Self-aware cyber-physical systems and applications in smart buildings and cities

The world is facing several challenges that must be dealt within the coming years such as efficient energy management, need for economic growth, security and quality of life of its habitants. The increasing concentration of the world population into urban areas puts the cities in the center of the preoccupations and makes them important actors for the world's sustainable development strategy. ICT has a substantial potential to help cities to respond to the growing demands of more efficient, sustainable, and increased quality of life in the cities, thus to make them “smarter”. Smartness is directly proportional with the “awareness”. Cyber-physical systems can extract the awareness information from the physical world and process this information in the cyber-world. Thus, a holistic integrated approach, from the physical to the cyber-world is necessary for a successful and sustainable smart city outcome. This paper introduces important research challenges that we believe will be important in the coming years and provides guidelines and recommendations to achieve self-aware smart city objectives.