PIs: Xenofon Koutsoukos (0820088), Panos Antsaklis (0819865) Co-PI: Janos Sztipanovits,
Real-life Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs), such as autonomous vehicles and building automation systems, are monitored and controlled by networked control systems. In CPSs, the overall system dynamics emerges from the interaction among physical dynamics, computational dynamics, and communication networks. This project aims at addressing the fundamental problems in constructing CPSs caused by network uncertainties, such as time varying delay, jitter, data rate limitations, packet loss and others, by exploiting the inherent safety of passive systems. The project will develop (1) the theoretical foundations for passivity-based design of networked control systems that provide an effective way to interconnect multiple passive systems together and preserve stability and performance in the presence of time varying delays and data dropouts and (2) model-based design processes for developing and analyzing software utilizing the compositionality and the orthogonality across design views stemming from the underlying passivity principles. The research plan includes a software tool-chain for passivity-based design, an implementation of the passivity-based architecture on a distributed hardware platform, and experimental studies for demonstrating the approach. The project serves as an excellent example for the rich societal context and extensive interdisciplinary interactions that future computer scientists and engineers will face as CPS technology is becoming increasingly pervasive.
