Trans-Atlantic Modelling and Simulation For Cyber-Physical Systems

Project Information

TAMS4CPS

Grant agreement ID: 644821

DOI

10.3030/644821

Project closed

EC signature date 26 November 2014

Start date 1 February 2015

End date 31 January 2017

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 399 650,00

EU contribution

€ 399 649,75

Coordinated by

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TAMS4CPS (Trans-Atlantic Modelling and Simulation For Cyber-Physical Systems)

Reporting period: 2016-02-01 to 2017-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Smart systems, in which sophisticated software/hardware is embedded in physical systems, are part of everyday life. From simple products with embedded decision-making software, to massive systems in which hundreds of systems (each with hundreds or thousands of embedded processors) interoperate, the use of cyber-physical systems (CPS) is likely to grow. The forms of such expansion will be in the numbers deployed, the sophistication of the systems and applications, the levels of autonomous (machine) decision-making, and the degree of networking. Significant research effort is taking place internationally to exploit the new opportunities created by CPS, while at the same time managing the increasing levels of complexity that are concomitant with these expansions.
For Europe to benefit from growth in CPS, while avoiding the pitfalls that such complexity creates, there must be advances in the modelling and simulation (M&S) capability for CPS design and operation. Collaborative research with the US will be an opportunity to advance European M&S capabilities for CPS.
The overall aim of TAMS4CPS is to lay the foundations for concrete EU-US collaboration in modelling and simulation for cyber-physical systems.
The aim was achieved by successfully addressing the following objectives:
• To define the scope of CPS for US and Europe and, based on this, an agreed scope for collaboration
• To identify priority research and development needs for modelling and simulation for cyber-physical systems
• To create a strategic research agenda for collaboration in modelling and simulation for cyber-physical systems, which is endorsed by European and US industry and academia
• To provide key enablers for Trans-Atlantic collaboration in modelling and simulation for cyber-physical systems
• To disseminate the findings of the project to the research and user communities in both the European Union and the US
The TAMS4CPS Support Action realised the aim by creating:
• A strategic research and collaboration agenda, agreed by researchers in EU and US
• A set of test cases for use by model developers to perform collaborative evaluation
• A state of the art report supported by web-based information to act as a baseline for collaborative research

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Scope of M&S and CPS
The relationship of CPS to Systems of Systems (SoS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) has been defined, as shown in figure 1 and the type of CPS problems that must be modelled are shown in figure 2, in terms of increasing complexity.
The primary output of TAMS4CPS is a Strategic Research Agenda for Collaboration (SRAC) between EU and US in the area of M&S for CPS, which covers both the technical areas of interest and also the mechanisms through which collaborative endeavours may be pursued. The following recommendations have been published:
Recommendations to EC
1. The EC should work with appropriate US funding agencies to create test beds for CPS and to create suitable collaborative structures for effective joint exploitation of existing test beds.
2. For jointly funded activities between the EU and US, the EC should target US funding agencies whose support focuses on applied research at Technology Readiness Levels above fundamental science.
3. The EC and appropriate US funding agencies should take deliberate action to simplify the framework for trans-Atlantic collaboration by adopting best practice, as exemplified in the EU-NIH agreement.
4. The EC should establish a joint project with US agencies to create a common plan for collaborative CPS development and should ensure a single point of contact for US stakeholders.
5. As a matter of urgency, Europe and the US should collaborate on CPS-related standards to protect their industries from the imposition of standards from elsewhere.
6. The EC should increase the funding of researcher mobility between EU and US, including mainstreaming this in future EIT KICs.
Recommendations to researchers and EC
7. The EC should promote joint programmes in the technical areas described in the agenda (below)
8. European researchers should seek to identify and collaborate with US leaders in the technical areas identified in the agenda (below)
Technical Themes
The technical areas are the following seven themes:
• Theme 1: Test beds are mainly required for ensuring interoperability between CPS and for verification either of models or of the CPS themselves.
• Theme 2: Inclusion of human factors in modelling and simulation.
• Theme 3: Open framework for model interoperability.
• Theme 4: Incorporation of security architectural features into models.
• Theme 5: Combining formal verification and simulation technology.
• Theme 6: An evolutionary approach to testing and evaluation of adaptive / resilient CPS.
• Theme 7: Big-data analytics modelling via machine learning.
State of the Art
An analysis of state of the art (SoA) in M&S for CPS has been published as a report supported by an online database. It should be noted that this analysis covers the areas for collaboration and is not supposed to be a generally applicable SoA for this area. Certain areas whilst important for research are not appropriate for collaborative activity.
CPS Test Cases for M&S
TAMS4CPS defined characteristics of good test cases that could be used as an initiator of collaboration (e.g. for comparison between different modelling techniques) and has documented four publically available test cases applicable to a number of Modelling and Simulation approaches. The test cases are:
• Katrina response test case
• Toyota powertrain benchmark (S-TALIRO) test case
• Artificial pancreas device system test case
• Cooperative driving test case

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The purpose of TAMS4CPS is to indicate future directions for collaborative research between EU and US. The technical themes identified in the project provide a prioritisation through which the state of the art in M&S for CPS may be advanced. Furthermore, the identification of a variety of collaborative mechanisms provides a set of straight-forward and complex frameworks through which the European Commission may promote collaborative research with the US. There is a lot of coincidence between the recommendations of TAMS4CPS and other projects examining collaborative opportunities with the US; the way forward should, therefore, be clear. But it must be borne in mind that the political will must accompany the technical willingness and the relationship between the EU and US is undergoing some changes at the time of this report.
There are two major technical issues to be resolved through collaborative activity. The first concerns the need for test beds to develop and validate models and the CPS themselves. This is required by researchers on both sides of the Atlantic and the impact of increasing access to test beds will likely enable small and medium enterprises to develop CPS more rapidly. The second major issue is verification; the complexity and size of CPS requiring verification activities make traditional verification approaches untenable. New approaches to verification of CPS are desperately needed. Collaborative activity towards a new paradigm for verification could lead to much more rapid deployment of CPS, provided a new paradigm is possible in the commercial world.

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