In the first day keynote addresses, U.S. Congresswoman Haley Stevens and NIST’s Deputy Associate Director of Laboratory Programs Hannah Brown provided welcoming remarks, and NIST’s Jayne Morrow presented the National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology, which informs the pursuit of AV standards. The overall keynote speaker, Acting Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ann Carlson, addressed the Administration’s AV safety initiatives, and mentioned NIST’s Automated Driving Systems Performance Measurements and Metrics. Other speakers addressed issues related to AV development.
NIST AV project leads provided updates on the following work, which was motivated by stakeholder inputs from the 2022 AV workshop. Each NIST update presentation was paired with an industry keynote address, and followed by a breakout session to obtain stakeholder input, as described in the workshop agenda. More information on NIST’s AV research program is online.
Systems Interactions: The performance of an automated vehicle depends on the interactions that occur between systems and components, such as sensors and communications. NIST is developing a framework for evaluating specific interactions, and has developed initial simulations for a systems interaction testbed.
AV Perception: NIST has developed a testbed for evaluating AV perception and sensing, and is now developing evaluation methods using International Systems of Units (SI) traceable artifacts. The focus has been on testing lidars in controlled indoor environments and will progress to more dynamic environments.
AV Communications: NIST is evaluating AV communications requirements, developing network modeling capabilities, and integrating the models into an AV co-simulation and the systems interaction testbed.
Minimizing Artificial Intelligence Risks: NIST is developing capability for estimating the uncertainties in machine learning models, including producing a taxonomy of attacks, and mitigation and defining terminology in the field of adversarial machine learning.
Cybersecurity: NIST has established an Automotive Cybersecurity Community of Interest to inform industry stakeholders on NIST cybersecurity work relevant to AVs, and NIST is developing the Dioptra software platform to help characterize and evaluate machine learning systems under a diverse set of conditions.
Digital Infrastructure: NIST partnered with several state Departments of Transportation, SAE International standards organization, and others in a special workshop session to explore requirements for future traffic infrastructure needed to communicate information and enable AV safety. It was proposed that a national organization develop a use-case template to help communities identify and develop such infrastructure.
NIST is planning to publish a report on the workshop.
In September, NIST and IEEE conducted a hybrid workshop on 6G Core Networks, drawing speakers and participants from the U.S. and multiple countries. The workshop’s purpose was to examine the transition from 5G to 6G.
Nokia’s Volker Ziegler was the keynote speaker. The workshop surveyed the 6G landscape, with speakers noting that it is still in the research and development stage. However, the European Commission’s Pearse O’Donohue pointed out the need for a common view of what 6G will be, based on existing technology building blocks, and ultimately a global standard; these are sought to guide R&D, prevent fragmented approaches in networking, and improve the 5G-to-6G transition, relative to the recent 4G-to-5G transition.
Mike Nawrocki, of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), underscored this need and described a general approach to achieving it. Countries and regional groups should identify societal goals for 6G; these would be the basis for modifying and achieving broader consensus. These goals would enable the development of a common view of 6G, use cases, requirements, international collaboration in R&D, and a global standard. Nawrocki stated that the Next G Alliance is currently enabling such collaboration between Europe, Japan, Korea, and North America.
Speakers, like InterDigital’s Doug Castor, also noted the likely requirements for 6G: security designed upfront; spectrum efficiency; optimizing computing and communications together; end-to-end quality of service; and quality of experience for users. Additionally, Ericsson’s Mischa Dohler stated there should be placeholders in 6G architecture for Artificial Intelligence, Application Programming Interfaces, and Augmented Reality.
