Coupled Cyber–Physical System Modeling and Coregulation of a CubeSat

We propose the application of state-space techniques to develop a novel coupled cyber-physical system (CPS) model and use feedback control to dynamically adjust CPS resource use and performance. We investigate the use of a gain scheduled discrete linear quadratic regulator controller and a forward-propagation Riccati-based controller to handle the discrete-time-varying system. We demonstrate the value of our approach by conducting a disturbance-rejection case study for a small satellite (CubeSat) application in which resources required for attitude control are adjusted in real-time to maximize availability for other computational tasks. We evaluate CPS performance through a set of metrics quantifying physical system error and control effort as well as cyber resource utilization and compare these with traditional fixed-rate optimal control strategies. Results indicate that our proposed coupled CPS model and controller can provide physical system performance similar to fixed-rate optimal control strategies but with less control effort and much less computational utilization.