Cyber-Physical Systems Group
"Making the interconnected world work in a flexible and efficient, but safe and reliable manner to the benefit of society"
Cyber-physical Systems that combine the physical world with the virtual world are starting to play an ever more important role in our daily lives. In this research group, we're looking at the fundamental concepts and challenges to realize the vision of an interconnected world. In particular, we focus on industrial communication systems.
In contrast to human-to-human communication, communication between machines requires a fundamentally new approach. While humans are inherently able to cope with imperfections in communication, machines require predictability. This covers aspects of correctness, latency, and context sensitivity, but also new sensing paradigms.
In our group, we especially focus on (safety-)critical industrial applications (Industry 4.0), but also on enabling new simulation methodologies for complex networked systems. Solving the fundamental challenges in these areas therefore enables the Internet of Everything.
Hot Topics
- In-network processing techniques for industrial control
- Co-design approaches
- Predictable system behavior
- Theoretical and practical limits
- Low-latency ultra-reliable wireless systems
- Network design
- Reliability-enhancing strategies
- Theoretical and practical limits
- Systems engineering and tool development
- Replacement of Expected Values (mean), with hard guarantees
- Guided design
Methodology and Tools
To convince stakeholders, new approaches need a solid base in theory, but – more importantly – also need validation and demonstration in practical prototypes. This leads to the following design circle.
- Requirements analysis
- Analytical studies using abstract models
- Simulations and/or verification
- Real-world experiments
- Start over
Projects
Current Projects
- Internet of Production: Technical foundations enabling cross-domain collaboration in production
(Interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence) - REFLEXES: A Co-Designed Architecture for In-Network Control
(DFG within Priority Program 1914 "Cyber-Physical Networking")
Selected Past Projects
- CONSENT: Conformance-driven and Auto-configured Security for Home and Industrial Networks
(within the NRW Postgraduate Training Programme) - FootPath: Infrastructure-less indoor navigation on smartphones
- HODRIAN: Development of a frequency agile, decentralized, reliable wireless system
- KoI: Development of a centralized, reliable, 1ms wireless system
- MemoSim: Avoiding of Redundant Computations in Simulation Parameter Studies by Memoization
(DFG project) - PREserv: Privacy Enhanced Sensing, Encoding, Relaying & Visualization
- Psychologist in a Pocket: Mental health (depression) screening on smartphones
- RatPack: Analysis of animal ecological and social networks with programmable sensor nodes
- WARPsim: A code-transparent simulation environment for WARP devices
Researchers
 | Justus Breyer, M.Sc. Researcher +49 241 80-21416 justus.breyer(at)comsys.rwth-aachen.de |  | Ina Berenice Fink, M.Sc. Researcher +49 241 80-21419 ina.fink(at)comsys.rwth-aachen.de |
 | René Glebke, M.Sc. Researcher +49 241 80-21424 rene.glebke(at)comsys.rwth-aachen.de |  | Dr. rer. nat. Mirko Stoffers Postdoctoral Researcher +49 241 80-21423 stoffers(at)comsys.rwth-aachen.de |
Available Theses
The Cyber-Physical Systems Group always has a range of thesis topics available for motivated and talented students. An excerpt of available theses can be seen from inside the RWTH University network.
Group publications
| 1. |
Is High Quality Sensing Really Necessary for Opportunistic Spectrum Usage?
Proc. of IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (GLOBECOM'10), page 1--6.
Publisher: IEEE,
December
2010
|