Cyber-Physical Software Systems for Smart Worlds: A Case Study of Intelligent Transportation System

The paper discusses the design of cyber-physical systems software around intelligent physical worlds (IPW). An IPW is the embodiment of control software functions wrapped around the external world processes. The IPW performs core domain-specific activities while adapting its behavior to the changing environment conditions and user inputs. 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 work 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 a complex adaptive system into IPW and ICW lowers the overall software complexity, simplifies the system verification, and promotes an easier evolution of system features. As an intelligence functionality, a network system in our approach employs redundant sensing as a means to improve the quality of detection & aggregation of events occurring in the environment. The paper illuminates our concept of IPW with case study of vehicular traffic management network.