# An affordable hardware-aware neural architecture search for deploying convolutional neural networks on ultra-low-power computing platforms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.16290 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.16290/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 21 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Jun 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [Searching for MobileNetV3](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02244/) (2019)
- [ShuffleNet V2: Practical Guidelines for Efficient CNN Architecture Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.11164/) (2018)
- [MnasNet: Platform-Aware Neural Architecture Search for Mobile](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.11626/) (2018)
- [FBNet: Hardware-Aware Efficient ConvNet Design via Differentiable Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03443/) (2018)
- [MCUNet: Tiny Deep Learning on IoT Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10319/) (2020)
- [TensorFlow Lite Micro: Embedded Machine Learning on TinyML Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08678/) (2020)
- [μNAS: Constrained Neural Architecture Search for Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.14246/) (2020)
- [Visual Wake Words Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05721/) (2019)
- [Running hardware-aware neural architecture search on embedded devices under 512MB of RAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.14824/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [BearingNAS: Obtaining In-Sensor Intelligent Fault Diagnosis Systems for Bearings Using a Laptop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.18287/) (2026)
- [ENAS: An Efficient Hardware-Aware Neural Architecture Search Framework for TinyML on Resource-Constrained Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30272/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Hardware-aware neural architecture search (HW-NAS) allows the integration of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in microcontrollers devices by automatically designing neural architectures that can fit prearranged hardware constraints. However, state-of-the-art HW-NAS target high-performance microcontrollers, whose power consumption does not meet sensing nodes requirements. This work presents a HW-NAS generating tiny CNNs that can run on ultra-low-power microcontrollers, featuring a lightweight search procedure enabling its execution even on embedded devices. Empirical results on three well-known benchmarks for tiny computer vision proved that the proposed HW-NAS was able to generate tiny CNNs while preserving state-of-the-art classification accuracy.