Invited Paper: Distributed Computing in Cyber-Physical Intelligence: Robotic Perception as an Example

Abstract

Intelligent cyber-physical systems, such as robots, are emerging computing devices that autonomously and directly interact with the physical world. The new characteristics of these devices motivate further research questions different from those addressed in traditional computing technology. Based on an in-depth investigation of the relationship between a typical example, robotic perception, and distributed computing, this paper tries to explore the challenges and opportunities brought by intelligent cyber-physical systems to distributed computing. The preliminary answers to three questions are given: "Why should we introduce distributed computing into cyber-physical intelligence", "What kind of distributed architecture can contribute to cyber-physical intelligence" and "What challenges brought by intelligent cyber-physical systems to distributed computing infrastructure?" A multi-scale hybrid distributed architecture for cyber-physical intelligence named as Music as well as our initial practices towards enabling this architecture is also presented.