CPS: Frontiers: Collaborative Research: Foundations of Resilient CybEr-Physical Systems (FORCES)

This project advances the scientific knowledge on design methods for improving the resilience of civil infrastructures to disruptions. To improve resilience, critical services in civil infrastructure sectors must utilize new diagnostic tools and control algorithms that ensure survivability in the presence of both security attacks and random faults, and also include the models of incentives of human decision makers in the design process. This project will develop a practical design toolkit and platform to enable the integration of resiliency-improving control tools and incentive schemes for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) deployed in civil infrastructures. Theory and algorithms will be applied to assess resiliency levels, select strategies to improve performance, and provide reliability and security guarantees for sector-specific CPS functionalities in water, electricity distribution and transportation infrastructures. The main focus is on resilient design of network control functionalities to address problems of incident response, demand management, and supply uncertainties. More broadly, the knowledge and tools from this project will influence CPS designs in water, transport, and energy sectors, and also be applicable to other systems such as supply-chains for food, oil and gas. The proposed platform will be used to develop case studies, test implementations, and design projects for supporting education and outreach activities.

Current CPS deployments lack integrated components designed to survive in uncertain environments subject to random events and the actions of strategic entities. The toolkit (i) models the propagation of disruptions due to failure of cyber-physical components, (ii) detects and responds to both local and network-level failures, and (iii) designs incentive schemes that improve aggregate levels of public good (e.g., decongestion, security), while accounting for network interdependencies and private information among strategic entities. The validation approach uses real-world data collected from public sources, test cases developed by domain experts, and simulation software. These tools are integrated to provide a multi-layer design platform, which explores the design space to synthesize solutions that meet resiliency specifications. The platform ensures that synthesized implementations meet functionality requirements, and also estimates the performance guarantees necessary for CPS resilience. This modeling, validation, exploration, and synthesis approach provides a scientific basis for resilience engineering. It supports CPS education by providing a platform and structured workflow for future engineers to approach and appreciate implementation realities and socio-technical constraints.