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

这项研究重点关注定义信息物理系统（CPS）架构的最基本问题之一——异构性。与通常为了功能互操作性而解决异构性的互联网不同，CPS 系统通常被视为系统的专用系统，主要为需要全球监管和性能保证的关键基础设施而设计。因此，必须解决异构性问题，不仅是为了功能互操作性，也是为了策略调节和性能保证。为了解决功能互操作性，提出了一种称为CPS-Bus的分布式框架来灵活地互连不同的CPS子系统。为了支持政策监管，开发了政策规范语言来规范上下文、操作和规则之间的关系。为了实现异构子系统的性能保证，发明了反射接口和分布式控制框架的新颖运行时组合，以解决不断变化的性能动态和所需的按需功能（组合）变化。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关联，并跨 CPS 子系统的边界进行有效控制。对于开发人员来说，这项工作将显着降低构建 CPS 系统的设计和开发成本。对于最终用户而言，由此产生的 CPS 系统将带来令人兴奋的应用，例如辅助生活，这将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.