SoftCPS Laboratory

The SoftCPS laboratory is a research group of the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ISEP), hosting research activities of Professors and Researchers in the area. Members of the laboratory are also integrated in the INESC TEC research institute, leading the Computing for Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems area of INESC TEC HumanISE Center.

From Embedded Systems to Cyber-Physical Systems

An Embedded System is typically described as a combination of computer hardware and software designed for a specific function, and embedded in a larger, more complex system. In these systems, the computing system is responsible for monitoring and controlling the larger system. The emergence first of consumer electronics, then added connectivity capabilities between devices, and more recently with the Internet of Things and Smart Systems, made embedded systems omnipresent in our environment, with applications as diverse as smart watches and automotive autonomous systems, air quality systems and renewable generation control, being the true enablers of a smart society.

Therefore, the development of embedded systems went from the small-scale development of isolated embedded monitoring and control devices to the development of complex, connected, system of systems, integrating hardware, software, control and the physical processes. The emergence of the concept of Cyber-Physical Systems is therefore a recognition of the interrelation between both computing and physical worlds.

Software Technologies for Cyber-Physical Systems

The evolution of embedded systems and the emergence of smart, complex and dynamic, applications, led to software playing an increasingly important role. The flexibility needs of more dynamic applications, the increase in the complexity of systems (and of systems of systems), the requirements on high performance of autonomous systems, the dependability and cybersecurity requirements of cybers-physical systems, etc, are challenging the way embedded software is developed.

Software moved from centralized self-contained applications to distributed workflow components, which requires both novel middleware and runtimes, as well as new and improved development approaches. Processor architectures moved from single-core to multi and many-core including heterogeneous accelerator devices such as GPUs, DSPs or FPGAs, requiring software to cope with concurrent and parallel synchronous and asynchronous computation.

The emergence of fog and edge computing introduced the need to develop software for a compute continuum which includes computation in highly heterogeneous devices, from small IoT platforms, to the cloud, but within a single software ecosystem. And, finally, the emergence of Edge AI; where AI components are considered not only in the applications executing on the Edge (AI on Edge), but, and as challenging, as enablers of more flexible and efficient Edge management (AI for Edge). The embedded software infrastructure needs to become intelligent to support intelligent applications.

Laboratory Activities

SoftCPS team members have more than 25 years of research experience in the domain of embedded and cyber-physical systems, software and middleware, with a wide range of national and international activities. Members have been responsible for ISEP participation in more than 25 projects and networks, bringing in for ISEP a total of more than 3 M€ of funding. Among these projects, it is important to note the international recognition of the team, which is perceptible for the coordination of one European Project, and work package leadership in several other European projects. Also, and from a national perspective, the team members have in the past coordinated 2 national projects and have been responsible for several collaborations of ISEP with companies.

The team has published overall more than 200 papers in the area of embedded and cyber-physical systems. Members have also participated in the Organization and Program Committees of numerous international conferences in the area, having had leading roles as conference, program or track chairs of conferences such as the International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, International Conference on Real-Time Networks and Systems, International conference on Architecture of Computing Systems, the International Conference on Industrial Informatics, the International Conference on Factory Communication Systems and the Annual Conference of the Industrial Electronics Society.