CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: TickTalk: Timing API for Federated Cyberphysical Systems

这项研究的目标是使广泛的程序员能够成功地为分布式计算系统（包括智能和连接社区）或需要紧密协调或时间同步的系统创建应用程序。例如，为智能十字路口创建应用程序需要从多个来源收集信息，例如摄像头、交通传感器和过往车辆；进行分布式计算；然后触发一些动作，比如警告。这需要多个交互设备之间的同步和协调，包括可能连接到安全关键基础设施的物联网（IoT）设备系统。为了不让程序员负担理解和处理这种复杂性，我们寻求一种新的编程语言、传感器和执行器体系结构以及通信网络，它们可以接受程序员关于“做什么”和“什么时候做”的陈述，并通过管理同步、功率和通信机制将这些陈述转化为“如何做”。这种方法将使这些类型的系统能够更快地发展，并可以产生重大的经济发展影响。提出的方法有四个部分：(1)创建一种新的编程语言，该语言嵌入了定时岛的概念——一组相互合作且偶尔同步的设备；(2)创建一个网络范围的运行时系统，分配和协调代码块的行动-程序的一部分-跨设备；(3)扩展通信网络的能力，以提高同步设备和向运行时系统报告同步质量的能力，实现自适应程序行为；(4)扩展设备硬件架构以支持同步和时效性操作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this research is to enable a broad spectrum of programmers to successfully create apps for distributed computing systems including smart and connected communities, or for systems that require tight coordination or synchronization of time. Creating an application for, say, a smart intersection necessitates gathering information from multiple sources, e.g., cameras, traffic sensors, and passing vehicles; performing distributed computation; and then triggering some action, such as a warning. This requires synchronization and coordination amongst multiple interacting devices including systems that are Internet of Things (IoT) devices that may be connected to safety critical infrastructure. Rather than burden the programmer with understanding and dealing with this complexity, we seek a new programming language, sensor and actuator architecture, and communications networks that can take the programmer's statements of "what to do" and "when to do", and translate these into "how to do" by managing mechanisms for synchronization, power, and communication. This approach will enable more rapid development of these types of systems and can have significant economic development impact.The proposed approach has four parts: (1) creating a new programming language that embeds the notion of timing islands -- groups of devices that cooperate and are occasionally synchronized; (2) creating a network-wide runtime system that distributes and coordinates the action of code blocks -- portions of the program -- across devices; (3) extending the capabilities of communication networks to improve the ability to synchronize devices and report the quality of synchronization back to the runtime system, enabling adaptive program behavior; and (4) extending device hardware architecture to support synchronization and time-respecting operation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.