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We
are currently witnessing the emergence an infrastructure for a
technical, economic and social revolution that is enabled by
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Cyber-physical systems are
physical and engineered systems whose operations are integrated,
monitored, and controlled by a computational core.
The integration of computational and physical processes
exhibit complicated behavior that can not be analyzed by the
computational or physical sciences alone. These systems also
transcend traditional computer-controlled systems because of
their scale, dependence on man-machine interaction and their
rich communication infrastructure that is enabled by the
Internet.
Some
of the most challenging R&D software problems for
cyber-physical systems are those associated with producing
distributed, real-time, and embedded platforms and applications,
and where computer processors control physical, chemical, or
biological processes or devices. Examples of such systems
include airplanes and air traffic control systems, automobiles,
power grids, oil refineries, and patient monitoring systems.
Despite advances in standards-based commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) technologies, key challenges must be addressed before
COTS software can be used to build mission-critical distributed
real-time embedded (DRE) systems effectively and productively.
Furthermore, there are existing critical infrastructures
that over-see the operations of everything from nuclear power
plants to traffic lights and yet they may not even be able to
accept static upgrades, or patches, or any dynamic instability,
but they will remain with us for quite some time. Dynamically
retrofitting these systems while maintaining their stability
within a cyber environment is a significant challenge yet to be
overcome.
The
International Workshop on Cyber-Physical (WCPS2008) is an
international forum for researchers to exchange information
regarding advancements in the state of the art and practice of
CPS, as well as to identify the emerging research topics
and define the future of CPS. The technical program of WCPS2008
will consist of invited talks, paper presentations, and panel
discussions.
Topics of interest
In
summary, the main topics of interest are on grand challenges,
requirements, architectures, innovations and abstractions for
Cyber-Physical Systems as well as technical challenges to
interface and manipulate the Physical World.
In particular, we are seeking papers in, but not limited
to, the following main areas:
■
Architecture and infrastructure
Current
architectures for cyber physical systems tend to be based on
layers of network, OS, and middleware that have evolved over
decades in the context of general-purpose computing systems. One
goal of this topic area is to seek architectural abstractions,
mechanisms, and formalisms that are better suited to the needs
of cyber-physical systems.
Some example topics include: approaches for refactoring
the technology base to collapse/remove layers; techniques for
managing QoS properties top-to-bottom; and end-to-end in
ultra-large-scale cyber-physical systems.
■
Fundamental system services
Decades of experience with enterprise systems have yielded
reasonably good abstractions and technologies for developing
reusable services, such as transactions, discovery, naming, and
event notification. There is much less consensus and experience,
however, on the appropriate abstractions and technologies for
fundamental system services in cyber-physical systems. Some
example topics include 'multi-ility' services, such as security,
reliable, and predictable replica-based fault detection and
isolation frameworks that can operate in resource-constrained
safety-and mission -critical CPS environments.
■
Service composition/synthesis
This
area involves rigorous, evidence-producing composition (and
composites) of system services, often using novel languages and
models of computation.
Some example topics include "type systems for QoS
contracts" or "checkable properties of dynamic event structures"
or "synthesis of mixed-criticality RTOS tailored for domain
X". The time and scheduling, behavioral interaction, and
partitioning/isolation will be central cross-cutting issues.
■ Interaction and coordination
A
single critical infrastructure facility can have thousands of
devices, such as in supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) systems that spread over hundreds of miles. The
devices themselves are typically in a physically protected
environment; yet the interactions among them, on the other hand,
go through the cyber space which poses a challenge to us and
calls for a paradigm that is interactions and coordination
centric.
■
Proactive monitoring
There
are numerous existing systems, such as chemical plants, oil
refiners, power grids, that have been in existence and correctly
functioning for many years, and until now were not considered
vulnerable because these systems were not envisioned to run in
the cyber environment which has become today's reality. Theses
systems face the high risk of being a terrorist target though
cyber invasions. On the other side, it is out of the question
that we re-build or prescribe a complete upgrade of all these
systems. Worse yet, it may even be too expensive to take the
mentality of ``dispatch-and- then-patch''. Therefore, external,
lightweight and proactive monitoring of the systems is essential
in building or retrofitting CPS.
■ Applications and experiences
New
CPS applications and experiences, such as Tele-Physical
Services, Smart Transportation, etc. We learn from our past
experiences: through our encounters with real-life applications
and experiences with new technologies, we develop the skill-set
and tools to perform better in the future.
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