APESER 2010 Keynote Speech: Shangping Ren

Summary form only given. A cyber-physical system (CPS) features a tight combination of, and sophisticated interaction and coordination between physical and computational resources. It often consists of a large number of sensing and actuation devices that share information communication networks. There exists a class of CPS applications, such as water/gas distribution networks, power grid transmission networks, and ground/air traffic networks, which in essence are loosely coupled networked control systems where connections among individual components, or subsystems, are sometimes uncontrollable. Understanding this type of control systems and being able to address the scientific and technological challenges that arise in their development and operation will make the CPS vision a reality and make it possible to fully exploit the great potential and impact in a number of sectors that are critical to national security and competitiveness, including civil infrastructures, transportation systems, and others. Such Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) involve communication, computation, sensing, and actuating through heterogeneous and widely distributed physical devices and computational components. The close interactions of these systems with the physical world place events as the major building blocks for the realization of CPS. More specifically, the system components and design principles should be revisited with a strictly event-based approach.