Challenges in developing software for cyber-physical systems

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems are systems that integrate the digital computational world with the real physical world, often using sensors and actuators as interfaces. There exist many application domains of cyber-physical systems such as autonomous systems, process control systems, robotic systems, and context-aware systems. The physical world is a complex and continuous world that changes in real-time while the computational world is a simplified and discrete world that often stores a delayed, likely inaccurate image of the physical world using sensory data. The mismatch between these two worlds poses unique challenges of developing software for cyber-physical systems.