Work

Special Session - Intermittent TinyML: Powering Sustainable Deep Intelligence Without Batteries

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Tiny battery-free devices running deep neural networks (DNNs) embody intermittent TinyML, a paradigm at the intersection of intermittent computing and deep learning, bringing sustainable intelligence to the extreme edge. This paper, as an overview of a special session at Embedded Systems Week (ESWEEK) 2025, presents four tales from diverse research backgrounds, sharing experiences in addressing unique challenges of efficient and reliable DNN inference despite the intermittent nature of ambient power. The first explores enhancing inference engines for efficient progress accumulation in hardware-accelerated intermittent inference and designing networks tailored for such execution. The second investigates computationally light, adaptive algorithms for faster, energy-efficient inference, and emerging computing-in-memory architectures for power failure resiliency. The third addresses battery-free networking, focusing on timely neighbor discovery and maintaining synchronization despite spatio-temporal energy dynamics across nodes. The fourth leverages modern nonvolatile memory fault behavior and DNN robustness to save energy without significant accuracy loss, with applicability to intermittent inference on nano-satellites. Collectively, these early efforts advance intermittent TinyML research and promote future cross-domain collaboration to tackle open challenges.

Source: International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT)

DOI: 10.1145/3742874.3757084

Authors: Hashan Roshantha Mendis, Kasim Sinan Yildirim, Marco Zimmerling, Luca Mottola, Pi-Cheng Hsiu