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The Need of Proper Programming Models for CPS

Authors:
Martin Richter
Christine Jakobs
Matthias Werner

Keywords: cyber-physical systems; distribution; mobility; programming models; context awareness

Abstract:
Mobile cyber-physical systems consist of possibly moving heterogeneous execution units, which interact with their environment through sensors and actuators. Programming such systems without taking motion into account has already proven to be error-prone and complex, as challenges like communication or programming multiple different devices have to be considered by the developer. Corresponding programming models abstract from these challenges through the provision of transparencies. This allows the programmer to focus on describing the behavior of the system instead of managing its infrastructure. When mobility is taken into account, the devices tasks may depend on their positions in space. Therefore, location and motion awareness have to be supplied. This impedes the provision of distribution transparency, as the programmer has to consider the movement and positioning of certain objects. In contrast to supporting awareness, providing motion and location transparency allows to maintain distribution transparency. In exchange, this limits the developers ability to consider the positioning and movement of the devices. Therefore, a programming model, which bridges the gap between maintaining transparencies and providing awareness is required to enable the developer to focus on describing the behavior of the possibly mobile system as a whole. This paper aims to show that there is a need for research on such models. To achieve this goal, a systematic literature review is performed. Its main target is the assessment of existing programming models, regarding their provided types of awareness and transparency. To classify on which aspects of the system the considered programming models focus, an architectural model for mobile cyber-physical systems is introduced. Additionally, desired programming model properties are defined with respect to the presented architectural model. This allows to determine, in which way the considered approaches fail or succeed in handling the described challenges. Therefore, a conclusion on the need of programming models for mobile cyber-physical systems can be drawn.

Pages: 51 to 56

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2020

Publication date: October 25, 2020

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4278

ISBN: 978-1-61208-811-2

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from October 25, 2020 to October 29, 2020