On September 12, 2023, NIST held the first of several listening sessions designed to chart a path towards standardizing critical and emerging technologies, in partnership with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at its Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office in Detroit. This NIST-USPTO Business Technical Roundtable is part of stakeholder outreach by NIST and other federal agencies to support development of an implementation strategy for the U.S. National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (USSCET). This event focused on automated and connected transportation and infrastructure, including stakeholder input on broad standardization priorities and perspectives on investment, participation, workforce, and integrity and inclusivity needs. Dr. Laurie Locascio, NIST Director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and other key officials welcomed attendees and provided opening remarks, followed by an executive roundtable on challenges for infrastructure and transportation standards, moderated by ANSI’s Mary Saunders, and an executive roundtable on technical challenges for electrified, automated, and connected transportation, moderated by NIST’s Ed Griffor, of the Smart Connected Systems Division.
The critical and emerging technologies targeted by USSCET have the potential to benefit and protect us in our daily lives, and they are built on a consensus standards-based foundation for trusted adoption. A common path to develop standards begins by identifying ways to specify and measure the performance of a technology, using our experience to help determine what performance levels are desirable and consistent with our ethical and societal values. Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) such as artificial intelligence, advanced communication technologies, multi-sector automation, and smart cities are anticipated to be critical to our security and prosperity, but they are currently being developed, and so there has not been as much time as desired to assess their capabilities and gain experience using them.
These emerging standards and technical challenges in automated and connected transportation were addressed in the second executive roundtable, which was organized and moderated by Ed Griffor. Topics discussed in this session included:
Research to market integration challenges and the role of standards
Methods to ensure future success and interoperability of cross-cutting technologies.
Economics, logistics, and barriers to electric vehicle adoption and the role of standards in overcoming key challenges
Key issues surrounding automation, including systems interactions, public perception, cybersecurity, communications, and artificial intelligence, as well as methods to accelerate standards development in these key areas
Gaps in standards participation for emerging technologies, including electric vehicle standards and open source standards
The impact standards have on automated and connected integration
A transcript of this event is planned to be posted on its website.
In September 2023, NIST’s Rosemary Astheimer presented on efforts capture and leverage product manufacturing information at the 2023 Global Product Data Interoperability Summit (GPDIS) held in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference brings industry professionals together to foster the exchange of ideas, solutions, and methods around emerging technologies. This year’s theme “The Model-Based Supply Chain: What is Reality?” encompassed multiple tracks including Model-Based Advancements in Engineering and Manufacturing, Digital Twin/Thread, Emergent Technology, and Interoperable Standards.
In addition, the MBx Interoperability Forum, a joint testing effort between AFNeT Services, PDES, Inc., and prostep ivip, co-located their bi-annual in-person meetings with GPDIS to broaden awareness of their efforts to accelerate ISO 10303 STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) deployment. With support from NIST, the forum organizes test activities between users and implementors to accelerate translator development in the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) areas.
Astheimer reported on the ISO 10303 standard and ongoing efforts by ISO’s Technical Committee 184/SC4 to standardize industrial data exchange. New capabilities are added to the standard regularly to support the demands of an increasingly digital industry. A current focus of the committee is to completely specify both the information needed to manufacture a product and the information needed to measure that a product is fit for purpose in a machine-readable form. Using this data to drive automated manufacturing devices, such as Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machines, and Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) for automated inspection eliminates human error associated with re-entering information, improves efficiency, and reduces cost.
The standard has been widely implemented and is well-suited for archiving purposes, but new requirements are continuously identified during industry implementation. Astheimer ended by speaking to the complexity of organizing and managing the information, which makes continued testing imperative to success.
In October 2023, NIST researchers Allison Barnard Feeney, Rosemary Astheimer, and Sylvere Krima participated in a bi-annual meeting of ISO Technical Committee 184 Automation Systems and Integration, Sub Committee 4 Industrial Data (ISO/TC 184/SC 4) in Saratoga Springs, New York. The event was attended by representatives from around the globe who work together to advance standards that support industrial requirements for data in an increasingly digital world.
The subcommittee develops standards for the content, meaning, structure, representation, and quality management of the information required to define an engineered product. NIST’s research focus is on facilitating seamless digital transfer of product information across disparate systems in the production enterprise. This data exchange is enabled by a family of standards called STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product model data). In SC 4, Working Group 12 is responsible for developing and managing the information models that are the basis for STEP. NIST collaborator Keith Hunten (PDES, Inc.) is the convener of WG 12.
Early in the week, NIST’s Krima demonstrated NIST’s new Visual Studio Code extension that brings advanced software development abilities to STEP information modelers. The software, easyEXPRESS, significantly reduces the cognitive load on developers, and reduces time needed to author, edit, and validate information models. A coalition of international experts are currently focused on adding new capabilities to the 4th edition of a widely used STEP standard, ISO 10303-242 Managed model-based 3D engineering. They eagerly tested the NIST tool using the STEP Modules and Resources Library and provided feedback throughout the week and at a second, hands-on session at the end of the meeting.
NIST collaborators presented several research contributions targeting ISO 10303-242 edition 4. Keith Hunten presented models for composites material that include new entities identified through a harmonization activity with ASME Y14.37. Tom Thurman (TRThurman Consulting) proposed a new model leveraging universally unique identifiers to provide persistent identification of features for traceability as a product moves through the lifecycle. Ben Urick (nVariate) presented a solution for hybrid boundary-representation modeling, a new feature in some commercial CAD software that formally integrates different geometric models, in particular, boundary-representation solid models and tessellated geometric models (a tessellation is a covering of a surface using one or more geometric shapes with no overlaps and no gaps).
