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 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 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.