Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are integrations of computation with physical processes. Embedded computers and networks monitor and control physical processes in feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa. This seedling project studies the fundamental abstractions behind such ``action webs.'' Many of the abstractions for computing and networking deliberately hide essential properties of the physical world. This project evaluates and elaborates models that instead embrace such properties. The focus is on distributed software, networking, and distributed control systems with essential properties of time management, robustness, and security. The project builds on extensive experience with sensor web technology, which instrument the physical world by embedding low power computing, sensing and communication in the environment. While sensor webs can instrument the world, action webs go further by closing the loop, integrating physical dynamics with the dynamics of software and networks.
The project focuses on the interactions of computing with the physical world. It critically examines the foundations of computing that have been built over the last several decades, specifically focusing on the dynamics of networked embedded software in closed-loop cyber-physical systems. The goal of this seedling project is to shape a long-term research agenda that will have profound implications on technical leadership of the US and on engineering and computer science education. Curricula in these fields evolve remarkably slowly, and an effort to blend computation with engineering disciplines that are more deeply rooted in the physical world is required.
