15-424: Foundations of Cyber-Physical Systems Lecture Notes on Foundations of Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) combine cyber capabilities (computation and/or commu-nication) with physical capabilities (motion or other physical processes). Cars, aircraft, and robots are prime examples, because they move physically in space in a way that is determined by discrete computerized control algorithms. Designing these algorithms to control CPSs is challenging due to their tight coupling with physical behavior. At the same time, it is vital that these algorithms be correct, since we rely on CPSs for safety-critical tasks like keeping aircraft from colliding. In this course we will strive to answer the fundamental question posed by Jeannette Wing: ”How canwe provide people with cyber-physical systems they can bet their lives on?” Students who successfully complete this course will: • Understand the core principles behind CPSs. • Develop models and controls. • Identify safety specifications and critical properties of CPSs. • Understand abstraction and system architectures. • Learn how to design by invariant. • Reason rigorously about CPS models. • Verify CPS models of appropriate scale