Abstract
The potential for system autonomy to drastically reduce service costs and increase operational availability is the primary driver behind the surging global demand for autonomous systems. However, as this demand grows, the industry faces a critical tradeoff between autonomy and affordability, where high-performance functionality typically requires expensive sensor suites and significant onboard computational power. This paper explores strategies for achieving robust autonomy within budget-constrained frameworks by utilizing the Operational Design Domain (ODD) to define minimal hardware requirements that ensure both technical feasibility and legal safety. Collectively, the contributions within this joint session demonstrate that robust autonomy can be achieved within budget-constrained frameworks through optimized system architectures and clever resource management. These strategies are validated through two use cases, ranging from precision agricultural drones to offloading automated driving functions of traditional road vehicles to the edge/cloud, highlighting how resource management and domain-specific design can enable autonomous technology across costsensitive industries.