Generating situation awareness in cyber-physical systems: Creation and exchange of situational information

Cyber-physical systems depend on good situation awareness in order to cope with the changes of the physical world and in the configuration of the system to fulfill their goal functions. Being aware of the situation in the physical world enables a cyber-physical system to adapt its behaviour according to the actual state of the world as perceived by the cyber-physical system. Understanding the situation of the cyber-physical system itself enables adaptation of the behaviour of the system according to the current capabilities and state of the system, e.g., providing less features or features with limited functionality in case some of the system components are not functional. In order to build resilient cyber-physical systems we need to build systems that are able to consider both of these aspects in their operation.