# Robobees 2.0/Drones ## expand\_more ![robobees_2.0_drones.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/vlsiarch/files/robobees_2.0_drones.jpg?itok=zZj95Ta4) Aerial robots or drones have a variety of applications, such as package delivery, search and rescue, surveillance, sports photography, and more. The aerial robot system operates in a closed-loop process from collecting sensor data, computing the scene mapping, and navigating the best trajectory path. Traditionally, off-the-shelf platforms (Intel NUC, Nvidia TX2, etc.) are used for onboard computing. In this project, we explore the optimal performance exploration for aerial robot platforms from top level system modeling, architecture exploration down to the energy efficient and reliable hardware design. From the system perspective, the overall performance of the aerial robot/drone system is affected by the computing system's size, weight, and power. Therefore, there is a need for a systematic model to help architects understand the design tradeoffs. We develop a systematic roofline performance model to analyze the tradeoffs for a balanced computing system considering both its cyber and physical components. Besides, given the wide cyber-physical design space, we explore a push-button framework from a high-level specification to automatically co-design the control algorithms and hardware accelerators using Bayesian optimization. The aerial drones also have to operate robustly in the highly dynamic environments. However, there is an insufficient understanding about how the external environment change or internal hardware faults impact the reliability of the systems. We develop an end-to-end fault injection and detection framework at system level for different applications. Through extensive reliability analysis, we explore fault resilient and energy efficient hardware design to improve the system performance and robustness. ## Select Publications Download 6 citations download- [BibTeX](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=bibtex) - [EndNote X3 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=endnote8) - [EndNote 7 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=endnote7) - [Endnote tagged](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=tagged) - [Marc](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=marc) - [PubMedId](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=pubmed_id) - [RIS](/bibcite/export?pager_style=no_pager&number_of_items=6&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_peoplepublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_project123456%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=172622&&&format=ris) ### 2021 Sabrina M. Neuman, Brian Plancher, Thomas Bourgeat, Thierry Tambe, Srinivas Devadas, and Vijay Janapa Reddi. 2021. “[Robomorphic Computing: A Design Methodology for Domain-Specific Accelerators Parameterized by Robot Morphology](/publications/robomorphic-computing-design-methodology-domain-specific-accelerators)”. Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS’21), Pp. 674–686 Sabrina M. Neuman, Brian Plancher, Thomas Bourgeat, Thierry Tambe, Srinivas Devadas, and Vijay Janapa Reddi. 2021. “[Robomorphic Computing: A Design Methodology for Domain-Specific Accelerators Parameterized by Robot Morphology](/publications/robomorphic-computing-design-methodology-domain-specific-accelerators)”. Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS’21), Pp. 674–686 - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1145/3445814.3446746) - [ picture\_as\_pdfRobomorphic Computing: A ...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/3445814.3446746.pdf) Robotics applications have hard time constraints and heavy computational burdens that can greatly benefit from domain-specific hardware accelerators. For the latency-critical problem of robot motion planning and control, there exists a performance gap of... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1145/3445814.3446746) - [ picture\_as\_pdfRobomorphic Computing: A ...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/3445814.3446746.pdf) ### 2019 Brian Plancher, Camelia Brumar, Iulian Brumar, Lillian Pentecost, Saketh Rama, and David Brooks. 2019. “[Application of Approximate Matrix Multiplication to Neural Networks and Distributed SLAM](/publications/application-approximate-matrix-multiplication-neural-networks-and-distributed)”. In IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC). Waltham, MA, USA Brian Plancher, Camelia Brumar, Iulian Brumar, Lillian Pentecost, Saketh Rama, and David Brooks. 2019. “[Application of Approximate Matrix Multiplication to Neural Networks and Distributed SLAM](/publications/application-approximate-matrix-multiplication-neural-networks-and-distributed)”. In IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC). Waltham, MA, USA - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/HPEC.2019.8916468) - [ picture\_as\_pdfApplication of Approximat...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/03-hpec2019_132_applicationofapproximatematrixmultiplication.pdf) Computational efficiency is a critical constraint for a variety of cutting-edge real-time applications. In this work, we identify an opportunity to speed up the end-to-end runtime of two such compute bound applications by incorporating approximate linear... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/HPEC.2019.8916468) - [ picture\_as\_pdfApplication of Approximat...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/03-hpec2019_132_applicationofapproximatematrixmultiplication.pdf) Yu Wang, Victor Lee, Gu Wei, and David Brooks. 2019. “[Predicting New Workload or CPU Performance by Analyzing Public Datasets](/publications/predicting-new-workload-or-cpu-performance-analyzing-public-datasets)”. ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO), 15, 4, Pp. 53:1–53:21 Yu Wang, Victor Lee, Gu Wei, and David Brooks. 