A Cyber Sensor Model for Cyber-Physical-Social Systems

Abstract

Engineering sustainable cyber-physical-social systems demand a transdisciplinary approach. Within an arbitrary domain, many systems, including those of the physical and cyber categories, may already be in-situ; however, heterogeneity permeates such systems, for example, differing protocols, data formats, among others. Heterogeneity is not a deliberate feature of an arbitrary system; rather, it is the cumulative result of pragmatic decisions that were made during design and is driven by many different factors, some of which may not be technological. Nonetheless, heterogeneity represents a critical obstacle for system designers as they seek to harness and integrate diverse system elements to deliver innovative services. This obstacle is acutely manifested in cyber-physical-social systems when collecting and fusing data for evidence-based decision-making; social and human-derived data exacerbate the problem. This paper proposes a programming model for fusing information sources in cyber-physical-social systems. The efficacy of the model is validated via a usability analysis.