The week concluded with plenary presentations from the working groups, national bodies, and liaison organizations. NIST’s Astheimer presented on behalf of the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC), of which she is a board member. She spoke of the need to collaborate and harmonize their ISO 23952 Quality information framework (QIF) standard with STEP. NIST’s Barnard Feeney presented on behalf of the Object Management Group, of which NIST is a member. She introduced a detailed presentation comparing the initial Systems Modeling Language (SysML) with the newly adopted SysML 2.0, in finalization.
Finally, Barnard Feeney represented the United States in voting on formal resolutions of actions to be taken to move work products forward. Barnard Feeney had convened a U.S. Delegation meeting the previous evening to present the draft resolutions and develop and approve the U.S. positions.
NIST’s Raphael Barbau and Conrad Bock were invited to present NIST-developed software that helps find inconsistencies in system behavior designs, at the University of Maryland’s Frontiers in Design Representation Summer School. The week-long event focused on emerging mathematical, statistical, and computing foundations to aid engineering design.
The NIST software Automated translator from OBM to SMT is intended for use with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML), a widely used standard for specifying requirements, design and testing of complex systems. The software leverages a technique Bock developed in previous work on SysML, Ontological Behavior Modeling (OBM), which gave a mathematical foundation on which to express system behavior. Barbau’s software converts system behaviors on this foundation into a widely used file format for stating logical problems in Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT), a more general form of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT).
Once engineers have applied NIST’s SysML-based approach to design a complex system, they can use the NIST software to automatically detect inconsistencies in how system behavior is specified. The software converts the SysML models into a logical problem, and then uses an open-source logical solver to find inconsistencies using automated reasoning, so that engineers can rectify the system’s design.
On October 2, 2023, NIST Research Leader Ed Griffor presented at the inaugural EU ROADVIEW Webinar “An Introduction to the Automated Vehicle Industry.” This webinar was the first of a series on Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM). The webinar is designed to bring together global experts in the field of automated mobility and its objective is to introduce the benefits of Automated Vehicles, current and short-term use cases, the challenges currently encountered, and proposed solutions. The webinar is part of the ROADVIEW project, an EU-funded Horizon Europe Innovation Action project “Robust Automated Driving in Extreme Weather” with the goal to develop robust and cost-efficient in-vehicle perception and decision-making systems for connected and automated vehicles with enhanced performance under harsh weather conditions and different traffic scenarios.
NIST’s Ed Griffor, Smart Connected Systems Division, gave his invited presentation to the first EU ROADVIEW Webinar and summarized the activities and progress of the NIST’s Automated Vehicle (AV) Program. Griffor’s presentation covered NIST’s AV research thrusts, including Perception, AI, Digital Infrastructure, Communications and Cybersecurity, and Systems Interaction Testbed with co-simulation and physical vehicle experimentation. Griffor highlighted the importance of system interactions for understanding and assuring AV performance, and he explained the role of the Systems Interaction Testbed as a central common focal point of NIST’s AV program.
The AV Project components that were reviewed included:
Assessing Automotive Sensor Performance
Minimizing Risk in AI
Monitoring Cybersecurity
Evaluating Communication Technologies
Assessing Complete Vehicle Behavior Based on System Interactions
Griffor noted recent NIST contributions, including a conceptual framework for measuring AV performance, the Operating Envelope Specification (OES), and co-simulation of AVs and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. Finally, Griffor shared with this EU audience NIST work-in-progress related to digital infrastructure for advanced transportation, being developed in collaboration with SAE and IEEE, and work toward measuring AV performance using the human task performance measurement paradigm, including varying levels of onboard information processing.
The first report, published in September 2022, provided a high level overview of agency priorities and activities in advanced communication standards. This new report identifies nine priority areas that were selected for strategic standards coordination: Security and Privacy, End-to-End Services and Assurance, Emerging Network Technologies, the Internet of Things, Emerging and Future IP Networks, Spectrum Measurement and Management, Open Source and De Facto Standards, Communications for Data Access and Sharing, and Quantum Communications. The report also identifies current standards work in these areas, trends, standards organizations, and future goals and priorities. In addition, the report shows the alignment between its priority areas and those of the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology.
On October 20, 2023, NIST’s David Wollman, Deputy Chief of the Smart Connected Systems Division, presented on smart connected systems and standards to federal agency participants at the NIST Standards Coordination Office (SCO) Standards Boot Camp. The talk covered the interconnected roles of research and standards in supporting technology advancement and adoption, including in Automated Vehicles, Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Wireless Systems, Operational Technologies (OT), Smart Connected Manufacturing Systems, and 5G/6G networking. Dr. Wollman also described the need to address “big-picture” standards considerations throughout the lifetime of a federal program, including considerations related to overall systems architecture, value proposition, standards leadership roles, and coordination between national and international standards development organizations. Wollman also advocated identifying or establishing an appropriate industry organization (e.g., non-profit, industry association, or alliance) to promote industry adoption, develop testing and certification programs, and create a user community to maintain and improve standards over the long term. Dr. Wollman’s presentation followed a talk by Dr. Jon Pratt of NIST’s Quantum Measurement Division on the history and role of the International Systems of Units (SI) and NIST’s role as a leading National Metrology (or Measurement) Institute (NMI).
The primary goal of SCO’s Standards Boot Camp is to provide an interactive forum in a small group setting for federal agency personnel to deepen and expand their knowledge of documentary standards and standards development and to better understand the relationships between standards and conformity assessment, regulation, trade, measurement, manufacturing, innovation, and more. Participants are immersed in an interactive hands-on learning experience that includes discussions, presentations, case studies, tours, and mock standards development exercises that help them prepare to be standards-savvy leaders at their agencies. This year there are participants from CPSC, DHS, EPA, FDA, FEMA, GSA, ITA, NIST, NRC, and OSHA.
