Domains and Applications of CPS
In Part 2 of this new Cyber Physical Systems series, I will discuss the different domains and applications of CPS in the real world including various examples and will also start to discuss the overall architecture.
Domains and Applications of CPS
To start, NIST considers the following applications for cyber physical systems. It covers the innovative products, what the CPS is, and the impact it can have. I will go into more depth in some of these.
Smart Manufacturing
The first domain and application is in Smart Manufacturing. It essentially uses technology (software and hardware) to optimize the productivity of manufacturing or delivery or services.
The end goal is to make the process more time and cost efficient, flexible, collaborative, higher quality products, and innovative products.
Smart manufacturing (defined by NIST) are
“systems that are fully integrated collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory in the supply chain network and customer needs."
Another group (Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition) define smart manufacturing as
"the ability to solve existing and future problems, be an open infrastructure that allows solutions to be implemented at the speed of business while creating advantage value".
A good definition video can be found here:
And a good example video can be found here:
In essence:
They solve problems
Connectivity (all systems/components need to talk in a way that makes sense)
Real-time decisions (you connect the data to solve the problems to make better decisions in real time)
A short quote to describe it:
Smart manufacturing is effectively having sensors/actuators taking measurements, sensing the environment and in real-time trying to improve the efficiency of the production line. In terms of the conceptual example, it visualizes a more decentralized manner of production.
Smart Emergency Response Systems (SERS)
Environmental emergencies can occur in various forms, as an earthquake, tornado, fire, hurricane (you get the idea). Each of these scenarios requires a different type and scale of treatment - speed is critical, you want to do this as fast and efficiently as possible.
These systems provide the survivors and emergency personnel with information to locate and assist each other during a disaster.
Some modern cars have things such as eCall/bCall which are automated emergency call that are now embedded into the vehicles in case of an accident/car crash. It would sense this information and automatically contact emergency response to effectively rescue you.
It would also send data to the emergency response teams such as the location, severity of the incident and more so you are able to get efficient emergency help as soon as possible.
A more relatable example for those without fancy modern cars are interlinked fire/smoke alarms (which are now mandatory in my country).
The idea is that if you live in a mansion (lucky you) and you have a fire happening in the other end of the mansion, the sensors would communicate and you would know the fire was happening.
Finally, another trend was the SmartAmerica Challenge which was a project with the goal to bring together research in CPS and combine test-beds , projects and activities from different sectors to show tangible and measurable benefits to the US economy and daily lives of US citizens.
In their own words, CPS
"is a name for the combination of the Internet of Things and System Control. So rather than just being able to “sense” where something is, CPS adds the capability to control the “thing” or allow it to interact with physical world around it".
Critical Infrastructure
Critical infrastructure is necessary for the survival and welfare of a nation and includes distribution of daily life supplies such as water, electricity, telecommunication, petrol, gas, etc...
Two examples of these systems include the power grid (smart grid) and water distribution systems.
A very short video to explain what critical infrastructure is:
The smart grid is a great example of CNI as the delivery of the power to your house/neighbourhood is almost completely controlled automatically by the sensors and actuators that are deployed.
For example, if a surge of power is detected in your neighbourhood, it could be hooked up to another transmission line instead of experiencing a blackout. Or say a transducer near your house fails, they would be able to hook you up with a different station in short time so you don't notice what happens behind the scenes.
In short, CPS in critical infrastructure allows a country to provide seamless and effective services with minimal downtime.
There are 16 different critical infrastructure sectors defined:
Chemical - manufactures, stores, uses and transports potentially dangerous chemicals upon which a range of other sectors rely on.
Commercial Facilities - includes diverse range of sites that draw large crowds of people
Communications - underlies the operations of all businesses, public safety organizations, and governments
Critical Manufacturing - identification, assessment, prioritization, and protection of nationally significant manufacturing industries within the sector that may be susceptible to manmade and natural disasters
Dams - delivers critical water retention and control services
Defense Industrial Base - enables research and development of military weapons/systems
Emergency Services - saves lives, protects property and the environment, assists communities impacted by disasters, and aids in recovery during emergencies.
