Towards an Open Testbed for Tactile Cyber Physical Systems

In this paper, we consider Tactile Cyber Physical Systems (TCPS), which differ from typical CPS in that haptic sensory feedback is included. In particular, we design and implement a TCPS testbed, called TCPSbed, using well-defined components and interfaces glued together using APIs. In addition to real connections, our testbed supports the interconnection of components over an NS3-emulated network. The testbed also supports the integration of applications that mimic the behaviour of real-world embedded objects. Since controlling latency and ensuring stability is crucial for TCPS applications, the testbed includes tools for fine-grained characterization of latency and control performance. Finally, through proof-of-concept experiments with our testbed, we demonstrate TCPSbed's capabilities to facilitate TCPS research and development.