such as larger batteries or additional electronic components and hardware.”

Traditional manufacturing methods produced drones that, despite being dense and heavy, had relatively low tensile strength, making them brittle. This limited the potential application of drones for industrial and research purposes in military, agricultural, search and rescue, telecommunications, transportation, topography, mapping, and surveillance, where robust UAVs play unique roles with varied hardware and electronics.

Typically the methods to improve the structural integrity of 3D printed plastics such as resin filling, ultrasonic strengthening, and infrared laser heating, have only been able to improve the strength of printed parts by 45%, 22%, and 50%, respectively. However, these improvements are incremental advancements compared to the results achieved by KU researchers through use of the sandwich-structured composite solution and topology infill optimization methods.

A sandwich-structured composite is a special class of composite materials that are fabricated by sandwiching a lightweight but thick core between two thin but stiff skins. Topology optimization works by finding the best distribution of material given an optimization goal and constraints, while infill optimization works in a similar way, filling in the interior structure of the design in the most ideal way given the goals and limitations of the structure and materials used.

“Our focus has been to retain the advantages of 3D printing, which enables rapid manufacturing of complex geometries, and applying simple post-processing steps to make 3D-printed drones far more resilient, lighter, and therefore more useful for local industry and research purposes. To reduce the weight, we developed a unique topology and infill optimization method that employs unique geometries to create lighter, porous structures,” said Dr. Zweiri.

Less dense core material will inevitably lead to weaker components and structures, which by itself doesn’t improve the efficacy of drone technology. However, when combined with CFRP laminates, the structure is not only lighter but significantly stronger.

By reducing the weight and simultaneously increasing the strength of 3D printed components, KU’s research collaboration has enabled drones to increase flight-time through use of larger batteries, collect more data through more complex sensors, and perform more specialized tasks with heavier hardware.

Drone technology has improved drastically over the past decade with numerous improvements in electronics, computer processing, production methods, and core materials. Based on a Wohlers Associates report, the estimated global market for 3D printing was more than USD5.1 billion in 2015, with a corporate annual growth rate of more than 25.9%. As technological advancements in 3D printing drives cost down and improve efficiencies, the market is expected to grow to USD21 billion by 2020.

Beyond use in UAVs, the contributions of Dr. Zweiri’s team and collaborating researchers have many practical applications in other fields of research and industries. The lightweight and strong structures they developed through synergy between CFRP and 3D printed material, are noncorrosive and thus have wide ranging utility in space, robotics, and biomedical research. His research is expected to further the advancement of 3D printing, autonomous transportation, and synthetic materials manufacturing while contributing to the UAE’s innovative knowledge economy.

the full article.

Zaman Khan
News and Features Writer
Date: 26/02/209

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