This project develops a framework for design automation of cyber-physical systems to augment human interaction with complex systems that integrate across computational and physical environments. As a design driver, the project develops a Body/Brain Computer Interface (BBCI) for the population of functionally locked-in individuals, who are unable to interact with the physical world through movement and speech. The BBCI will enable communication with other humans through expressive language generation and interaction with the environment through robotic manipulators. Utilizing advances in system-level design, this project develops a holistic framework for design and implementation of heterogeneous human-in-the-loop cyber-physical systems composed of physically distributed, networked components. It will advance BBCI technology by incorporating context aware inference and learning of task-specific human intent estimation in applications involving semi-autonomous robotic actuators and an efficient wireless communication framework. The results of this project are expected to significantly speed up the design of complex cyber-physical systems. By accelerating the path from idea to prototype, this work shortens the time frame of and cost of development for assistive technology to improve the quality-of-life for functionally locked-in individuals. This project establishes an open prototyping platform and a design framework for rapid exploration of other novel human-in-the-loop applications. The open platform will foster undergraduate involvement in cyber-physical systems research, building confidence and expertise. In addition, new activities at the Museum of Science in Boston will engage visitors to experiment with systematic design principles in context of a brain computer interface application, while offering learning opportunities about basic brain functions.

This project develops a framework for design automation of cyber-physical systems to augment human interaction with complex systems that integrate across computational and physical environments. As a design driver, the project develops a Body/Brain Computer Interface (BBCI) for the population of functionally locked-in individuals, who are unable to interact with the physical world through movement and speech. The BBCI will enable communication with other humans through expressive language generation and interaction with the environment through robotic manipulators. Utilizing advances in system-level design, this project develops a holistic framework for design and implementation of heterogeneous human-in-the-loop cyber-physical systems composed of physically distributed, networked components. It will advance BBCI technology by incorporating context aware inference and learning of task-specific human intent estimation in applications involving semi-autonomous robotic actuators and an efficient wireless communication framework. The results of this project are expected to significantly speed up the design of complex cyber-physical systems. By accelerating the path from idea to prototype, this work shortens the time frame of and cost of development for assistive technology to improve the quality-of-life for functionally locked-in individuals. This project establishes an open prototyping platform and a design framework for rapid exploration of other novel human-in-the-loop applications. The open platform will foster undergraduate involvement in cyber-physical systems research, building confidence and expertise. In addition, new activities at the Museum of Science in Boston will engage visitors to experiment with systematic design principles in context of a brain computer interface application, while offering learning opportunities about basic brain functions.

The national transmission networks that deliver high voltage electric power underpin our society and are central to the ongoing transformation of the American energy infrastructure. Transmission networks are very large and complicated engineering systems, and "keeping the lights on" as the transformation of the American energy infrastructure proceeds is a fundamental engineering challenge involving both the physical aspects of the equipment and the cyber aspects of the controls, communications, and computers that run the system. The project develops new principles of cyber-physical engineering by focusing on instabilities of electric power networks that can cause blackouts. It proposes novel approaches to analyze these instabilities and to design cyber-physical control methods to monitor, detect, and mitigate them. The controls must perform robustly in the presence of variability and uncertainty in electric generation, loads, communications, and equipment status, and during abnormal states caused by natural faults or malicious attacks. The research produces cyber-physical engineering methodologies that specifically help to mitigate power system blackouts and more generally show the way forward in designing robust cyber-physical systems in environments characterized by rich dynamics and uncertainty. Education and outreach efforts involve students at high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, as well as dissemination of results to the public and the engineering and applied science communities in industry, government and universities.

Cyber-physical systems regulating critical infrastructures, such as electrical grids and water networks, are increasingly geographically distributed, necessitating communication between remote sensors, actuators and controllers. The combination of networked computational and physical subsystems leads to new security vulnerabilities that adversaries can exploit with devastating consequences. A synchronized attack on the interdependent network components and physical plants can create complex and new security vulnerabilities that cannot be addressed by securing the constituent systems individually. This project takes a holistic view by utilizing the properties of physical systems to design new secure protocols and architectures for cyber-physical systems (CPS) through a unified conceptual framework, which uses models for the physical system and the communication/computation network to define precise attack models and vulnerabilities. These mathematical models are used to design algorithms and protocols with provable operational security guarantees, thus enabling the design of more trustworthy architectures and components. The algorithms, protocols, and architectures are validated on CPS testbeds targeting building, automobile, and smart-grid applications. Additionally, the research is being integrated into the curriculum via the creation of novel coursework combining the underlying control, information theory, cryptography, and embedded system concepts. By improving the protection of critical cyber-physical infrastructure against emerging threats, this research is expected to provide direct socio-economic benefits, ranging from individual organizations to a national scale. The inter-disciplinary team of this project will integrate teaching and curriculum development with the research, contributing to the training of a new generation of engineers well versed in the design of trustworthy cyber-physical systems.

