Sometimes considered as the Internet of Things, cyber-physical structures vary from self-driving cars to phones, from home energy meters to airplane controls. They are both invisible code and touchable objects. But, as streamlined as cyber-physical systems appear, the technology introduced within the manufacturing systems that were not crafted to accommodate it.
To alter that, scientists grouped together from Michigan Technological University, University of California, Boston University, and California University. The team lays the groundwork for better design in the cyber-physical structures.
“The RTL or Register Transfer Level design move for digital circuits is one of the major lucrative stories in electrical design automation,” says the author. “Will a robust design methodology, like the RTL design flow, emerge for cyber physical systems?”
The solution according to them is that it depends on how well cross-disciplinary groups learn to manage dynamic and heterogeneous technologies across big scales while accounting for human users.
A superior cyber-physical design system comes down to the bolts and nuts of novel technology – but it is not simple as separating out the digital and mechanical pieces. Cyber-physical structures are not just the interfaces of the two that together generate an emergent space with novel challenges and characteristics. Take an intelligent grid, for instance. Much similar to a cake is more than the average of the flour and sugar in its recipe, a smart grid is more than a house energy meter, a power plant regulator and software. Such pieces are linked in order to analyze, assess, and adjust consumption and production in close to real-timeA superior cyber-physical design system comes down to the bolts and nuts of novel technology – but it is not simple as separating out the digital and mechanical pieces. Cyber-physical structures are not just the interfaces of the two that together generate an emergent space with novel challenges and characteristics. Take an intelligent grid, for instance. Much similar to a cake is more than the average of the flour and sugar in its recipe, a smart grid is more than a house energy meter, a power plant regulator and software. Such pieces are linked in order to analyze, assess, and adjust consumption and production in close to real-time.
“Sensors transfer information to the physical system that reads the data and takes action,” says Shiyan Hu, an associate lecturer of computer engineering at Michigan Tech and one of the co-author of the study. Mainly, this transmit is efficient and streamlined, but as a cyber-security expert, Hu knows the interchange is a fragile link.
“Privacy and security have become two of the primary design concerns for cyber-physical systems today,” the team says, “and they cannot just be linked on as an afterthought.” Hu says recruiting specialized experts at each stage of the manufacturing and design process is necessary. There is no single size fits all sort of cyber-security. For instance, in a self-driving vehicle, from the central operating unit to a smart phone Bluetooth connection to the anti-lock brakes, each software and device requires a tailored design.
“Cyber-security is part of this, but it also impacts not just the network, it impacts the entire system, comprising the physical objects,” explains Hu. The key point to make it safe, innovative and dependable technologies, Hu and his group explain, is to embrace the big data. They boost combining model-based design with data-based learning.
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