Testing and Verification of Non-Functional Aspects of Cyber-Physical Systems: Theories, Methods, and Tools

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are composed by integrating and networking physical and computational (hardware, software, and network) components which work in dynamic environments. Example applications are smart grids, autonomous driving systems, healthcare and medical systems, robotics systems, and situational awareness real-time systems. These systems are composed of components of different non-functional requirements which should be verified or tested to find that the CPS will work satisfactory. Thus, testing and verification of CPSs (against specifications, if exist) is a must to be able to trust them (for critical situations) and to improve their behavior (for better user experience). In this special issue, we welcome original submissions around all theoretical and tool-oriented methods of testing, verification, and analysis of CPSs (in both views of standalone and cross-layer).

Topics of interest, in the scope of embedded and cyber-physical systems, include (but not limited to):

• Non-functional testing and verification
• Security, energy, performance, and other non-functional metrics
• Control verification and control performance testing and analysis
• Test design and model-based testing
• Test oracle for non-functional properties
• Test platform and automation
• Automated test data generation
• Methodologies for testing and verification
• Metamorphic testing
• Distributed testing
• Empirical testing
• Runtime testing and verification
• Static and dynamic verification
• Toolchain for testing, verification, and analysis of software, hardware, and system
• Case studies, e.g. mobile applications, healthcare systems, ECUs, etc.

Submission Guidelines:

Authors of accepted papers at the Real-time and Embedded Systems and Technologies Conference (RTEST 2020) are encouraged to submit extended papers, with at least 30% new content beyond the conference version. Other high-quality submissions within the scope of the CFP are also welcome. The papers must be written in English and describe original research neither published nor currently under review in any other journal or conference. The call and author guidelines for preparation of manuscripts can be found at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-systems-architecture. All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted to the Elsevier online submission system EES, available at https://www.editorialmanager.com/jsa/ . Please select “SI: TEST-CPS” from the special issue drop-down list. Please send all enquiries regarding this special issue to Hamid Sarbazi-Azad at azad@sharif.edu.

JSA has adopted the Virtual Special Issue model to speed up the publication process, where Special Issue papers are processed along with regular papers, and published in regular issues, but marked as SI papers. Therefore, authors are encouraged to submit papers early, and need not wait until the submission deadline.

Important Dates: 

Submission deadline:  25th July 2020

Interim decision: 25th September 2020

Revised papers submission:  25th October 2020

Final decision:  25th December 2020

Guest Editors:

Dakai Zhu, University of Texas at San Antonio, dakai.zhu@utsa.edu

Mehdi Kargahi, University of Tehran, kargahi@ut.ac.ir

Hamid Sarbazi-Azad, Sharif University of Technology, and Institute for Research in Fundamental sciences (IPM), azad@sharif.edu