Robotic devices are excellent candidates for delivering repetitive and intensive practice that can restore functional use of the upper limbs, even years after a stroke. Rehabilitation of the wrist and hand in particular are critical for recovery of function, since hands are the primary interface with the world. However, robotic devices that focus on hand rehabilitation are limited due to excessive cost, complexity, or limited functionality. A design and control strategy for such devices that bridges this gap is critical. The goals of the research effort are to analyze the properties and role of passive dynamics, defined by joint stiffness and damping, in the human hand and wrist during grasping and manipulation, and then mimic such properties in a wrist-hand exoskeleton for stroke rehabilitation. The project will culminate with device testing in collaboration with rehabilitation clinicians. A significant problem in robotic rehabilitation is how to provide assisted movement to the multiple degrees of freedom of the hand in order to restore motor coordination and function, with a system that is practical for deployment in a clinical environment. Armed with a clearer understanding of the mechanisms underlying passive dynamics and control of systems exhibiting such behavior, this project will inform the design of more effective wrist/hand rehabilitation devices that are feasible for clinical use. In addition, the proposed project will create a unique interdisciplinary environment enabling education, training, and co-advising of graduate students, undergraduate research, and significant and targeted outreach activities to underrepresented groups in science and engineering.

The national transmission networks that deliver high voltage electric power underpin our society and are central to the ongoing transformation of the American energy infrastructure. Transmission networks are very large and complicated engineering systems, and "keeping the lights on" as the transformation of the American energy infrastructure proceeds is a fundamental engineering challenge involving both the physical aspects of the equipment and the cyber aspects of the controls, communications, and computers that run the system. The project develops new principles of cyber-physical engineering by focusing on instabilities of electric power networks that can cause blackouts. It proposes novel approaches to analyze these instabilities and to design cyber-physical control methods to monitor, detect, and mitigate them. The controls must perform robustly in the presence of variability and uncertainty in electric generation, loads, communications, and equipment status, and during abnormal states caused by natural faults or malicious attacks. The research produces cyber-physical engineering methodologies that specifically help to mitigate power system blackouts and more generally show the way forward in designing robust cyber-physical systems in environments characterized by rich dynamics and uncertainty. Education and outreach efforts involve students at high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, as well as dissemination of results to the public and the engineering and applied science communities in industry, government and universities.

This project aims to develop a computational framework and a physical platform for enabling dense networks of micro-robotic swarms for medical applications. The approach relies on a new stochastic framework for design and analysis of dense networks, as well as new fabrication and characterization methods for building and understanding bacteria propelled micro-robotic swarms. This project enhances the CPS science beyond passive networks of millimeter-scale bio-implantable devices with active networks of micro-robotic swarms that could be more effective in combating various critical diseases with minimal impact on the human body. Three major research objectives are proposed in this project: 1) Statistical physics inspired approach to the modeling and analysis of dense networks of swarms: The theory envisioned for characterizing the dynamics of dense networks of swarms aims at achieving ?beyond Turing? computation via dense networks, designing autonomous reliable communication protocols for dense networks, and estimating and controlling their performance; 2) Fabrication and steering of swarms of bacteria propelled swimming micro-robots: Large numbers of both chemotactic and magnetotactic bacteria integrated micro-robotic bodies will be fabricated using self-assembly and micro/nano-fabrication methods. Chemotaxis and magnetotaxis will be respectively used as passive and active steering mechanisms for navigating the swarms of micro-robots in small spaces to perform specified tasks; 3) Characterization of the behavior and control of bacteria propelled micro-robotic swarms: To validate and fine tune the proposed computational models, the motion and behavior of single and large numbers of bacteria propelled micro-robots will be characterized using optical and other microscopy methods. Intellectual Merit: The research breakthrough proposed herein consists of building a new physical platform for micro-robotic swarms by using attached bacteria as on-board actuators and chemotaxis and magnetotaxis as passive and active steering control methods, and developing a new computational dense network framework for designing and analyzing such stochastic micro-robotic swarms. The statistical computational framework to be developed in this study will improve understanding of swarming behavior and control of large numbers of bacteria propelled micro-robots. This framework offers an integrated approach towards CPS design that is meant to operate under uncertainty conditions, yet be able to succeed in performing a specified task through self-organization and collective behavior. This bottom-top approach is meant to improve the theoretical foundations of the current computational models of CPS. Broader Impacts: The resulting computational framework and the physical platform could be adapted to a wide range of different stochastic dense network systems ranging from migration of cancer cell populations or dynamics of virus populations to immune system support and modeling. The proposed swarms of bacteria integrated micro-robots have potential future applications in health-care for the diagnosis of diseases and targeted drug delivery inside the stagnant or low velocity fluids of the human body or the medical diagnosis inside lab-on-a-chip microfluidic devices. Such health-care applications could improve the welfare of our society. To foster learning and training of next generation CPS workforce, the PIs plan to emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching topics that are usually offered in disjoint tracks. The PIs will integrate the CPS research activities in this study into their newly developed courses, and they will also teach one of these courses jointly. As a joint international educational activity, a three-day Summer School will be held alternately in US and Europe every year on various CPS topics related to our project. This will help building a strong international CPS community and training US and European students in CPS topics. The PIs will present the research results of this project to children, K-12 students, K-12 teachers, IEEE and ACM student members, and college students inside and outside of USA through public lectures. This project and the Sloan Foundation will support underrepresented and minority graduate students in the project. Moreover, underrepresented minority undergraduate students will be trained through the CMU ICES summer outreach program called The SURE Thing and the NSF REU program.

