Specification, Analyzing Challenges and Approaches for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

By integrating computing and communication with physical processes, cyber-physical systems (CPS) allow information systems to monitor and interact with the physical world. However, today’s computing abstractions do not portray the physical world sufficiently, necessitating the development of effective methods for analyzing CPS. Analyzes limitations of current tools through an example of health care systems. Proposes a unified framework for designing and simulating CPS. CPS applications include: high confidence medical devices and systems, traffic control and safety, advanced automotive systems, process control, energy conservation, environmental control, avionics, critical infrastructure control, distributed robotics, defense systems, manufacturing, and smart structures. Case study of in-home health care system as an example of CPS consists of following components: WristSensor, PillContainer, InfusionPump, Controller, Communicator, DailyCheckPDA, and CPSDataBase. Characteristics of CPS: heterogeneity, unreliable networking, mobility, and tight environmental coupling. Key features required for unified large-scale CPS: heterogenous application support, physical modeling, scalability support, mobility support, and integration with existing simulation and verification.