Towards automatic verification of autonomous systems

Simmons, Reid; Pecheur, Charles; Srinivasan, G.

doi:10.1109/iros.2000.893218

Cited by 30 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Model checking has been a widely used technique for this purpose [16,[27][28][29][30]. In model checking, the system is represented as a finite state automaton (FSA) and formal specifications are verified by exhaustive exploration of the system"s reachable states [16,28].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance guarantees for C-WMD robot missions

Jiang

Arkin

Lyons

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)

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Abstract-Robotics has been considered as one of the five key technology areas for defense against attacks with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). However, due to the mass impact nature of WMD, failures of counter-WMD (C-WMD) missions can have catastrophic consequences. To ensure robots' success in carrying out C-WMD missions, we have developed a novel verification framework in providing performance guarantees for behavior-based and probabilistic robot algorithms in complex real-world environments. This paper describes the system architecture and discusses how the verification framework can be used to provide pre-mission performance guarantees for robots in executing C-WMD missions.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance guarantees for C-WMD robot missions

Jiang

Arkin

Lyons

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)

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“…It is thus clear that only the use of multiple, specialised tools and methodologies can achieve a high level of confidence in software for robot swarms, and more generally, software for robotic systems [92]. For example, the NASA Remote Agent uses specialized languages for each of the planner, executive and fault diagnosis components [156]. We explore the use of integrated formal methods for the specification and verification of robotic systems in §6.4.…”

Section: Swarmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal Specification and Verification of Autonomous Robotic Systems

et al. 2019

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Autonomous robotic systems are complex, hybrid, and often safety-critical; this makes their formal specification and verification uniquely challenging. Though commonly used, testing and simulation alone are insufficient to ensure the correctness of, or provide sufficient evidence for the certification of, autonomous robotics. Formal methods for autonomous robotics has received some attention in the literature, but no resource provides a current overview. This paper systematically surveys the state-of-the-art in formal specification and verification for autonomous robotics. Specially, it identifies and categorises the challenges posed by, the formalisms aimed at, and the formal approaches for the specification and verification of autonomous robotics. Introduction, Methodology and Related WorkAn autonomous system is an artificially intelligent entity that makes decisions in response to input, independent of human interaction. Robotic systems are physical entities that interact with the physical world. Thus, we consider an autonomous robotic system as a machine that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI), has a physical presence in and interacts with the real world. They are complex, inherently hybrid, systems, combining both hardware and software; they often require close safety, legal, and ethical consideration. Autonomous robotics are increasingly being used in commonplace-scenarios, such as driverless cars [68], pilotless aircraft [176], and domestic assistants [174,60].While for many engineered systems, testing, either through real deployment or via simulation, is deemed sufficient; the unique challenges of autonomous robotics, their dependence on sophisticated software control and decision-making, and their increasing deployment in safety-critical scenarios, require a stronger form of verification. This leads us towards using formal methods, which are mathematically-based techniques for the specification and verification of software systems, to ensure the correctness of, and provide sufficient evidence for the certification of, robotic systems.We contribute an overview and analysis of the state-of-the-art in formal specification and verification of autonomous robotics. §1.1 outlines the scope, research questions and search criteria for our survey. §1.2 describes related work concerning formal methods for robotics and differentiates them from our work. We recognise the important role that middleware architectures and, non-and semi-formal techniques have in the development of reliable robotics and we briefly summarise some of these techniques in §2. The specification and verification challenges raised by autonomous robotic systems are discussed next: §3 describes the challenges of their context (the external challenges) and §4 describes the challenges of their organisation (the internal challenges). §5 discusses the formalisms used in the literature for specification and verification of autonomous robotics. §6 characterises the approaches to formal specification and verification of autonomous robotics found in the li...

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“…Further advocates of formal verification, i.e., static analysis, model checking and runtime verification, for testing autonomous systems include (Schumann & Visser, 2006), (Feather, Fesq, Ingham, Klein, & Nelson, 2004), (Cheng, et al, 2014), (De Lemos, et al, 2013) and (Simmons, Pecheur, & Srinivasan, 2000).…”

Section: Current Approaches For Testing Of Autonomous Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing of Autonomous Systems – Challenges and Current State‐of‐the‐Art

Helle

Schamai

Strobel

2016

INCOSE International Symp

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Autonomous systems are on the rise. However, the challenge to test autonomous systems to ensure their safe and fault‐free behaviour is not solved yet. This is especially critical when we consider the fact that autonomous systems are often safety‐critical systems envisaged to interact with humans without explicit human supervision. This paper points out why testing autonomous systems is such a challenge and provides an overview of the current state‐of‐the‐art theory and practice. The gathered information is then condensed into guiding points for the way forward.

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Towards automatic verification of autonomous systems

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 30 publications

References 8 publications

Performance guarantees for C-WMD robot missions

Performance guarantees for C-WMD robot missions

Formal Specification and Verification of Autonomous Robotic Systems

Testing of Autonomous Systems – Challenges and Current State‐of‐the‐Art

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