Cognition Envelopes for Bounded Decision Making in Autonomous UAS Operations

Pedro Antonio Alarcon Granadeno; Arturo Miguel Bernal Russell; Sofia Nelson; Demetrius Hernandez; Maureen Petterson; Michael Murphy; Walter J. Scheirer; Jane Cleland-Huang

arXiv · 2510.26905

Cognition Envelopes for Bounded Decision Making in Autonomous UAS Operations

Pedro Antonio Alarcon Granadeno·Arturo Miguel Bernal Russell·Sofia Nelson·Demetrius Hernandez·Maureen Petterson·Michael Murphy·Walter J. Scheirer·Jane Cleland-Huang

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Abstract

Cyber-physical systems increasingly rely on foundational models, such as Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to increase autonomy through enhanced perception, inference, and planning. However, these models also introduce new types of errors, such as hallucinations, over-generalizations, and context misalignments, resulting in incorrect and flawed decisions. To address this, we introduce the concept of Cognition Envelopes, designed to establish reasoning boundaries that constrain AI-generated decisions while complementing the use of meta-cognition and traditional safety envelopes. As with safety envelopes, Cognition Envelopes require practical guidelines and systematic processes for their definition, validation, and assurance. In this paper we describe an LLM/VLM-supported pipeline for dynamic clue analysis within the domain of small autonomous Uncrewed Aerial Systems deployed on Search and Rescue (SAR) missions, and a Cognition Envelope based on probabilistic reasoning and resource analysis. We evaluate the approach through assessing decisions made by our Clue Analysis Pipeline in a series of SAR missions. Finally, we identify key software engineering challenges for systematically designing, implementing, and validating Cognition Envelopes for AI-supported decisions in cyber-physical systems.

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Pedro Antonio Alarcon Granadeno, Arturo Miguel Bernal Russell, Sofia Nelson, Demetrius Hernandez, Maureen Petterson, Michael Murphy, Walter J. Scheirer, Jane Cleland-Huang. 2025-10-30. Cognition Envelopes for Bounded Decision Making in Autonomous UAS Operations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.26905

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