CSR: Small: Network-Level Design of Cyber-Physical Systems

计算机物理系统(CP)是在计算算法和物理组件的无缝集成的基础上构建并依赖于其的工程系统。CPS承诺通过在能源、医疗保健和交通等领域应用机器智能和自主性，彻底改变我们处理全球社会规模问题的方式。CPS承诺的一个关键要素取决于实现迄今尚未连接的计算机系统的有效联网。然而，CPS的网络化方面也带来了新的设计挑战。机器对机器的通信具有固有的不确定性，如数据丢失，但CP必须在严格的实时性、可靠性、安全性、效率和性能保证下执行。当与快速增长的复杂性结合在一起时，这样的联网系统的计算和通信方面被分开设计的传统方法以特别的方式阻碍了实现系统范围的正确性保证，并留下了巨大的优化潜力未被挖掘。该项目的长期目标是通过研究新颖的、系统的、最终自动化的设计方法来缩小这一差距，这些方法能够跨计算和通信边界在网络范围内优化和验证CP。这有望推动未来智能和自主的网络物理系统的设计，使全新的智能应用程序类得以出现。任何严格的设计过程的基础都是具有良好定义的抽象和模型的合理形式化，这些抽象和模型允许用户或自动化工具在系统构建之前对预期行为进行推理。虽然已经研究了网络模型和物理模型的集成，但缺乏统一计算和通信的可比理论。一个关键问题是，在联网和分布式CP中存在固有的不确定性、适应性和反应性的情况下，如何为整体优化实现提供特定于应用程序的实时行为和服务质量概念。该项目旨在通过探索网络级计算和通信联合设计科学的正式基础来回答这些问题。具体创新包括：用于系统规范的计算和通信的正式模型，包括相关的分析和综合算法；用于快速、早期验证的快速而准确的性能模型，包括相关的模型生成、综合和设计空间探索能力。这些创新是在具体的网络物理系统案例研究的背景下进行评估的，包括虚拟和物理试验台。研究与旨在建立对网络和嵌入式计算的整体看法的教育议程相结合，包括公开发布正在开发的模型和工具，以及为广大受众开发在线教材。

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and physical components. CPS promise to revolutionize how we approach global societal-scale problems, through application of machine intelligence and autonomy in areas such as energy, healthcare, and transportation. A key element of the CPS promise depends on achieving effective networking of hitherto disconnected computer systems. However, the networked aspect of CPS also poses new design challenges. Machine-to-machine communication comes with inherent uncertainties, such as data losses, yet CPS have to perform under tight real-time, reliability, safety, efficiency and performance guarantees. When combined with rapidly growing increases in complexity, traditional approaches in which computation and communication aspects of such networked systems are designed separately, and in an ad-hoc manner, hinder achieving system-wide correctness guarantees and leave a large optimization potential untapped. The long-term goal of this project is to close this gap by investigating novel, systematic, and ultimately automated design approaches that enable network-wide optimization and validation of CPS across computation and communication boundaries. This is expected to advance how future intelligent and autonomous cyber-physical systems are designed, enabling whole new classes of smart applications to emerge.The foundation for any rigorous design process is a sound formalization with well-defined abstractions and models that allow users or automated tools to reason about intended behavior before a system is built. While the integration of cyber and physical models has been studied, comparable theories for a unification of computation and communication are lacking. A key question is how application-specific notions of real-time behavior and quality-of-service can be provided for overall optimized implementations in the presence of inherent uncertainty, adaptivity and reactivity in networked and distributed CPS. This project aims to answer such questions by exploring formal foundations for a network-level computation and communication co-design science for cyber-physical systems. Specific innovations include: formal models of computation and communication for system specification, including associated analysis and synthesis algorithms; fast yet accurate performance models for rapid, early validation, including associated model generation, synthesis and design space exploration capabilities. These innovations are evaluated in the context of specific cyber-physical system case studies, including virtual and physical testbeds. Research is combined with an educational agenda aimed at establishing a holistic view of networking and embedded computing, including public release of models and tools as they are developed, as well as development of online teaching materials for a broad audience.