In August 2023, representatives from NIST, U.S. organizations, and Korean organizations, including the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) and the Korean Standards Organization (KSA), met in the South Korea-U.S. Standards Forum to exchange information and explore possible areas of collaboration on automated vehicles (AV). The hybrid meeting was held in person in Seoul, Korea on August 10, 2023 with additional remote participation (August 9, 2023 in the U.S.). At the meeting, NIST’s Jayne Morrow, Senior Advisor for Standards Policy, provided a keynote address on the status of the U.S. National Standards Strategy, and NIST’s David Wollman, Deputy Division Chief of the Smart Connected Systems Division, presented NIST’s research on AVs.
Wollman covered the foundational work for NIST’s involvement with automated vehicles, including research on AV communications, cybersecurity, vehicle teleoperation, and other related areas. NIST’s early work to engage stakeholders included an AV workshop focused on identifying and developing safety measurement methodologies for AVs. This effort led to NIST launching an Automated Driving Systems Technical Working Group which pursues ways to assess AV performance, including through identification of an Operating Envelope Specification to support AV measurements and testing.
Wollman also presented an overview of NIST’s AV program, including the following projects:
Automotive Sensor Perception: Developing measurement capability to characterize automotive sensors.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Developing simulation capability to enable testing of AI algorithms for AVs.
Cybersecurity: Developing an automotive cybersecurity community of interest and capability for measuring adversarial machine learning and defensive mitigations in AVs.
Communication Technologies: Developing co-simulation capability to assess AV communications performance.
Systems Interaction Testbed: Developing an integrated testbed to evaluate systems interactions in automated vehicles.
At this same event, Dr. You-Jun Choi of the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) presented on its connected automated vehicle research and development trends and standards issues.
Choi stated that Korea’s Automated Vehicle Innovation R&D Project seeks to realize fully automated driving in the next 5+ years, and Korea is pursuing projects in the following strategic areas:
New vehicle convergence technology
New convergence of information and communications technology
New road traffic convergence technology
Service creation for AVs
Establishment of an industrial ecosystem
Korea’s Automated Mobility Center oversees these projects and integrates the results. Choi noted that Korea has set milestones for national implementation of AVs, including establishing hybrid communications for AVs and commercializing AVs. Choi reinforced the significance of the U.S. National Standards Strategy for Critical Emerging Technology, which seeks to deepen standards cooperation with allies and partners to support a robust standards governance process. Choi provided an overview of Korea’s extensive research collaborations, including with SAE and NIST’s Smart Connected Systems Division. Additionally, Choi addressed the challenges facing AV development that Korea seeks to overcome, such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications and cybersecurity.
German participants in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program met recently at NIST’s Gaithersburg campus to explore innovation in the U.S. and German transportation and energy/climate sectors. The meeting was hosted by Smart Connected Systems Division’s David Wollman and NIST International and Academic Affairs Office’s Hae-Jeong Lee.
Participants discussed multiple topics, including government and standards, and interactions with industry and government stakeholders. Hae-Jeong Lee gave an overview of NIST. David Wollman presented on NIST activities in smart connected systems, automated vehicles, electric vehicles, and climate resilience.
The International Visitor Leadership Program is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. Program participants in this visit to NIST are influential leaders in business, academia, and public sectors in different regions of Germany; they include Stefan Buechele, Sven Erichson, Daniel Gerber, Florian Knobloch, Manuel Kuehn, Maira Kusch, Christina Ruge, and Christian Wolf.
NIST’s Abdella Battou and Thomas Gerrits presented recommendations to the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) for improving the Washington Metropolitan Quantum Network, or DC-QNet. The U.S. Government created DC-QNet to serve as a testbed for demonstrating secure communications. DC-Net consists of six sites which are operated by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences (LTS), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The recommendations were developed by a team of representatives from the Army Research Laboratory, Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences, Naval Research Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NIST, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Battou and Gerrits’ team addressed the following regarding DC-QNet:
Improving Connectivity: DC-QNet’s six sites are connected by fiber pairs. Battou and Gerrits recommended increasing the number of fiber pairs between sites and upgrading optical switching.
