arXiv subjects

Clare Dixon

Publications and source records attributed to Clare Dixon.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Engineering Reliable Autonomous Systems: Challenges and Solutions

Engineering reliable autonomous systems is an important and growing topic in computer science. As autonomous systems become more prevalent, easy-to-use techniques for building them reliably are increasingly important. This workshop report captures and expands on the discussions at the Lorentz Center Workshop "Engineering Reliable Autonomous Systems" (ERAS), held from 10 to 14 June 2024. The workshop was co-organised by the organisers of the Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS) and the Workshop on Agents and Robots for reliable Engineered Autonomy (AREA). It brought together members of the FMAS and AREA communities, industry practitioners, and representatives from sectors where autonomous systems pose distinctive engineering challenges. The workshop focused on three main research topics: techniques for verification and validation of autonomous systems; engineering real-world autonomous systems; and software architectures for safe autonomous systems. Its main outcome is a catalogue of challenges in these areas and, most importantly, a pathway to solutions. Some challenges can already be tackled by techniques that are well known in academia but have not yet become regularly used in practice. Other challenges remain unresolved and require further research. This roadmap is intended to support future research and industrial collaboration.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2019

A Corroborative Approach to Verification and Validation of Human--Robot Teams

We present an approach for the verification and validation (V&V) of robot assistants in the context of human-robot interactions (HRI), to demonstrate their trustworthiness through corroborative evidence of their safety and functional correctness. Key challenges include the complex and unpredictable nature of the real world in which assistant and service robots operate, the limitations on available V&V techniques when used individually, and the consequent lack of confidence in the V&V results. Our approach, called corroborative V&V, addresses these challenges by combining several different V&V techniques; in this paper we use formal verification (model checking), simulation-based testing, and user validation in experiments with a real robot. We demonstrate our corroborative V&V approach through a handover task, the most critical part of a complex cooperative manufacturing scenario, for which we propose some safety and liveness requirements to verify and validate. We construct formal models, simulations and an experimental test rig for the HRI. To capture requirements we use temporal logic properties, assertion checkers and textual descriptions. This combination of approaches allows V&V of the HRI task at different levels of modelling detail and thoroughness of exploration, thus overcoming the individual limitations of each technique. Should the resulting V&V evidence present discrepancies, an iterative process between the different V&V techniques takes place until corroboration between the V&V techniques is gained from refining and improving the assets (i.e., system and requirement models) to represent the HRI task in a more truthful manner. Therefore, corroborative V&V affords a systematic approach to 'meta-V&V,' in which different V&V techniques can be used to corroborate and check one another, increasing the level of certainty in the results of V&V.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2019

Modular Verification of Autonomous Space Robotics

Ensuring that autonomous space robot control software behaves as it should is crucial, particularly as software failure in space often equates to mission failure and could potentially endanger nearby astronauts and costly equipment. To minimise mission failure caused by software errors, we can utilise a variety of tools and techniques to verify that the software behaves as intended. In particular, distinct nodes in a robotic system often require different verification techniques to ensure that they behave as expected. This paper introduces a method for integrating the various verification techniques that are applied to robotic software, via a First-Order Logic (FOL) specification that captures each node's assumptions and guarantees. These FOL specifications are then used to guide the verification of the individual nodes, be it by testing or the use of a formal method. We also outline a way of measuring our confidence in the verification of the entire system in terms of the verification techniques used.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2019

Formal Specification and Verification of Autonomous Robotic Systems: A Survey

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.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2018

Multi-Scale Verification of Distributed Synchronisation

Algorithms for the synchronisation of clocks across networks are both common and important within distributed systems. We here address not only the formal modelling of these algorithms, but also the formal verification of their behaviour. Of particular importance is the strong link between the very different levels of abstraction at which the algorithms may be verified. Our contribution is primarily the formalisation of this connection between individual models and population-based models, and the subsequent verification that is then possible. While the technique is applicable across a range of synchronisation algorithms, we particularly focus on the synchronisation of (biologically-inspired) pulse-coupled oscillators, a widely used approach in practical distributed systems. For this application domain, different levels of abstraction are crucial: models based on the behaviour of an individual process are able to capture the details of distinguished nodes in possibly heterogenous networks, where each node may exhibit different behaviour. On the other hand, collective models assume homogeneous sets of processes, and allow the behaviour of the network to be analysed at the global level. System-wide parameters may be easily adjusted, for example environmental factors inhibiting the reliability of the shared communication medium. This work provides a formal bridge across the abstraction gap separating the individual models and the population-based models for this important class of synchronisation algorithms.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2017

The Power of Synchronisation: Formal Analysis of Power Consumption in Networks of Pulse-Coupled Oscillators

We assess the power consumption of network synchronisation protocols, particularly the energy required to synchronise all nodes across a network. We use the widely adopted approach of bio-inspired, pulse-coupled oscillators to achieve network-wide synchronisation and provide an extended formal model of just such a protocol, enhanced with structures for recording energy usage. Exhaustive analysis is then carried out through formal verification, utilising the PRISM model checker to calculate the resources consumed on each possible system execution. This allows us to assess a range of parameter instantiations and to explore trade-offs between power consumption and time to synchronise. This provides a principled basis for the formal analysis of a much broader range of large-scale network protocols.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2014

Clausal Resolution for Modal Logics of Confluence

We present a clausal resolution-based method for normal multimodal logics of confluence, whose Kripke semantics are based on frames characterised by appropriate instances of the Church-Rosser property. Here we restrict attention to eight families of such logics. We show how the inference rules related to the normal logics of confluence can be systematically obtained from the parametrised axioms that characterise such systems. We discuss soundness, completeness, and termination of the method. In particular, completeness can be modularly proved by showing that the conclusions of each newly added inference rule ensures that the corresponding conditions on frames hold. Some examples are given in order to illustrate the use of the method.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2014

A Resolution Prover for Coalition Logic

We present a prototype tool for automated reasoning for Coalition Logic, a non-normal modal logic that can be used for reasoning about cooperative agency. The theorem prover CLProver is based on recent work on a resolution-based calculus for Coalition Logic that operates on coalition problems, a normal form for Coalition Logic. We provide an overview of coalition problems and of the resolution-based calculus for Coalition Logic. We then give details of the implementation of CLProver and present the results for a comparison with an existing tableau-based solver.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2007

Efficient First-Order Temporal Logic for Infinite-State Systems

In this paper we consider the specification and verification of infinite-state systems using temporal logic. In particular, we describe parameterised systems using a new variety of first-order temporal logic that is both powerful enough for this form of specification and tractable enough for practical deductive verification. Importantly, the power of the temporal language allows us to describe (and verify) asynchronous systems, communication delays and more complex properties such as liveness and fairness properties. These aspects appear difficult for many other approaches to infinite-state verification.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2000

Clausal Temporal Resolution

In this article, we examine how clausal resolution can be applied to a specific, but widely used, non-classical logic, namely discrete linear temporal logic. Thus, we first define a normal form for temporal formulae and show how arbitrary temporal formulae can be translated into the normal form, while preserving satisfiability. We then introduce novel resolution rules that can be applied to formulae in this normal form, provide a range of examples and examine the correctness and complexity of this approach is examined and. This clausal resolution approach. Finally, we describe related work and future developments concerning this work.

cs.LO↗