Research & DevOps - Agile value delivery from a university perspective

January 12, 2022

Establishing an efficient workflow and software lifecycle in a dedicated R&D oriented environment like a university research team poses some unique challenges that we will address in this post. Our explicit goal – which also comprises our competitive edge – is to facilitate the seamless transition from scientific novelty to industrial innovation.

Ourstand at ITS WorldCongress 2021, Hamburg

We will first note that among all R&D under takings, universities shine best in areas that employ cutting-edge technology that still relies on academic research. Adjusting and implementing such advanced methods for specific tasks would usually require some experimentation and could produce several alternative and dead-end approaches before the final solution is agreed upon. Similarly, a university team will sometimes find itself facing challenges that necessitate quick attainment of a particular scientific or engineering expertise and/or equipment, often requiring coordination, interfacing and knowledge transfer with other research teams and departments. Project requirement specifications are usually vague to a degree and certain details are left to the researchers while other questions need continuous monitoring and consultation with the client, who is expected to continuously update the scope and constraints of the task as more details become apparent about thet heoretical possibilities and practical capabilities.

Therefore, we must conclude that rapid prototyping, technological flexibility and planning agility are essential for efficient research, and the workflow of our software lifecycle should be informed and characterized by this fact in order to minimize the costs and time-to-market of such dynamic under takings. In practical terms this means that in the research phase we take care to use rapid prototyping tool chains like the Python, Matlab and RTM aps ecosystems, where even students and scientists without an explicit IT background can easily contribute. Even at this early stage we already follow certain versioning, coding and design guidelines, but in a very lean manner, such as to achieve the compatibility, reusability and flexibility required but with minimal overhead.

Clean Architecture (Robert C. Martin)
source: https://www.codingblocks.net/podcast/clean-architecture-make-your-architecture-scream/

In the second phase of the software lifecycle our proof-of-concept methods graduate to the level of functional prototype, where integration with the existing functions and demonstrability are primary concerns. Where necessary, the methods are ported to more serious technology stacks that support industry-grade performance (e.g. C, C++, real-time systems). Extensive testing and deployment automation is performed then to ensure convenient, reproducible and reliable demonstration experience. A major technological framework for this purpose is Docker that allows us to manage and coordinate our application deployment across various intelligent transportation systems. We maintain a central software image repository that allows any application to run on any suitable platform using lightweight virtual environments called containers (similar to virtual machines, but less resource consuming). This approach also prepares our systems for future load-balancing and OTA (over the air) update capability.

A DevOps workflow and toolchain
source: https://princepatni.com/blog/tech/what-is-devops-devops-engineer-roles-skills-courses-certification/

The third milestone consists of long-term deployment of our technology and services at our partners (including ZalaZONE test track and Hungarian public road authorities). For this step we make sure we refactor our codebase to perfectly align with our long-term architectural vision for a highly flexible and scalable toolchain that is also ready to be quickly adapted and employed in different environments. At this point a broad range of issues that we already anticipated and prepared forduring previous stages becomes prominent: e.g. the support of a wide spectrum of open and proprietary standards and formats (communication, safety, security,mapping, etc.), third-party software (including any tools accessible via Matlab, e.g. simulation software), hardware elements (sensors, actuators, computation, networking, etc.), and the operation of the system itself (both remote andon-site). Most functionalities in our systems are currently past the first two phases (demonstrated even at the prestigious ITS World Conference 2021) and close to the point where they will generate business value for our partners 0-24 in real environments. At the same time, we are ready to offer and extend our tools and services promptly as our flexible design with our standards support, modular interfacing and continuous delivery makes any cost of change minimal.

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3rd ZalaZONE Trilateral ONLINE Conference

Motto: “Increasing the intensity of cooperation”
16/10/2020

AGENDA

10:00 - 10:05

Welcome

Dr. Zsolt Szalay, Head of Research and Innovation ZalaZONE Automotive Proving Ground

10:05 - 10:15

Keynote OpeningBest Practices in International R&D Cooperation

Prof. Dr. Zoran Ren, Vice-Rector for Science and Research,Professor of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Maribor

10:15 - 11:15

Project review of bilateral Austrian-Hungarian cooperation

Fleet-based qualification of transnational road networks for autonomous driving

hub.connect

TestEPS

Central system architecturedevelopment for automated vehicle testing and operating related services




DI Dr. Veronika Putz, Linz Center of Mechatronics


DI Norbert Hainitz,Austrian Institute of Technology

Dipl.-Ing. JakobReckenzaun, Virtual Vehicle

Dr. Viktor Tihanyi, BudapestUniversity of Technology and Economics

11:15 - 11:25

Significance of research funding in promoting AT-HU-SLO trilateral cooperation

Mr. Andreas Blust, Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology

Dr. István Szabó, NRDI Office, Vice President for Science and International Affairs

11:25 - 11:35

Short intro/status report on the “state of play” in HU & SLO and AT

DI Martin Russ, Managing Director AustriaTech

11:35 - 12:00

Announcing of tender opportunities supporting Hungarian-Austrian bilateral cooperation

Mr. Michael Walch, Ms. Verena Eder, FFG –Austrian Research Promotion Agency

Ms. Szonja Csuzdi, Head of Department for International Affairs

Mr. Gergely Mészáros, EUREKA NPC, NRDI Office

11:35 - 12:00

Q & A
Closing remarks

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