Safe cooperating cyber-physical systems using wireless communication: The SafeCOP approach

This paper presents an overview of the ECSEL project entitled “Safe Cooperating Cyber-Physical Systems using Wireless Communication” (SafeCOP), which runs during the period 2016-2019. SafeCOP targets safety-related Cooperating Cyber-Physical Systems (CO-CPS) characterised by use of wireless communication, multiple stakeholders, dynamic system definitions (openness), and unpredictable operating environments. SafeCOP will provide an approach to the safety assurance of CO-CPS, enabling thus their certification and development. The project will define a runtime manager architecture for runtime detection of abnormal behaviour, triggering if needed a safe degraded mode. SafeCOP will also develop methods and tools, which will be used to produce safety assurance evidence needed to certify cooperative functions. SafeCOP will extend current wireless technologies to ensure safe and secure cooperation, and also contribute to new standards and regulations, by providing certification authorities and standardization committees with the scientifically validated solutions needed to craft effective standards extended to also address cooperation and system-of-systems issues. The project has 28 partners from 6 European countries, and a budget of about 11 million Euros corresponding to about 1,300 person-months.