A model to discipline autonomy in cyber‐physical systems‐of‐systems and its application

Abstract

A Cyber-Physical System-of-Systems (CPSoS) can be defined as a System-of-Systems (SoS), composed of a number of operable and autonomous Constituent Systems (CSs) that are themselves Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). A main challenge in integrating CPSoS to function as a single integrated system is the autonomy of its components, which may result in conflicts due to the lack of coordination among its CPSs. In this paper, we advocate that in order to facilitate the integration of CPSs within the overall context of their CPSoS, we may need to adjust their level of autonomy in a way that enables them to coordinate their activities to avoid any conflict among one another. Reducing such conflicts surely contributes to the dependability of the CPSoS. In particular, we propose a novel modelbased approach for modeling and analyzing the autonomy levels of CPSs based on their awareness concerning their operational environment as well as their capability to react in a timely and safe manner while performing their activity. The model is further described in a UML profile and applied to represent activities for autonomous driving scenarios. Using a driving simulator, we implement such models on a target vehicle and we show the resulting safety improvement, especially in terms of reduced collisions.

Does System-of-Systems Thinking Work for Self-Governance of Digitally Transforming Systems?

“…However, they may require some design and/or engineering efforts (cf. [14]). Human-centered socio-technical system development requires methodological support for articulation and documentation of stakeholder behavior and interests.…”

Context modeling for cyber‐physical systems

“…When explicitly documenting this context information alongside the regular engineering artifacts, permissible context configurations can be captured, which are known to retain adequate, safe, and secure functionality 24,29 . This can, for example, aid safety analysis and runtime adaptation, 30 as we will show in Section 6.…”