This project integrates digital microfluidics with thin-film photodetectors and control software to realize DNA target sensing using fluorescence. This cyberphysical vision is being realized through tight coupling between physical components, the microfluidic platform and miniaturized sensors, and cyber components, software for control, decision-making, and adaptation. Such a level of integration, decision, and controlled reconfigurability is a significant step forward in clinical diagnostics using digital microfluidic biochips. Topics being investigated include: (i) silicon-based digital microfluidics and integration of optical sensors; (ii) closed-loop operation and run-time optimization under software control; (iii) decision-tree architectures, adaptive reconfiguration, and error recovery. A complete testbed is being developed for nucleic acid identification on a fabricated chip with detection sites. Cyberphysical system integration will transform biochip use, in the same way as compilers and operating systems revolutionized computing, and design automation revolutionized chip design. Benefits to society include the potential to transform personalized medicine, home diagnostics, and portable diagnostics. Integration of digital microfluidics, optical sensing, and software control has the potential to create systems that can be used by any person, regardless of sample preparation skill. One example is the identification of bacterial DNA associated with bacterial blood infection (sepsis), which results in death if not diagnosed early (this is in the top 10 causes of death in the US). Students are being trained through a Senior Design course to understand the design

The computing landscape is a richly-heterogeneous space including both fixed and mobile nodes with a large variety of sensing, actuation and computational capabilities (including mobile devices, home electronics, taxis, robotic drones, etc.). Cyber-physical applications built on these devices have the potential to gather data on, analyze, and adapt to or control a range of environments. The challenge, however, is that Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are difficult to program, and even more difficult to incorporate from one deployment to another, or to dynamically manage as nodes availability changes. Thus, CPS applications are too often programmed in a brittle fashion that impedes their ability to efficiently use available compute/sense/actuate resources beyond a one-shot deployment. In response, this project is improving CPS design and control in four primary thrusts. First, the project is developing CPSISA, an abstraction layer or intermediate representation to facilitate CPS applications expressing their compute/sense/actuate requirements to lower-level mapping and management layers. Second, the project is exploring methods of providing a Device Attribute Catalog (DAC) that summarizes a region?s available CPS nodes and their capabilities. Third, this research is improving and exploiting the ability to model, predict, and control the mobility of CPS nodes. When some CPS nodes are mobile, the accuracy and performance of a CPS application fundamentally is a function of where nodes will be positioned at any moment in time. This work exploits both static statistical coverage analysis and dynamic prediction and interpolation. Fourth, using CPSISA, DAC, and other resources as input, the team is developing tools to statically or dynamically optimize mappings of CPS applications onto available resources. To test ideas in a detailed and concrete manner, two applications are being studied and deployed. First, the FireGuide application for emergency response assistance uses groups of mobile/robotic nodes for guiding first responders in building fires. Second, a Regional Traffic Management (RTM) application demonstrates ideas at the regional level and will explore CPS scenarios for automobile traffic sensing and dynamic toll pricing. The proposed research program has the potential for broad societal impact. Studies that improve how building emergencies are handled will improve emergency response safety both for occupants and for first responders around the country. Likewise, the deployment plans regarding regional traffic management will improve traffic patterns, fuel efficiency and quality-of-life for commuters across the United States. The research team is distributing the CPSISA, CPSMap, and CPSDyn software frameworks to allow other researchers and developers to make use of them. Extensive industry collaborations foster effective technology transfer. Finally, the project continues and broadens the PIs? prior track records for undergraduate research advising and for mentoring women students and members of under-represented minority groups.

This project proposes a cross-layer framework in which vehicular wireless networking and platoon control interact with each other to tame cyber-physical uncertainties. Based on the real-time capacity region of wireless networking and the physical process of vehicle movements, platoon control selects its control strategies and the corresponding requirements on the timeliness and throughput of wireless data delivery to optimize control performance. Based on the requirements from platoon control, wireless networking controls co-channel interference and adapts to cyber-physical uncertainties to ensure the timeliness and throughput of single-hop as well as multi-hop broadcast. For proactively addressing the impact of vehicle mobility on wireless broadcast, wireless networking also leverages input from platoon control on vehicle movement prediction. In realizing the cross-layer framework, wireless scheduling ensures agile, predictable interference control in the presence of cyber-physical uncertainties. If successful, this project will lead to a general and rigorous framework for wireless vehicular cyber-physical network control that will enable safe, efficient, and clean transportation. The principles and techniques for taming cyber-physical uncertainties will provide insight into other application domains of wireless networked sensing and control such as unmanned aerial vehicles and smart power grids. This project will also develop integrative research and education on wireless cyber-physical systems through multi-level, multi-component educational activities.