The objective of this research is to understand the loosely coupled networked control systems and to address the scientific and technological challenges that arise in their development and operation. The approach is to (1) develop a mathematical abstraction of the CPS, and an online actuation decision model that takes into account temporal and spatial dependencies among actions; (2) develop algorithms and policies to effectively manage the system and optimize its performance with respect to applications' QoS requirements; and (3) develop an agent-based event-driven framework to facilitate engineers easily monitor, (re)configure and control the system to achieve optimized results. The developed methodologies, algorithms, protocols and frameworks will be evaluated on testbeds and by our collaborating institution. The project provides fundamental understanding of loosely coupled networked control systems and a set of strategies in managing such systems. The components developed under this project enables the use of wireless-sensor-actuator networks for control systems found in a variety of disciplines and benefits waterway systems, air/ground transportation systems, power grid transmission systems, and the sort. The impact of this project is broadened through collaborations with our collaborating institution. This project provides a set of strategies and tools to help them meet the new standards. The inter-disciplinary labs and curriculum development at both undergraduate and graduate level with an emphasis on CPS interdisciplinary applications, theoretical foundations, and CPS implementations prepare our students as future workforce in the area of CPS applications.

The objective of this research is the design of innovative routing, planning and coordination strategies for robot networks, and their application to oceanography. The approach is organized in three synergistic thrusts: (1) the application of queueing theory and combinatorial techniques to networked robots performing sequential tasks, (2) the design of novel distributed optimization and coordination schemes relying only on asynchronous and asymmetric communication, (3) the design of practical routing and coordination algorithms for the USC Networked Aquatic Platforms. In collaboration with oceanographers and marine biologists, the project aims to design motion, communication and interaction protocols that maximize the amount of scientific information collected by the platforms. This proposal addresses multi-dimensional problems of relevance in Engineering and Computer Science by unifying fundamental concepts from multiple cyberphysical domains (robotics, autonomy, combinatorics, and network science). Our team has expertise in a broad range of scientific disciplines, including control theory and theoretical computer science and their applications to multi-agent systems, robotics and sensor networks. The proposed research will have a positive impact on the emerging technology of autonomous and reliable robotic networks, performing a broad range of environmental monitoring and logistic tasks. Our educational and outreach objectives are manifold and focus on (1) integrating the proposed research themes into undergraduate education and research, e.g., via the existing NSF REU site at the USC Computer Science Department, and (2) mounting a vigorous program of outreach activities, e.g., via a well-developed collaboration with the UCSB Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships.

The objective of this research is to develop an atomic force microscope based cyber-physical system that can enable automated, robust and efficient assembly of nanoscale components such as nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, nanowires and DNAs into nanodevices. The proposed approach is based on the premise that automated, robust and efficient nanoassembly can be achieved through tip based pushing in an atomic force microscope with intermittent local scanning of nanoscale components. In particular, in order to resolve temporally and spatially continuous movement of nanoscale components under tip pushing, we propose the combination of intermittent local scanning and interval non-uniform rational B-spline based isogeometric analysis in this research. Successful completion of this research would lead to foundational theories and algorithmic infrastructures for effective integration of physical operations (pushing and scanning) and computation (planning and simulation) for robust, efficient and automated nanoassembly. The resulting theories and algorithms will also be applicable to a broader set of cyber physical systems. If successful, this research will lead to leap progress in nanoscale assembly, from prototype demonstration to large-scale manufacturing. Through its integrated research, education and outreach activities, this project will provide advanced knowledge in cyber-physical systems and nanoassembly for students from high schools to graduate schools and will increase domestic students? interest in science and engineering and therefore strengthen our competitiveness in the global workforce.

