CIRC: ENS: AERPAW-ENS - Enhancing the AERPAW Platform

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to enhance the NSF Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform on Advanced Wireless (AERPAW) at North Carolina State University. AERPAW is one of the projects under the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, supporting wireless experiments with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The proposed activities will: 1) develop and release new sample experiments with UAVs and software defined radios (SDRs); 2) release new wireless and UAV datasets; 3) enhance platform user support and add new portal features; and 4) conduct outreach activities to bring new users to the platform. The proposed work will release new sample experiments, post-processing scripts, and datasets, to support research in technologies such as O-RAN, spectrum sharing, trajectory optimization, wireless localization, and artificial intelligence (AI) aided spectrum sharing. The project will create publicly accessible short video tutorials integrated into the user manual, will improve AERPAW user portal, and will continue providing operational support, such as weekly office hours, to AERPAW users. Moreover, the AERPAW web portal and digital twin (DT) will be upgraded by incorporating key features requested by users, such as improved user key management and automated feedback mechanisms based on DT system activity. The broader impacts of the project include continued support for experimentation needs of the CISE research community in the area of advanced wireless systems and autonomous UAVs. The datasets to be released will serve as invaluable resources for developing and testing new AI tools based on real world UAV measurements that are otherwise difficult to capture. Outreach activities will bring new users to the platform and accelerate the transition of fundamental research concepts to real world implementation. The student competition to be hosted will train new users and bring fundamental research ideas to practice. AERPAW website, where project updates will be posted, can be accessed at https://aerpaw.org/. AERPAW User Manual includes instructions on how to use AERPAW and lists AERPAW sample experiments, available at https://sites.google.com/ncsu.edu/aerpaw-user-manual/. AERPAW Experiment Web Portal is available at https://user-web-portal.aerpaw.ncsu.edu/. AERPAW Datasets and software scripts are released through https://aerpaw.org/experiments/datasets/. These pages and repositories will be kept available at least five years following the end of the project term. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.