Research Activities: For Industry
IoT/CPS environments that bring together a complex mix of the real and virtual worlds, and digital twin environments that recreate real-world objects in a virtual space. Such environments gather various real-world data through sensor networks, perform quantitative analysis in cyberspace, and provide the results as feedback to the real world, which creates new added value and supports our activities in the real world.
IoT/CPS and digital twin technologies are quickly spreading their scopes of application so that they are now used not only in specific areas like manufacturing but also in our daily lives. However, to apply such technologies to actual life, we need technologies that connect the physical and virtual as well as those that establish overall security. We are working on research to achieve supporting technologies to use the power of digital to bring safety and security for improving our lives.
Research Activities
Initiatives to Achieve Safe and Secure IoT/CPS
IoT/CPS (Cyber-Physical System) are used in autonomous driving and smart homes to gather and analyze various real-world data (e.g. status of nearby cars, room temperature) and support real-world activities based on the results (e.g. acceleration/deceleration, adjusting the room temperature). They are new systems where various components such as devices, software, and humans are connected in a complex manner. Therefore, unintended risks arise from inappropriate interactions between components whether they are intentional or not, leading to potential physical impacts on the physical world surrounding the system (humans, devices, social infrastructures, etc.) and business impacts due to service suspensions and outages. We are conducting research for improving the safety of IoT/CPS, including research on the application of the safety evaluation methodology STAMP/STPA for detecting unknown risks before the fact and on quality verification using model testing for thorough system behavior testing.
Digital Twin Initiatives
A digital twin that recreates real-world objects in a virtual space performs simulation in virtual space to provide forecasts without actually testing in the real world so that we can seek better solutions through trial and error. For example, we can contribute to solving social issues by focusing on the close relationship between sunlight and social issues such as the deterioration of structural objects, plant growth, and human health to simulate the strength and accumulation of sunlight according to the specific location, date and time, and direction of the sun. Also, by providing feedback of operations and processing in the virtual space to the real world, it will be possible to simplify remote operation and automated processing. At our institute, we use our know-how nurtured through our long history in CAD/CAM development and machine learning/artificial intelligence technologies to study ways to achieve a "mechanism to connect the physical and virtual worlds" such as technologies to recognize the real world and objects in physical space, to create highly accurate copies in virtual space and for automated shaping, and to provide feedback from the virtual to physical space.
