Robust performance analysis and system security control of cyber-physical system

Abstract

As extensive applications of embedded techniques and intelligent information processing approaches, many existing systems such as power grids, traffic systems, healthcare systems, manufacturing systems, and so on have exhibited more and more characteristics of CPSs which extensively use advanced computing, communication and control (3C) techniques. Although the development of CPSs is very rapid, the theory that underpins its design, development and analysis is still at its infant stage. Self-healing is an important property of a CPS. In other words, a CPS must be able to recover from a certain degree of system failures and network attacks. However, without any control techniques, the open nature of the communication network will make the CPS very vulnerable. Hence, some robust control techniques shall be developed to guarantee the security of a CPS There are many factors that can influence the safety of a CPS, e.g., actuator faults, malicious attacks, unreliable communication links, variable network topology, program bugs, large load fluctuations, etc. Sometimes, the local fault may lead to a chain reaction and cause the entire CPS to collapse. A CPS is extremely expensive and we usually cannot afford the breakdown of the entire CPS by some subsystem failures or malicious attacks. In this context, the robustness and system security are of utmost important for a CPS. It is noted that the different factors influencing the safety of a CPS have different mechanisms. Most mechanical faults have some particular systematic patterns such as actuator fault, variable network topology, large load fluctuations, etc. However, some other faults are irregular, e.g., malicious attacks. Hence, in this project, we will investigate 1) Distributed fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control. 2) Active defense for a CPS against cyber-attacks.