CPS: Breakthrough: Collaborative Research: A Framework for Extensibility-Driven Design of Cyber-Physical Systems

网络物理系统设计中一个长期存在的问题是，在设计的整个生命周期中，或者在同一产品系列的多个版本中，无法有效地应对软件和硬件的演变。该项目的目标是开发一个系统框架，用于设计可扩展的网络物理系统，该系统能够以最小的重新设计和重新验证工作实现有效和正确的更新。智力上的优点是：(1)一个新的统一框架，通过解决功能正确性和平台可行性来优化系统的可扩展性；(2)考虑平台的功能验证的新算法，由可扩展性度量驱动的软件架构综合，以及验证和综合的集成，以进行联合设计空间探索。这个项目吗?更广泛的意义和重要性是：(1)使工程师能够应对网络物理设计组件或操作条件的持续变化，从而显着降低重新设计和重新验证成本；(2)为设计可扩展系统提供一般框架，该框架适用于广泛的系统，包括机器人、汽车和航空电子系统；(3)提供新的方法和技术，以促进本科生和研究生的培训，以满足网络物理系统的设计挑战。今天的许多网络物理系统都是一次性的设计——系统设计时没有考虑到未来的变化。提出的可扩展性驱动设计（EDD）框架将可扩展性视为头等设计目标，并通过对功能属性和平台实现的整体考虑来解决这一问题。EDD设计流提供以下功能。在初始设计阶段，EDD确定对功能正确性至关重要的某些约束（例如，时间），并探索设计空间，以在不违反这些约束的情况下最大化未来软件和硬件更改的数量。在设计更新时，EDD首先通过软件架构的重新合成来确定是否有可能适应更新，从而避免昂贵的重新验证。在更新违反现有平台约束和需求的情况下，EDD有选择地修改其中的一些，以探索可行的更改，同时最小化重新验证工作。

A longstanding problem in the design of cyber-physical systems is the inability and ineffectiveness in coping with software and hardware evolutions over the lifetime of a design or across multiple versions in the same product family. The objective of this project is to develop a systematic framework for designing extensible cyber-physical systems that can enable efficient and correct updates with minimal redesign and re-verification efforts. The intellectual merits are (1) a new and unified framework that optimizes system extensibility by addressing both functional correctness and platform feasibility, and (2) new algorithms for functional verification with platform consideration, software architecture synthesis driven by extensibility metrics, and integration of verification and synthesis for joint design space exploration. The project?s broader significance and importance are (1) enabling engineers to cope with continual changes in cyber-physical design components or operating conditions, thereby significantly reducing redesign and re-verification cost, (2) providing a general framework for designing extensible systems that is applicable to a wide range of systems including robotic, automotive, and avionic systems, and (3) providing new methodologies and techniques that facilitate the training of undergraduate and graduate students to meet the design challenges of cyber-physical systems.Many cyber-physical systems today are one-off designs -- systems designed without future changes in mind. The proposed extensibility-driven design (EDD) framework treats extensibility as a first-class design objective and addresses it with a holistic consideration of functional properties and platform implementation. An EDD design flow provides the following capabilities. At the initial design stage, EDD identifies certain constraints (e.g., timing) that are critical for functional correctness, and explores the design space to maximize the amount of future software and hardware changes that can be made without violating these constraints. During design updates, EDD first determines whether it is possible to accommodate the updates through software architecture re-synthesis, so as to avoid costly re-verification. In the cases where the updates violate existing platform constraints and requirements, EDD selectively modifies some of them to explore feasible changes while minimizing re-verification efforts.