Intelligence for Embedded Systems ― A Methodological Approach

Addressing current issues of which any engineer or computer scientist should be aware, this monograph is a response to the need to adopt a new computational paradigm as the methodological basis for designing pervasive embedded systems with sensor capabilities. The requirements of this paradigm are to control complexity, to limit cost and energy consumption and to provide adaptation and cognition abilities allowing the embedded system to interact proactively with the real world. The quest for such intelligence requires the formalization of a new generation of intelligent systems able to exploit advances in digital architectures and in sensing technologies. The book sheds light on the theory behind intelligence for embedded systems with specific focus on:

· robustness (the robustness of a computational flow and its evaluation);

· intelligence (how to mimic the adaptation and cognition abilities of the human brain),

· the capacity to learn in non-stationary and evolving environments by detecting changes and reacting accordingly; and

· a new paradigm that, by accepting results that are correct in probability, allows the complexity of the embedded application the be kept under control.

Theories, concepts and methods are provided to motivate researchers in this exciting and timely interdisciplinary area. Applications such as porting a neural network from a high-precision platform to a digital embedded system and evaluating its robustness level are described. Examples show how the methodology introduced can be adopted in the case of cyber-physical systems to manage the interaction between embedded devices and physical world.

Researchers and graduate students in computer science and various engineering-related disciplines will find the methods and approaches propounded in Intelligence for Embedded Systems of great interest. The book will also be an important resource for practitioners working on embedded systems and applications.

Cesare Alippi received the degree in electronic engineering cum laude in 1990 and the PhD in 1995 from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Currently, he is a Full Professor of information processing systems with the Politecnico di Milano. He has been a visiting researcher at UCL (UK), MIT (USA), ESPCI (F), CASIA (RC), USI (CH). Alippi is an IEEE Fellow, Vice-President education of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS), Associate editor (AE) of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, past AE of the IEEE-Tran. Neural Networks (2005-2012), IEEE-Trans Instrumentation and Measurements (2003-09) and member and chair of other IEEE committees including the IEEE Rosenblatt award.

In 2013 he received the IBM Faculty award; in 2004 the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Young Engineer Award; in 2011 has been awarded Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Current research activity addresses adaptation and learning in non-stationary environments and Intelligent embedded systems.