The objective of this research is the creation of a coastal observing system that enables dense, in situ, 4D sensing through networked, sensor-equipped underwater drifters. The approach is to develop the technologies required to deploy a swarm of autonomous buoyancy controlled drifters, which are vehicles that can control their depth, but are otherwise carried entirely by the ocean currents. Such Lagrangian sampling promises to deliver a wealth of new data, ranging from applications in physical oceanography (mapping 3D currents), biology (observing the dispersion of larvae and nutrients), environmental science (tracking coastal pollutants and effluents from storm drains), and security (monitoring harbors and ports). This observing system fundamentally requires accurate positions of the drifters (to interpret the spatial correlations of data samples), swarm control algorithms (to achieve desired sampling topologies), and wireless communication (to coordinate between the individual drifters). This research will create distributed techniques to self-localize the drifter swarm, novel swarm control algorithms that enable topology manipulation while purely leveraging the stratified flow environment, and efficient wireless underwater communication for information sharing. This project has significant societal impact and educational elements. Underwater drifter swarms will enable novel insights into a wide array of scientific questions, including understanding plankton transport, accumulation and dispersion as well as monitoring harmful algal blooms. Undergraduates will play an active role in many aspects of this project, thereby offering them a uniquely interdisciplinary experience. Finally, outreach to high school students will occur through the UCSD COSMOS summer program.

The objective of this research is to develop new methods for verifying the safety of complex cyber-physical systems based on information derived from the wide variety of models and methods used throughout the design process. The approach is based on a new formalism to represent the architecture of systems with cyber components, physical components, and interconnections between these domains. Diverse engineering models of different aspects of the system will be associated through the cyber-physical architecture for the complete system. Formal logic will be developed to express and reason about inter-model consistency and to infer system-level properties from information derived from the domain-specific models. The project's intellectual merit lies in the creation of a comprehensive, unified framework for verifying properties of systems rich in both cyber and physical components. The new formal logic will make it possible to integrate information from the wide range of engineering domains and technical expertise required to design complex systems. This will lead to a principled, rigorous approach to system-level verification engineering for real-world cyber-physical systems. The application of the new methodology to verify the safety of cooperative intersection collision avoidance systems will have immediate impact on emerging technologies for safer automobile systems. A new interdisciplinary course in engineering and computer science on system-level design of cyber-physical systems will prepare a new cadre of graduates with the cross-cutting skills needed to develop safety-critical systems. Innovative educational modules will also be developed to inspire pre-college students to pursue education and careers in engineering and computer science.

The objective of this research is to develop advanced distributed monitoring and control systems for civil infrastructure. The approach uses a cyber-physical co-design of wireless sensor-actuator networks and structural monitoring and control algorithms. The unified cyber-physical system architecture and abstractions employ reusable middleware services to develop hierarchical structural monitoring and control systems. The intellectual merit of this multi-disciplinary research includes (1) a unified middleware architecture and abstractions for hierarchical sensing and control; (2) a reusable middleware service library for hierarchical structural monitoring and control; (3) customizable time synchronization and synchronized sensing routines; (4) a holistic energy management scheme that maps structural monitoring and control onto a distributed wireless sensor-actuator architecture; (5) dynamic sensor and actuator activation strategies to optimize for the requirements of monitoring, computing, and control; and (6) deployment and empirical validation of structural health monitoring and control systems on representative lab structures and in-service multi-span bridges. While the system constitutes a case study, it will enable the development of general principles that would be applicable to a broad range of engineering cyber-physical systems. This research will result in a reduction in the lifecycle costs and risks related to our civil infrastructure. The multi-disciplinary team will disseminate results throughout the international research community through open-source software and sensor board hardware. Education and outreach activities will be held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Summer School in Smart Structures Technology jointly hosted by the US, Japan, China, and Korea.

The objective of this research is to develop new principles and techniques for adaptive operation in highly dynamic physical environments, using miniaturized, energy-constrained devices. The approach is to use holistic cross-layer solutions that simultaneously address all aspects of the system, from low-level hardware design to higher-level communication and data fusion algorithms to top-level applications. In particular, this work focuses on body area sensor networks as emerging cyber-physical systems. The intellectual merit includes producing new principles regarding how cyber systems must be designed in order to continually adapt and respond to rapidly changing physical environments, sensed data, and application contexts in an energy-efficient manner. New cross-layer technologies will be created that use a holistic bottom-up and top-down design -- from silicon to user and back again. A novel system-on-a-chip hardware platform will be designed and fabricated using three cutting-edge technologies to reduce the cost of communication and computation by several orders of magnitude. The broad impact of this project will enable the wide range of applications and societal benefits promised by body area networks, including improving the quality and reducing the costs of healthcare. The technology will have broad implications for any cyber physical system that uses energy constrained wireless devices. A new seminar series will bring together experts from many fields (including domain experts, such as physicians and healthcare professionals). The key aspects of this work that deal with healthcare have the potential to attract women and minorities to the computer field.

