Verifying autonomous decision making against environment assumptions: An experience report

Abstract

Discrete decision making is a crucial software component of autonomous systems. Since many autonomous systems are safety-critical, it is important to have their decision making formally verified. Model checking is a well-known technique in computer science that can automatically verify the correctness of a system. In this paper we report our experience on applying different model checkers, including ProB, SPIN, TLC, Alloy and NuSMV, on verifying the discrete decision making of an autonomous UAV in an industrial application: pylon inspection. We study how the decision making logic of the UAV and the assumptions on its operating environment can be represented in each model checker and conduct a performance evaluation. The results demonstrate that only model checkers based on bounded model checking and symbolic model checking, that is, Alloy and NuSMV, are able to verify the decision making of the UAV in our case study.