Collaborative Research: CSR-CPS: Multi-Level Heterogeneity in Large-Scale Cyber-Physical Systems

本研究聚焦于定义网络物理系统（CPS）架构的最基本问题之一——异构性。与Internet不同，在Internet中，异构性通常是为了功能互操作性而解决的，而CPS系统通常被视为系统的专用系统，主要是为需要全球监管和性能保证的关键基础设施而设计的。因此，必须解决异构性问题，不仅是为了功能互操作性，也是为了策略规范和性能保证。为了解决功能互操作性问题，提出了一种分布式CPS- bus框架，实现不同CPS子系统之间的灵活互联。为了支持策略规范，开发了一种策略规范语言来规范上下文、操作和规则之间的关系。为了在异构子系统上实现性能保证，我们发明了一种反射接口和分布式控制框架的新型运行时组合，以解决不断发展的性能动态和所需的按需功能（组合）更改。这项工作将允许计算和物理过程的有效互连，以揭示不同现象之间的有用相关性，并进行跨CPS子系统边界的有效控制。对于开发人员来说，这项工作将大大降低构建CPS系统的设计和开发成本。对于最终用户来说，CPS系统将带来令人兴奋的应用，如辅助生活，从根本上提高日常生活质量。

This research focuses on one of the most fundamental issues that defines the architecture of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) - heterogeneity. Unlike the Internet where heterogeneity is normally addressed for the sake of functional interoperability, CPS systems are normally regarded as special-purpose systems of systems, designed mostly for critical infrastructures that require global regulation and performance assurance. Therefore, heterogeneity must be addressed not only for the sake of functional interoperability, but also for policy regulation and performance assurance.To address functional interoperability, a distributed framework, called the CPS-Bus, is proposed to flexibly interconnect different CPS subsystems. To support policy regulation, a policy specification language is developed to regulate the relationship between context, operation and rules. To achieve performance assurance over heterogeneous subsystems, a novel run-time combination of reflective interfaces and a distributed control framework is invented to address evolving performance dynamics and required on-demand functional (compositional) changes. This work will allow the effective interconnection of computation and physical processes to reveal the useful correlations among different phenomena and to conduct effective control across the boundary of CPS subsystems. For developers, this work will significantly reduce the design and development costs for building CPS systems. For end users, the resultant CPS systems will lead to exciting applications such as assisted living that will fundamentally improve the quality of every-day life.