Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DEIS (Dependability Engineering Innovation for CPS - DEIS)

Teaser

Objectives Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) harbor the potential for vast economic and societal impact in domains such as mobility, home automation and delivery of health. At the same time, if such systems fail they may harm people and lead to temporary collapse of important...

Summary

Objectives
Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) harbor the potential for vast economic and societal impact in domains such as mobility, home automation and delivery of health. At the same time, if such systems fail they may harm people and lead to temporary collapse of important infrastructures with catastrophic results for industry and society. Thus, ensuring the dependability of such (CPS) systems is the key to unlocking their full potential and enabling European industries to develop confidently business models that will nurture their societal uptake.
The open and cooperative nature of CPS poses a significant new challenge in assuring dependability. The DEIS project addresses this important and unsolved challenges by developing technologies that form a science of dependable system integration. In the core of these technologies lies the concept of a Digital Dependability Identity (DDI) of a component or system. DDIs are composable and executable in the field facilitating (a) efficient synthesis of component and system dependability information over the supply chain and (b) effective evaluation of this information in-the-field for safe and secure composition of highly distributed and autonomous CPS. This concept shall be deployed and evaluated in four use cases:
> Automotive: development of a stand-alone system for intelligent physiological parameter monitoring
> Automotive: enhancement of an advanced driver simulator for evaluation of automated driving functions
> Railway: Plug-and-play environment for heterogeneous railway systems enabling dependable exchange of information between components and subsystems
> Healthcare enhancement of clinical decision app for oncology professional targeting higher degree of dependability for ad-hoc systems

Approach
The DEIS project relies on three technology stages and their respective application in four industrial use cases, see Figure 1. Consequently, the technical approach is divided into the four following steps
1. Setup of an Open Dependability Exchange (ODE) Metamodel and a universal format for specifying DDIs to support exchange of dependability information. This environment shall integrate (a) a metamodel defining an ontology for dependability, (b) syntax and semantics of DDIs as a metamodel and transformation rules to generate DDIs based on ODE, as well as (c) tooling support for the modeling and checking of DDIs
2. Framework for the creation and modular synthesis of DDIs to support efficient dependability assurance across industries and value chains during design time. This framework comprises (a) tooling support for expressing existing dependability models in ODE-compliant format, and (b) algorithms and tooling support for synthesis of DDIs, integration into dependability assurance cases and supporting change-impact analyses
3. Framework for the in-the-field dependability assurance in CPS to enable dependable integration of systems in the field. This next framework has two objectives: (a) development of infrastructures for evaluation of integration of new systems in the field, and (b) development of algorithms for the on-board evaluation of DDIs.
4. Development of autonomous and connected CPS use cases for different application domains, and validation of applicability and scalability of the DDIs. This last step targets the application of the different DDIs steps in different relevant industrial use cases

Work performed

At project midterm, the following results have been achieved
> Project up and running: the project structure and organization was successfully set-up. This includes regular synchronization, internal data exchange platform, corporate identity. The website is live, no major issues or delays were identified in the regular project’s risk assessment. The promised deliverables have been submitted.
> The DDI technology has matured from concept to specification and first tool implementations. Dedicated deliverables such as D3.1 (Specification of the Open Dependability Exchange metamodel), D4.1 (ODE Profile V1), D4.2 (Engineering tools for creation, integration, and maintenance of DDIs V1) and tool implementation as proof of concept are available.
> A dedicated communication package is available to communicate and share the core DDI technology with other R&D initiatives. This consists of
a. a set of public deliverables (D3.1, D4.1, D4.2)
b. comprehensive activities in terms of dissemination and peer reviewed publications, including the networking activities via the coordination & support action Platform4CPS
c. technology demonstrators
> Maturing the industrial use cases by further development and deployment of the different aspects of the DDI technology. Furthermore, the mapping between industrial use cases and DDI required technology (and thus resulting development priority) has been refined. Especially, management of privacy issues (GDPR) has been integrated in the DEIS project as industrial needs.

Even though some minor deviations could be noted (e.g., enhancement of D4.1 from demonstrator to public deliverable, integration of GDPR in the technical approach), all milestones have been achieved and deliverables submitted.

Final results

The DEIS project will impact the CPS market by providing new engineering methods and tools reducing significantly development time and cost of ownership, while supporting integration and interoperability of dependability information over the product lifecycle and over the supply chain. The development and application of the DDI approach on four use cases from three different application domains will illustrate the applicability of the DDI concept while increasing the competitiveness of the use case owners in their respective markets.
In the context of exploitation of the project results, a business model canvas has been drafted. An important outcome was the identification of two different levels of exploitation
- Core CPS assets, more for B2B business for dependability engineering community targeting efficiency increase for development and validation activities (e.g., “Environment for the efficient description, formalization and exchange of dependability information during development time”, or “Mechanisms for evaluation of dependability information at runtime”)
- Application related assets, targeting the usage and deployment of the DDI technology to improve the industry partners’ use cases, both for B2B and B2C business
During the second phase of the project, focus will be set to the consolidation and enhancement of the DDI approach toward runtime application, as well as further integration and deployment for the different industrial use cases. An important aspect will be the preparation of relevant success stories illustrating the benefits of DDIs and scalability to industrial needs, strengthening targeted communication especially toward other relevant R&D initiatives.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.deis-project.eu.