Cyber-physical Systems

12Closing Words

We started the book with the following questions:

What is a cyber‐physical system? Why should I study it? What are its relations to cybernetics, information theory, embedded systems, industrial automation, computer sciences, and even physics? Will cyber‐physical systems be the seed of revolutions in industrial production and/or social relations? Is this book about theory or practice? Is it about mathematics, applied sciences, technology, or even philosophy?

If the task set by this text has been accomplished, the reader shall be capable of answering them all with full confidence. Now, let us move back and review what we have learned.

The rationale behind this book was to provide a still missing theory of cyber‐physical systems (CPSs) beyond the particularities of specific study cases and their associated technological development. We followed the steps of cybernetics but carefully indicating the specifics of CPSs instead of using it as a universal framework. We began by reviewing the fundamentals of cybernetics, complexity sciences, and systems engineering (Chapters 1 and 2) to then explain the concepts of data and information that are fundamental to build the cyber domain of CPSs (Chapters 3 and 4). Graph theory was presented as the way to structurally characterize the relations between elements forming a network (Chapter 5) followed by an overview of different decision‐making approaches (Chapter 6).

From those building blocks, a theory of CPSs can be proposed ...