New Architecture: Cloud-Enabled CPS

Large-scale CPSs gather an increasing amount of data from networked and distributed sensors. They require a significant amount of computational resources to process the data, extract the information, and control the plants to achieve system objectives. As a result, resource-constrained control systems are not able to attain these objectives with conventional system architectures. For example, in the case of nano and microrobots, the size of the physical part of the robots is often limited. It constrains the hardware’s resources, making it impractical for the robots to handle complex sensing information, such as video and image information. The recent development of Cloud Computing Technologies (CCTs) makes it possible to resolve the resource-constrained issues of CPSs. CCTs provide massive computing resources and storage resources to CPSs and extensively enhance their performance by migrating massive local computations to a cloud. This chapter briefly introduces the advantages and basic framework of the CE-CPS.