Background

In the past decades, with the fast improvements in science, technology, and engineering, people are continuing to redefine the capabilities of the surrounding physical world. The articles “Cyber Physical Systems” (CPS [1, 2, 3]) and “The Internet-of-Things” [4, 5, 6]) represent an evolution in computerized interconnectivity. They integrate the dynamics of the physical processes with those of the software and communication, providing abstractions and modeling, design, and analysis techniques for the integrated whole [7]. It has become the new frontier research focus for worldwide industry, academia, and government agencies [6]. The concept of CPS can be traced back to the pioneering work done by Kevin Ashton in 1999, and it is initially linked to the new idea of using radio frequency identification (RFID [8, 9]) in the supply chain industry sector [10]. Soon after, this term became popular and now is well known as a new communication and computing system, where the Internet is connected to the physical world via ubiquitous (wireless) sensor networks [11]. CPS’s basic concept is that “ …things having identities and virtual personalities operating in smart spaces using intelligent interfaces to connect and communicate within social, environmental, and user contexts…” [12].