A Formal Framework for Aspect-Oriented Specification of Cyber Physical Systems

Abstract

Cyber physical systems consist of three parts: the dynamics and control (DC) parts, the communication part and computation part. In this paper, we propose an aspect-oriented specification framework for cyber physical systems. The proposed aspect–oriented formal framework is such a formwork. On the one hand, it can deal with continuous-time systems based on sets of ordinary differential equations. On the other hand, it can deal with discrete-event systems, without continuous variables or differential equations. We present a combination of the formal methods Timed-CSP, ZimOO and differential (algebraic) equations or differential logic. Each method can describe certain aspects of a cyber physical system: CSP can describe communication, concurrent and real-time requirements; ZimOO expresses complex data operations; differential (algebraic) equations model the dynamics and control (DC) parts. This aspect oriented formal specification framework simplifies the requirement analysis process of cyber physical systems. A case study of train control system illustrates the specification process of aspect-oriented formal specification for cyber physical systems.