A survey on run-time supporting platforms for cyber physical systems

Cyber physical systems(CPSs) incorporate computation, communication, and physical processes. The deep coupling and continuous interaction between such processes lead to a significant increase in complexity in the design and implementation of CPSs. Consequently, whereas developing CPSs from scratch is inefficient, developing them with the aid of CPS run-time supporting platforms can be efficient. In recent years, much research has been actively conducted on CPS run-time supporting platforms. However, few surveys have been conducted on these platforms. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate existing CPS run-time supporting platforms by first classifying them into three categories from the viewpoint of software architecture: component-based platforms, service-based platforms, and agent-based platforms. Then, for each type, we detail its design philosophy, key technical problems, and corresponding solutions with specific use cases. Subsequently, we compare existing platforms from two aspects: construction approaches for CPS tasks and support for non-functional properties. Finally, we outline several important future research issues.