REBECCA, a heavily SME-driven project, will democratize the development of novel edge AI systems. Towards this aim, REBECCA will develop a purely European complete Hardware(HW) and Software(SW) stack around a RISC-V CPU, which will provide significantly higher levels of a) performance (e.g., inferences per second), b) energy/power efficiency (e.g., inferences per joule/watt), c) safety and d) security than the existing ones. This will be achieved by utilizing state-of-the-art technologies and by making significant scientific and technological advances in several key relevant domains, including a) processing units, b) hardware accelerators, c) reconfigurable hardware, d) tightly coupled interconnected chiplets e) HW/SW co-design and co-development tools, f) system software, g) middleware, and h) AI libraries and frameworks. REBECCA will significantly contribute to realizing business and societal opportunities by validating and demonstrating its approach on 4 real-world use cases and 2 benchmarks based on real-world applications from the Smart appliances, Energy Generation, Infrastructure Inspection, Avionics Automotive and Health domains. In terms of HW, REBECCA will develop a novel chip consisting of two tightly coupled chiplets which will incorporate: a) RISC-V multicore, b) Neuromorphic AI Accelerator, c) Programmable array AI Accelerator, d) AI Accelerator utilizing a hierarchical processing architecture, e) DNN Accelerator, f) Reconfigurable hardware, g) Near-Memory-Processing, h) Memory Encryption. In terms of SW, REBECCA will implement optimized system SW, middleware, and AI libraries that will take full advantage of the underlying novel HW. The REBECCA platform will be complemented by a novel HW/SW Design Space Exploration tool which will allow the development of highly efficient REBECCA-based systems. REBECCA will additionally provide the means for safety and security modeling and verification for the developed HW and SW from the very early design stages.

The objective of this research activity is to create a reliable computing node that will create a Cognitive Edge under industry standards. This computing node will be the building block of scalable Internet of Things (from Low Computing to High Computing Edge Nodes). The cognitive skill will be given by an internal and external architecture that allows to forecast its internal performance and the state of the surrounding world. Hence, this node will have the capability of learning how to improve its performance against the uncertainty of the environment. As a result of the integration of these cognitive systems into a fractal network, there will be another intrinsic crucial advantage, emergency and adaptability, new functions will flourish through the created space of possibilities of our cognitive Systems. This complex network will transfer all those cognitive advantages to the Edge, a computing paradigm that lay down between the physical world and the cloud.

EdgeAI-trust aims to develop a domain-independent architecture for decentralized edge AI along with HW/SW edge AI solutions and tools, which enable fully collaborative AI and learning at the edge. The edge AI technologies address key challenges faced by Europe's industrial and societal sectors such energy efficiency, system complexity and sustainability. EdgeAI-trust will enable large-scale edge AI solutions that enable interoperability, upgradeability, reliability, safety, security and societal acceptance with a focus on explainability and robustness. Toolchains will provide standardized interfaces for developing, optimizing and validating edge AI solutions in heterogeneous systems. The generic results will be instantiated for automated vehicles, production and agriculture, thus offering innovation potential not only in the generic HW/SW technologies and tools, but also in the three target domains. These technological innovations are complemented with business strategies and community building, ensuring the widespread uptake of the innovations in Europe. EdgeAI-trust will establish sustainable impact by building open edge AI platforms and ecosystems, with a focus on standardization, supply chain integrity, environmental impact, benchmarking frameworks, and support for open-source solutions. The consortium consists of major suppliers and OEMs encompassing a broad range of application domains, supported by leading research and academic organizations. By embracing the opportunity to specialize in Edge AI, Europe can maintain its position in the global context, especially as it aligns with decentralized and privacy-driven European policy. Furthermore, as AI is closely connected with the Green Deal, this project can provide proper solutions for environmental issues. Ultimately, the project will enable AI to be connected with other strong sectors and industries, improving the innovation process and decision-making in Europe.