Related papers: Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems
The desire to use reinforcement learning in safety-critical settings has inspired a recent interest in formal methods for learning algorithms. Existing formal methods for learning and optimization primarily consider the problem of…
An emerging branch of control theory specialises in certificate learning, concerning the specification of a desired (possibly complex) system behaviour for an autonomous or control model, which is then analytically verified by means of a…
Component-based design paradigm is of paramount importance due to prolific growth in the complexity of modern-day systems. Since the components are developed primarily by multi-party vendors and often assembled to realize the overall…
Despite the tremendous advances that have been made in the last decade on developing useful machine-learning applications, their wider adoption has been hindered by the lack of strong assurance guarantees that can be made about their…
Formal methods are mathematically-based techniques for the rigorous development of software-intensive systems. The railway signaling domain is a field in which formal methods have traditionally been applied, with several success stories.…
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…
Formal methods yet advantageous, face challenges towards wide acceptance and adoption in software development practices. The major reason being presumed complexity. The issue can be addressed by academia with a thoughtful plan of teaching…
There is a lack of formalism for some key foundational concepts in systems engineering. One of the most recently acknowledged deficits is the inadequacy of systems engineering practices for engineering intelligent systems. In our previous…
We apply a compositional formal modeling and verification method to an autonomous aircraft taxi system. We provide insights into the modeling approach and we identify several research areas where further development is needed. Specifically,…
Smart cities are revolutionizing the transportation infrastructure by the integration of technology. However, ensuring that various transportation system components are operating as expected and in a safe manner is a great challenge. In…
Correct-by-construction synthesis is a cornerstone of the confluence of formal methods and control theory towards designing safety-critical systems. Instead of following the time-tested, albeit laborious (re)design-verify-validate loop,…
Empirical studies on formal methods and tools are rare. In this paper, we provide guidelines for such studies. We mention their main ingredients and then define nine different study strategies (laboratory experiments with software and human…
For many decades, formal methods are considered to be the way forward to help the software industry to make more reliable and trustworthy software. However, despite this strong belief and many individual success stories, no real change in…
Surgical procedures are often not "standardised" (i.e., defined in a unique and unambiguous way), but rather exist as implicit knowledge in the minds of the surgeon and the surgical team. This reliance extends to pre-surgery planning and…
Synchronous languages rely on formal methods to ease the development of applications in an efficient and reusable way. Formal methods have been advocated as a means of increasing the reliability of systems, especially those which are safety…
Autonomous Robotics Systems are inherently safety-critical and have complex safety issues to consider (for example, a safety failure can lead to a safety failure). Before they are deployed, these systems of have to show evidence that they…
Formal methods were frequently shown to be effective and, perhaps because of that, practitioners are interested in using them more often. Still, these methods are far less applied than expected, particularly, in critical domains where they…
In today's world, critical infrastructure is often controlled by computing systems. This introduces new risks for cyber attacks, which can compromise the security and disrupt the functionality of these systems. It is therefore necessary to…
Autonomous systems with cognitive features are on their way into the market. Within complex environments, they promise to implement complex and goal oriented behavior even in a safety related context. This behavior is based on a certain…
Decentralized systems have been widely developed and applied to address security and privacy issues in centralized systems, especially since the advancement of distributed ledger technology. However, it is challenging to ensure their…