Abstract The objective of this research is to develop advanced distributed monitoring and control systems for civil infrastructure. The approach uses a cyber-physical co-design of wireless sensor-actuator networks and structural monitoring and control algorithms. The unified cyber-physical system architecture and abstractions employ reusable middleware services to develop hierarchical structural monitoring and control systems. The intellectual merit of this multi-disciplinary research includes (1) a unified middleware architecture and abstractions for hierarchical sensing and control; (2) a reusable middleware service library for hierarchical structural monitoring and control; (3) customizable time synchronization and synchronized sensing routines; (4) a holistic energy management scheme that maps structural monitoring and control onto a distributed wireless sensor-actuator architecture; (5) dynamic sensor and actuator activation strategies to optimize for the requirements of monitoring, computing, and control; and (6) deployment and empirical validation of structural health monitoring and control systems on representative lab structures and in-service multi-span bridges. While the system constitutes a case study, it will enable the development of general principles that would be applicable to a broad range of engineering cyber-physical systems. This research will result in a reduction in the lifecycle costs and risks related to our civil infrastructure. The multi-disciplinary team will disseminate results throughout the international research community through open-source software and sensor board hardware. Education and outreach activities will be held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Summer School in Smart Structures Technology jointly hosted by the US, Japan, China, and Korea.

The objective of this research is to develop a new approach for composition of safety-critical cyber-physical systems from a small code base of verified components and a large code base of unverified commercial off-the-shelf components. The approach is novel in that it does not require generating the entire code base from formal languages, specifications, or models and does not require verification to be applied to all code. Instead, an explicit goal is to accommodate large amounts of legacy code that is typically too complex to verify. The project introduces a set of verified component wrappers around existing unverified code, such that specified global system properties hold. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its innovative approach for managing component interactions. Unexpected interactions are the primary source of failure in cyber-physical systems. A fundamental conceptual challenge is to understand the different interaction spaces of cyber-physical system components and determine a set of trigger conditions when certain interactions must be restricted to prevent failure. The project develops analysis techniques that help understand the different interaction types and provides component wrappers to restrict them when necessary. Broader impact lies in significantly reducing the design and composition effort for the next generation of safety-critical embedded systems. A variety of student projects are being offered to undergraduates and graduate students. The researchers especially encourage women and minorities to participate. Outreach activity, such as hosting K-12 students on school field/science days, further strengthen the educational component. Technology transfer to John Deere is expected.

This project has two closely related objectives. The first is to design and evaluate new Cyber Transportation Systems (CTS) applications for improved traffic safety and traffic operations. The second is to design and develop an integrated traffic-driving-networking simulator. The project takes a multi-disciplinary approach that combines cyber technologies, transportation engineering and human factors. While transportation serves indispensible functions to society, it does have its own negative impacts in terms of accidents, congestion, pollution, and energy consumption. To improve traffic safety, the project will develop and evaluate novel algorithms and protocols for prioritization, delivery and fusion of various warning messages so as to reduce drivers? response time and workload, prevent conflicting warnings, and minimize false alarms. To improve traffic operations, the project will focus on the design of next generation traffic management and control algorithms for both normal and emergency operations (e.g. during inclement weather and evacuation scenarios). Both human performance modeling methods and human subjects? experimental methods will be used to address the human element in this research. As the design and evaluation of CTS applications requires an effective development and testing platform linking the human, transportation and cyber elements, the project will also design and develop a simulator that combines the main features of a traffic simulator, a networking simulator and a driving simulator. The integrated simulator will allow a human driver to control a subject vehicle in a virtual environment with realistic background traffic, which is capable of communicating with the driver and other vehicles with CTS messages. Background traffic will be controlled by a realistic driver model based on our human factors research that accounts for CTS messages? impact on driver behavior. Intellectual Merits: The project explicitly considers human factors in the design and evaluation of CTS safety and operations applications, a topic which has not received adequate attention. Moreover, the proposed integrated simulator represents a first-of-a-kind simulator with unique features that can reduce the design and evaluation costs of new CTS applications. Broader Impacts: The proposed research can improve the safety, efficiency and environmental-friendless of transportation systems, which serve as the very foundation of modern societies and directly affects the quality of life. The integrated simulator will be used as a tool for teenage and elderly driver education and training, and to inspire minority, middle and high school students to pursue careers in math, science, and computer-related fields