Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems are pervasive, with embedded systems now responsible for running many aspects of critical infrastructure and services. Examples of cutting-edge innovations in the CPS space range from medical devices, to transportation, and home and industrial robots. Power grids, utilities, global transportation, and healthcare systems all rely on embedded CPSs for cybersecurity, availability, and efficiency. Unintended or malicious outages in these areas can cause devastating human, environmental, and financial tolls. CPSs offer unique technical challenges due to their integration with a physical environment and their prevalence as networked, low SWaP edge nodes. As CPSs are continually integrated into networks and gain increasing local autonomy over complex dynamics, their susceptibility to undesired access and manipulation increases. Students will study a variety of correct-by-construction tools for embedded CPSs, such as Rust, contract based formal methods, temporal logic decomposition, and runtime assurance monitors. Red teams will analyze design choices to find errant assumptions in correct-by-construction models to find vulnerabilities and create stronger design practices. This course applies these tools to CPS such as heterogeneous ground-based robots, distributed energy resources, and industrial control system PLCs.