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Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering >> 2020, Volume 21, Issue 11 doi: 10.1631/FITEE.2000279

Emergence in cyber-physical systems: potential and risk

Affiliation(s): RISE-Centre for Research and Innovation in Software Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Department of Software Engineering, Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, 6998812 Tel Aviv, Israel; less

Received: 2020-06-09 Accepted: 2020-11-13 Available online: 2020-11-13

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Abstract

(CPSs) are distributed assemblages of computing, communicating, and physical components that sense their environment, algorithmically assess the incoming information, and affect their physical environment. Thus, they share a common structure with other , and therefore share both the possible benefits and the probable harmful effects of emergent phenomena. Emergence is an often unexpected pattern that arises from the interactions among the individual system components and the environment. In this paper we focus on three major problems concerning emergence in the context of CPSs: how to successfully exploit emergence, how to avoid its detrimental effects in a single CPS, and how to avoid harmful emergence that arises due to unexpected interaction among several independently developed CPSs that are operating in the same environment. We review the state of the research with regard to these problems and outline several approaches that could be used to address them.

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