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

信息物理系统设计中的一个长期存在的问题是，在设计的生命周期内或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，从而能够以最少的重新设计和重新验证工作进行有效和正确的更新。智能的优点是：（1）一个新的和统一的框架，优化系统的可扩展性，解决功能的正确性和平台的可行性，和（2）新的算法，功能验证与平台的考虑，软件架构综合驱动的可扩展性指标，并整合验证和综合联合设计空间探索。项目？的更广泛的意义和重要性是：（1）使工程师能够科普信息物理设计组件或操作条件的持续变化，从而显著降低重新设计和重新验证成本，（2）为设计可扩展系统提供通用框架，该框架适用于包括机器人、汽车和航空电子系统在内的广泛系统，（3）提供新的方法和技术，促进本科生和研究生的培训，以满足信息物理系统的设计挑战。今天，许多信息物理系统是一次性的设计-系统设计没有考虑未来的变化。所提出的可扩展性驱动的设计（EDD）框架将可扩展性作为一个一流的设计目标，并解决它的功能属性和平台实现的整体考虑。EDD设计流程提供以下功能。在初始设计阶段，EDD确定某些约束（例如，时序），这对功能的正确性至关重要，并探索设计空间，以最大限度地提高未来的软件和硬件的变化，而不违反这些约束。在设计更新期间，EDD首先确定是否可以通过软件架构重新合成来适应更新，以避免昂贵的重新验证。在更新违反现有平台限制和要求的情况下，EDD有选择地修改其中一些，以探索可行的更改，同时最大限度地减少重新验证工作。

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.