13,491 research outputs found
Towards formal models and languages for verifiable Multi-Robot Systems
Incorrect operations of a Multi-Robot System (MRS) may not only lead to
unsatisfactory results, but can also cause economic losses and threats to
safety. These threats may not always be apparent, since they may arise as
unforeseen consequences of the interactions between elements of the system.
This call for tools and techniques that can help in providing guarantees about
MRSs behaviour. We think that, whenever possible, these guarantees should be
backed up by formal proofs to complement traditional approaches based on
testing and simulation.
We believe that tailored linguistic support to specify MRSs is a major step
towards this goal. In particular, reducing the gap between typical features of
an MRS and the level of abstraction of the linguistic primitives would simplify
both the specification of these systems and the verification of their
properties. In this work, we review different agent-oriented languages and
their features; we then consider a selection of case studies of interest and
implement them useing the surveyed languages. We also evaluate and compare
effectiveness of the proposed solution, considering, in particular, easiness of
expressing non-trivial behaviour.Comment: Changed formattin
Towards Verifiably Ethical Robot Behaviour
Ensuring that autonomous systems work ethically is both complex and
difficult. However, the idea of having an additional `governor' that assesses
options the system has, and prunes them to select the most ethical choices is
well understood. Recent work has produced such a governor consisting of a
`consequence engine' that assesses the likely future outcomes of actions then
applies a Safety/Ethical logic to select actions. Although this is appealing,
it is impossible to be certain that the most ethical options are actually
taken. In this paper we extend and apply a well-known agent verification
approach to our consequence engine, allowing us to verify the correctness of
its ethical decision-making.Comment: Presented at the 1st International Workshop on AI and Ethics, Sunday
25th January 2015, Hill Country A, Hyatt Regency Austin. Will appear in the
workshop proceedings published by AAA
Conceptual framework for ubiquitous cyber-physical assembly systems in airframe assembly
Current sectoral drivers for the manufacturing of complex products - such as airframe assembly -require new manufacturing system paradigms to meet them. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for cyber-physical systems driven by ubiquitous context-awareness by drawing together a unique and coherent vision that merges several extant concepts. This framework leverages recent progress in agent-based systems, exible manufacturing, ubiquitous computing, and metrology-driven robotic assembly in the Evolvable Assembly Systems project. As such, although it is adapted for and grounded in manufacturing facilities for airframe assembly, it is not specifically tailored to that application and is a much more general framework. As well as outlining our conceptual framework, we also provide a vision for assembly grounded in a review of existing research in the area
Distributed Governance: a Principal-Agent Approach to Data Governance -- Part 1 Background & Core Definitions
To address the need for regulating digital technologies without hampering
innovation or pre-digital transformation regulatory frameworks, we provide a
model to evolve Data governance toward Information governance and precise the
relation between these two terms. This model bridges digital and non-digital
information exchange. By considering the question of governed data usage
through the angle of the Principal-Agent problem, we build a distributed
governance model based on Autonomous Principals defined as entities capable of
choice, therefore capable of exercising a transactional sovereignty. Extending
the legal concept of the privacy sphere to a functional equivalent in the
digital space leads to the construction of a digital self to which rights and
accountability can be attached. Ecosystems, defined as communities of
autonomous principals bound by a legitimate authority, provide the basis of
interacting structures of increasing complexity endowed with a self-replicating
property that mirrors physical world governance systems. The model proposes a
governance concept for multi-stakeholder information systems operating across
jurisdictions. Using recent software engineering advances in decentralised
authentication and semantics, we provide a framework, Dynamic Data Economy to
deploy a distributed governance model embedding checks and balance between
human and technological governance. Domain specific governance models are left
for further publications. Similarly, the technical questions related to the
connection between a digital-self and its physical world controller (e.g
biometric binding) will be treated in upcoming publications.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, basis of presentation at University of Geneva's
lectures on Information Securit
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