4. Self-Configurable Architecture for Reusable Space Systems (SCARS)

Funded by: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Strategic University Partnership Program (JPL-SURP'07)
JPL Investigator: Adrian Stoica

Students: Adarsha Sreeramareddy, Jeff Josiah, Andrew Lotti, Jeremy Wright, Kevin Carr

Project specifically focuses on developing an architecture in which individual, modular components/subsystems: 1) coordinate their actions for broader range of objectives hence go beyond mission-specific requirements; 2) adapt to changes in mission objectives over time and optimize computing and communication capability; 3) respond to hardware/software anomalies automatically with self-healing action at both node and network levels. We propose a two-level self-healing methodology for increasing the probability of success in critical missions. Our proposed system first undertakes healing at node-level. For that purpose we have developed built-in self-testing and fault detection, isolation and recovery capabilities to offer 100% node availability. Failing to rectify system at node-level, network-level healing is undertaken. Network automatically assigns the task of faulty node to another node in the field. That field node then reconfigures itself to carry out the new task while running its original task. The prototype reconfigurable architecture demonstrates network's capability for self-configuration and each node's capability for self-testing, fault-recovery/repair and computation optimization in the context of image processing.

Publications

• A. Sreeramareddy, J.G. Josiah, A. Akoglu, and A. Stoica, " SCARS: Scalable Self-Configurable Architecture for Reusable Space Systems", IEEE NASA/ESA Conference on Adaptive Hardware and Systems (AHS 2008), pp. 204-210, Noordwijk, Netherlands, June 22-25, 2008
• S. Venishetti, A. Akoglu, R. Kalra, "Hierarchical Built-in Self-testing and FPGA Based Healing Methodology for System-on-a-Chip", IEEE NASA/ESA Conference on Adaptive Hardware and Systems (AHS), pp. 717-724, Edinburgh, UK, Feb 26, 2007