2019. “[Predicting New Workload or CPU Performance by Analyzing Public Datasets](/publications/predicting-new-workload-or-cpu-performance-analyzing-public-datasets)”. ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO), 15, 4, Pp. 53:1–53:21 - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://yuemmawang.github.io/publications/wang-taco2019.pdf) - [ picture\_as\_pdfPredicting New Workload o...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/3284127.pdf) The marketplace for general-purpose microprocessors offers hundreds of functionally similar models, differing by traits like frequency, core count, cache size, memory bandwidth, and power consumption. Their performance depends not only on... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://yuemmawang.github.io/publications/wang-taco2019.pdf) - [ picture\_as\_pdfPredicting New Workload o...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/3284127.pdf) ### 2017 Xuan Zhang, Mario Lok, Tao Tong, Sae Lee, Brandon Reagen, Pierre. Duhamel, Robert Wood, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2017. “[A Fully Integrated Battery-Powered System-on-Chip in 40-Nm CMOS for Closed-Loop Control of Insect-Scale Pico-Aerial Vehicle](/publications/fully-integrated-battery-powered-system-chip-40-nm-cmos-closed-loop-control)”. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 52, 9, Pp. 2374-87 Xuan Zhang, Mario Lok, Tao Tong, Sae Lee, Brandon Reagen, Pierre. Duhamel, Robert Wood, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2017. “[A Fully Integrated Battery-Powered System-on-Chip in 40-Nm CMOS for Closed-Loop Control of Insect-Scale Pico-Aerial Vehicle](/publications/fully-integrated-battery-powered-system-chip-40-nm-cmos-closed-loop-control)”. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 52, 9, Pp. 2374-87 - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2017.2705170) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Fully Integrated Batter...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_fully_integrated_battery-powered_system-on-chip_in_40-nm_cmos_for_closed-loop_control_of_insect-scale_pico-aerial_vehicle.pdf) We demonstrate a fully integrated system-on-chip (SoC) optimized for insect-scale flapping-wing pico-aerial vehicles. The SoC is able to meet the stringent weight, power, and real-time performance demands of autonomous flight for a bee-sized robot. The... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2017.2705170) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Fully Integrated Batter...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_fully_integrated_battery-powered_system-on-chip_in_40-nm_cmos_for_closed-loop_control_of_insect-scale_pico-aerial_vehicle.pdf) ### 2015 Mario Lok, Xuan Zhang, Elizabeth Helblinh, Robert Wood, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2015. “[A Power Electronics Unit to Drive Piezoelectric Actuators for Flying Microrobots](/publications/power-electronics-unit-drive-piezoelectric-actuators-flying-microrobots)”. In IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) Mario Lok, Xuan Zhang, Elizabeth Helblinh, Robert Wood, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2015. “[A Power Electronics Unit to Drive Piezoelectric Actuators for Flying Microrobots](/publications/power-electronics-unit-drive-piezoelectric-actuators-flying-microrobots)”. In IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://micro.seas.harvard.edu/papers/Lok_CICC_2015.pdf) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Power Electronics Unit ...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_power_electronics_unit_to_drive_piezoelectric_actuators_for_flying_microrobots.pdf) This paper describes a power electronics unit (PEU) for an insect-scale flapping-wing robot. Three power saving techniques used in the actuator driver of the PEU — envelope tracking, dynamic common mode, and charge sharing — reduce power consumption while... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://micro.seas.harvard.edu/papers/Lok_CICC_2015.pdf) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Power Electronics Unit ...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_power_electronics_unit_to_drive_piezoelectric_actuators_for_flying_microrobots.pdf) Xuan Zhang, Mario Lok, Tao Tong, Simon Chaput, Sae Lee, Brandon Reagen, Hyunkwang Lee, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2015. “[A Multi-Chip System Optimized for Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots](/publications/multi-chip-system-optimized-insect-scale-flapping-wing-robots)”. In IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits (VLSIC) Xuan Zhang, Mario Lok, Tao Tong, Simon Chaput, Sae Lee, Brandon Reagen, Hyunkwang Lee, David Brooks, and Gu Wei. 2015. “[A Multi-Chip System Optimized for Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots](/publications/multi-chip-system-optimized-insect-scale-flapping-wing-robots)”. In IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits (VLSIC) - add\_circle\_outline do\_not\_disturb\_on Abstract - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/VLSIC.2015.7231246) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Multi-Chip System Optim...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_multi-chip_system_optimized_for_insect-scale_flapping-wing_robots.pdf) We demonstrate a battery-powered multi-chip system optimized for insect-scale flapping wing robots that meets the tight weight limit and real-time performance demands of autonomous flight. Measured results show open-loop wing flapping driven by a power... - [ descriptionPublisher's Version](https://doi.org/10.1109/VLSIC.2015.7231246) - [ picture\_as\_pdfA Multi-Chip System Optim...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11281/files/vlsiarch/files/a_multi-chip_system_optimized_for_insect-scale_flapping-wing_robots.pdf) [ See all project publications arrow\_circle\_right ](https://prod-vlsiarch.drupalsites.harvard.edu/publications?f%5B0%5D=bibcite_reference_hwp_c_project123456%3A172622)