Socio-Cyber-Physical Systems: Models, Opportunities, Open Challenges

Almost without exception, cyber-physical systems operate alongside, for the benefit of, and supported by humans. Unsurprisingly, disregarding their social aspects during development and operation renders these systems ineffective. In this paper, we explore approaches to modelling and reasoning about the human involvement in socio-cyber-physical systems (SCPS). To provide an unbiased perspective, we describe both the opportunities afforded by the presence of human agents, and the challenges associated with ensuring that their modelling is sufficiently accurate to support decision making during SCPS development and, if applicable, at run-time. Using SCPS examples from emergency management and assisted living, we illustrate how recent advances in stochastic modelling, analysis and synthesis can be used to exploit human observations about the impact of natural and man-made disasters, and to support the efficient provision of assistive care.