Formal Methods in Designing Critical Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are increasingly applied in critical contexts, where they have to support safe and secure operations, often subject to stringent timing requirements. Typical examples are scenarios involving automated living or working spaces in which humans operate, or human-robot collaborations (HRC) in modern manufacturing. Formal methods have been traditionally investigated to support modeling and verification of critical systems. In this paper, we review some of the main new challenges arising in the application of formal methods to modeling and verification of CPS. We do that by presenting two case studies (emergency response in a smart city and a smart manufacturing system), reflecting past work of the authors, from which some general lessons are distilled.