Cyber-Physical Systems Lab

Competences

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are tightly integrated with their surrounding environment, via sensors, A/D and D/A converters, and actors. Due to their particular application areas, highly specialized sensors, processors and actors are common. Accordingly, there is a large variety of different specification approaches for CPS - in contrast to classical software engineering approaches.

Based on practical experiments using robot kits and computers, the basics of specification and modelling of CPS are taught. The lab introduces into the area (basic notions, characteristical properties) and their specification techniques (models of computation, hierarchical automata, data flow models, petri nets, imperative approaches). Since CPS frequently perform control tasks, the lab's experiments will base on simple control applications. The experiments will use state-of-the-art industrial specification tools (MATLAB/Simulink, LabVIEW, C++) in order to model cyber-physical systems that interact with the environment via sensors and actors.

After successful attendance of the lab, students are able to develop simple CPS. They understand the interdependencies between a CPS and its surrounding processes which stem from the fact that a CPS interacts with the environment via sensors, A/D converters, digital processors, D/A converters and actors. The lab enables students to compare modelling approaches, to evaluate their advantages and limitations, and to decide which technique to use for a concrete task. They will be able to apply these techniques to practical problems. They obtain first experiences in hardware-related software development, in industry-relevant specification tools and in the area of simple control applications.

Contents

  • Experiment 1: Programming the Robot in C++
  • Experiment 2: Programming the Robot in Matlab/Simulink
  • Experiment 3: Programming the Robot in LabVIEW

Bibliography

  • Peter Marwedel. Embedded System Design - Embedded System Foundations of Cyber-Physical Systems. 2nd Edition, Springer, 2012.
  • Additional presentations and slides.

Requirements