Energy - it provides an enabling function across all critical infrastructure sectors
Financial Services - thousands of depository institutions, providers of investment products, insurance companies, other credit and financing organizations.
Food and Agriculture - estimated 2.1 million farms, 935,000 restaurants, and more than 200,000 registered food manufacturing, processing, and storage facilities.
Government Facilities - include general-use office buildings and special-use military installations, embassies, courthouses, national laboratories, and structures that may house critical equipment, systems, networks, and functions.
Healthcare and Public Health - protects all sectors of the economy from hazards such as terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters
Information Technology - central to the nation's security, economy, and public health.
Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste - power reactors that provide electricity to millions of Americans, to the medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients.
Transportation Systems - quickly, safely, and securely moves people and goods through the country and overseas.
Water and Wastewater Systems - ensuring the supply of drinking water and wastewater treatment
Air Transport
Air transport includes civil, military aviation and traffic management. With the introduction of drones and UAVs, CPS are expected to have an important role on the traffic management and control of these autonomous aerial vehicles.
An example is the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) or Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
In short, all the airplanes you travel on has to transmit information about its altitude, speed, bearing, direction, etc... and the airplanes are able to scan within a certain radius and communicate with other airplanes that could be interfering with them. They would then exchange information to avoid a collision.
This is a very high level overview. A more detailed explanation can be found here:
Healthcare and Medicine
This domain pertains to different aspects of patient care, home care, assisted living, smart operating room, smart medical devices etc...
For example, it could be for monitoring health and condition of the patients and taking necessary action with a pacemaker or a Buddi Clip. If your patient (god forbid) was having heart failure, you would have the pacemaker that has a sensor inside the patient. If it detected the heart was failing, it could kick in, keep them alive and alert emergency response systems.
A detailed video to explain more about this is located here:
Intelligent Transportation
This application uses monitoring, communication, computation and control mechanisms in transportation systems to improve the safety, coordination and traffic management.
The communication would involve vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication, satellite communication and so on.
A simple example of this is public transport like trains/buses that have live schedules on them or at the platforms indicating delays at certain stops on a train line or if it got held up at a certain station.
This works because they have GPS systems on them that are able to send the information to a centralized location that is fed into the bus stop/train station on the LED screen to notify you when the next one is coming. It could also potentially notify of how many seats are available.
In Korea, they have an intelligence transportation system that can explain it a little bit more:
Service Robots
These assist human beings by performing services for the welfare of humans. They can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotely controlled. Some of these services could be daily household chores or more critical such as search and rescue tasks.
There is an interesting video that discusses current service robots and what they do:
Building Automation
This relates to gaining optimal control of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC), lighting, fire prevention, security, access control, etc... through the deployment of sensors and actuators.
Some of the applications are interconnected, for example intelligent or smart homes and buildings are required to take advantage of having smart buildings.
A smart building essentially controls your heating, temperature, lighting etc... automatically, producing a more efficient and economic building with less environmental impact.
A good article to read about smart buildings/homes is located here.
CPS Overall Architecture
CPS architecture can be divided into 3 different layers and components:
Perception Layer
Transmission Layer
Application Layer
This allows you to study these components and layers individually and gain better knowledge of each layer.
The "Perception Layer" is the first layer and it is the recognition or sensing layer. It includes sensors, actuators, microphone, RFID tags, GPS, gyroscope, etc... that collects real time data in order to monitor, track, and interpret the physical world.
The "Transmission Layer" is the second layer. It exchanges/routes data between perception layer and application layer. Data transmission is done through the Internet using LAN, Bluetooth, Cellular (4G, 5G, LTE), Infrared, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, etc..
The "Application Layer" is the third layer that receives information from the perception layer, processes this information, determines the corresponding automated action, and finally issues commands that are executed by the perception layer.
The application layer would issue a command, which would then get transmitted back to the perception layer - through the transmission layer - where the actuators are and then for example, a valve would open, your thermostat would kick in and would start heating up your house.
