Towards Configurable Real-Time Hybrid Structural Testing: A Cyber-Physical System Approach

Real-time hybrid testing of civil structures represents a grand challenge in the emerging area of cyber-physical systems. Hybrid testing improves significantly on either purely numerical or purely empirical approaches by integrating physical structural components and computational models. Actuator dynamics, complex interactions among computers and physical components, and computation and communication delays all hamper the ability to conduct accurate tests. To address these challenges, this paper presents initial work towards a Cyber-physical Instrument for Real-time hybrid Structural Testing (CIRST). CIRST aims to provide two salient features: a highly configurable architecture for integrating computers and physical components; and system support for real-time operations in distributed hybrid testing. This paper presents the motivation of the CIRST architecture and preliminary test results from a proof-of-concept implementation that integrates a simple structural element and simulation model. CIRST will have broad impacts on the fields of both civil engineering and real-time computing.It will enable high-fidelity real-time hybrid testing of a wide range of civil infrastructures, and will also provide a high-impact cyber-physical application for the study and evaluation of real-time middleware.