Enabling Time synchronization: Presently, DC-QNet needs a permanent baseline time synchronization capability. Experiments have shown commercial technology to be adequate. Battou and Gerrits recommended use of commercial time synchronization equipment achieving sub-nanosecond precision until a better solution emerges.
Improving management of experiments on DC-QNet: This management is done using “Multiverse” software – a software suite developed by NIST, which enables testing and routing of quantum entanglement in realistic conditions on DC-QNet. Battou and Gerrits recommended improving the functionality and security of Multiverse.
Increasing Wavelength Flexibility: DC-QNet connectivity limitations are seen when running multiple experiments concurrently. Battou and Gerrits recommended upgrading to wavelength switching to allow for simultaneous transmission and routing of quantum bits through to many users using the same long-haul fibers.
Adding Fiber Characterization Capabilities: Fiber-link characterization is paramount for the successful transmission of quantum information in metropolitan-scale fiber networks. Currently, DC-QNet cannot automatically perform several of these needed characterizations. While research is on the way to investigate many different options on fiber characterization, based on quantum signals, Battou and Gerrits recommended using a commercially available solution to fully automate fiber characterization with classical signals.
Purdue University researchers developed and fabricated field deployable smart sensors which measure nitrates for agricultural crop development. The initiative was funded by Wabash Heartland Innovation Network, a participant in NIST’s Global Community Technology Challenge (GCTC), which is a collaboration platform that brings together cities, communities, industry, academic, and government stakeholders, seeking emerging technologies for smart cities and communities.
Using 3D printing, Purdue University researchers fabricated 13,000 of these electromechanical sensors and characterized 1,200 of them in a laboratory environment over several weeks. Typically, such sensors cost about $800 each. This initiative resulted in each sensor costing about $0.07, including materials, processing time, machine depreciation, and energy input.
More than 20 fully packaged devices were deployed in commercial farms with the wireless LoRa network. The sensors provide farmers, via the network, with nitrate measurements every 30 minutes. Based on the measurements, farmers can adjust fertilizer settings and take other actions.
NIST’s Rick Candell and Mohamed Hany met with representatives from the Ohio Laborers' Training Center (OLTC), serving the Ohio Valley Southern States Region (OVSSR), to discuss opportunities for collaborating on the safe and effective use of wireless technology in the construction industry. Projects of interest include construction of buildings, highways, railroads, tunnels, and manufacturing centers, such as the new Intel chip manufacturing factory in Ohio.
Wireless is important to the construction industry, as it is the primary mode of communications for organizing work and personnel, dispatching machinery, environmental monitoring, remote machine control, and safety assurance within a highly complex, rapidly changing construction site. During the day-long meeting, OLTC representatives provided a tour of their training and research facility and then demonstrated how a welding activity could disrupt wireless communications, causing a non-recoverable halt to a demolition robot. Such failures can lead to safety hazards in construction. Other demonstrations and discussions addressed reliable situational awareness, remote control of a large machine utilizing streaming video, remote command and control, and communications in tunnels.
Both entities have the potential to advance industrial wireless. The OLTC is equipped for reproducing operational construction scenarios. NIST can provide controlled reproduction of RF conditions and expertise in industrial wireless communications test and measurement. NIST’s Rick Candell leads the IEEE P3388 test standardization effort for industrial wireless systems. OVSSR is tied into the ASTM F45.04 standardization effort which is evaluating the performance of mobile robotic manipulators and specifying communications degradations. A partnership between the two standards groups would allow the IEEE working group to focus on the communications aspects of such cyber-physical systems, with ASTM focusing on the operational aspects.
To support the development of the industrial wireless testbed and the IEEE standardization effort, NIST’s Industrial Wireless Team added a wireless reverberation chamber to be used in conjunction with scenarios, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and robotic and process control wireless connectivity scenarios where reliability and timeliness of information delivery are critical. The chamber allows testing and characterization of wireless devices in a shielded, repeatable, and accurate stochastic multipath environment. It is designed for over-the-air measurements in the mid-band wireless range of 2.4 to 7.125 GHz where multiple wireless technologies are deployed. These technologies include wireless local area networks (WLANs), 5G, Bluetooth, and the IEEE 802.15.4 industrial wireless protocols family.
