Contribution to heterogeneous service provision and flexible process execution in humanized cyber-physical systems

Resumen

This PhD Thesis work is developed in the context of Humanized Cyber-Physical Systems and contributes to the heterogeneous service provision and flexible process execution over such infrastructures. Humanized Cyber-Physical Systems are characterized by embedding in a transparent way both electronic devices and software components into any type of daily-living object and/or social environment (domestic, work, etc.); so by means of implicit mechanisms and interfaces the system can understand, evolve and interact with the physical world and its inhabitants. The overall goal of this PhD Thesis work is to design, implement and validate a Humanized Cyber-Physical System, where both humans and hardware devices are involved in the task accomplishment and process execution. The system will be able to provide, in a transparent way, complex services through the coordination of entities characterized by a heterogeneous behavior and capabilities. Moreover, the system will enable the flexible process execution, considering the dynamical evolution and particular characteristics of both humans and devices. The design and implementation of Humanized Cyber-Physical Systems is nowadays a global trend, especially in the context of the future industry, where CPS are the basic technology for the fourth industrial revolution solutions (or Industry 4.0). Nevertheless, at this moment, it cannot be found any proposal enough flexible to be applied transversally to every type of scenario, including the manufacturing industry where human intervention is crucial and essential. In this PhD Thesis work it is performed a deep study with details about all proposals and standardization initiatives related to Cyber-Physical Systems. And obtained results are employed to define and validate a solution that enables the flexible process execution, the human integration in such CPS, and the accomplishment of tasks over any type of physical infrastructure through the provision of heterogeneous services. Proposed Cyber-Physical Systems are, at the end, a new generation (much more flexible and autonomous) of the already known process execution systems. Therefore, this PhD Thesis work starts investigating the different process types that could be found in the different application scenarios, the roles that people could take on when integrated into the proposed systems and, finally, the architectures, technologies and components that could allow the execution of the previously identified process types doing use of the described entities. This PhD Thesis contributes to the self-configuration and self-adaptation mechanisms, applied to Humanized Cyber-Physical Systems, with a special interest on solutions based on entities (including hardware devices, virtual elements and people) with a heterogonous behavior and capabilities. People special characteristics make impossible the use of traditional management techniques in Humanized Cyber-Physical Systems. Thus, management is addressed though the definition of a new type of process (name “soft process”) and the use of specific algorithms for the evaluation of the human motivational state. Any case, in those scenarios where humans do not intervene, it is also necessary to redefine the management mechanisms, to adapt them to Cyber-Physical Systems that present a very high device density, and require great reliability and availability rates. In order to implement the described systems, enabling communication technologies are required, which are also investigated in this PhD Thesis work, with a special interest for future wireless technologies. Most innovative technologies, to be applied in critical environments such as industrial scenarios, require high performance security technologies. Then, contributions in this research area, including encryption schemes and proposals based on the concept of “trust”, are also done. Each included contribution has been validated experimentally, using different techniques and application scenarios, so its viability, and the obtained improvements in respect to the state-of-the-art, are evaluated and proved. Obtained results are reported to the scientific community through different relevant international journal papers and international conferences.