Connecting the physical space and cyber space of autonomous systems more closely

Abstract

Autonomous machines are typically subject to real-time constraints, but traditional real-time scheduling theories are not adequate to guarantee their real-time properties. One fundamental reason is that autonomous machines in the physical space and the ones in the cyber space percept timing correctness inconsistently. This paper proposes a novel framework to tie autonomous machines in the physical space and the ones in the cyber space more closely. Under this framework, the timing correctness of autonomous machines in the physical space can be correctly perceived by autonomous machines in the cyber space by properly configuring the timing parameters. Specifically, we develop an integer linear program (ILP) to derive such a feasible configuration of an autonomous machine’s timing parameters and propose an incremental algorithm to accelerate the process of solving the ILP. Experiment results show that our method is capable of designing timing-correct autonomous machines that can cope with the physical environment with more urgent events.