Marco Caccamo

Ph.D. Scuola Superiore S. Anna, 2002

Research Statement

Cyber-Physical Systems represent the convergence of computing, communication, intelligent sensing and control of our physical environment. They are the future of real time embedded systems that are at the center of modern society's vital physical infrastructures as well as industrial products such as automobiles.

Even though the classical real-time computing theory has addressed the development of complex wired embedded systems (like avionics and automotive systems) during the last fifteen years, it is experiencing formidable new challenges as modern embedded systems are increasingly built by using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS). The use of these components in real-time safety-critical applications is theoretically challenging since COTS-based hardware platforms are mainly optimized for the average case performance and not for the worst-case scenario. From a resource management point of view, some key challenges include:

• Unpredictable behaviors of COTS-based real-time systems: the current generation of real-time resource virtualization, including the current version of avionics standard ARINC 653, is insufficient for providing the required level of temporal protection for safety-critical applications. Hidden channels introduce dependencies across different temporal partitions, not accounted for in current models, thereby invalidating the temporal isolation property. To provide true temporal partitioning, enforceable specifications must address the complex dependencies among all interacting resources.
• Lack of robustness and temporal QoS in wireless embedded systems: real-time wireless theory is still at an early stage; in fact, strong assumptions are often made in terms of network topology, operating environments, and channel quality. Temporal predictability cannot be achieved except under ideal network conditions. Lack of robustness is another serious concern especially in large scale deployments.

Our research aims at developing the scientific foundations for hardware/software co-design practices, theoretical frameworks and algorithms, which will allow us to analyze and verify the specified temporal and performance requirements of a cyber-physical system architecture before deployment time.