In a presentation to the standards development organization Object Management Group (OMG), NIST’s Charlie Manion and Conrad Bock proposed a way to expand the capabilities for modeling physical interaction in complex systems design and testing by extending OMG’s SysML Extension for Physical Interaction and Signal Flow Simulation (SysPhS) standard. SysPhyS augments OMG’s Systems Modeling Language (SysML) for one-dimensional simulation, which is widely used to design and test complex systems.
Bock reviewed NIST’s Systems Analysis Integration (SAI) project which increases the efficiency of engineering processes by integrating a variety of engineering analyses into SysML, as SysPhS does for one-dimensional simulation. Bock also outlined the basics of one-dimensional simulations and SysPhS’ limitations, notably having libraries only for electrical components.
Manion presented his development of new SysPhS component libraries, which aid modeling of mechanical systems and heat flow. These libraries include:
Translational mechanics: Includes translational inertia, springs, and dampers
Rotational mechanics: Defines the rotational analogs of the translational components above
Heat transfer: Includes conduction, convection, and radiation
Manion also showed three examples of manufacturing system models using these libraries, including a weight compensating robot, 3D printer, and polishing machine. Manion demonstrated how these examples can be translated to OpenModelica and Simscape simulators, using a translator developed by NIST’s Raphael Barbau, producing similar results.
Lee noted that sensors in Internet of Things (IoT) applications are ubiquitous – in aircraft, automobiles, and manufacturing. In homes, sensors detect smoke, indoor temperature changes, and outside motions etc. In healthcare, sensors measure body temperature, blood glucose concentrations, and heart rate, etc.
Such IoT application trends drive sensor requirements for IoT applications, stated Lee. Vendors and users need assurances that they will sense what they are supposed to, protect personal data, interoperate with networks, and more. Meeting these requirements also means overcoming diverse challenges related to their use, such as energy efficiency, environmental factors, and ensuring affordability.
Lee provided a checklist for choosing sensors, noting that they should:
Be “smart” sensors, capable of applying edge computing and artificial intelligence
Adhere to standards, such as:
Being globally identifiable
Being secure
Doing time synchronization
Enabling interoperability and “plug-and-play”
Song covered the soon-to be applicable standard for smart sensors and networks, from his perspective as Chair of IEEE P1451.0 Working Group for a Smart Transducer Interface for Sensors, Actuators, Devices, and Systems. The working group is currently balloting on the IEEE P1451.0 standard for smart transducer (sensors and/or actuators) interfaces and network interfaces. The core standard will define common functions, network services, transducer services, and transducer electronic datasheet (TEDS) formats; these will help achieve data interoperability in sensor level and network level for IoT, industrial IoT and cyber-physical system (CPS) applications. Eugene also talked about deployment and the interoperability testing method of IEEE 1451-based sensor networks.
Lee ended by addressing the benefits of IEEE 1451 standards-based sensor networks, which include those mentioned in the checklist, as well as:
On August 22, 2023, the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Showcase Webinar featured an overview of the NIST Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) with NIST’s Melissa Midzor, Jim Booth, David Wollman, and Jordon O’Dell as invited panelists. The webinar is part of a series introducing the NIST Laboratories to FLC stakeholders, including companies interested in federal technology transfer. The webinar was hosted by John Bittman of the NIST Technology Partnerships Office, who also serves as the FLC Finance Officer and Host Agency Representative.
NIST CTL speakers provided information on the Lab’s research focus areas, technology transfer activities, measurement services, industry collaborations, and a selection of research programs across the Communications Technology Laboratory’s Divisions, including spectrum measurements, RF metrology, automated vehicles, and public safety communications mission-critical voice.
