Engineering cyber-physical systems through performance-based modelling and analysis: A case study experience report

The process of engineering cyber-physical systems (CPS) is inevitably challenging because of the intrinsic problem of merging the specification of different ensembles that indicate hardware, software, and physical aspects of such systems. This intrinsic complexity is exacerbated when modelling and analysing the performance characteristics of CPS since multiple models need to coexist in order to get meaningful performance indicators. In this paper, we present a case study, a delivery robots system, whose experience is exploited towards building a guided process for engineering CPS through performance-based modelling and analysis. Model-based performance results are provided while analysing different design alternatives, thus to support architects in the process of better understanding the performance characteristics of CPS under development.