Model-Based Software Integration for Flexible Design of Cyber-Physical Systems

The paper discusses the design of complex embedded systems around intelligent physical worlds (IPW). Here, an IPW is an embodiment of control software functions wrapped around the raw physical processes to perform the core domain-specific adaptation activities. The IPW exhibits an intelligent behavior over a limited operating region of the system—in contrast with the traditional models where the physical world is basically dumb. To perform over a wider range of operating conditions, the IPW interacts with an intelligent computational world (ICW) to patch itself with suitable control parameters and rules/procedures relevant in those changed conditions. The modular decomposition of an application into IPW and ICW lowers the overall software complexity of building embedded systems.